The Leakers

泄密者们

Hong Kong/China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 101 mins.

Director: Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau].

Rating: 6/10.

Bio-thriller set in Malaysia and Hong Kong is too busy and scatter-gun for its own good.

STORY

Penang, Malaysia, the present day. A convoy of masked scientists secretly releases mosquitoes infected with VR-23, a variant of the Zika virus, and soon people are collapsing all over the country, with most dying within a fortnight. The only cure is a new drug, MD5, which is still awaiting approval by the country’s drug authority. The World Health Organisation arrives to help out and award-winning Hong Kong investigative journalist Ruan Jialan (She Shimin), of HK Daily, is among those covering the story. While there she bumps into an old university friend, New China News investigative reporter Song Danwen (Li Canchen), who hints he is onto a big story. Soon afterwards, Song Danwen is found dead outside his apartment building, though police inspector Li Yongqin (Zhang Zhilin) suspects it is murder, not suicide. Next, Zhang Junlong (Shi Zu’nan) – eldest son of Zhang Rishan (Zheng Zeshi), chairman and co-founder of Malaysia’s second-biggest pharma company Amanah, which developed MD5 – is found hanged in his office, and Li Yongqin again suspects murder, not suicide. Zhang Rishan unsuccessfully tries to contact his younger son, Zhang Junyan (Liu Haolong), who is studying in Hong Kong, fearing he may be the next victim. Meanwhile, Zhang Junlong’s wife, shoe designer Peng Zhenmei (Zhou Xiuna), has fled Malaysia with computer information stolen from the Darwin Institute of Biology, Australia. She is traced to a flight to Hong Kong, where unconventional police detective Wang Dawei (Wu Zhenyu) is ordered to detain her at the airport. Peng Zhenmei is met by a white-haired man but is then targeted by gunmen; in pursuit, Wang Dawei loses all of them. In Malaysia, MD5 starts proving very effective, though the infection has already spread to Hong Kong, whose government bulk orders the drug. Li Yongqin arrives in Hong Kong and is allowed to work alongside Wang Dawei as an observer. At the same time, Peng Zhenmei is killed in her hotel room by a female assassin looking for the stolen computer information. The Hong Kong police then receive a demand from a masked social warrior called The Leaker for US$100 million, as ransom for Zhang Junyan. The Leaker claims that Amanah is profiteering from health epidemics. He then contacts Ruan Jialan, who has finally been released from a Hong Kong quarantine centre, and offers her a story.

REVIEW

After four films premiering last year alone, the film-making machine of Hong Kong pulp veteran Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau] and writer Li Min 李敏 [Erica Li] could be excused a small rest, with bio-thriller The Leakers 泄密者们 their first release in a whole eight months. Qiu’s first big production since Shock Wave 拆弹专家 (2017), it’s not up to the standard of that pulp-action drama, thanks to a superficial, poorly balanced script and a largely colourless cast, though it still holds attention on a throwaway level. That’s mostly due to Qiu’s technical command of tabloid cinema, flitting here and there between a large array of characters and serving up a consistently good-looking product without being especially notable on any level. That wasn’t enough, however, for Mainland audiences, who shelled out a mere RMB71 million.

Yo-yoing back and forth between Malaysia and Hong Kong – and with no real reason why it couldn’t be set in just one of the two territories – the story opens in Penang as sinister scientists release mosquitoes infected with a variant of the Zika virus. As Malaysians drop like flies, the only cure appears to be a new drug developed by local pharma giant Amanah, whose chairman (grumpy Hong Kong veteran Zheng Zeshi 郑则仕 [Kent Cheng]) is shocked when his eldest son is found hanging from the ceiling of his office. Meanwhile, an investigative Chinese reporter (spruced-up punk veteran Li Canchen 李璨琛 [Sam Lee]) is also found dead, and a Chinese Malaysian cop (wooden actor-singer Zhang Zhilin 张智霖 [Julian Cheung]) thinks neither death was a suicide.

For no real reason other than the cast is entirely made up of Hong Kong actors – or maybe because corruption only happens in Southeast Asia, not the former UK colony – the action shifts northwards as the dead son’s wife flees there with a computer hard drive and where the chairman’s younger son (who could be the next victim) happens to be studying. Oh, the virus also reaches Hong Kong, with the result that one of the main characters, an award-winning investigative journalist (TVB actress She Shiman 佘诗曼) who knew the dead reporter , spends half the film in a Hong Kong quarantine centre when she returns home.

