Death Notice

暗杀风暴

Hong Kong/China, 2023, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 99 mins.

Director: Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau].

Rating: 6/10.

Despite a shapeless script, this serial-killer mystery is largely entertaining thanks to its strong cast.

STORY

Hong Kong, 7 Oct 2009. After having a swim, police inspector Luo Fei (Zhang Zhilin) is called on his phone by his girlfriend, senior inspector Meng Yun (Hu Xing’er), that she is handcuffed in a warehouse with their friend Yuan Zhibang (Chen Guokun), a senior inspector who has a time bomb attached to him. She asks Luo Fei whether she should cut the red or the blue wire. In the panic and confusion the bomb goes off. Ten years later, Luo Fei, now working quietly in the firearms licensing department, is still upset by Meng Yun’s death, and still imagines her by his side at key moments. On 2 Nov 2019 he accompanies to the airport his friend Zheng Haoming (Li Zixiong), a retired chief superintendent who is now a property development manager. Zheng Haoming stops off to pick up some things and a few minutes later Luo Fei spots a suspicious figure climbing into a window of the building. He gives chase across the rooftops but the figure escapes; inside the building Zheng Haoming is found with his throat cut. Han Hao (Wu Zhenyu), Kowloon East chief superintendent, takes charge of the case and questions Luo Fei, who gives such detailed, analytical answers that Han Hao is suspicious for a while. Luo Fei thinks Zheng Haoming was leaving Hong Kong in a hurry as he knew someone was out to kill him. The police then find on the body a “death notice”, signed by “Darker” and accusing Zheng Haoming of corruption. Luo Fei realises Meng Yun’s killer has returned. The next day, during a police press conference by Han Hao, Darker hacks into the TV system. He says that law enforcement and the judicial system have broken down, so he will personally wield the sword of justice. Ten years ago he punished deputy police commissioner Xue Dalin (Shao Zhongheng) and chief inspector Yuan Zhibang, and has now done the same with retired chief superintendent Zheng Haoming, who was the investigating officer on the two unsolved earlier cases. Luo Fei begs his friend, deputy police commissioner Zeng Zhuoqi (Ren Dahua), to include him on the investigating team led by Han Hao. Zeng Zhuoqi agrees and overrules Han Hao’s objections. Han Hao’s assistant Yin Jian (Cai Hanyi) recaps the two earlier cases: Xue Dalin was blown up in his car, with a death notice accusing him of colluding with a triad leader, Deng Hua; later the same day, Yuan Zhibang and Meng Yun were blown up by a time bomb. The only witness to the latter event was a manual worker, Huang Shaoping (Gu Tianle), who was seriously burned but survived. On the team, Luo Fei befriends techie Zeng Rihua (Lu Yong) and senior inspector Liang Yin (Zhou Xiuna), a forensics specialist. On 4 Nov Luo Fei and Liang Yin visit Deng Hua (Lv Liangwei), now a powerful property developer, who is unhelpful and boasts that he’s still alive, despite receiving a death notice from Darker 10 years ago. They also interview Huang Shaoping again: now a partially disabled, heavily scarred beggar, he simply repeats what happened that day at the warehouse. Luo Fei is left with three questions to answer: why has Darker reappeared after 10 years, why didn’t Deng Hua also die that day, and why did Darker kill Meng Yun (who received no death notice)? On 5 Nov the police raid an address where Darker is thought to be but just find a man with a fake time bomb attached to him; but there is also a death notice, dated two days hence, for politician Han Shaohong (She Shiman). However, when Han Shaohong is blown up on 7 Nov, despite the efforts of Han Hao and his team to protect her, Luo Fei is still baffled by the case. And then Darker announces his next victim will be Peng Guangfu (Wu Yijiang), a gangster who years ago supposedly killed Han Hao’s police partner at the time, Yin Zhao (Jiang Haosen), elder brother of his current assistant, Yin Jian.

REVIEW

The second of four titles released this year from prolific Hong Kong director Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau], Death Notice 暗杀风暴 is a largely entertaining serial-killer mystery that’s been very freely adapted from a well-known novel by Mainland writer Zhou Haohui 周浩晖, goosed up with three middle-aged Hong Kong names often identified with crime movies, and thoroughly relocated from a fictional city in China to the former UK colony. Not the most exciting of film performers, actor-singer Zhang Zhilin 张智霖 [Julian Cheung] is quite good in the central role of a traumatised investigator; but it’s veteran Wu Zhenyu 吴镇宇 [Francis Ng] who steals the show as the task-force head who looks permanently fed up. Casting Gu Tianle 古天乐 [Louis Koo] in multiple roles and often under heavy make-up was an unwise decision, partly giving the game away because of his celebrity (no spoilers). Otherwise, the whole cast melds well and Qiu keeps things moving and characterful. Shot back in spring 2018, with release delayed for several reasons (including the Covid shutdown of Hong Kong cinemas), Death Notice finally appeared this summer, to very poor business on both sides of the border (HK$5.3 million; RMB81 million).

The original novel by Zhou, 46, was first published in 2009 as Siwang tongzhidan 死亡通知单 (literally, “Death Notice”, see cover, left), referring to the notes that serial killer Darker appends to his victims, listing name, date and reason for execution. In 2014 a 46-part online drama series (see below, left) was released on the Tencent platform that proved very popular – Death Notify 暗黑者, directed by Zhou Linhao 周琳皓 and starring Guo Jingfei 郭京飞 in the central role of Luo Fei. The novel was republished in 2014, as Killing Notice 死亡通知单    暗黑者 (see cover, bottom left), the first part of a trilogy centred on Luo Fei, and it’s that longer Chinese title the film uses when crediting the original novel in the end titles. (Meanwhile, in 2018 the novel was published in an English translation as Death Notice.)

