Mission Milano

王牌逗王牌

China/Hong Kong, 2016, colour, 2.35:1, 102 mins.

Director: Wang Jing 王晶 [Wong Jing].

Rating: 6/10.

Middling spy romp, with leads Liu Dehua [Andy Lau] and Huang Xiaoming generating no special sparks.

STORY

Hong Kong, the present day. After escaping an assassination attempt in a Paris hotel, Interpol secret agent Hong Jingbao (Liu Dehua) is assigned another mission by his boss, K (Shen Teng): to infiltrate scientific research company Haotian across the border in Shenzhen, China, where a Swiss scientist, Peterson (Xu Yazhou), is to introduce his breakthrough development, a miracle seed (“The Seed of God”) that can grow in seconds to a fruit-bearing tree after water is added. The company is run by billionaire’s son Luo Jiahao (Huang Xiaoming), whose family is from a long line of thieves. Posing as a cleaner, Hong Jingbao spies on the meeting, which is suddenly interrupted by Japanese criminal group Crescent, led by Snow (Xu Dongdong), which steals the seeds and kidnaps Peterson. Later, while trying to persuade Luo Jiahao to join him, Hong Jingbao says Peterson faked his own kidnapping, as he and Crescent want to sell the invention to K-MAX, the world’s largest criminal organisation. After a series of stand-offs, Hong Jingbao finally tricks Luo Jiahao into joining him, along with the latter’s younger sister, Luo Jiaxin (Ouyang Na’na), and sidekick A Meng (Wang Zulan). In Macau, while tracking Iron Eagle (Wu Yue), right-hand man of K-MAX’s leader, Luo Jiahao is kidnapped by Crescent and almost killed, but for the help of a Crescent enforcer, Phoenix (Hu Ran), who’s actually an undercover Interpol agent. She leaves the message “Milan” on his neck, so the group heads off to Italy. Deducing that Crescent has stored the seeds in its ultra-secure laboratory there, Hong Jingbao decides to seduce its head, Sofia (Xie Yilin), who hasn’t had a boyfriend in seven years, to get her security card and iris scan. What the group doesn’t know is that Crescent has killed Peterson and stored the contents of his brain alongside the case with the seeds in the laboratory. Meanwhile, K-MAX kills Snow and plans to steal the seeds for itself, using them to increase its cocaine production tenfold. Luo Jiahao comes face to face with Iron Eagle in Crescent’s laboratory, and only with help from Phoenix does he managed to acquire the seeds and Peterson’s memory. Back in Hong Kong, mission accomplished, Luo Jiahao then learns that K-MAX has kidnapped his mother (Feng Baobao), who has early Alzheimer’s, and taken her to its military base in Central Europe.

REVIEW

As it isn’t likely that film-maker Wang Jing 王晶 [Wong Jing] will ever break out of the time-loop he’s happy to endlessly replay – Hong Kong cinema, circa 1980s – there’s no point in complaining that Mission Milano 王牌逗王牌 is the same old mixture of cut-price action and spoofy comedy he’s been serving up for over three decades. This one – funded by, starring and made for Mainlanders – is middling Wang Jing, slickly mounted and with little of the wordplay and nonsense comedy of his more Hong Kong-oriented movies. But there are times when even middling Wang Jing is preferable to some of the deadly serious, steroidal, VFX’d-to-the-max action-adventures by his colleagues, and the good news is that Milano is much better than his last two movies, the lame From Vegas to Macau II 赌城风云II (2015) and even lamer From Vegas to Macau III 赌城风云III (2016), if not on the level of the 2014 original.

That’s partly because the first-time pairing of Hong Kong superstar Liu Dehua 刘德华 [Andy Lau] with Mainland star Huang Xiaoming 黄晓明 doesn’t generate any special sparks. Liu, 55, leaves most of the action to Huang, 39, but when called upon can still cut a trim figure opposite his younger co-star, despite jokes about his character’s age. The two stars meld OK – and have even been given a nocturnal heart-to-heart at Milan’s Arch of Peace to give their relationship some, er, “depth” – but Huang, in geeky glasses, too often looks wired and on edge opposite the relaxed Liu. That’s understandable, given the dozens of films Liu and Wang have made together, and the older actor’s easygoing charm helps him overcome his rather stiff Mandarin.

