Reborn

解码游戏

China/Hong Kong, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 97 mins.

Director: Li Hailong 李海龙.

Rating: 5/10.

Character-driven hacker caper unfortunately defaults to pure pulp in the second half.

STORY

Hong Kong, 2016. Underground online casino services head Zeus (James Lee Guy) has his operation forcibly taken over by British super-hacker Qiao Fei, aka Zebra (Rhydian Vaughan), and his Mainland partner-cum-girlfriend Su Yi (Li Yuan). They then fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where young Japanese yakuza Mori Takeshi (Yamashita Tomohisa) gives them an assignment to hack the seemingly impenetrable security system Oasis, invented by Bak Shin-il (Gang Tae-shik), a Korean. Qiao Fei says he’ll need an extra partner and double the usual fee; Mori Takeshi agrees. Qiao Fei and Sun Yi fly to Shanghai to hire super-hacker Li Haoming, aka Captain Pirate (Han Geng), the only hacker who ever beat Qiao Fei. To observe him first, Sun Yi, dressed as a high-school girl, plants a bug on the geeky Li Haoming and lets him think she’s interested in him. Meanwhile, Li Haoming is approached by Zhou Zhengyuan (Liao Qizhi), section chief of the Hong Kong Information Safety Bureau, who needs his help in nailing Qiao Fei while he’s in Shanghai. He tells Li Haoming about Qiao Fei’s hiring plans and puts him through a special exercise programme to improve his fitness. He also fills him in on Su Yi’s criminal background. Eventually, Qiao Fei and Su Yi kidnap Li Haoming and propose teaming up. The trio fly to Kuala Lumpur to meet Mori Takeshi, and then set to work hacking the Oasis system on the same day that a new version, Oasis 2.0, which has just been taken on by the Malaysian government, is to be announced at a press conference. After hacking the system, Qiao Fei blackmails Bak Shin-il into selling Oasis to Mori Takeshi for a tiny US$10 million. But then Qiao Fei discovers Mori Takeshi has a secret plan for the system.

REVIEW

Before it loses its nerve in the second half and defaults to pure pulp, hacker caper Reborn 解码游戏 looks like being an above-average riff on a story of computer whizzes, their shady Japanese client, and Big Crime. As the super-hackers are hired to break into a seemingly impenetrable security system, there’s the usual techno-babble and flashy graphics but the plot is primarily driven by character rather than by technology, with a good cast performing above expectations with a playful tone that mirrors the Chinese title (“The Decoding Game”). Too bad, therefore, that the six scriptwriters – including Su Liang 苏亮 (crime comedy Father and Son 父子雄兵, 2017), Yu Qiao 虞俏 (comedy Revenge for Love 疯岳撬佳人, 2017) and Hong Kong’s Li Min 李敏 [Erica Li], regular writer for Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau] – couldn’t sustain the mix into the second half which, though it maintains a trim pace, becomes just an average cyber-crime movie. Chalk this up as a ho-hum directing debut by Beijing Film Academy graduate Li Hailong 李海龙, an alumnus of film-maker Wuershan 乌尔善 (The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman 刀见笑, 2010) with copious experience in commercials.

Shot and set in 2016, largely in Malaysia, Reborn starts by introducing its anti-hero – a Shanghai slacker hacker who pines for female company – before it even gets to the main plot, which involves him being hired by another super-hacker and the latter’s equally ruthless lover to break into a security system for a shady Japanese villain. That’s because the anti-hero is played by popular former singer Han Geng 韩庚, 34, here taking lead billing and continuing (after a decent showing in The Ex-File: The Return of the Exes 前任3  再见前任, 2017) to add some colour to his acting. Han is likeable here, and shows some comic style, as the weak geek and is well cast opposite Taiwan actor Feng Xiaoyue 凤小岳 [Rhydian Vaughan] as his polar opposite, a geek in a smart suit with a hot lover and attitude to match. The often wooden Feng, 30, is appropriately cast for a change, and teams well with Mainland model-turned-actress Li Yuan 李媛 (the quarrelsome patient in Go Away Mr. Tumor! 滚蛋吧！肿瘤君, 2015), whose spunky, high-kicking babe is an equal partner in the trio’s shenanigans. This is one role that the variable Li, 34, definitively makes her own.

