Operation Mekong

湄公河行动

Hong Kong/China, 2016, colour, 2.35:1, 123 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

Mekong River, Burma, 5 Oct 2011. On a stretch of the river known colloquially as “the gate of hell” two Chinese boats are attacked by bandits. Later, the Thai army finds the boats with 900,000 methanol tablets on board, and 13 Chinese bodies wash up down river. On the instructions of China’s Public Security Ministry, Drug Control Bureau head Yu Ping (Sun Chun) despatches a special taskforce led by veteran Gao Gang (Zhang Hanyu) to investigate. The Thai authorities claim there was a gun battle between the sailors and the army, but Gao Gang and his team disprove this. After discovering the drugs were put on the boats by Burmese drug lord Naw Khar (Pavarit Mongkolpisit), China sets up a combined initiative by four countries – China, Thailand, Burma, Laos – for a major crackdown on drug trafficking in the Golden Triangle and to arrest Naw Khar. The latter, however, remains defiant. In Northern Thailand, Gao Gang visits Chinese tea planter Fang Xinwu (Peng Yuyan), actually a longtime anti-drugs intelligence agent. On his suggestion, Gao Gang decides first to seize Pu Zha, the second biggest druglord in the region who is holding prisoner Yanduopa, Naw Khar’s longtime deputy. That way, they hope to gather more information on Naw Khar’s whereabouts. However, the mission goes badly wrong when Ong Sa, Naw Khar’s head of operations who is also about to rescue Yanduopa, sees the Chinese team and gives chase. Yu Ping orders Gao Gang and Fang Xinwu to take a different approach: to track down a certain middleman, Pierre (Wu Jialong), and, posing as businessmen, arrange a meeting through him with Zar (Ganesh Acharya), who is the gateway to Naw Khar’s inner circle. Things go fine until Fang Xinwu recognises one of the men (Lu Huiguang) as the person who caused the suicide of his longtime girlfriend (Wei Man) some years ago. At a business meeting in a mall, things suddenly go pear-shaped.

REVIEW

Everything that was wrong with action-thriller The Viral Factor 逆战 (2012) – weak plotting, cliched chemistry, nothing between the splashy stuff – goes the same for Operation Mekong 湄公河行动, the latest action extravaganza by Hong Kong’s Lin Chaoxian 林超贤 [Dante Lam], 51, that’s little more than a series of shootouts and explosions separated by poorly written (and unengaging) character scenes. After three years away from the heavy ordnance – during which time he scored a thumbs-up with boxing drama Unbeatable 激战 (2013), a ho-hum with crime-horror That Demon Within 魔警 (2014) and a definite thumbs-down with lame cycling drama To the Fore 破风 (2015) – Lin tries to prove again that he can handle big-budget international spectacles with lots of chases and bang-bang-boom-boom. In fact, in a very up-and-down career, his best work has always been smaller-scale urban crime dramas (Beastcops 野兽刑警, 1998, co-directed with Chen Jiashang 陈嘉上 [Gordon Chan]; Beast Stalker 证人, 2008) rather than anything bigger. Here, again with his regular Hong Kong producer Liang Fengying 梁凤英 [Candy Leung] and Mainland veteran Huang Jianxin 黄建新, but without regular scriptwriter Wu Weilun 吴炜伦 [Jack Ng], the emperor really is shown as having no clothes.

The film is based on the so-called Mekong River Massacre of 5 Oct 2011, when the entire crews of two Chinese vessels were slaughtered in Burmese waters and their boats found full of amphetamine pills. The crime shocked China’s public, and a manhunt was launched, chiefly against Burmese druglord Naw Kham, when it was established that the pills were placed on board by him and not by the Chinese crews. Naw Kham and others were finally executed in China in early 2013. The film slightly changes the names of the villains, and also those of some Chinese, but otherwise takes pains to try to show its factual basis. In fact, apart from the opening, it hardly sticks to the facts at all.

Despite the absence of Wu, the screenplay curiously parallels that of Viral Factor in its faulty construction: an unnecessarily complicated set-up before the script gets on at the 20-minute mark with the real plot (a Chinese government hit squad vs. a crazed Myanmar druglord), one after another arbitrary development and melodramatic cliche before the next chase/shootout, minimal chemistry between the two male leads, and a lack of any real tension in the action sequences beneath all the evident ordnance. Though the action is supervised by Hong Kong veterans Dong Wei 董玮 and Huang Weiliang 黄伟亮 [Jack Wong], it’s not at all memorable on a purely fight level. The first setpiece – an attempted kidnapping of a drug trafficker – is let down by too much close camerawork in murky interiors and some later sloppy editing in a car chase, while the action finale – 30 uninterrupted minutes that start with a military-like assault on the villain’s lair and end with a boat chase that seems to go on for ever – is simple overkill, with a steroidal score by Li Yunwen 黎允文 [Henry Lai]. The best setpiece, with a real sense of atmosphere and structure, comes just over an hour in: a 16-minute sequence that starts with a pregnant meeting in a shopping mall and finally explodes into violence, with a speeding car inside the mall and a shock ending.

