Endless Journey

三大队

China, 2023, colour, 1.85:1, 132 mins.

Director: Dai Mo 戴墨.

Rating: 6/10.

The best is in the first half in this performance-driven drama centred on the members of a vengeful detective squad.

STORY

Taiping city, Guangdong province, southern China, 21 Sep 2002. Police detective Cheng Bing (Zhang Yi) and his Third Squad are called out to the rape and murder of Yue Yang, a 14-year-old girl whose body lies in a flat. Much to the disappointment of Second Squad, which was hoping to be assigned the case, Third Squad has a very good track record. With the police department under heavy pressure, Cheng Bing tells police chief Chen (Ning Xiaozhi) that he’ll solve the case in five days. After intense work, on the evening of 23 Sep the oldest member of the squad, Zhang Qingliang (Yang Xinming), who trained Cheng Bing and is about to retire, finds a fingerprint match to a similar case in Sichuan province, in which the suspects were brothers Wang Dayong (Wang Yutian) and Wang Eryong (Zhang Benyu). Both gained access to the property by posing as air-conditioner engineers. Cheng Bing and his squad rush to arrest the brothers but Second Squad, which is already at the address following up a separate report, has already alerted the suspects with the noise of their police cars. As a huge row breaks out between the rival squads, Zhang Qingliang, folowing up a private lead, spots Wang Eryong in an alleyway, gives chase but loses him. The next day Zhang Qingliang has a cerebral haemorrhage – supposedly caused by his pursuit of Wang Eryong – and is hospitalised in a coma. On the evening of 25 Sep Wang Dayong is arrested and confesses to burglary but says it was his brother who raped and killed the girl. Halfway through the interrogation news comes that Zhang Qingliang has died. In a fury Cheng Bing and his colleagues attack Wang Dayong, who later dies. Cheng Bing and his squad are sent to prison: he for eight years, Xi Yizhou (Wei Chen) for six, and Cai Bin (Cao Bingkun), Ma Zhenkun (Wang Xiao) and Liao Jian (Zhang Zixian) for five each. In Mar 2009, after six years, Cheng Bing is released early for good behaviour. He hears from new police chief Yang Jiantao (Li Chen) that Wang Eryong is still at large: almost caught twice, he was last heard of in Changsha city, Hunan province. Cheng Bing visits his wife Liu Shu (Huang Lu), who has since divorced him, and teenage daughter Huihui (Zhang Yitong); both are distant towards him. He then gets together with his four old colleagues, all in new jobs, and tells them he’s going to Changsha to hunt down Wang Eryong. All except Cai Bin decide to join him, though Cai Bin unexpectedly turns up later in Changsha. It’s the start of a five-year odyssey which leads Cheng Bing across the whole of the country in a relentless quest to bring Wang Eryong to justice.

REVIEW

The names of creative producer 监制 Chen Sicheng 陈思诚 and noted scriptwriter Zhang Ji 张冀 get equal billing alongside director Dai Mo 戴墨 on the posters of Endless Journey 三大队, a psychologically dark police drama in which a squad leader and his old colleagues relentlessly try to hunt down a criminal who escaped justice. Chen and Zhang’s names on a movie are enough to generate interest, although Dai, a theatre and TV actor who graduated from Beijing’s Central Academy of Drama in 2004, already did a smoothly efficient job on his first directing gig, the twist-laden hospital-hostage drama Fireflies in the Sun 误杀II (2021), on which Chen was also creative producer. Though Journey wasn’t quite the box-office success of Fireflies (RMB1.12 billion), it still took a nice RMB705 million at the end of last year.

Chen – like Dai, from Shenyang, northeast China – is a successful director in his own right (Beijing Love Story 北京爱情故事, 2014; Detective Chinatown 唐人街探案 series, 2015-   ) and productions with his stamp as creative producer (Sheep without a Shepherd 误杀, 2019; Lost in the Stars 消失的她, 2022) are never less than professionally mounted. Zhang, too, has a considerable track record, writing regularly for director Chen Kexin 陈可辛 [Peter Chan] (American Dreams in China 中国合伙人, 2013; Dearest 亲爱的, 2014; Leap 夺冠, 2020) as well as other quality titles (The Ark of Mr. Chow 少年班, 2015; The Island 一出好戏, 2018). Added to which, he recently made a noteworthy directing debut with the ensembler Tale of the Night (2023), set in Changsha, in his home province of Hunan. As might be expected from Dai’s background, Journey, like Fireflies, is a very performance-driven drama, with a visceral, physical feel underscored by the umbrous photography of d.p. Dong Jinsong 董劲松 (Black Coal, Thin Ice 白日焰火, 2014; The Wild Goose Lake 南方车站的聚会, 2019). Much of the film is shot either at night or in underlit interiors, and always with muted colours.