The script by Li Min and Li Sheng 李升 – who previously collaborated on Qiu’s The Legend Is Born: Ip Man 叶问前传 (2010) and horror The Sleep Curse 失眠 (2017) – is full of such imbalances as it crams the screen with characters and rapidly-sketched backstories instead of properly developing a strong dramatic spine. Apart from rote themes like corrupt Big Pharma and high-level shenanigans, the screenplay flirts with more interesting ideas, such as the two cops ending up on opposite sides for the common good, and an investigative journalist breaking the law in order to uphold it. But they’re never properly developed – a common fault of Li Min’s scripts.

The move to Hong Kong at the 30-minute mark does, however, introduce the main reason for watching The Leakers – veteran actor Wu Zhenyu 吴镇宇 [Francis Ng] as a loose-cannon cop who can’t stop eating junk food and is (naturally) in the middle of a divorce. When Zhang’s straitlaced cop arrives from Penang and teams up with him, the film looks set for some odd-couple antics, but the jokey dialogue sounds forced and there’s no natural chemistry between the two performers. Not that it matters, as the focus then shifts in another direction as a masked social warrior called The Leaker is introduced and She’s journalist is shoe-horned back into the plot.

In a distressed curly wig – which doesn’t feature on any of the film’s posters – Wu appears to be having the time of his life, and singlehandedly animates the movie. The rest of the cast are either on autopilot (like She) or just colourless (like Zhang); only Zheng shades his avuncular character beyond expectations. Names like Zhou Xiuna 周秀娜 [Chrissie Chau] and Wei Shiya 卫诗雅 pop up, as the dead brother’s wife and the Malaysian cop’s fiancee, but are purely decorative. In a rare big-screen outing, TVB actress Tan Xiaohuan 谭小环, 45, makes the most impression as the wife of Wu’s cop, despite her role’s brevity.

On a technical level The Leakers continues Qiu’s trend towards slick mounting, especially in the widescreen photography by regulars Chen Guanghong 陈广鸿 [Joe Chan] and Ni Wenxian 倪文贤. Action is OK but nothing special, apart from car stunts by Wu Haitang 吴海堂. However, the score by another Qiu regular, Mai Zhenhong 麦振鸿 [Brother Hung], is just a synths wash. In the Mainland the film was released as The Leaker 泄密者 (singular).

CREDITS

Presented by Sil-Metropole Organisation (HK), Er Dong Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Star Gaze Movies (HK), China 3D Digital Entertainment (HK), Sun Entertainment Culture (HK). Produced by Star Gaze Movies (HK).

Script: Li Min [Erica Li], Li Sheng. Photography: Chen Guanghong [Joe Chan], Ni Wenxian. Editing: Zhong Weizhao [Azrael Chung]. Music: Mai Zhenhong [Brother Hung]. Art direction: Yu Xinghua. Styling: Chen Yunwen. Sound: Tan Derong, Nie Jirong, Ye Zhaoji. Action: Huang Weiliang [Jack Wong]. Car stunts: Wu Haitang. Visual effects: Yu Guoliang, Ma Zhaofu (Free-D Workshop).

Cast: Wu Zhenyu [Francis Ng] (Wang Dawei), Zhang Zhilin [Julian Cheung] (Li Yongqin), She Shiman (Ruan Jialan/Carly), Zhou Xiuna [Chrissie Chau] (Peng Zhenmei, Zhang Junlong’s wife), Zheng Zeshi [Kent Cheng] (Zhang Rishan, Amanah chairman), Liu Haolong (Zhang Junyan, younger brother), Lin Jiahua (Secretary for Food & Health), Wei Shiya (Jojo, Li Yongqin’s fiancee), Zhang Jicong (He Bin/Benson, Ruan Jialan’s photographer), Li Canchen [Sam Lee] (Song Danwen/Danny), Shi Zu’nan (Zhang Junlong, elder brother), Tan Xiaohuan (Lu, Wang Dawei’s wife), Zhang Guoqiang (Zhu, police chief), Zhang Wenci (Qin Xiuzhen, Zhang Rishan’s wife), He Huachao (Mai, secretary), Yang Liuqing (female assassin), Hui Neng, Pang Jingfeng (male assassins), Wang Xiaomin (policewoman), Ruzzien Abdullah Shah (Malaysian police commissioner).

Release: Hong Kong, 21 Jun 2018; China, 15 Jun 2018.