Lin’s films often centre on two men on opposite sides of the fence, and rely on strong performances and screen chemistry. In Mekong, both male leads are actually on the same side of the fence and what little character conflict there is between them is entirely manufactured. China’s Zhang Hanyu 张涵予 and Taiwan’s Peng Yuyan 彭于晏 [Eddie Peng] have little natural screen chemistry and are given even less character background beyond obvious cliches (the former dotes over his cute young daughter, the latter is still traumatised by the death of his junkie girlfriend). Though the script gives him nothing but functional dialogue, Zhang, 51, is convincing on a purely physical level as a hard-boiled special agent, the kind of gruff, tough-guy role he’s played several times before – most recently in The Taking of Tiger Mountain 3D 智取威虎山, 2014 – and to which he brings a blazing-eyed intensity. Intensity, alas, is the main thing lacking in Peng, 34, Zhang’s baby-faced co-star who’s better fitted to rom-coms: despite a goatee and (later) a moustache, Peng is still utterly unconvincing as a tough guy, as much as Lin (Unbeatable) and other films (Rise of the Legend 黄飞鸿  英雄有梦, 2014), plus regular buffing up, have tried to convince audiences otherwise. Here, paired with Zhang and carrying the film between them, it’s even more obvious – and doesn’t help believability even on a genre level.

Female roles are even less important than usual in a Lin movie, and others are more part of a background ensemble, with none really standing out.  In such circumstances, the touching performance by Zobra as a devoted Alsatian sniffer dog deserves a mention of its own. Photography by Hong Kong’s Feng Yuanwen 冯远文 [Edmond Fung], who worked on Accident 意外 (2009) and Motorway 车手 (2012) but has otherwise ticked over in Hong Kong genre fare, has a jittery, semi-documentary feel that fits the subject-matter but is better in jungle scenes (such as those showing the druglord’s child soldiers) than in action sequences (where the jitter just gets in the way).

Despite its myriad weaknesses, the Mainland-financed film has received a big vote of confidence in China, where it’s grossed over RMB1 billion in its first three weeks. [The final tally was almost RMB1.2 billion.]

CREDITS

Presented by Bona Film Group (CN), Bona Entertainment (HK). Produced by Film Fireworks (HK).

Script: Lin Chaoxian [Dante Lam], Zhu Jingqi, Liu Xiaoqun, Tan Huizhen, Lin Mingjie. Additional writing: Zhang Minjia, Wu Zhenbang. Photography: Feng Yuanwen [Edmond Fung]. Editing: David Richardson. Music: Li Yunwen [Henry Lai], Lin Junhui, Chen Yubin. Art direction: Li Jianwei. Costumes: Dai Meiling. Sound: Chen Weixiong, Liang Daquan. Action: Dong Wei, Huang Weiliang [Jack Wong]. Visual effects: Zhou Jianhong, Li Zifei, Yu Guoliang, Lin Junyu (Herbgarden, Free-D Workshop). Aerial photography: Cai Jialing.

Cast: Zhang Hanyu (Gao Gang), Peng Yuyan [Eddie Peng] (Fang Xinwu/Qifu), Chen Baoguo (Hao, Public Security Ministry head), Sun Chun (Yu Ping, Drug Control Bureau head), Feng Wenjuan (Guo Bing), Lu Huiguang [Ken Lo] (Zhanpeng/Champorn), Wu Xudong (Wild Bull Squad leader), Wu Jialong [Carl Ng] (Pierre), Zhao Jian (Guo Xu/Da Shi, Guo Bing’s elder brother), Wei Man (Fang Xinwu’s girlfriend), Liu Xianda (Xie Wenfeng/Nezha), Zhan Liguo (Fu Baowei/Er Lang), Vithaya Pansringarm (Song/P’som), Wu Linkai (Kuai Yitong/The Fast Translator), Shi Zhanjie (Jiang Xing/Mu Xing), Zobra (Xiao Tian/Bingo, Gao Gang’s dog), Pavarit Mongkolpisit (Nuo Ka/Naw Khar), Govind Acharya (Sha/Zar).

Release: China, 30 Sep 2016; Hong Kong, 6 Oct 2016.