Explosive City
Director: Sam Leong
Year: 2004
Rating: 6.0
For a while at least
this film brings back memories from the so-called Golden Age of Hong Kong
action films – a splash of "Black Cat" in the beginning, a few nods to “Dreaming
the Reality” but in particular it feels very much influenced by the classic
“On the Run” from 1988. Not only is the plot very similar but from certain
angles the Japanese female assassin also has more than a passing resemblance
to Pat Ha who so perfectly portrayed the icy hit woman in that film. Directed
by Sam Leong (The Stewardess, Color of Pain), the film begins with a bang
and keeps the narrative taut and frantic for the first hour until it sags
noticeably towards the end and takes some annoying cinematic shortcuts. Still
with the Hong Kong action genre in such doldrums it is heartening to see
something like this – though unfortunately it didn’t fare too well at the
box office.
A senior member of the Chinese government is giving a speech at the Hong
Kong airport under the protection of police officer Cheung (Simon Yam) when
Jade (Hisako Shirata), a sleek female assassin, infiltrates the press corps,
whips out a pistol and wounds the official before Cheung is able to cover
him up. A wild chase ensues through the corridors and onto the roof tops
of the airport buildings before Jade hits her head in a jump and is knocked
unconscious. When she wakes up in police custody her memory is gone and she
is unable to answer any of their questions. The case is then turned over
to Officer Ming played by Alex Fong in his usual hang dog manner – though
in this case it’s because his wife just booted him out of the house. As he
prepares to move Jade from the hospital to a jail cell, he receives a video
call from the man behind Jade – Otosan (Sonny Chiba) – and he shows Ming
that his wife and son are in his care and proves quite unmercifully that
unless Ming follows his orders his son will be killed.
On route Ming is contacted by Otosan who tells him to stop the convoy and
kill Jade. Ming follows his instructions with three shots to her chest and
then escapes in the car with her in the back seat. Jade is wearing a bullet
proof vest though and when she recovers she chooses to co-operate with Ming
in tracking down the gang that betrayed her. As her memory slowly comes back,
she remembers that she had been kidnapped as a child along with a number
of other children and they had all been trained by their father figure Otosan
to be professional killers. Interestingly, Eddie Ko who played a similar
character in “Dreaming the Reality” to his adopted children Moon Lee (who
loses her memory in that film) and Yukari Oshima, is a high level policeman
here. The recent “Naked Weapon” also had a similar plot point about kidnapping
children and training them to be killers. The two of them are determined
to track down Otosan and his many other multi-racial trained killers (Samuel
Pang among them) – Ming to save his son and Jade to get even. This isn’t
easy though since most of the police force under Cheung is after them and
it seems likely that a traitor in the police ranks is relaying their every
move to the bad guys. Many gun battles and dead bodies later they come face
to face with Otosan.
Between Yam, Fong and Chiba, this film is loaded with enough tough machismo
to power a tank through a war zone, but sadly never in the same place at
the same time - somehow they should have figured out a way to get these three
in a Mexican standoff - and then we take bets on who survives. The film moves
so quickly that it never allows much room for exploration of their characters
beyond the surface, but within this limitation all three of them are fine
– Yam steely and authoritative, Chiba cruel and kind by turns and Fong hits
a few solid emotional notes in his feelings for his family. Hisako doesn’t
come off to quite the same effect – after her initial hit in which she seems
the epitome of poised killing cool, she never approaches that alluring swagger
again and is unable to project the toughness and cold bloodedness that one
might expect from a woman with her background (with many recorded kills to
her credit). Perhaps it is just my personal preference, but I wanted her
to turn into a ruthless killing machine but she is generally a secondary
character to Fong in the mayhem department.
After setting up the film nicely with some surprisingly dark hard hitting
moments and good momentum, the film takes a spiraling downward course in
logic towards the end that really hurts the film and tattoos it with a “B”
imprint. The scriptwriting just gets very lazy in the final third as if they
were bored with filling out the details or simply running out of time – but
details are important in a film like this. For example, Ming mysteriously
figures out a bomb has been placed inside a statue in Macau and saves the
day – but there was absolutely no reason for him to look for one. Later Ming
realizes what the band of assassins are really up to and turns to a computer
expert (who just happens to be the girlfriend of his friend played by Lam
Suet) and asks her “what is the most undefended part of Hong Kong” and a
few clicks later she says the airport. Huh? How the hell did she do that?
Another click later and she discovers who the target must be – and then a
few clicks later Ming and Jade manage to make it to the airport just in time!
Not long after this there is a concluding, “how the hell did they get there”
moment and the film disintegrates in your hands. It’s a disappointment in
this regard because much of the film is well thought out with a gritty sense
of peril and well choreographed shoot outs, but one just wishes the filmmakers
had kept it up till the end.
