The Liquidator

心理罪之城市之光

China/Hong Kong, 2017, colour, 2.35:1, 124 mins.

Director: Xu Jizhou 徐纪周.

Rating: 6/10.

Second of the psycho crime dramas based on novels by Lei Mi is entertaining in a pulpy way until completely going off the rails in the final half-hour.

STORY

Huanhai city, northeast China, the present day. Junior high-school teacher Wei Mingjun (Tian Yu) is kidnapped and tortured to death after he shamed a student (He Yanhao) in class who later committed suicide. Police detective Yang Xuewu (Yu Ailei) tells spunky junior detective Mi Nan (Liu Shishi), who’s in charge of the case, to pay a visit to a former colleague, brilliant criminal profiler Fang Mu (Deng Chao), for some assistance. Fang Mu tells her the killer is male, aged 25-35, 1.70-1.85 metres tall and well built, and adds that it was not a revenge killing; but to Mi Nan’s frustration, he refuses to say any more. Next, the naked body of a man who hated his mother is found in a water bag full of amniotic fluid. Fang Mu turns up at the crime scene later on and helps Mi Nan. She also discovers he has an adopted 13-year-old daughter, Liao Yafan (Wen Qi), who was the victim in an abuse case a few years ago; Fang Mu was suspected of killing her abuser, Li Yi (Dai Xu), and was transferred out of the police unit; he later adopted Liao Yafan, who is now fiercely devoted to him. A third victim, a onetime arsonist, is found dead in another piece of elaborately staged “murder theatre” with an apparent vigilante motive. But from various clues Fang Mu realises the murders are all targeted at him, by someone who knows his past and the details of the Liao Yifan/Li Yi case. Fang Mu has the idea of taking into police custody an arrogant lawyer, Ren Chuan (Guo Jingfei), who’s become publicly unpopular in a recent extortion case, and using him as bait for the killer, who calls himself “The Light of the City” 城市之光. Meanwhile, suspecting the killer is someone from his days at police academy, Fang Mu starts tracking down his former classmates from a decade ago, including one, Jiang Ya (Ruan Jingtian), who runs an aquarium business that Liao Yafan often visits. Before he has a chance to speak to Jiang Ya, there’s a sudden alert that the killer has struck again; in fact, as Fang Mu guesses, it’s an elaborate diversion to draw the police away from Ren Chuan, who ends up with explosives strapped to his chest and an especially elaborate timer. Afterwards, Fang Mu finally meets Jiang Ya, who’s at home with his wife Wei Wei (Lin Jiaxin), who’s been in a coma since a bungled hospital operation, and their adopted idiot son Er Bao (Xu Xiaofan). Fang Mu is convinced Jiang Ya is the killer but he doesn’t have any physical proof. Privately, Jiang Ya lets Fang Mu know that he saw everything that happened on the night of Li Yi’s death. Cornered, Fang Mu decides to take time off work and visit Jiang Ya’s hometown, a mining community a few hours away in Luoyang.

REVIEW

Zippily put together and peopled by suitably oddball characters, vigilante serial-killer procedural The Liquidator 心理罪之城市之光 is entertaining enough, if not very believable, fare for the first 90 minutes before completely going off the rails in the final half-hour. Based on the 2012 novel Criminal Minds: The Light of the City 心理罪之城市之光 (see cover, left) by Lei Mi 雷米 – pen name of Liu Peng 刘鹏, who teaches criminal law at Shenyang-based Criminal Investigation Police University of China – it was the second adaptation of a title from Lei’s Criminal Minds 心理罪 series to hit Mainland screens in 2017, following Guilty of Mind 心理罪 by a completely different team. Originally set to be released in September, a month after Guilty, it was later delayed until the end of the year. Though much more commercially cast, including popular light actor Deng Chao 邓超 in the lead, it failed to reach even the solid but unspectacular box office of its predecessor (RMB224 million, compared with Guilty‘s RMB304 million), effectively ending a spate of Lei Mi Mania that had also seen two TV drama series. Chalk this up as a promising but flawed feature debut by TVD writer-director Xu Jizhou 徐纪周, 41, a graduate of Beijing’s Central Academy of Drama.

Though both films feature the eccentric criminal profiler Fang Mu, the dramatic balance is completely different in each. In Guilty, Liao Fan 廖凡 (as the detective) completely out-acted the metrosexual-looking Li Yifeng 李易峰 (as Fang Mu); in Liquidator, however, Deng, 39, dominates the movie as Fang Mu, overshadowing both experienced character actor Yu Ailei 余皑磊 (as a senior detective) and perky actress Liu Shishi 刘诗诗 (as a junior one). Though the lead chemistry in Guilty wasn’t quite as weak as might be imagined, it’s still much stronger among all the police characters in Liquidator. The main flaw is the casting of Taiwan pinup Ruan Jingtian 阮经天 (Monga 艋舺, 2010; Kill Time 谋杀似水年华, 2016; Never Said Goodbye 谎言西西里, 2016) as the serial killer; an okay actor when properly used, Ruan, 35, is barely up to the demands of the role, and certainly not – in a film which pivots on a psycho-battle between profiler and killer – to one-on-ones with a much more experienced and versatile actor like Deng.

