The Trough

低压槽之欲望之城

China/Hong Kong, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 110 mins.

Director: Zhang Jiahui 张家辉 [Nick Cheung].

Rating: 6/10.

Noirish crime drama centred on an undercover cop jumps the tracks after a strong first half.

STORY

Solo City 孤城, the present day. Dedicated to cleaning up the crime-ridden metropolis, undercover policeman Yu Qiu (Zhang Jiahui) has been doing his job so long that he’s starting to lose his mind. After a recent assignment by his handler Zhan Yongwen (He Jiong), which resulted in a furious gunfight in a launderette between the gangs of Cheng Yun (Miao Qiaowei) and Nine-Fingered Cripple (Lin Xue) in which only Yu Qiu survived, he had disappeared from Solo City and gone to the Namibian desert to recover his sanity. After a long break, he comes back and is assigned by Zhan Yongwen to bring down The Boss, a super-criminal whose identity even the police don’t know. Zhan Yongwen warns him to be extra vigilant, as his own police files have been hacked into and, after the mass slaughter of the two gangs in the laundrette, Yu Qiu is looked upon with suspicion by the city’s underworld. Zhan Zhongwen tells Yu Qiu to join the gang of Chunhua (Yuan Hua), who’s just received an assignment that may lead him to The Boss. Chunhua takes Yu Qiu along on an operation to kidnap a young girl (Li Yongshan) that goes disastrously wrong when a rival gang suddenly arrives before the police. In the chaos Chunhua ends up dead and Yu Qiu escapes with the girl to a safe house. Yu Qiu tells Zhan Yongwen that there’s a mole in the police. As things progress, Yu Qiu learns of a dastardly scheme by The Boss (Xu Jinglei) that involves operating on orphans and abandoned children to enhance their memories for criminal purposes, and that the web of corruption in the city goes beyond just the police force (Zhang Keyi, Chris Collins, Qin Pei) right up to the Justice Department. Now hunted by the very police he works for, Yu Qiu can rely only on Zhan Yongwen and police hacker Jackie (Yu Nan) for help.

REVIEW

After directing two iffy excursions into the supernatural – the modest, Malaysia-set Hungry Ghost Ritual 盂兰神功 (2014) and the wacky semi-comedy Keeper of Darkness 陀地驱魔人 (2015) – Hong Kong actor Zhang Jiahui 张家辉 [Nick Cheung] turns to the genre he knows best for his third outing behind the camera. A dystopian crime drama centred on an undercover cop in a fictional, multi-ethnic city, The Trough 低压槽之欲望之城 is hardly original in look or setting but gets by in the first half with the highly stylised look, intensely staged action and some flamboyant performances. Only when, after a 25-minute intro, the script is forced to come up with some kind of story does it reveal its shortcomings – plot holes as big as craters, illogical developments, and a general tendency to go for filmy rather than organic moments. Zhang, 50, remains one of Hong Kong’s best actors of his generation but as a director and writer he has yet to prove himself. On Mainland release The Trough flopped with a mere RMB34 million.

The idea of a cop who’s been undercover so long he’s starting to lose his marbles isn’t very fresh – Liang Chaowei 梁朝伟 [Tony Leung Chiu-wai] in Infernal Affairs 无间道 (2002), Wu Jing 吴京 in SPL2: A Time for Consequences 杀破狼II (2015) – and Zhang, playing the lead role of Yu Qiu himself, adds little more than a shell-shocked look, hippy-length hair and a pencil moustache. Some moody early scenes – Yu Qiu chilling out in the Namibian desert, a gang leader (Hong Kong actor Miao Qiaowei 苗侨伟, excellent) reminiscing on how he started out as a policeman, Yu Qiu oblivious to street violence around him – flirt with ideas like “the thin line between genius and idiocy” as well as that between law-enforcing and law-breaking. But the script, by Zhang and Mainland writer Wen Ning 文宁 (The Monkey King 3 西游记  女儿国, 2018), soon abandons them in favour of crime cliches.

