Badges of Fury

不二神探

China/Hong Kong, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 98 mins.

Director: Wang Ziming 王子鸣.

Rating: 6/10.

Retro-ish Hong Kong action comedy re-teams actors Li Lianjie [Jet Li] and Wen Zhang to okay effect.

STORY

Hong Kong, the present day. At a police stakeout of a swanky, Scottish-themed party, renowned drug trafficker Chen Hu (Zou Zhaolong), who disappeared seven years ago, turns up and eager-beaver detective Wang Bu’er (Wen Zhang) gives chase, joined by his veteran colleague Huang Feihong (Li Lianjie), who is about to retire. Chen Hu manages to escape, and the whole team, led by Angela (Chen Yanxi), is carpeted by the police commissoner (Ma Yili). Meanwhile, someone has been going around murdering various men – a TV star (Zheng Jiaying), a dancer (Xie Tianhua) and a real-estate manager (Tong Dawei) – all of whom died with a smile on their faces. The case becomes known as the “Smile Murders” and Wang Bu’er realises the victims are all ex-boyfriends of film star Liu Jinshui (Liu Shishi). The police arrest her while she’s shooting a movie but are forced to release her for lack of evidence. She’s collected at police HQ by her elder sister Dai Yiyi (Liu Yan), a onetime darts champion, whom Liu Jinshui dislikes because she is always trying to steal her boyfriends, including her latest, Gao Min (Lin Feng). Also meeting Liu Jinshui is her supportive cousin, Liu Jun (Feng Delun), who takes her to a fortune teller (Fang Lishen) who says she is under a curse. Gao Min later proposes to Liu Jinshui and immediately drops dead with a smile on his face. Liu Jinshui tries to leave Hong Kong but is headed off at the airport by the police. After a brief break on Hainan island, China, she returns to Hong Kong, where Bu’er is waiting for her. He proposes he should pretend to marry her in order to catch the mystery serial killer.

REVIEW

Though Mainland-funded, and with a Greater China cast, the spirit of dozens of trashy Hong Kong police comedies from the late 1980s and early 1990s survives intact in the comically titled Badges of Fury 不二神探, a retro-ish romp kitted out with flashy visual effects that again brings together China-born veteran action star Li Lianjie 李连杰 [Jet Li], now 50, with Xi’an-born actor Wen Zhang 文章, 28. It’s the third time the two Mainlanders have teamed up, following their father/autistic-son drama Ocean Heaven 海洋天堂 (2010) and costume extravaganza Its Love 白蛇传说 (2011, aka The Sorcerer and the White Snake), though this time it’s basically Wen’s movie rather than Li’s, with the latter (still trim but looking a tad tired) popping up for a handful of action sequences but otherwise leaving most of the going to his younger co-star.

In some over-acting that would do Hong Kong singer-comedian Zheng Zhongji 郑中基 [Ronald Cheng] proud, Wen plays gung-ho action cop Wang Bu’er (“The One and Only Wang” or “The One and Only King”) who thinks he’s a wiz at martial arts and detection but often has to be rescued by Li’s veteran cop, the aptly named Huang Feihong (suitably introduced by music from Once Upon a Time in China 黄飞鸿, 1991). Yes, it’s that kind of movie. Together they try to solve the so-called “Smile Murders”, in which someone is going round Hong Kong topping people, all of whom die with a grin on their faces.

The “plot” is basically an excuse to pack the movie with local film jokes, a huge number of cameos by Hong Kong and Mainland names, references to old-style Cantonese action movies and snappy (but not top-class) visual effects around the action, inventively staged by Hong Kong veteran Yuan Kui 元奎 [Corey Yuen] in a stairwell, old martial arts school, speeding cars and so on. Thus, Hong Kong’s Lin Xue 林雪 [Lam Suet] pops up as a taxi driver for a few seconds, actress-popster Deng Lixin 邓丽欣 [Stephy Tang] as a crazed driver, Fang Lishen 方力申 [Alex Fong Lik-sun] as an iPad-assisted fortune teller, He Chaoyi 何超仪 [Josie Ho] as a lawyer, and Liang Jiaren 梁家仁 and Liang Xiaolong 梁小龙 as aged martial artists. The Mainland cameos are led by Huang Xiaoming 黄晓明 as a flashy, be-suited cop, Tong Dawei 佟大为 as a murder victim, Olympic diver Tian Liang 田亮 as a, er, diver, and action star Wu Jing 吴京 as an insurance man, while Wen’s real-life wife, actress Ma Yili 马伊琍, is even in one scene, as his hard-arsed superior.

