The Big Call

猜猜我是谁

Hong Kong/China, 2017, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 121 mins.

Director: Peng Shun 彭顺 [Oxide Pang].

Rating: 7/10.

Nervily-packaged phone-fraud drama gains much from strong playing by Taiwan actress Gui Lunmei.

STORY

Taijiang city, China, Feb 2017. Young policeman Ding Xiaotian (Chen Xuedong) fails to save his high-school teacher, Ma Hongwei, from committing suicide after being bankrupted by a phone scam; he vows to solve the case himself, despite pressure to leave it to the Anti-Telecommunication Fraud Centre in Donghai city. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong businessman James Zhao (Liu Jiang) has lost HK$39 million from a phone scam and, even as the police investigate, master fraudster Lin Ahai (Zhang Xiaoquan) successfully scams him one more time by pretending to be a bent policeman. After making a bungled arrest, Ding Xiaotian is temporarily transferred to the ATFC which is investigating Lin Ahai’s fraud ring, run from Thailand by his girlfriend Liu Lifang (Gui Lunmei) using Mainland phone numbers. His boss, Tan Sirong (Zhang Zhaohui), tells him the ATFC has already put a special agent among the new batch of Mainland women whom Liu Lifang has recruited. Ding Xiaotian realises it is Xu Xiaotu (Jiang Mengjie), a fellow student at the Beijing police college where he trained. All of Liu Lifang’s phone girls live and work in the same top floor of a building from which they never leave. Meanwhile, Lin Ahai’s younger sister, student Lin Xiaoqin (Peng Xinchen), is cheated in a phone scam by a fraudster and subsequently commits suicide, even though the amount is relatively small. Lin Ahai accepts a bet from Taiwan fraudster Lu Chixiong (Luo Dahua) that he can make RMB100 million in a week in exchange for the name of the person who cheated his sister. In Thailand Liu Lifang starts to become suspicious of Xu Xiaotu, especially after the latter beats up Liu Lifang’s drunken cousin (Jiang Chao) and claims he tried to molest her in the bathroom. But Xu Xiaotu still mamages to send coded messages through to ATFC. Ding Xiaotian then hatches a plan to lure Lin Ahai to Thailand and close the net on his whole operation. However, Liu Lifang already knows Xu Xiaotu is a police agent.

REVIEW

After the solid but uninspired Korean War movie, My War 我的战争 (2016), Hong Kong film-maker Peng Shun 彭顺 [Oxide Pang] goes back to what he does best – crime films with plenty of atmosphere (The Detective C+ 侦探, 2007; The Detective 2 B+ 侦探, 2011; Conspirators 同谋, 2013). Shot in the Mainland, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with a Greater China cast, The Big Call 猜猜我是谁 is a nervily-packaged drama set in the phone/internet fraud world that gives Taiwan actress Gui Lunmei 桂纶镁 her best role since… well, her last film, body-swap comedy Beautiful Accident 美好的意外 (2017), which first revealed a hidden range. Mainland audiences, however, were unimpressed: the film grossed more than Peng’s previous two movies, Detective Gui 宅女侦探桂香 (2015, RMB41 million) and My War (RMB36 million), but still only managed a lame RMB56 million.

Peng’s solo films are not normally as hard-driven as when he co-directs with his less talented twin Peng Fa 彭发 [Danny Pang], so Call, with its jittery camerawork (Hong Kong d.p. Chen Weinian 陈伟年, My War, Sword Master 三少爷的剑, 2016), nervous editing (Thailand’s Pipat Sawasdee, My War) and overall newsy approach, is quite a departure. Initially wearing, the style does gradually justify itself in dramatic terms – especially in the Thailand scenes where a police agent is working undercover – and leads to a terrific 15-minute finale that starts with a SWAT team storming the villain’s HQ and then follows with a foot chase through the streets.

