Golden Job

黄金兄弟

Hong Kong/China/Taiwan, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 99 mins.

Director: Qian Jiale 钱嘉乐 [Chin Ka-lok].

Rating: 6/10.

International caper movie has some nostalgia value for Hong Kong fans but is otherwise rather routine.

STORY

Somewhere in East Asia, the present day. A team of five mercenaries working for Rice (Sergej Onopko) – Lion (Zheng Yijian), Crater (Chen Xiaochun), Bill (Xie Tianhua), driver Calm (Qian Jiale) and techie Mouse (Lin Xiaofeng) – plan to kidnap pharmaceuticals company head Marvin (Ji Huanbo), who also sidelines in drug-dealing and blackmail, at his own marketing jamboree in the desert. But the operation goes wrong when Marvin’s assistant (Jiang Zhongwei) shoots him before being shot dead himself. The kidnap team manages to escape. Five years later, in Kenya, Lion delivers some medical supplies to his girlfriend Zoe Zhou (She Shimin), a doctor working at a child refugee camp. When she points out the medicines have almost expired, he tells her he’ll settle down after one more job. In Budapest, Lion assembles the team – all orphaned friends since childhood – as well as their mentor Cao (Zeng Zhiwei) and his daughter Lulu (Zhang Yamei), and asks their help in stealing some quality medical supplies to send to Kenya. He has identified a local transport company, owned by Rice, that’s due to deliver a vanload of supplies to the airport. Bill sets up the operation but on the day they find the van is full not of medicines but of gold ingots, which will be used by an organisation called the Intelligence Agency to fund political coups in Third World countries. Bill has also been secretly working for Rice, as he thought gold more useful than medical supplies. In a shootout, the team manages to escape, though Cao is seriously wounded. Bill later kills Rice and disappears; Lion is arrested by the Hungarian police and imprisoned for 18 months. On his release, Lion is met by Calm and Crater, and they visit Mouse at his Japanese restaurant in Kumamoto, Japan, to where Cao has also retired. After celebrating a local festival with Cao’s friend Morimito (Kurata Yasuaki), a sake brewer, the team decides to track down the traitorous Bill.

REVIEW

Nostalgia for Hong Kong’s days of yore runs like an underground river through Golden Job 黄金兄弟, which brings together five key cast from the Young and Dangerous 古惑仔 movies (1996-2000) in a modern-day crime-caper movie with lots of manly hugging and talk of lifelong brotherhood and loyalty. Nowadays, of course, instead of playing street brawlers in a de facto celebration of triad life, the actors – mostly turned 50 – play lovable mercenaries who donate medicine to African child refugees and are looking to settle down. But as the soundtrack pumps out past song hits, and even Liu Weiqiang 刘伟强 [Andrew Lau], director of the Young and Dangerous series, pops up for a lightning cameo, there’s no mistaking the yearning. Nostalgia aside, Golden Job is a professionally packaged but rather routine international caper, with the still sprightly cast speeding around and blowing things up in Budapest, Fukuoka and Montenegro but all with a low waah! factor. Despite that, it earned a solid RMB315 million at the Mainland box office.

When it’s not going on about brotherhood etc., the script – credited to South Korea’s Gim Dong-gyu 김동규 | 金东圭 plus Hong Kongers Guo Jianle 郭建乐 (Buddy Cops 刑警兄弟, 2016), Li Min 李敏 [Erica Li] and, surprisingly, Mai Xiyin 麦曦茵 [Heiward Mak] – doesn’t spend much time constructing a compelling story, which boils down to four action setpieces in separate countries and not much else, with no real surprises or plot reversals. After a warm-up in the Inner Mongolian desert, the guts of the film take place in Budapest, where Our Heroes find they’ve hijacked a fortune in gold ingots from something nasty called the Intelligence Agency (read: CIA) rather than the medical supplies they were after. After one of their number betrays them, the story veers off to Japan and Montenegro to hunt him down, amid moist-eyed brotherhood, fast cars, heavy ordnance and (yes!) even a Japanese sake festival.

