Walk the Line
扫黑 决不放弃
China, 2024, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 114 mins.
Director: Wubai 五百 [Guo Shubo 郭书博].
Rating: 7/10.
A seemingly conventional drama of high-up corruption is given some unfamiliar treatment, notably the casting of comedian Xiao Yang in the lead role of a tricky cop.
STORY
Kuizhou city, Zhongjiang province, somewhere in China, Sep 2020. (Ten years earlier, a miner known as Baldie Li, who had large debts from gambling, had come into work at the Xinyuan coal mine on his day off and secretly disconnected the gas-warning alarm, resulting in a massive underground explosion.) At a local chamber of commerce dinner, Duan Yi (Yu Ailei), deputy head of daily operations at Kuizhou city’s police force, introduces his old friend, police captain Li Nanbei (Xiao Yang), to Li Taiping (Shi Zhaoqi), a powerful local businessman and president of the chamber of commerce. Li Taiping is in a position to help Li Nanbei’s young daughter, Nannan, get into a decent school. Afterwards, Duan Yi and Li Nanbei get drunk at a favourite local restaurant, where they hear that the owner’s son, Liu Xiaoman (Yang Haoyu), who was head of security at Xinyuan coal mine and held resposible for the explosion, is due to be released from prison after getting his sentence reduced. Sometime later, Li Nanbei is heading a police squad, including regular assistants Yu Qing (Fan Chengcheng) and Yu Jingjing (Lin Lexuan), that’s looking for two illegal immigrants in a border township. By chance they stumble across another police squad hunting a large group of illegal migrants. In the ensuing chaos Lin Nanbei by chance arrests Cao Xiaojun (Geng Le), a wanted criminal in a notorious case dating back to 15 Jul 2017. On its way back to Kuizhou city, the police convoy is attacked by gangsters with two mechanical diggers who try to kill Cao Xiaojun. Though seriously injured, Cao Xiaojun survives. It turns out that he was on the run, having taken the fall for a crime that was actually planned by Li Taiping and Kuizhou mayor Wang Tonghui (Jiao Gang). Li Taiping had allowed Cao Xiaojun to return home because of the Covid pandemic and Wang Tonghui angry at Li Taiping and scared that Cao Xiaojun would spill the beans if caught, had arranged to have him killed. Kuizhou police chief Yu Hongbo (Li Chengru), who is also the city’s deputy mayor, recommends Li Nanbei to head the task force in charge of Cao Xiaojun’s case, promising to give him the promotion he’s talked about for the past five years. However, when Li Nanbei goes in front of the provincial selection committee, he rules himself out of the job, saying he’s not qualified. Yu Hongbo is angry at him. But Li Nanbei is wary of taking on a job with too many political ramifications. Meanwhile, Liu Xiaoman privately asks Li Nanbei to find his missing daughter, Liu Manyue (Zhang Yifan), who’s disowned her father since he was imprisoned. Li Nanbei finds her working as a dancer/escort girl at a night club. Meanwhile, Cao Xiaojun is interviewed in hospital by Yu Hongbo and Duan Yi over whom he took the fall for, but Cao Xiaojun refuses to play ball. Liu Xiaoman is found drowned in the river, supposedly suiciding out of shame over his daughter. But Li Nanbei suspects he was murdered, and discovers a link between him and Cao Xiaojun, who was one of the owners of Xinyuan coal mine. Li Nanbei asks to be reconsidered for heading the task force, and is welcomed by Duan Yi, who is supervising it. The current owner of the coal mine is Li Taiping, whose relationhip with nervous mayor Wang Tonghui is going from bad to worse.
REVIEW
Behind its conventional, crime-busting Chinese title 扫黑 决不放弃 – literally, “Sweeping Out Darkness: Never Give Up” – Walk the Line is a surprisingly engrossing police drama, well acted and tightly directed, that treats familiar content in an often unfamiliar way. In only his third feature in a decade, Changchun-born TV director Guo Shubo 郭书博 – better known under his pen name Wubai 五百 (“Five Hundred”) – has come up with another strong picture following the romantic comedy-drama The Old Cinderella 脱轨时代 (2014), with Mainland actress Zhang Jingchu 张静初 in one of her best roles to date, and the cop-vs-the-system drama The Big Shot “大”人物 (2019), an entertaining re-make of South Korean mega-hit Veteran 베테랑 (2015). However, with only a polite box-office take of RMB192 million – half that of Big Shot – Line didn’t make much impression on Mainland release last month, maybe because audiences saw it as just another standard anti-corruption polemic.
