Seoul Raiders (Hancheng
Gonglue)
Reviewed by Lee Alon
Five years were enough for NASA to more than
tweak some of its advanced aerospace projects in the past, but short of
a sufficient interlude for Jingle Ma and his cohorts to craft a respectable
actioner. Why they presumed to see a need for following up on the ho-hum
Tokyo Raiders beats us, but at least that 2000 release, now seen through
the rosy haze of nostalgia, contained appearances by rising stars who've
made it to the lofty heights of pop success in our current epoch. Indeed,
half a decade ago not only was the IT market full of bristling optimism,
but likewise were Ekin Cheng, Cecilia Cheung and Kelly Chen still busy
rising to stardom that we later came to take for granted. Ah, the memories.
However, such fond recollections can't mask cinematic mediocrity (one avoids
using terms like "crud" in polite society) when it unveils itself, and
with Seoul Raiders we marked one of the most redundant, uninvited extensions
of a movie license in recent recorded history. Sure, perhaps for old time's
sake it was worth churning out another go at Ma's brainchild crowd displeaser,
yet bereft of the original cast's hallowed, electrifying power, subsequent
entry Seoul Raiders results in even more of a tepid mixture than henceforth
believed possible.
Only Tony Leung returned after all those intervening
years, once again doing Lin (known in the HK version subtitles as Lam),
an international jet setting police super agent and impressive wooer of
womenfolk. After disarming some major troubles in Tokyo, Lin came back
to handle a crisis in, you guessed it, Seoul, capital of South Korea and
unfortunate host to this debacle. Why Leung agreed to appear in this disgrace
defies logic. The man clearly established himself as a talented powerhouse
over the years, and to see him defile a quality background by fooling around
with Jingle Ma's rudimentary excuse for an action comedy really ticks one
off.
At any rate, the next question which begged asking
was how did the Raiders circus end up in Korea? Well, to account for that
you must look at good old Richie Ren, singer, actor, and overall plausible
guy given a decent script. Of course, here he had no chance to reprise
relative successes as seen in “Honesty” and “Fly Me to Polaris”. Instead,
Ren was entrusted with depicting Owen, a treacherous country-hopping criminal,
CIA mole and master of disguise who absconded with priceless plates capable
of spawning immaculate fake US currency, thus potentially plunging the
global economy into mires even worse than having to watch 95 minutes of
HK-originated tripe.
Hot on his trail, both Lin and hottie cat burglar
JJ, done by a startlingly under-the-weather-looking Shu Qi, land in Seoul.
There they proceed to track Owen, engaging in some of the feeblest excuses
for fighting and chase sequences we've had to suffer through in quite a
while. Seoul Raiders used relatively copious amounts of action, throwing
a nefarious Korean-Chinese crime syndicate into the mix for good measure,
yet none of it was any good, and some was downright embarrassing, like
an opening scene showing JJ and Lin fending off gangs of hoodlums while
playing catch with the valuable plates. A movie buff couldn't help but
root for the baddies and hope they'd make with the firearms rather than
fists.
On the film's only coherent upside, Lin once again
enlisted a retinue of local babes to aid in securing world peace. The girls
come replete with semi-believable martial arts proficiency, knee-high vinyl
boots and revealing attire. They all oddly speak Chinese, and must give
off a rank aroma, for we noted nary a rare change of clothes. Similarly,
there was some incredulity at witnessing Seoul practically awash with Chinese
characters, a thing we thought went out when Korea switched to a different
alphabet. Either way, the Raiders outfit seems to be like some sort of
twisted Olympics: wherever wins the bid, you simply don't want to be an
accidental tourist.
Aside from all these issues, SR was afflicted
with an abysmal story leaving very little room for maneuvering. You could
literally recount the movie's premise in two or three sentences. Its two
primary stars, Leung and Shu Qi, each failed in deploying their full range
here, the former too dapper and possibly irked at himself for even signing
on, the latter pale and all too minimal of contribution. Basic, unsatisfying
fight scenes and poor special effects basically rendered Seoul Raiders
impotent, since with a hobbling comedy element it had only its action half
to fall back on, but that too soon collapsed. And, in a vein similar to
that which is prominent in other Hong Kong productions, the movie stopped
short. It had no true violence (blood-free carnage? No thank you), and
for all his chauvinistic pandering, Lin scored as much with the girls as
this writer did playing Leisure Suit Larry: in other words, it was all
virtual, baby.
Flaccid, forgettable and disappointing were
the leading concepts associated with Seoul Raiders upon sitting down to
behold its celluloid wasteland. Wherever the series Raids next, it better
be beyond roundtrip range.
Rating: 4/10
Directed by Jingle Ma
Starring Tony Leung, Shu Qi, Richie Ren, Cho
Han Na, Choi Yeo Jin
2005, Cantonese/Putonghua/Korean/English,
100 minutes
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