The rest of the cast is basically window-dressing to (what should be) Liu and Huang’s central double-act. Taiwan anti-diva Xie Yilin 谢依霖 (the tubby in the Tiny Times 小时代 films) catches the right spirit and gets the best (vomit) joke in the whole film, as well as the fruitiest character (a sex-starved security officer). Her young compatriot, cellist-turned-actress Ouyang Na’na 欧阳娜娜, 16, and Hong Kong actor-singer Wang Zulan 王祖蓝 are bland as Huang’s sidekicks, and Hong Kong sexagenarian Feng Baobao 冯宝宝 is just OK as a forgetful materfamilias, her humour not really working in Mandarin. Among the various sexy female enforcers, China’s Hu Ran 胡然 (from FVTMII and FVTMIII) gets the lion’s part later on, and fellow Mainlander Mao Junjie 毛俊杰 blooms in the finale. But the only supporting actor to carve out an original comedic character (if briefly) is China’s Shen Teng 沈腾, 37, whose blank-faced playing of the Interpol head is one of the wittiest things in the whole film.

The script, co-written with China’s Xing Jia 邢嘉, is designed purely to move the film from one location to another (Paris, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Macau, Milan) inbetween action and comedy bits. Throw in plenty of references to James Bond films etc., plus a totally gratuitous gambling scene and some T&A and name-plays – Liu’s character is called Hong Jingbao 洪精宝, another is called Fan Bingbing 范兵兵 – and you have the recipe for a film that just about makes it to the 70-minute line before running out of plot. Solution? Add on a further half-hour by having one character kidnapped to Central Europe.

Compensating for the ho-hum dialogue – which just doesn’t sound as funny in Mandarin as in Wang’s purely Cantonese movies – is some sharply-lit, super-slick photography by Hong Kong’s Jiang Guomin 姜国民 [Venus Keung] and Wu Jingwen 吴景文, plus handsome design by Zhuo Wenyao 卓文耀 [Andrew Cheuk] from the FVTM series. Visual effects and action (staged by veteran Lin Di’an 林迪安 [Dion Lam]) are serviceable, par for a Wang Jing action movie. The Chinese title roughly means “Trump Card Plays Trump Card”, emphasising the teaming of the two stars; for Hong Kong release it was changed to the more generic spy title 偷天特务 (“Sky-Stealing Special Mission”).

After the cash-cow of the FVTM trilogy in China (I: RMB525 million, II: RMB975 million, III: RMB1.1 billion – a grand total of some RMB2.6 billion), Milano thudded back to reality with box office of only RMB260 million – though that would be a solid enough amount for any other movie.

CREDITS

Presented by Gravity Pictures Film Production (CN), Aim Media (CN), China Film (CN), Mega-Vision Project Workshop (HK). Produced by Aim Media (CN), Mega-Vision Project Workshop (HK).

Script: Wang Jing [Wong Jing], Xing Jia. Photography: Jiang Guomin [Venus Keung], Wu Jingwen. Editing: Li Jiarong. Music direction: Wu Lecheng [Ronald Ng]. Art direction: Zhuo Wenyao [Andrew Cheuk], Liu Yuenan. Costume design: Yu Jia’an [Bruce Yu], Wen Nianzhong [Man Lim-chung], Zhang Fangdi. Sound: Mai Zhi’an, Wu Zong, Zeng Jingxiang [Kinson Tsang], Yao Junxuan, Li Yaoqiang. Action: Lin Di’an [Dion Lam], Li Huichu. Visual effects: Huang Hongda, Kuang Zhenbang, Yang Qihao (VFX Nova).

Cast: Liu Dehua [Andy Lau] (Hong Jingbao/Sampan), Huang Xiaoming (Luo Jiahao/Louis), Wang Zulan (A Meng/Amon), Hu Ran (Fengwu/Phoenix), Ouyang Na’na (Luo Jiaxin, Luo Jiahao’s younger sister), Feng Baobao (Luo Jiahao’s mother), Wu Yue (Tieying/Iron Eagle), Xie Yilin (Sofia, Milan lab head), Mao Junjie (woman in black/Golden Eagle, K-MAX leader), Xu Dongdong (Xueji/Snow, Crescent leader), Shen Teng (K, head of Hong Kong Interpol), Zhao Yingjun (Fan Bingbing), Qi Wei (Tianna/Tina), Han Zhenguo (butler), Lin Linqi (Ryoko, Crescent member), Zhang Yongzhen (Taro, Crescent member), Wang Xingyao (Luo Jiahao’s secretary), Gary Michael Malmon (Stone), Xu Yazhou (Peterson), Sang Shanghui (Yuanfei, Crescent member), Li Yansheng (doctor), Tang Zirui (Macau car-park pedestrian), Lu Huiguang [Ken Lo] (Iron Tiger, Iron Eagle’s older brother), Zheng Xiuwen [Sammi Cheng] (Hong Jingbao’s wife).

Release: Hong Kong, 29 Sep 2016; China, 1 Oct 2016.