There’s a huge kidnapping in this film. The victim is the son of a wealthy family that “runs Hong Kong.” As of this writing, I could not tell you whether or not the guy was saved. Seriously. I’m going to have to look it up. That is how little this Chinese police procedural imprinted on me.
The background in the film is that, historically speaking, Hong Kong was a British entity until 1991, at which point the city was handed back to Chinese authorities. This transition took a while, which is how we have a tale set in 1994 that has a British tinge to it. My understanding, however, is that Hong Kong has behaved as a separate, independent entity ever since the Brits ceded control, which is why you have a Hong Kong film industry willing to make much more daring movies than the Chinese film industry, where everything still has to go through the ministry of misinformation or whatever.
(Oh, and if the Trump people get their way, the US will be no different, so don’t believe I’m picking on the Chinese without recognizing our own problems at home.) That said, I think the Chinese don’t quite understand film yet. Chinese society is about society, but films are about people. Whenever I see a Chinese film, I see artwork recognizing the contributions of the masses, not the efforts of one or two motivated individuals. I dunno what the effect is in China; maybe this is exactly what community-oriented and family-oriented folks love to see. But from my perspective, I’d much rather see films about individuals than collectives. Forrest Gump is a stronger film than The Stepford Wives. It just is.
Let’s get to today’s film. It starts out well enough: there’s a Deputy Commissioner of the Police, Peter Choi (Daniel Wu), and an Organized Crime Chief, M. B. Lee (Terrence Lau). These two have -I’m guessing- mutual respect for one another, which gets strained when a drug bust goes bad and Lee has to go into hiding. The problem here is that during the bust, Lee loses a guy AND discovers that it has been coordinated with a notable kidnapping. Apparently, the bad guys are not only into drugs, but they’ve also stolen the son of a very influential family, the Poons.
What kind of name is “Poon,” anyway?
Don’t answer that. I know. It’s “Comanche Indian.”
Up to now, Cold War 1994 has my attention. Sure, it’s told in the past from a dossier revealed in 2017 … and that makes no sense. Why bother? But I can get behind
a drug bust, a kidnapping, a cop slaying, a power play, and a rogue cop looking for revenge. I have not mentioned a great set of scenes where MB Lee goes into another bad guy lair, by himself, saves the head mistress from an assassination with gun/motorcycle play, and, hence, earns underworld respect with an uneasy alliance. At this point the movie had to put politics in the background and focus on MB Lee getting back his dignity by taking down the other bad guys himself and retrieving the kidnapped son.
The film did not do this. The film went in other directions, many of which might have been great for political and/or Chinese community reasons, but my desire for a Hong Kong John McClane became an exploration of triad politics. All the good stuff in the film was front-loaded. I don’t think there was a single noteworthy scene after the first half-hour. Maybe this film plays better in Beijing. I hope so.
There was once a rogue cop named Lee
Who waltzing into the viper’s pit, I can see
He befriended the queen
But failed escape clean
If only this film piqued interest past scene three
Not Rated, 117 Minutes
Director: Lok Man Leung
Writer: Fei-Fan Cheung, Jolyon Cheung, Liangyu He
Genre: Just.so.close.to.relevant
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Chinese bureaucrats
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People like me desperately waiting for mainland China to embrace the American police procedural