Only half the jokes work, and direction is simply functional by Hong Kong first-timer Wang Ziming 王子鸣 (son of the film’s veteran producer Cui Baozhu 崔宝珠, with whom Li has worked many times). But thanks to skilful cutting by ace Hong Kong editor Lin An’er 林安儿 [Angie Lam] the movie maintains a smooth pace that finds time for moments of repose between the more frantic sequences. (One of the wittiest, which seems to send up token Mainland scenes in Hong Kong movies, is a completely pointless interlude lasting a few seconds on Hainan island.)

The script by Hong Kong’s Zhang Tan 张炭, who knows his action movies – several for Xu Ke 徐克 [Tsui Hark], plus the recent A Chinese Ghost Story 倩女幽魂 (2011), Its Love and Shaolin 新少林寺 (2011) – leaves plenty of space in the quieter moments for Wen to play off against female co-stars Chen Yanxi 陈妍希 [Michelle Chen], as his boss who secretly likes him, and Liu Shishi 刘诗诗, as an actress who’s the common element in the serial murders. The low-key screen personality of Taiwan’s Chen (You Are the Apple of My Eye 那些年，我们一起追的女孩, 2011; Ripples of Desire 花漾, 2012) makes a good comic foil for Wen’s more exaggerated style, perpetually putting him down, though Chen is not at the stage yet in her career where she can hold her own against more demonstrative comic actors. China’s Liu, a ballet student-turned-actress (Sad Fairy Tale 伤心童话, 2012), is more vapid, overshadowed by Liu Yan 柳岩 (Mural 画壁, 2011; The Zodiac Mystery 十二星座离奇事件, 2012) as her deep-cleavaged, vampy sister. Yes, it’s that kind of movie.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Hong Kong Pictures International (HK). Produced by Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Hong Kong Pictures International (HK).

Script: Zhang Tan. Photography: Xie Zhongdao [Kenny Tse]. Editing: Lin An’er [Angie Lam]. Music: Huang Yinghua [Raymond Wong Ying-wah]. Art direction: Mo Shaozong [Alex Mok]. Costume design: Chen Gufang. Sound: Tan Derong, Wang Qingsheng, Zheng Yingyuan [Phyllis Cheng]. Action: Yuan Kui [Corey Yuen]. Car stunts: Wu Haitang. Visual effects: Different Digital Design. Second unit photography: Fu Jiayu. Additional photography: Ye Weiying.

Cast: Wen Zhang (Wang Bu’er), Li Lianjie [Jet Li] (Huang Feihong), Liu Shishi (Liu Jinshui), Chen Yanxi [Michelle Chen] (Angela, Bu’er’s boss), Liu Yan (Dai Yiyi/Yoyo, Liu Jinshui’s elder sister), Wu Jing (insurance man), Tong Dawei (Wang Feng, real-estate manager, Liu Jinshui’s ex-boyfriend), Zou Zhaolong (Chen Hu, drug trafficker), Huang Xiaoming (man in black, Interpol officer), Feng Delun [Stephen Fung] (Liu Jun, Liu Jinshui’s cousin), Lin Feng [Raymond Lam] (Gao Min, Liu Jinshui’s boyfriend), Liang Jiaren (Uncle Xiang), Lin Shuang (Sun Ling, pretty policewoman), Liang Xiaolong (Liu Xing, Liu Jinshui’s uncle), Zheng Jiaying (Liu Tianci, TV star, Liu Jinshui’s ex-boyfriend), Xie Tianhua (Yao Yiwei, dancer, Liu Jinshui’s ex-boyfriend), Tian Liang (Zheng Liang, diving champion), Ma Yili (police commissioner), Deng Lixin [Stephy Tang] (crazy female driver), Lin Xue [Lam Suet] (taxi driver), He Chaoyi [Josie Ho] (lawyer), Fang Lishen [Alex Fong Lik-sun] (fortune teller), Zhang Zilin (Huang Feihong’s wife), Wang Zhifei (Mai), Feng Danying (Zhou), Huang Zhiqi.

Release: China, 21 Jun 2013; Hong Kong, 28 Jun 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 23 Jun 2013.)