Zhang’s script is partly based on the non-fiction short story 请转告局长，三大队任务完成了 (literally, “Please Tell the Chief, Third Squad’s Mission Is Completed”), based on real events, by Hubei policeman-turned-online author Shenlan 深蓝 (“Deep Blue”). A week after the film’s release, a 24-part online drama series, The Lonely Warrior, but with the same Chinese title, 三大队 (“Third Squad”), was released on the iQiyi platform. Directed and written by Xing Jianjun 邢键钧, it starred Qin Hao 秦昊, Li Naiwen 李乃文 and Chen Minghao 陈明昊 (see left).

The basic plot of Journey has some similarities with Dust to Dust – released a few months earlier but actually shot back in mid-2019 – in that both films centre on a detective singlemindedly hunting down a criminal who escaped justice, and both are as much interested in the characters’ psychology as in the procedural details. However, in practice they’re very different. Dust gussied up its simple plot with lots of script tricks, some of which were designed to throw the viewer off balance; the whole film also benefited from a creepy performance by comedian Da Peng 大鹏 [Dong Chengpeng 董成鹏] in a straight role. In contrast, Journey has a straight linear structure and no performance on a level with Da Peng’s. As the obsessed detective, out to avenge a colleague’s death, character actor-turned-leading man Zhang Yi 张译 (One Second 一秒钟, 2020; Cliff Walkers 悬崖之上, 2021; Seven Killings 刀尖, 2023) is all focus with his hangdog looks; but he doesn’t quite dominate the movie as he should. Zhang’s minimalist style always throws a heavy burden on his scriptwriter and director, and here neither provides the necessary extra boost. Zhang is never worse than okay but as the second half unfolds his character carries less and less dramatic weight.

The most powerful scenes in the film are in the first hour, as the ground is laid for the manhunt-to-come: a shocking crime involving a teenage girl, the loyal Third Squad and its rivalry with Second Squad, the death of an old mentor, an interrogation that goes tragically wrong, and the resultant prison terms for the five squad members. There’s dramatic tension to this section of the film that’s strong and involving, even down to brief scenes of squad leader Cheng Bing (Zhang) and his family. But as the former colleagues reassemble to hunt down the fugitive villain – the point of the whole movie – the air slowly goes out of the bag. The problem is partly structural, with short segments set in various locations and members of the group gradually peeling off; but it’s also in the script, which struggles to come up with fresh things to say, and Zhang’s character, which doesn’t dominate as it should. After an over-long two hours, the film does manage to pack a brief emotional punch at the end, though the whole finale feels rather contrived on a plotting level.

Performances down the line are strongly etched and convincingly varied, with a brief but touching performance by veteran character actor Yang Xinming 杨新鸣 (the grumpy father in I Like You More 倍儿喜欢你, 2023) as the squad’s mentor. The music score by Peng Fei 彭飞 jarringly introduces a Morricone-ish flavour around the 70-minute mark, as the five squaddies walk together in slo-mo – though thankfully this “magnificent five” idea is never pursued.

CREDITS

Presented by Wanda Pictures (Hainan) (CN), As One Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Beijing Anrui Film & TV Culture (CN), China Film (CN), Shanghai Toupiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN). Produced by As One Pictures (Tianjin) (CN), Wanda Pictures (Horgos) (CN).

Script: Zhang Ji. Short story: Shenlan. Photography: Dong Jinsong. Editing: Sun Xiaomiao. Editing advice: Yang Hongyu, Tang Hongjia. Music: Peng Fei. Art direction: Chen Weiren. Styling: Tan Xiaoshi. Sound: Li Tao. Action: Xue Feiwei. Executive direction: Zhang Zhe.

Cast: Zhang Yi (Cheng Bing), Li Chen (Yang Jiantao, police chief), Wei Chen (Xi Yizhou), Cao Bingkun (Cai Bin), Wang Xiao (Ma Zhenkun), Zhang Zixian (Liao Jian), Yang Xinming (Zhang Qingliang), Chen Chuang (Yue Yang’s father), Huang Lu (Liu Shu, Cheng Bing’s wife), Ailiya (Zhang Qingliang’s wife), Zhang Xincheng (Qin Zhe), Gao Ye (Ma Zhenkun’s wife), Zhang Benyu (Wang Eryong), Zhang Lei (Tongchui/Hammer), Sheng Zihang (young Liao Xiaobo), Ma Qianyi (young Huihui, Cheng Bing’s daughter), Lai Weijia (Zhang Qingliang’s daughter), Ning Xiaozhi (Chen, police chief), Wang Yutian (Wang Dayong), Wang Shuangbao (Hongzhong/Red Dragon, prison bully), Zhang Yitong (adult Huihui, Cheng Bing’s daughter), Gao Xuanming (Liao Xiaobo), Feng Bing (Yu, Hongzhong’s sidekick), Dong Xiangrong (Qianzi), Xu Dongdong (Mo, Changsha massage girl), Huang Ting (Chen Lan, young woman in Deyang supermarket), Li Yanxi (Qin Zhe’s wife), Han Jing (Wang Eryong’s wife).

Release: China, 15 Dec 2023.