Once the plot clicks into gear, it bounces around in unexpected directions, including some sexy play between Feng and Li’s characters, the introduction of a Hong Kong data detective (wittily played by veteran Liao Qizhi 廖启智 [Liu Kai-chi]), plus an eccentric villain (baby-faced Yamashita Tomohisa 山下智久, 33, from Terra Formars テラフォーマーズ, 2016) and his female enforcer (Malaysian model-actress Xu Xiuqing 许秀青 [Kho Siew Ching]). During the first 50 minutes, all the character interplay manages to cloak the fact that Reborn is basically upgraded pulp; but just as one knows that the two tough babes are eventually going to go mano a mano, so the genre elements finally win out over the character-based stuff. The writers don’t know what to do with Liu’s character and pretty much ditch him after an interesting start; the whole development section, involving a larcenous scheme by the Japanese, is very woolly; and a late-on twist re one of the leads is almost thrown away.

A lengthy car-and-foot chase through Kuala Lumpur at night makes an OK finale but its climax lacks the emotional punch it should have. Widescreen photography by Poland’s Michał Tywoniuk falls somewhere between his colourfully grungy work on The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman and the more polished-looking My Love Sinema 放映爱 (2016), but the score by prolific Chinese American composer Wang Zongxian 王宗贤 [Nathan Wang] just pumps away soullessly in the action bits.

As pulp with “international” aspirations – a key contributor is Asia-based US veteran Andre Morgan, producing via his Shanghai-based Sirens Productions and Hong Kong’s Morgan & Chan Films – there’s a healthy helping of English dialogue, which half-British Feng handles fine but Yamashita less comfortably. The film crashed on the Mainland with a puny RMB9.7 million, even less than S.M.A.R.T. Chase 极致追击 (2017), another semi-international action thriller, built round UK actor Orlando Bloom and set in Shanghai. Reborn director Li Hailong is not to be confused with the identically named Mainland action director (Celestial Return 天师归来, 2017).

CREDITS

Presented by Sirens Productions (Shanghai) (CN), Shanghai Bona Cultural Media (CN), Morgan & Chan Films (HK), Perfect Village Entertainment (HK), Guangzhou Jinyi Media (CN). Produced by Sirens Productions (Shanghai) (CN), Morgan & Chan Films (HK).

Script: Su Liang, Yu Qiao, Li Min [Erica Li], Liu Chi, Hu Yu, Li Xiang. Photography: Michał Tywoniuk. Editing: Gong Qing, Li Nanyi. Music: Wang Zongxian [Nathan Wang]. Art direction: Zheng Zhi. Costumes: Zhang Heyan. Styling: Hou Yongcai, Jiang Nan. Sound: Li Bingzhi, Zheng Xuzhi [Frank Cheng], Zhao Nan. Action: Nicholas Carl Powell. Visual effects: Sun Dixun, Geoffrey Antony (GFZ Studios).

Cast: Han Geng (Li Haoming/Captain Pirate), Feng Xiaoyue [Rhydian Vaughan] (Qiao Fei/Zebra), Li Yuan (Su Yi), Yamashita Tomohisa (Mori Takeshi), Xu Xiuqing [Kho Siew Ching] (Mali), Michael Papajohn (Dyson), Liao Qizhi [Liu Kai-chi] (Zhou Zhengyuan), Gang Tae-shik (Bak Shin-il), Sun Wei (thief), Yang Shufang (northeastern woman), James Lee Guy (Zeus), Cheng Hong (Liu Kun, Paype CEO).

Release: China, 3 Aug 2018; Hong Kong, 28 Sep 2018.