Rob N Roll

临时劫案

Hong Kong/China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 96 mins.

Director: Mai Qiguang 麦启光 [Albert Mak].

Rating: 6/10.

Strongly cast down the line, this wacky Hong Kong heist movie has a good first hour but then runs out of ideas.

STORY

Youmadi [Yau Ma Tei] district, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 25 Oct 2021. Murong Hui (Ren Xianqi) runs a small nursing home inherited from his late wife but is permanently in debt. When two old people go missing, he calls the police and the case is taken up by veteran police detective Jiang Haowen (Zhang Keyi) and her younger sidekick Yu (Liang Zhongsheng). While they are there, a money exchange across the road is robbed by three gunmen – led by Vietnamese Chinese Mei Lantian (Gu Fucheng) from a stolen school bus – who make off with HK$30 million. Desperate to solve a major case before she retires, the impulsive Jiang Haowen takes on the robbers; in a shootout, the oldest robber, Baitoulan (Zhang Songzhi), dies but the other two escape. At the same time, young petty criminal Nan (Jiang Zhuowen) has independently robbed a smaller money exchange in the same area, terrifying the female cashier (Wang Songyin) with a knife. By accident, the bag with the money from the bigger robbery ends up in the hands of Nan, and Nan’s own smaller money bag in the back of a taxi driven by Song (Lin Jiadong), best friend of Murong Hui. A former pro wrestler who came to Hong Kong to make money after the death of his young son, Mei Lantian is doubly unhappy when he hears from his young sidekick, Jinmaoju (Fu Jiajun), that their hawl has gone missing, as he’s in debt to Xia (Jiang Dawei), a gangster who got him the guns and school bus. Xia gives Mei Lantian until 22:00 to settle the debt; luckily Jin Maoju has remembered the taxi’s licence-plate number, so they commandeer a taxi driven by Zhuang (Sun Jiajun) to find it. Separately on the trail of Song’s taxi are Jiang Haowen and Yu. Apart from innocently driving around with a bagful of cash in the boot, Song has his own family and financial problems. His naggy wife, Cai Yilin (Hu Dingxin), is pregnant and can’t stand living a moment longer with his harridan mother (Bao Qijing); she wants them to have their own flat but he keeps ducking the problem. Finally, Murong Hui persuades the sceptical Song that the only way they’ll ever solve their money problems is by committing a robbery. Song’s spacey father, Chashaobao (Lu Haipeng), who lives in Murong Hui’s nursing home, helps to put them in touch with Feicha (Li Xue) in order to buy a gun. Feicha, who earlier that day had a violent argument with Song in his taxi, works for gangster Tan (Wang Minde), whose only interest is playing majiang. While making the gun purchase, which entails a complicated arrangement for exchanging the cash and goods, Song accidentally discovers the bagful of cash in his car boot. This is observed by Mei Lantian, who has just managed to track down Song’s taxi. Through a succession of chance events, Mei Lantian, Song and Murong Hui all end up in the taxi together, heading out of Kowloon in a fragile alliance.

REVIEW

A wacky Hong Kong heist movie that’s a curious blend of bizarre humour and graphic violence, Rob N Roll 临时劫案 has a strong first hour followed by a third act that runs out of ideas and settles for a conventional ending. Set over the course of a single day, and with some labyrinthine plotting in the first half to get the three leads together, it’s largely sustained by its star cast of Guo Fucheng 郭富城 [Aaron Kwok], Lin Jiadong 林家栋 [Gordon Lam] and Taiwan’s Ren Xianqi 任贤齐 [Richie Ren], supported by the usual suspects from Hong Kong’s character pool. Shot during Nov-Dec 2021, the co-production finally opened first in the Mainland, taking a so-so RMB237 million, and later as a CNY attraction in Hong Kong, with an equally so-so HK$20 million giving it third place behind ensemble comedy Table for Six 2 饭戏攻心2 and heist drama The Moon Thieves 盗月者.

It’s the first solo directorial outing in over a decade for Hong Kong industry veteran Mai Qiguang 麦启光 [Albert Mak], now in his late 50s, who’s directed half a dozen pictures since 2000 but is mostly known as an assistant director to names like Du Qifeng 杜琪峰 [Johnnie To] and Ruan Shisheng 阮世生 [James Yuen]. His best-known film is the comedy Dummy Mommy, without a Baby 玉女添丁 (2001), co-directed with Ma Weihao 马伟豪 [Joe Ma] and starring Yang Qianhua 杨千嬅 [Miriam Yeung]; his last solo outing was horror Forget Me Not 毋，亡我 (2010).

