Ultimate Code
终极代码
China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 89 mins.
Chief director: Wu Zhiting 吴治廷.
Director: Li Ke 李柯.
Associate directors: Zhang Lizhi 张立志, Xiong Chunsheng 熊春生 [Xiong Jie 熊杰].
Rating: 3/10.
Good-looking but garbled slice of action fodder is not helped by a charmless lead.
STORY
F country, Sep 2000. X Corporation head Mick (Philippe Joly) watches young Xiao Yu (Lei Jun) – whom he is using to try out a new brain chip that will eliminate disease and death in humans – become angry at his imprisonment and bend the bars of his cell before collapsing. Death Valley, F country, 3 Oct 2025. At a prison fortress in the middle of a desert, Xiao Yu (Wu Zhiting), now an adult in his 30s, is taken against his will to see Mick. Eastern Area, F country, 5 Oct 2025. At a press conference Mick announces the official launch of brain chip Gaea, but the event is interrupted by Enoch (David Belle) abseiling into the hall and trying to shoot him. The assassination attempt is recorded by a journalist, Ye Yan (Meng Lu), who is suspicious of Mick’s true intentions. Enoch is part of a group of former X Corporation employees, including the chip’s original inventor Xiao (Shen Junyi) and the scientist Mo (Lin Wei), who think Mick plans to use Gaea for his own evil ends. The group, which formed two years ago, has stolen Gaea’s source codes, which Mick needs back. His assistant suggests using Xiao Yu, and Mick reluctantly agrees, even though he has Xiao Yu imprisoned in Death Valley for once betraying him. As Xiao Yu is being brought from Death Valley, he manages to escape; but Mick’s henchwoman Medusa (Alona Stibunova) tracks him down in the desert. Mick holds Xiao Yu’s wife (Guan Le) and young daughter (Wang Xiaoye) hostage to force Xiao Yu to do his bidding. Meanwhile, in the Western Area, Mo and his team are trying to hack into the X Corporation’s terminal, which Mo originally invented and which will unleash the full power of the Gaea programme on the human race. Mick gives Xiao Yu seven days to kill Enoch, Xiao and Mo, and get back the three source codes so the terminal can work. Xiao Yu flies to Shenzhen, China, and with the help of computer nerd Baozi (Li Hongtao) tracks down journalist Ye Yan, who turns out to be a techie expert and has her own reasons for investigating Enoch. They trace him to Phoenix Ancient Town and eventually Xiao Yu gets the source codes off him. Meanwhile, unknown to Xiao Yu, Mick is inserting a Gaea chip into the brain of his wife.
REVIEW
A good-looking but completely garbled slice of action fodder, Ultimate Code 终极代码 is an attempt by Guangdong-born, ex-soldier Wu Zhiting 吴治廷 , 37, to launch himself as an action leading man following TV bit parts and the lead in the hour-long action drama 暗道 (2016, under the name Wu Tiange 吴天戈). Shot in late 2017, largely in his native province, Code finally hit Mainland screens this summer, taking a paltry RMB11 million. Wu has surrounded himself with some solid action talent, including Moscow-born, French stuntman/director Philippe Joly 狼森 as the villain, France’s David Belle, the inventor of parkour, as a hitman, and Mainland stuntman Zhang Jiarong 张家荣 as a heavy and action supervisor. But although he has the moves, Wu is no Wu Jing 吴京: his total lack of any charm leaves the flaws in the chaotic script open to even more scrutiny.
The screenplay, lead written by Shen Mubai 沈慕白 (flop crime drama The Golden City of Waking Up 梦醒黄金城, 2021) is especially chaotic in its exposition, flying hither and thither and barely making any sense. Wu plays Xiao Yu, a tough guy who was experimented on as a child with a brain chip, Gaea, that was developed by X Corporation to eliminate disease and death in humans but actually turned him into a super-hardman. The fact that his own father invented the chip didn’t exactly help with his psychological development; but dad has since defected to a group that’s stolen Gaea’s source codes, convinced that X Corp. head Mick (Joly) is misusing the chip for world domination. (Don’t even ask.) Mick forces Xiao Yu to retrieve the chip by kidnapping his wife and daughter.
All the usual action tropes are here: a fictional nation (F country F国) that looks rather like the US-crossed-with-China and is full of evil occidentals, a put-upon but selfless Chinese hero, a villain with amazing eyebrows (Joly), a de rigueur Amazonian henchwoman, and so on. Performances are routine pulp, the dialogue utilitarian and its English sections often incomprehensible. The best bits are the action, including a desert car chase (shot in Dunhuang), a pursuit and fight with Belle in Hunan’s Phoenix Ancient Town 凤凰古城, and another car chase amid the vertiginous scenery of Hunan’s mountainous Zhangjiajie. Slightly futuristic sets by Yang Fengfan 杨丰帆 are clean, white and look expensive; widescreen photography by Zhang Xuewen 张学文 (Holding Love HOLD住爱, 2012) and Zhang Lizhi 张立志 (the latter also billed as an “associate director”) is clean and good-looking. Editing by Zhang Zhiyan 张治岩 is over-frenetic in action sequences, and the amount of technology casually used is frequently scary.
CREDITS
Presented by Shenzhen Jinhuayu Film & TV Media (CN), Shenzhen Zhouliquan Communication Equipment (CN), Shenzhen Guangna Bothers Media (CN), Shenzhen Huaben Film & TV Media (CN). Produced by Shenzhen Jinhuayu Film & TV Media (CN), Shenzhen Guangna Bothers Media (CN).
Script: Shen Mubai, Wu Tong, Chen Jiayao. Script planning: Mou Shanshan. Photography: Zhang Xuewen, Zhang Lizhi. Editing: Zhang Zhiyan. Music direction: Xi Mi. Art direction: Yang Fengfan. Costumes: Liang Min. Styling: Lu Pinglu. Sound: Wei Gaofeng. Action: Zhang Jiarong. Martial arts: Zheng Yiyang. Car stunts: Zhou Guanzhao. Visual effects: Yang Fuding. Executive direction: Man Haibo, Lin Jianwei.
Cast: Wu Zhiting (Xiao Yu), Meng Lu (Ye Yan), David Belle (Enoch), Shen Junyi (Xiao, Xiao Yu’s father), Lin Wei (Mo), Philippe Joly (Mick), Zhang Jiarong (Cui Ting), Guan Le (Song Qian, Xiao Yu’s wife), Alona Stibunova (Medusa), He Jie (judge), Wang Xiaoye (Xiao Ya, Xiao Yu’s daughter), Lei Jun (young Xiao Yu), Li Fanghan (young Ye Yan), Li Hongtao (Baozi, computer nerd), Sun Letian (Shen, amorous executive at party), Wei Lai (prison warden).
Release: China, 16 Jul 2021.