The Viral Factor

逆战

Hong Kong/China, 2012, colour, 2.35:1, 122 mins.

Director: Lin Chaoxian 林超贤 [Dante Lam].

Rating: 5/10.

Splashy but routine action thriller, with nothing between the shootouts and explosions.

STORY

The present day. In Jordan, an International Defence Commission commando unit is charged with escorting scientist Mohammad Osama Kannar (Rassam) and his family who have just been captured by the Americans. Kannar is a specialist in viruses that could be used for biochemical warfare. The unit is attacked en route and betrayed by its leader Wang Shang’en (An Zhijie), who shoots fellow unit member Ice (Bai Bing) dead; the bullet lodges in the brain of her colleague and boyfriend Wan Fei (Zhou Jielun), standing behind her. Wang Shang’en escapes with Kannar. Three months later, north of Kota Bharu, Malaysia, a tanker is found with all 14 sailors dead from smallpox. Holed up in the Malaysian jungle, Wang Shang’en contacts mastermind Tyler (Jared Robinson), who’s in Colombia, and tells him he has Kannar: the plan is to develop the virus into a stronger form, as well as develop a vaccine, and after releasing the former, market the latter. However, while trying to escape, Kannar is killed in a car accident. In Jordan, Wan Fei learns he has two weeks to live, but chooses to leave hospital and return home to his mother (Jin Yanling) in northern China. Invalided with pelvic nerve pain, she tells him he has a long-lost elder brother, Wan Yang (Xie Tingfeng), 33, whom she left behind when she walked out on her husband, Wan Tian (Liao Qizhi), with Wan Fei when he was very young. Learning his father and brother are in Malaysia, Wan Fei flies to Kuala Lumpur just as Wan Yang escapes custody before sent to jail for armed robbery. En route, Wan Fei has an attack of head pain and is helped by a doctor, Jian Lishan (Lin Peng), who is a virus researcher at KL’s Asia Centre for Disease Prevention & Control. On the way into town from the airport, Wan Fei and Jian Lishan narrowly escape being kidnapped. That night, Wan Fei meets his father, who is looking after Wan Yang’s young daughter, Changsheng (Li Xinqiao). Meanwhile, Jian Lishan is kidnapped by Wan Yang and forced to help him steal an especially virulent smallpox virus from the Centre’s repository. During the shootout, Wan Fei, who happens to be nearby, becomes involved in the chase after Wan Yang, and the two subsequently end up together on the same train, to which their father has brought Wan Changsheng. Wan Yang is on his way to meet Wang Shang’en and, despite Wan Fei’s urging, refuses to hand himself over to the authorities.

REVIEW

Just when it looked like Lin Chaoxian 林超贤 [Dante Lam] was belatedly developing into a fine director of atmospheric, character-based Hong Kong thrillers (Beast Stalker 证人, 2006; The Stool Pigeon 线人, 2010; bits of Fire of Conscience 火龙, 2010), he and regular scriptwriter Wu Weilun 吴炜伦 [Jack Ng] take a sharp left turn into the globe-trotting, bigger-budgeted arena. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that, on almost every level apart from Lin’s roots as an action director, The Viral Factor 逆战 is as routine and uninventive as its generic English title. Full of plot contrivances, and plotting that isn’t believable even on a genre level, it’s little more than two hours of shootouts and explosions separated by equally poorly written (and unengaging) character scenes. Both Taiwan’s Zhou Jielun 周杰伦 [Jay Chou] and Hong Kong’s Xie Tingfeng 谢霆锋 [Nicholas Tse] make little individual impact, and even less mutual chemistry, as long-separated brothers on (temporarily) opposite sides of the law.

Lin and Wu’s set-up is unnecessarily complicated, and exists simply to set the opening 15 minutes in the unfamiliar location (for Asian movies) of Jordan and then provide a Mainland link with a short scene set in northern China. As Zhou’s character walks round with a bullet in his brain and only two weeks to live, the script piles on one after another arbitrary development and melodramatic cliche before the next chase/shootout. Of the latter, the Jordan one has a gritty feel familiar from other Middle East-set movies; but those set in Malaysia, where much of the movie was shot, lack real tension beneath the evident ordnance budget (a recurrent problem when Hong Kong film-makers shoot in Southeast Asia).

Performances, from Zhou and Xie downwards, are routine and, with little emotional pull to the story or characters, the action remains unengaging. Only in the final 20 minutes, starting with a helicopter chase through downtown Kuala Lumpur and finishing on a container ship, do the action scenes – as usual choreographed by Qian Jiale 钱嘉乐 [Chin Ka-lok] and Huang Weihui 黄伟辉 – have a classic, go-for-broke Lin feel, partly because he’s in a Hong Kong-like urban landscape he knows best.

On other technical levels the film is okay without being special in any way. For the writing-directing team that created Beast Stalker and The Stool Pigeon this is thin gruel indeed.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Universe Starlight Culture Media (CN), Huayi Brothers Media (CN), Emperor Motion Pictures (HK). Produced by Emperor Motion Pictures (HK).

Script: Lin Chaoxian [Dante Lam], Wu Weilun [Jack Ng]. Original story: Liang Fengying [Candy Leung]. Photography: Xie Zhongdao [Kenny Tse]. Editing: Zhong Weizhao [Azrael Chung]. Music: Jin Peida [Peter Kam]. Production design: Wen Nianzhong [Man Lim-chung]. Art direction: Mo Shaozong [Alex Mok], Zhuang Guorong. Costume design: Feng Junmeng. Sound: He Zhitang, Zeng Jingxiang [Kinson Tsang]. Stunt design: Lin Chaoxian [Dante Lam]. Stunt choreography: Qian Jiale [Chin Ka-lok] (overall), Huang Weihui (Hong Kong). Car stunts: Wu Haitang (Hong Kong).

Cast: Zhou Jielun [Jay Chou] (Wan Fei/Jon), Xie Tingfeng [Nicholas Tse] (Wan Yang), Lin Peng (Jian Lishan/Rachel, doctor), Bai Bing (Aisi/Ice, Wan Fei’s girlfriend), An Zhijie [Andy On] (Wang Shang’en/Sean), Liao Qizhi [Liu Kai-chi] (Wan Tian, father), Wu Jialong [Carl Ng] (Luo Si/Ross), Hong Tianzhao (Mai/Mark), Jiang Haowen [Philip Keung] (Luo Su/Russell), Li Xinqiao (Wan Changsheng, Wan Yang’s daughter), Jin Yanling [Elaine Jin] (Fengling, Wan Fei’s mother), Wu Haokang (Wan Yang’s former partner), Zhang Ran (Wang Xiaojie, Wan Fei’s mother’s nurse), Zhang Juexi (Jian Lishan’s mother), Li Wenbiao, Zhang Guoliang (Luo Su’s henchmen), Jared Robinson (Tyler), Rassam (Mohammad Osama Kannar, doctor), Nadia Odeh (Kannar’s wife), Mercedes (Kannar’s daughter), Issam M. Husseini (Jordanian hospital doctor).

Release: China, 17 Jan 2012; Hong Kong, 21 Jan 2012.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 6 Feb 2012.)