Hong Kong Rescue

香港大营救

China, 2018, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 94 mins.

Director: Liu Yijun 刘一君.

Rating: 4/10.

TV-style drama, centred on the 1942 secret evacuation of cultural celebrities, is notable only for its two leads.

STORY

Hong Kong, Dec 1941. Following the Japanese military invasion and the UK surrender of the colony, military governor Sakai Takashi (Omura Namihiko) plans to forcibly evacuate 1 million Hong Kongers to the Mainland to reduce pressure on supplies and food. Cultural figures are excluded, but no one comes forward to register. The Japanese try to forcibly round them up but that proves unsuccessful. In the Mainland, CPC vice-chairman Zhou Enlai orders a list of cultural notables – including writers Mao Dun and Xia Yan, journalist Zou Tao, and film-makers Cai Chusheng and Situ Huimin – to be secretly evacuated from Hong Kong to Huizhou, Guangdong province. Agent Ye Weiqiang (Cheng Taishen) and his assistant Gen (Huang Junbin) are assigned the mission. In Hong Kong, Ye Weiqiang has no choice but to deal with cynical hoodlum Pan Baoquan (Liang Junyi), who’s only interested in money, to help smuggle the people out. Sakai Takashi tells his over-eager subordinate, Kishida Yo (Minowa Yasufumi), to go easy on using violence; his main priority must be to find left-wing journalist Zou Tao (Huo Qing). The KMT government is also trying to find Zou Tao in order to assassinate him, and is using its top Hong Kong secret agent, hotel manager Zhu Ying (Chen Xiaoxue). Ye Weiqiang now has only three days left to evacuate the people on his list. He approaches for help the influential Beijing Opera singer Bai Mengyao, who turns out to be his long-lost wife Yulan (Yan Bingyan) whom he’d thought was dead. She leads him to Zou Tao, who agrees to be evacuated by Ye Weiqiang. Staying with him is a young poet, Lin Nan (Tian Muchen), though his name is not on Ye Weiqiang’s list. On the day in Jan 1942, the evacuees narrowly manage to flee onto a boat hired by Pan Baoquan, but they’re then told the route to Huizhou is blocked by the Japanese navy. They can go only as far as Kowloon and will then have to mix with the Hong Kongers officially being evacuated by land.

REVIEW

A TV drama-style production about the CPC’s evacuation of cultural notables from Japanese-occupied Hong Kong in 1942, Hong Kong Rescue 香港大营救 is worth a look only for the performances by its two leads, Cheng Taishen 成泰燊 as the Mainland agent in charge of the mission and Yan Bingyan 颜丙燕 as an opera singer he meets en route. Otherwise, the film is a standard WW2 drama – nasty Japanese, sexy KMT spy etc., with rote dialogue, plenty of patriotic exhortations and routine action – that only catches fire in the last half-hour when things go wrong. The same operation – which in real life smuggled some 800 worthies out during Jan-Oct 1942 and arguably influenced the cultural history of China – was also the focus of the first 30 minutes of the recent Our Time Will Come 明月几时有 (2017). The latter was actually the best part of an otherwise iffy movie; Rescue is more pulpy but has made no impact at the box office (a puny RMB6 million).

The film looks like purely a professional assignment for journeyman director Liu Yijun 刘一君, 47, who’s capable of much better – such as the beguilingly simple Tell Me a Beautiful World 说说美丽世界 (2013) – when he has the chance. Unlike Our Time, the script centres on journalist Zou Taofen (here called Zou Tao) rather than writer Mao Dun among the celebrity evacuees and on the CPC agent (here called Ye Weiqiang) sent to get him out. Zou Taofen is solidly played by TV actor Huo Qing 霍青 but it’s Ye Weiqiang’s story which really drives the film. Cheng, 46, a veteran character actor who’s always good when given a shot at leading roles (Good Earth 大地, 2009; Ma Wen’s Battle 马文的战争, 2010; All Apologies 爱的替身, 2012; Tell Me a Beautiful World), downplays the role of Ye Weiqiang to a laconic gruffness. He does, however, establish good chemistry with co-star Yan in the more romantic scenes. One of the Mainland’s best actresses of her generation, 45-year-old Yan (Teeth of Love 爱情的牙齿, 2007; Feng Shui 万箭穿心, 2012) is all too rarely seen on the big screen, so every appearance is an event. Here she manages to breathe natural life into the relatively small role of a Beijing Opera star with connections.

The film’s technical credits are all solid without contributing any atmosphere or tension. The Chinese title (and its English translation) is the official historical name for the operation.

CREDITS

Presented by Hunan Xiaoxiang Second Films (CN), Hunan Tianshang Movies Media (CN), Xiaoxiang Film Group (CN), China Film Heshan Film (Beijing) (CN), Hunan Arts & Culture Group (CN), Horgos North Sea Culture Media (CN), Guangdong Yunlianhui Network Technology (CN). Produced by Xiaoxiang Film Group (CN), Hunan Tianshang Movies Media (CN), China Film Heshan Film (Beijing) (CN), Hunan Arts & Culture Group (CN), Horgos North Sea Culture Media (CN), Hunan Xiaoxiang Second Films (CN).

Script: Lu Xin, Guo Zisheng, Liu Yijun, Liu Yunpeng. Photography: Wang Hongliang. Action photography: D. Jun. Editing: Zhan Haihong, Yang Zihui, Ren Xu. Music: Liu Sijun. Art direction: Wang Ziwei. Costume design: Liu Qinxia. Styling: Lu Liangwei. Sound: Li Yubing, Li Ke. Action: Liang Jianqiang, Da Chuan. Beijing Opera instruction: Liang Guofei, Chu Fengyi. Executive direction: Wang Xiaohu.

Cast: Cheng Taishen (Ye Weiqiang), Yan Bingyan (Bai Mengyao/Yulan), Huo Qing (Zou Tao, journalist), Wang Hui (Xu Can, professor), Liang Junyi (Pan Baoquan), Chao Yao (Kojima), Minowa Yasufumi (Kishida Yo), Tian Muchen (Lin Nan, poet), Omura Namihiko (Sakai Takashi, military governor), Yang Zitong (Wang Ying, film actress), Yao Weiping (Masaichi Nimi, naval co-governor), Weng Changte (Cai, film director), Huang Junbin (Gen), Otsuka Masanobu (Wang Yatang), Chen Xiaoxue (Zhu Ying, KMT agent), Yan Jiahui (Wen), Yang Chaoran (Huang Jing’an), Cui Ao Fei’er (Lin Xiaofen, Lin Nan’s daughter), Li Bin (Meng Yanqiu).

Release: China, 4 May 2018.