Savage

雪暴

China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 111 mins.

Director: Cui Siwei 崔斯韦.

Rating: 8/10.

Taut action-thriller set in snowy northeast China is strongly cast and keeps its audience guessing.

STORY

Baishan city, Jilin province, northeast China, near the North Korean border, Jan 2015. In heavy snow on Changbai mountain, three men rob a vehicle carrying ingots from Qingnianhu Gold Mine. When the robbers’ car runs off the road, two police officers – Wang Kanghao (Zhang Zhen) and Han Xiaosong (Li Guangjie) – stop their car to help, not realising who the men are. When Han Xiaosong spots the gold mine’s insignia on one of the boxes, he’s shot dead by the gang’s leader (Fan Wei); the other two robbers, Zhou (Huang Jue) and the leader’s younger brother Ermao (Zhang Yicong), almost kill Wang Kanghao before escaping. When the roads are blocked by police, the three robbers make off with the gold using skis. One year later, the case is still unsolved and the gold still missing. Wang Kanghao is in a relationship with Sun Yan (Ni Ni), a doctor at the Forest District Hospital, but is avoiding her as she’s due to be transferred the next day. Wang Kanghao and his new colleague Zhang Lu (Chang Long) are ordered to apprehend poacher Guo San (Liu Hua), who’s rumoured to have found a gold ingot in the snow, before a heavy blizzard sets in. En route they spot two people in a river bed, a dangerous place to be with a blizzard due. When questioned, Guo San denies finding any gold, but he agrees to help Wang Kanghao and Zhang Lu find the two men. In the process, Zhang Lu is shot and wounded by one of the men – actually Ermao, who was digging up the stolen ingots from their hiding place – and Wang Kanghao and Zhang Lu are pinned down by gunfire from Ermao’s colleague, Zhou. Meanwhile, Sun Yan’s car has broken down in the snow and she’s given a lift by the gang’s leader, who is on his way to meet Zhou and Ermao; he drops her off at a resort lodge run by Deaf Li (Yue Xiaojun). In the river bed, Ermao is shot by Zhou, who wants a larger share of the spoils for himself. Now out of ammunition, Wang Kanghao leads Zhou on and the latter gets his leg caught in a bear trap, after which Wang Kanghao disarms him. Separately, the gang’s leader finds the police car and pushes it over a cliff, with Guo San inside. He then rescues the badly wounded Ermao, taking him to the resort lodge and forcing Sun Yan to save him. Using a veterinary anaesthetic, she digs out the two bullets, but Ermao has lost a lot of blood. The gang’s leader says he’ll find Wang Kanghao for her if she takes care of Ermao. At that moment, Wang Kanghao – helped by Gao San, who escaped from the wrecked police car – is bringing the wounded Zhou to the resort lodge, where he’s guessed the other two robbers are. But en route the blizzard starts.

REVIEW

A maverick cop and some desperate gold robbers play cat-and-mouse as a blizzard threatens to engulf a region of northeast China in Savage 雪暴, a taut action-thriller that keeps reshuffling its elements in entertaining ways. Strongly cast and grittily shot, it’s anchored by gutsy performances from its two leads – vulpine Mainland actor Liao Fan 廖凡 at his most villainous and Taiwan’s Zhang Zhen 张震 surprisingly strong as the policeman – and a script that has a real sense of inevitability as it proceeeds towards the final showdown. The film didn’t make much impression at the box office – a token RMB28 million – but marks an impressive solo directing debut by scriptwriter Cui Siwei 崔斯韦 after an associate-director stint on the iffy crime drama Piano Trojan 钢琴木马 (2013).