Qiu’s film, scripted by Hong Kong’s Shen Xiran 沈锡然 (comedy The Dishwasher Squad 洗碗天团, 2021), massively simplifies and streamlines the plot and characters but still requires acres of explanatory dialogue on three occasions near the end. This is partly because the plot is still way too complex, but also because the focus until then has been on thrills and action rather than psychology. Shen’s script – whose generic Chinese title simply means “Assassination Storm” – is action-filled from the very start, with Luo Fei traumatised by the death of his girlfriend and best pal at the hands of a crazed bomber. Cut to 10 years later and a still upset Luo Fei, while accompanying an ex-police friend to the airport, tries to save him from a mysterious assassin – ending in a vertiginous rooftop chase that’s one of the film’s highlights. Thereafter, Luo Fei joins the offical investigation, led by the permanently put-upon inspector Han Hao (Wu), but remains baffled why Darker has re-started his vigilante murders after a gap of a decade.

Luo Fei’s late girlfriend turns up on screen at key moments as he imagines her still next to him, giving advice. That device works fine, largely thanks to some subtle and classy underplaying by TV actress-singer Hu Xing’er 胡杏儿 (rarely seen in movies), and Qiu’s naturalistic way of incorporating the scenes between the two. Other aspects of the script work less well, with no clear architecture to a plot that’s basically a splashy whodunit and with character/background information scattered here and there. Aside from the action setpieces, individual performances carry much of the film. Rapper-actor Lu Yong 陆永 is cast as the police team’s tech geek and manages not to turn it into a comedy stint, while Lv Liangwei 吕良伟 [Ray Lui] is notable as a cocky triad/businessman. But onetime glamourpuss Zhou Xiuna 周秀娜 [Chrissie Chau], as the team’s forensics geek, never gets a chance to develop her character after a strong start. Zhou’s novels are not noted for their depth of characterisation, so most of this personal colouring comes from the actors and director. Wu’s serio-comic portrayal of the harassed team leader is a study in minimalist character acting; elsewhere the script manages to add lightly comic touches (“Which wire should I cut, the red or the blue?!”) without undermining the sense of threat that runs through the film.

Nevertheless, the film is at its best when not trying to rationalise the way-over-complex plot and just mounts one after another setpiece as Darker goes about his judge-and-jury business. Aside from the rooftop chase near the start (cleverly mixing VFX with physical action), another standout is the killing of a politician (She Shiman 佘诗曼, Line Walker: The Movie 使徒行者, 2016) who is more devoted to her dogs than to her own safety. Qiu’s assured direction of such moments maintains interest even when the patchily constructed script threatens to lose it.

Regular editor Zhong Weizhao 钟炜钊 [Azrael Chung] keeps the whole thing to a tight 90-or-so minutes, at a time when two hours or more is rapidly becoming the norm for action fare.

CREDITS

Presented by Sil-Metropole Organisation (HK), iQiyi Motion Pictures (CN), Beijing Wishart Media (CN), Guangdong Sublime Media Group (CN), Beijing New Splendid Entertainment (CN).

Script: Shen Xiran. Novel: Zhou Haohui. Photography: Ni Wenxian, Xiao Qinghua. Editing: Zhong Weizhao [Azrael Chung]. Music: Mai Zhenhong [Brother Hung]. Art direction: Yu Xinghua. Costume design: Chen Yunwen. Sound: Nie Jirong, Ye Zhaoji. Action: Huang Weiliang [Jack Wong]. Car stunts: Wu Haitang. Visual effects: Chen Zhidao.

Cast: Wu Zhenyu [Francis Ng] (Han Hao, chief superintendent), Gu Tianle [Louis Koo] (Huang Shaoping), Zhang Zhilin [Julian Cheung] (Luo Fei), Hu Xing’er (Meng Yun, senior inspector), Zhou Xiuna [Chrissie Chau] (Liang Yin, senior inspector, forensics), Lv Liangwei [Ray Lui] (Deng Hua), Ren Dahua [Simon Yam] (Zeng Zhuoqi, deputy police commissioner), She Shiman (Han Shaohong), Jiang Haowen [Philip Keung] (Yin Zhao), Luo Lan (old woman in Caixiangwei [Choi Heng Wai]), Chen Guokun (Yuan Zhibang), Li Zixiong [Waise Lee] (Zheng Haoming), Wu Yijiang (Peng Guangfu, gangster), Luo Guanlan (orphanage director), Cai Hanyi (Yin Jian, Han Hao’s assistant), Lu Yong (Zeng Rihua, techie), Hong Tianming (Nengyuan, police team member), Huang Debin [Kenny Wong] (Long, Deng Hua’s assistant), Zhao Yonghong (Liu Song), Zhou Jiayi (Bai Feifei, Meng Yun’s best friend), Zhang Guoqiang (coroner’s inquest officer), Shao Zhongheng (Xue Dalin, deputy police commissioner, 2009), Zhang Jiansheng (Sun Chunfeng), Zhang Songzhi (Chen Zhuowei), He Huachao (Zhou Ming, Peng Guangfu’s associate), Lin Yanling (newscaster).

Release: Hong Kong 18 Aug 2023; China, 18 Aug 2023.