The basic theme isn’t that much different from Big Shot’s, with a maverick detective finally deciding to take on powerful local interests in the name of justice. What gives the special flavour to the script – lead written by TV’s Xu Su 徐速 and writer-director Xu Xiangyun 徐翔云 (Bloody Daisy 追凶十九年, 2019) – is the casting of sometime comedian Xiao Yang 肖央 in the main role, a tricky, not especially sympathetic character who finally does the Right Thing. Hebei-born Xiao, 44, started as a comedian-singer (Old Boys: The Way of the Dragon 老男孩 猛龙过江, 2014) but has gravitated to playing some serious roles, often with a light seasoning of comedy (Sheep without a Shepherd 误杀, 2019). His role of comically-named detective Li Nanbei (“North-South Li”), who has a penchant for not following orders and isn’t really taken seriously by his boss, is subtly developed by Xiao, who shows real skill at switching from light character comedy to serious. He’s well partnered by Hebei-born Yu Ailei 余皑磊, 46, who’s usually in gangster roles but here plays partly against type as a dry, bespectacled police bureaucrat who is also Li Nanbei’s childhood pal – a plot strand that’s developed in the film’s final stretch.
The plot unfurls gradually, starting with the sabotage of a coal mine whose relevance only becomes clear much later, and then moving forward 10 years to a chance arrest by Li Nanbei of a wanted criminal whom various high-ups would rather see dead. As the plot expands to take in the city’s most powerful businessman as well as its mayor, everyone seems suspect of some kind of corruption – maybe even Li Nanbei’s avuncular boss, police chief Yu Hongbo (veteran Li Chengru 李诚儒, good as always) who also happens to be the deputy mayor. The film piles one commanding performance on top of another – veteran hard guy Shi Zhaoqi 石兆琪 as the ruthless, smooth-talking businessman, Jiao Gang 焦刚 coming through more gradually as the panicky, corrupt mayor, and Geng Le 耿乐 as the criminal they both want dead – but Xiao manages to hold his own through his lightly comic take that gives the film its offbeat flavour. A big twist around the 75-minute mark propels the film to its final act, in which all the various bits and pieces do fit together.
The tight running time – in an era when so many Mainland films needlessly exceed two hours – works to its advantage, keeping the fairly familiar tale of high-up corruption on its toes. It appears, however, that some supporting characters have suffered in the editing, including Li Nanbei’s two young sidekicks played by Fan Chengcheng 范丞丞 (the rather bland younger brother of actress Fan Bingbing 范冰冰) and foxy TV actress Lin Lexuan 林乐炫; both are prominantly billed in the opening credits but don’t get much space on screen. It’s not that serious, however, as the film itself is the star, topped by Xiao’s performance.
Action sequences – notably an attack on police vehicles by two mechanical diggers – are punchily staged by South Korean veteran Jeong Du-hong 정두홍 | 郑斗洪 (Cliff Walkers 悬崖之上, 2021, plus many action films for director Ryu Seung-wan 류승완 | 柳升完) and crisply edited by Li Nanyi 李楠一 (The Big Shot). Widescreen photography by Hong Kong veteran Li Yaohui 黎耀辉 [Lai Yiu-fai] is strong on atmosphere. Though the film’s setting is fictional, it was actually shot in Yunnan province, southern China.
CREDITS
Presented by Xiamen Spring Era Pictures (CN), Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Bejing Infinite Film (CN), Horgos Excuse Me Pictures (CN).
Script: Xu Su, Xu Xiangyun, Zheng Yuming, Zhang Wei. Photography: Li Yaohui [Lai Yiu-fai]. Editing: Li Nanyi. Editing advice: Kang Zhenhai. Music: Ren Yajing, Wang Fu. Art direction: Liu Qiang. Costumes: Song Yanfei. Styling: Bai Yiting [Bai Xipo]. Sound: Huang Jian. Action: Jeong Du-hong. Visual effects: Ding Dawei. Executive direction: Yang Zhaohua.
Cast: Xiao Yang (Li Nanbei), Yu Ailei (Duan Yi), Fan Chengcheng (Yu Qing), Lin Lexuan (Yu Jingjing), Li Chengru (Yu Hongbo, police chief/deputy mayor), Geng Le (Cao Xiaojun), Yang Haoyu (Liu Xiaoman), Jiao Gang (Wang Tonghui, mayor), Shi Zhaoqi (Li Taiping), Li Jianyi (Zheng Songshan, provincial anti-corruption task force supervisor), Liu Huan (Song Genfa), Ding Nan (Zhang Wu), Jiang Shimeng (Yang Wei, Li Nanbei’s wife), Wei Qing (Liu Xiaoman’s wife), Zhang Yifan (Liu Manyue, Liu Xiaoman’s daughter), Wu Xiaoliang (Ping An), Wan Peixin (Xiaoxin), Jia Qing (Ai Lin), Wang Tingwen (Li Nan), Baduo (Li Hai), Liu Di (people smuggler), Jiang Feng (Wang, bank president), Deng Sha (Hu Mengsi), Liang Tian (Jia, writer), Wang Xun (Wang, bank president), Jiang Zhuojun (Duan Yi’s niece), Gong Jinguo (Gao Wendao), Qi Ji (Southeast Asian killer), Shao Jierui (Song Genfa’s young son), Zhu Zhu (Zhu, director), Hou Yong (hoodlum).
Release: China, 8 Jun 2024.