To that point most of the drama has been psychological: victims being hoodwinked and swindled by phone, the Mainland anti-fraud team tracking the money transfers, the undercover cop almost rumbled several times, and so on. The script, by Peng Shun and Mainland writer Liu Hua 柳桦 (who started with military dramas, both on film and TV, and only recently moved into other fare), spends a considerable amount of time on the intricacies of phone fraud: teams working from a prepared script, passing a mark from one to another operator, rapidly dispersing the stolen funds in “water rooms” 水房 etc. The finale, therefore, is the only real action setpiece in the whole film, releasing much of the story’s pent-up tension.

Despite all the well-researched background and newsy style of shooting, the film still has moments where genre cinema takes precedence over realism, especially in the contraction of time for dramatic effect and filmy sequences like the police spy contacting her bosses by code. However, in the overall scheme of things these moments don’t derail the movie, as the hard-driven, edgy style and strong performances are big enough to sweep the audience along.

Though she’s only third-billed, Gui, 34, is one of the main reasons for watching the film, eclipsing both top-billed Mainland actor-singer Chen Xuedong 陈学冬, 27, who’s bland as the cop-on-a-mission, and even her compatriot Zhang Xiaoquan 张孝全 [Joseph Chang], 34, as the mastermind-cum-lover. Zhang and Gui have few face-to-face scenes, and the former’s character is much more weakly drawn in the script than Gui’s. Almost unrecognisable under a hard, “older” look, Gui has the most developed role in the film and, as in Beautiful Accident, shows a range and depth she’s only strained for previously. She’s especially good in scenes with Mainland actress Jiang Mengjie 蒋梦婕, 28, as both warily circle each other while putting up a pretence of sisterly friendship. A very physical actress when she needs to be, Jiang – the bullied courtesan in Sword Master, the forthright “godmother from Toronto” in Love off the Cuff 春娇救志明 (2017) – makes a meal of the tough, gum-chewing floozy who’s actually a police plant, and the moments where Gui’s boss lady carefully interrogates her are among the best in the movie. Too bad that Peng ends the film with a soppy, superfluous sequence in Hong Kong’s Hennessy Road that undoes much of Gui’s carefully honed, steely charisma.

Among the rest of the cast, Hong Kong veteran Zhang Zhaohui 张兆辉 [Eddie Cheung] is especially strong as a senior investigator, though his character hardly leaves the hi-tech police HQ and only has the weak Chen to bounce off of. The film’s Chinese title means “Guess Who I Am”. In the Mainland the film was released as 巨额来电, which roughly means the same as the English title.

CREDITS

Presented by China Movie Channel (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), Universe Entertainment (HK), Sun Entertainment Culture (HK). Produced by Universe Entertainment (HK).

Script: Liu Hua, Peng Shun [Oxide Pang]. Photography: Chen Weinian. Editing: Peng Shun [Oxide Pang], Pipat Sawasdee. Music: Ittichet Chawang. Art direction: Li Dapeng. Costume design: Xing Ni’na. Sound: Wang Zhouyuan. Visual effects: Bak Seong-jin. Executive direction: Ding Zenghui.

Cast: Chen Xuedong (Ding Xiaotian), Zhang Xiaoquan [Joseph Chang] (Lin Ahai), Gui Lunmei (Liu Lifang), Jiang Mengjie (Xu Xiaotu), Zhang Zhaohui [Eddie Cheung] (Tan Sirong), Jiang Chao (Liu Lifang’s cousin), Liu Jiang (James Zhao), Chen Xinjian [Philip Chan] (Hong Kong police chief), Cheng Xiandong (card master), He Huachao (info master), Peng Xinchen (Lin Xiaoqin, Lin Ahai’s younger sister), Zhang Yang (new colleague), Zheng Zhongyu (Lin Jiaming), Zuo Kan (Qiqi), Luo Dahua (Lu Chixiong, Taiwan fraudster), Tan Kai (local police chief), Ma Dongyan (Public Security Bureau chief), Xue Cun (Wu Xiucheng, businessman), Ding Zenghui (Huangmao/Blondie), Jing Minqiang (Chen Weili), Wang Zishuo (Qin Wenting, mistress).

Release: Hong Kong, 6 Jan 2018; China, 8 Dec 2017.