As a globe-trotting Chinese action movie, it’s all rather thin beer in today’s market and doesn’t even have the mild twists of a similar exercise like The Adventurers 侠盗联盟 (2017). In its favour, however, it does boast nicely relaxed playing by the long-locked Zheng Yijian 郑伊健 [Ekin Cheng], 51, who simply gets better with age, strong support by Chen Xiaochun 陈小春 [Jordan Chan] as his doleful pal, and colourful performances by Japanese veteran Kurata Yasuaki 仓田保昭 and (especially), as the team’s beatific but ruthless mentor, the ubiquitous Zeng Zhiwei 曾志伟 [Eric Tsang], who also doubles as creative producer 监制. In a very male movie, bubbly Mainlander Zhang Yamei 张雅玫, 26, and elegant Hong Konger She Shiman 佘诗曼, 43 (the journalist in The Leakers 泄密者们, 2018), aren’t much more than decoration. The supporting cast from Greater China also includes veteran Taiwan rocker Zhang Yu 张宇 heavily made up as a (CIA?) super-spy.

The film was shot in Beijing, Taiwan, Japan, Hungary, Montenegro, and the Ordos desert in Inner Mongolia province, China. As well as taking a role as the team’s driver, Hong Kong action director Qian Jiale 钱嘉乐 [Chin Ka-lok], 53, in only his third full directing credit in over three decades, puts together a pro product with invisible direction and so-so action whose car stunts are more impressive than the physical stuff. At the start there’s a shameless plug for Jackie Chan’s Stunt Team on one of the cars (the actor co-presented through his company Sparkle Roll). The original title means “Gold(en) Brothers”.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Sparkle Roll Media (CN), The Entertainer Production (HK), Beijing Yaoyang Xinying Investment (CN), Kwan’s International (TW), New Film Association (CN). Produced by The Artists (HK).

Script: Gim Dong-gyu, Guo Jianle, Li Min [Erica Li], Mai Xiyin [Heiward Mak]. Photography: Xie Zhongdao [Kenny Tse], Feng Yuanwen [Edmond Fung]. Editing: Li Dongquan [Wenders Li], Xu Wenjie. Music: Chen Guangrong [Comfort Chan], Chen Yongjian. Songs: Chen Guangrong [Comfort Chan]. Art direction: Cai Huiyan, Zhang Yinghua. Costume design: Dai Meiling, Du Peixun. Sound: Du Benli, Yao Junxuan, Zhang Wenkai. Action: Qian Jiale [Chin Ka-lok], Wu Yonglun, Deng Ruihua. Car stunts: Chin Ka Lok Stunt Team, Wu Haitang. Special effects: Zhang Shaojun. Visual effects: Yu Guoliang, Xu Debiao, Yi Dong-hun, Choi Jae-cheon (Free-D Workshop, 4th Creative Party). Executive direction: Li Baozhang, Lu Jianming [Jamie Luk].

Cast: Zheng Yijian [Ekin Cheng] (Shi Wang/Lion), Chen Xiaochun [Jordan Chan] (Huoshan/Crater), Xie Tianhua [Michael Tse] (Bill), Qian Jiale [Chin Ka-lok] (Danding/Calm), Lin Xiaofeng [Jerry Lamb] (Lao Shu/Mouse), Zeng Zhiwei [Eric Tsang] (Cao/A Ba/Papa), Zhang Yamei (Lulu), Kurata Yasuaki (Morimoto), Ji Huanbo (Marvin), Wei Yunxi (Morimoto’s daughter), Jiang Zhongwei (Marvin’s assistant), Zhang Yu (Joe Chen, Intelligence Agency deputy director of special operations), She Shiman (Zhou, doctor/Zoe), Zhou Bili (Rice’s sidekick), Wu Yonglun (mercenary leader), Sergej Onopko (Rice), Zhang Li (piano tuner), Zalán Takács (Hungarian van driver), Cen Jiaqi (young Crater), Song Bangrui (young Mouse), Zhu Xiaotong (young Lulu), Xiao Hong (young Lion), Zhang Guanwei (young Bill), Hong Xiangsi (young Calm), Liu Weiqiang [Andrew Lau] (dignitary at sake festival).

Release: Hong Kong, 20 Sep 2018; China, 21 Sep 2018; Taiwan, 21 Sep 2018.