With its zippy pacing (courtesy US veteran Robert K. Lambert, of Three Kings, 1999, and Bulletproof Monk, 2003, fame) and its general technical flashiness (positioning characters inside flashbacks, never losing an opportunity to jazz up an idea with a visual effect, etc.), the movie manages to skate over many of its weaknesses during the first 90 minutes. Even though the psychological battle of wits doesn’t come off as it should, the plot still has a satisfying number of twists and turns in the early and middle going to keep the viewer hooked. And though Deng, with heavy specs and greyed hair, is hardly credible as a brilliant criminal profiler, his gift for sardonic comedy successfully lightens the general tendency towards seriousness.

Former ballet student Liu, 31 – the conflicted courtesan in Brotherhood of Blades 绣春刀 (2014) – gets a whole action sequence at the start to establish her determined, tomboyish credentials and has playful chemistry with Deng; their slightly flirtatious odd couple is another entertaining distraction, though the writers have no idea what to do with her character during the second half. Hovering around the edges are good performances by Yu as a grizzled cop and Taiwan teenage actress Wen Qi 文淇 (the discovery of Angels Wear White 嘉年华, 2017) as the spunky adopted daughter of Deng’s character – though, again, neither character is properly integrated into the plot as one might rightfully expect. In her first film since the co-lead in Heaven in the Dark 暗色天堂 (2016), Taiwan Canadian actress Lin Jiaxin 林嘉欣 [Karena Lam], 40, pops up briefly in a role that’s only there to provide a psychological motive and could have been played by anybody.

It’s during the final half-hour, as the twists seriously stretch credibility and everything is ditched in favour of an OTT, two-man showdown, that Liquidator finally goes off the rails and leaves its audience behind. All the psycho-babble of how the killer was basically “created” by the police comes way too late, and by the time of the final twist (centred on Deng’s character) the viewer’s sympathies have long ago headed for the exit. The rent-a-score by Jin Peida 金培达 [Peter Kam] – one of several Hong Kongers among the key crew (including d.p., art director, stylist) – is invisible as a dramatic asset. Though set in the fictional northeast city of Huanhai, Liquidator was shot down south in Shanghai and nearby Wuxi.

CREDITS

Presented by Edko Films (HK), Shanghai Film Group (CN), Edko (Beijing) Films (CN), Horgos Orange Image Media (CN), Haining Blossomed Moon Movie & TV Culture (CN), Irresistible Alpha (HK), Horgos Youth Enlight Pictures (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Media (CN). Produced by Fangyuan Pictures (Tianjin) (CN).

Script: Xu Jizhou, Zhu Junyi. Novel: Lei Mi. Photography: Zheng Zhaoqiang [Cheng Siu-keung]. Editing: Robert K. Lambert, Hu Haixin. Music: Jin Peida [Peter Kam]. End title song music: Dong Dongdong. Lyrics: Chen Xi. Vocal: Liu Shishi. Art direction: Qiu Weiming [Alfred Lau]. Styling: Wang Baoyi. Sound: Zhang Jian, Zhang Li, Xu Xiaozhang. Action: Tanigaki Kenji, Wu Gang. Visual effects: Li Zhaohua, Ye Renhao (TWR Entertainment, Free-D Workshop).

Cast: Deng Chao (Fang Mu), Ruan Jingtian (Jiang Ya), Liu Shishi (Mi Nan), Yu Ailei (Yang Xuewu), Wen Qi (Liao Yafan), Lin Jiaxin [Karena Lam] (Wei Wei, Jiang Ya’s wife), Guo Jingfei (Ren Chuan, lawyer), Shi Zhaoqi (Liu, police chief), Tian Yu (Wei Mingjun, teacher), Ma Su (policewoman), Liu Tianzuo (Wu Zhaoguang, arsonist), Li Jian (fireman), Dai Xu (Li Yi), He Hongshan (Qi Yuan), Liu Yang (BMW driver), Xu Xiaofan (Er Bao, Jiang Ya’s adopted son), He Yanhao (Yu Guang), Pan Yigang (Yu Guang’s father), Song Ci (Guo Guilan), Sun Liang (Jiang Weili), Hu Keyu (Mrs. Hu, old woman in accident), He Tiehong (Jing Ya’s father), Shang Tielong (old village head).

Release: China, 22 Dec 2017; Hong Kong, 4 Jan 2018.