Also pretty much ditched, after an atmospheric start, is the film’s noirish look, with refracted light, weird camera angles, umbrous lighting and the most rain in a single film since The Looming Storm 暴雪将至 (2017). Even the Chinese title’s weather warning (“Low-Pressure Trough: City of Lust”) is hardly exploited.

In the event, Miao’s briefly-sketched mobster at the start remains one of the most convincing characters. As a corrupt policewoman, Hong Kong TV actress Zhang Keyi 张可颐 is given little background apart from being fluent in English, while veteran Qin Pei 秦沛 [Paul Chun] has just one scene as an oily bureaucrat. The gang leaders of Hong Kong’s Lin Xue 林雪 [Lam Suet] and Yuan Hua 元华 are entertaining but thoroughly filmy, and Mainland actress Xu Jinglei 徐静蕾 is tragically miscast as mega-villain The Boss, about whom we’ve heard so much. Xu’s entry at the 65-minute mark in a blonde wig and high heels raises expectations for a battle-of-wits finale that is never delivered. Her character is not only devoid of any mastermind menace but also is served increasingly ridiculous dialogue and situations by the script. The ludicrous finale in a hot-air balloon in Japan is later capped by an end-titles scene that tries to justify her character’s behaviour.

Given all of the above, and Zhang Jiahui’s lead character remaining in neutral most of the time – despite a corny backstory involving a late wife and child – the most engaging performances come from the sides: Mainland actor-presenter He Jiong 何炅 deadpan in Fedora and specs as Yu Qiu’s handler, actress Yu Nan 余男 as a punky police hacker, and reliable veteran Ni Dahong 倪大红 briefly as a gang boss in a meat fridge.

The action, especially in the first half, is so explosively staged (by South Koreans Yu Sang-seob 유상섭 | 刘尚燮 and Bak Ju-cheon 박주천 | 朴柱天) and cut (by Hong Kong’s Li Jiarong 李嘉荣), that it’s immaterial that people are missing at point-blank range. The heavy-metal score is also effective, especially in the launderette shootout, and Zhang isn’t afraid to introduce comic elements in the middle of a gun battle. More’s the shame, then, that The Trough doesn’t measure up to its first half-hour or so.

In Hong Kong the film was released without the Chinese title’s handle.

CREDITS

Presented by Shanghai Bona Film Goup (CN), One Cool Film Production (HK), Er Dong Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Beijing Each Media (CN), Kashi JQ Pictures (CN), Incendiary Pictures (HK).

Script: Zhang Jiahui [Nick Cheung], Wen Ning. Photography: Zhang Wenbao. Editing: Li Jiarong. Music direction: Chen Junting, Chen Guangrong [Comfort Chan]. Art direction: Zhai Tao. Costume design: Ye Jiayin. Sound: Li Yaoqiang. Action: Yu Sang-seob, Bak Ju-cheon. Visual effects: Zheng Wenzheng, Xu Weijie.

Cast: Zhang Jiahui [Nick Cheung] (Yu Qiu), Xu Jinglei (Miyata Emiko/Laoban/The Boss), He Jiong (Zhan Yongwen/Jim, Yu Qiu’s police handler), Yu Nan (Jackie, police hacker), Miao Qiaowei (Cheng Yun, gang boss), Yuan Hua (Chunhua, gang boss), Zhang Keyi (Zhang Luwen/Diane, police superintendent), Lin Xue [Lam Suet] (Jiuzhi Bo/Nine-Fingered Cripple, gang boss), Zhang Jicong (Zhicha), Li Haitao (Zhong), Li Yongshan [Zaha Fathima] (young girl), Chris Collins (Frankie), Wang Shiya (young The Boss), Qin Pei [Paul Chun] (Li, bureau chief), Ni Dahong (Ren, gang boss), Wu Yunlong [Philip Ng] (gangster with knife), Onuki Hideki (Miyata Shuichi, Miyata Emiko’s father), Vithaya “Pu” Pansringarm (Thai gang boss).

Release: China, 28 Apr 2018; Hong Kong, 3 May 2018.