Mai was also associate director on Du’s playful, Mainland-set crime movie Drug War 毒战 (2012), which had some of the same offbeat comic elements reworked in a non-Hong Kong form. Rob N Roll’s lead writer Chen Weibin 陈伟斌 was a Du regular throughout the 2010s (Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 单身男女, 2011; Chasing Dream 我的拳王男友, 2019) and co-writer Wan Yuancheng 万芫澄 was an assistant director on the Du-produced anthology Septet: The Story of Hong Kong 七人乐队 (2020), so the comic spirit of the Du factory – as well as its fondness for labyrinthine plotting in crime movies – clearly lingers here. It even seems to have infected lead actor Guo, who gives a career-topping out-there performance as a Vietnamese Chinese pro wrestler-turned-gangster with buck teeth (Guo’s own idea) and cauliflower ears. With his weirdo accent and catchphrases (“Sorry”, “Let’s go!”), Guo’s amoral gunman is the most memorable performance in a film of colourful contenders, even though he’s completely out of synch with the rest of the cast.

The first 55 minutes are basically an elaborate way of getting the three leads together – Guo’s amoral gangster who robs a money exchange, Lin’s taxi driver with a naggy wife, crazed mother and money problems, and Ren’s nice but broke owner of a small nursing home. As bags of stolen money go missing, various other characters mill around, with guest roles coming thick and fast from names like Wang Minde 王敏德 [Michael Wong], Lin Xue 林雪 [Lam Suet], Bao Qijing 鲍起静 [Paw Hee-ching] and Jiang Dawei 姜大卫 [David Chiang], whose son, Jiang Zhuowen 姜卓文, debuts in a smallish role as a petty thief who robs a separate money exchange. Jiang Dawei’s half-brother, Er Dongsheng 尔冬升 [Derek Yee], is creative producer on the whole movie. It’s all very fun, very family and very Hong Kong.

The main problem is that when the script gets the three leads together in the same taxi it doesn’t really know what to do with them. Guo’s weirdo gunman gets some backstory to fill out his character, but by then he’s basically established as a figure of macabre fun. Lin and Ren’s characters, more fully backgrounded earlier on, aren’t further developed, and the whole thing loses its comic edge prior to a routine shoot-’em-up finale. The fourth character in the plot – an impulsive, veteran cop who’s looking for a major case prior to her retirement – is somewhat under-written and mostly ignored in the second half, despite a sharp performance from Zhang Keyi 张可颐, 55, largely a TV actress.

This imbalance in the script’s structure is mirrored by the sudden swings in tone from wacky comedy to graphic violence, though they at least help to keep the audience off-balance – which seems to be one of the film-makers’ priorities. Though it doesn’t quite come off as it should, and finally surrenders to the usual Hong Kong crime cliches, Rob N Roll at least has a fresh feel for some of the time. Technical credits are solid on all levels, with a suitably crazed, percussion-heavy score to mirror the on-screen shennanigans.

CREDITS

Presented by Sil-Metropole Organisation (HK), iQiyi Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Entertaining Power (HK). Produced by Entertaining Power (HK).

Script: Chen Weibin, Mai Qiguang [Albert Mak], Wan Yuancheng. Photography: Zou Lianyou [Davy Tsou]. Editing: Zhang Jiajie. Music: Ou Leheng, Liao Yingchen. Music advice: Jin Peida [Peter Kam]. Art direction: Li Zifeng. Costumes: Guo Yanhui. Styling: Wen Nianzhong [Man Lim-chung]. Sound: Nie Jirong, Ye Zhaoji. Action: Huang Weiliang [Jack Wong]. Visual effects: Chen Zhidao.

Cast: Guo Fucheng [Aaron Kwok] (Mei Lantian), Lin Jiadong [Gordon Lam] (Song/Robby), Ren Xianqi [Richie Ren] (Murong Hui), Zhang Keyi (Jiang Haowen/Ginger), Lin Xue [Lam Suet] (Feicha/Fatty), Lu Haipeng (Chashaobao, Song’s father), Liang Zhongheng (Yu/Fish Man), Bao Qijing [Paw Hee-ching] (Song’s mother), Wang Minde [Michael Wong] (Tan/Charcoal), Sun Jiajun (Zhuang, female taxi driver), Zeng Bite (Datou/Big Head), Fu Jiajun (Jinmaoju, Mei Lantian’s younger associate), Zhang Songzhi (Baitoulan, Mei Lantian’s older associate), Jiang Zhuowen (Nan), Chen Yishen (Li Jiawei), Wang Songyin (Bingbing, Nan’s girlfriend), Jiang Dawei [David Chiang] (Xia/Mr. Shrimp), Hu Dingxin (Cai Yilin, Song’s wife).

Release: Hong Kong, 9 Feb 2024; China, 19 Jan 2024.