A graduate (in still photography) from Beijing Film Academy, Cui has a writing background that’s mostly been in crime/action movies, contributing to a couple of notable scripts for director Ning Hao 宁浩 (Crazy Racer 疯狂的赛车, 2009; No Man’s Land 无人区, 2013) as well as the much more formulaic Cheng Long 成龙 [Jackie Chan] vehicle Bleeding Steel 机器的血 (2017). Along the way he’s also been lead writer on the characterful rom-com Love in Cosmo 摇摆de婚约 (2010), starring comedienne Yao Chen 姚晨, and one of a team of writers on castaway fable The Island 一出好戏 (2018), directing debut of goofy actor Huang Bo 黄渤. But it’s been his solo writing (and directing) stint on Savage that has really shown what he’s made of.

Though in retrospect Savage is basically a clever juggling trick – in the one-thing-follows-another format that’s dear to many Mainland film-makers – the tight direction and strong performances don’t give the audience any time for analysis while watching. After an involving 25-minute prelude of a hold-up in the snowy wastes of Changbai mountain, on the border with North Korea, and a confrontation that leaves one policeman dead, the story jumps to a year later, in Jan 2016, when the case is still unsolved and the ingots from a gold mine are still missing. After a couple of sequences that establish Zhang’s cop as a suitably maverick character, as well as a moody lover to a local doctor (the always interesting Ni Ni 倪妮), the main plot gears up again as the robbers return to retrieve their hidden loot and the cop, with a new partner, stumbles on them in the snowy wastes. Just to amp up the action, there’s a huge blizzard on its way.

After some outdoor action that leaves several players wounded, the third act largely centres on a seedy lodge run by a deaf guy, where all the dramatis personae are thrown together in a series of stand-offs. The goateed Liao is one of Mainland cinema’s most characterful actors – the detectives in Black Coal, Thin Ice 白日焰火 (2014) and Guilty of Mind 心理罪 (2017), the master-manipulator in Hidden Man 邪不压正 (2018) – and he dominates the second half as the gold gang’s ruthless leader, a seemingly un-killable “wandering ghost” (in the words of Zhang’s cop) who makes a fitting exit after the final showdown. Zhang himself, who often makes little impression, is not in Liao’s league but is effective enough as the policeman who just won’t give up, and Ni, often in very physical roles, manages here to be low-key but emotionally charged as the doctor drawn into the snowy survival game. Among the supports, veteran character actor Liu Hua 刘桦 is good value as a crafty poacher and Huang Jue 黄觉 ditto as a gang member with his own agenda.

Widescreen photography by ace d.p. Du Jie 杜杰 (another Ning regular) and cutting by veteran editor Du Yuan 杜媛 (longtime Zhang Yimou 张艺谋 collaborator, as well as with Ning) are both integral to the whole package. The film’s Chinese title means “Blizzard”.

CREDITS

Presented by Maisong Film Investment (Shanghai) (CN), HLCG Media (Beijing) (CN), Hehe (Shanghai) Pictures (CN), Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Horgos Youth Enlight Pictures (CN). Produced by Maisong Film Investment (Shanghai) (CN).

Script: Cui Siwei. Photography: Du Jie. Editing: Du Yuan, Bando Naoya, Wang Changrui. Music: Hu Miaoshu. End-title song: Wang Feng. Art direction: Lu Wei. Styling: Zhang Shijie [Stanley Cheung]. Sound: Wang Changrui, Wang Xuliang. Action: Sang Lin. Special effects: Cai Kuiguang. Visual effects: Sun Min, Li Quansheng.

Cast: Zhang Zhen (Wang Kanghao), Ni Ni (Sun Yan), Liao Fan (Lao Da, no. 1 robber), Huang Jue (Lao Er/Zhou, no. 2 robber), Liu Hua (Guo San), Zhang Yicong (Lao San/Ermao, no. 3 robber), Li Guangjie (Han Xiaosong), Chang Long (Zhang Lu), Yue Xiaojun (Deaf Li), Li Hui (hijacker), Huaoduo (young girl), Su Yueqing (Sun Yan’s friend), Leng Haoze (negotiator), Liu Ziyi, Siteng Haoran (bullion-car guards).

Premiere: Busan Film Festival (New Currents), 5 Oct 2018.

Release: China, 30 Apr 2019.