Raid on the Lethal Zone

绝地追击

China/Hong Kong, 2023, colour, 2.35:1, 110 mins.

Director: Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau].

Rating: 7/10.

Half drugs-busting thriller, half disaster movie, this is a fun, action-packed spin on a familiar Mainland genre.

STORY

Meng city, the border of southwest China, Jul 1998. Huge floods have overwhelmed the region and mass evacuations to Meng city – which is on higher ground – are taking place. Two drug dealers try to turn themselves in at the police station but are gunned down from a passing car. One of the assassins, crazy Dragon (Aruna), reports to Wang Hejiu (Jiu Kong), boss of the Nine Dragons gang, that the job has been done. Afterwards, however, Wang Hejiu tells his sidekick, Wei (Xu Guangyu), that Dragon is not to be trusted any longer as he is betraying them. On a stretch of road outside Meng city, A Squad – part of Border Police Battalion 8077 – is trying to maintain order, especially as local drugs gangs always use the opportunity of floods to move their merchandise. Among the soldiers is Wang Jinhao (Ou Hao), and also on the same stretch of road is Yao Yao (Huang Yao), his former girlfriend and a senior member of the anti-narcotics squad. One man desperate to take his pregnant wife to hospital tries to break through the checkpoint and chaos ensues when one of the squad, Guo Erlai (Gu Jiacheng), fires on the man’s car. One of the squad, Luo Qi (Liu Junqi), is accidentally killed. Luo Qi’s death affects the whole battalion, especially A Squad leader Sun Ji (Yu Haoming) and the battalion’s political instructor Song Qiu (Wang Ting). Meanwhile, Wang Jinhao and Yao Yao try to make up in a vague way but don’t succeed. The anti-narcotics squad is told by a drugs bandit, Zhang Yongshun (Dong Borui), that the Nine Dragons gang is to move a large consignment of heroin into Meng city concealed in flood-control sandbags. He claims he knows this because his gang is due to rob it. The anti-narcotics squad decides to believe his story and Battalion 8077 is ordered to join the operation to arrest both the Nine Dragons gang and the bandits. A sniper called Wu Zhifeng (Liang Yongqi), son of the operation’s director Wu (You Yongzhi), takes the place of the late Luo Qi in A Squad. En route to the meeting point 8077’s convoy is hit by a massive mudslide in the mountains that sweeps away the road and their vehicles. They eventually hook up with the anti-narcotics squad and learn that nearby Yanlong reservoir is about to overflow. A major battle ensues when the bandit gang tries to rob the drug smugglers’ convoy and is then gunned down by 8077 and the anti-narcotics squad. Just when the latter have won the battle, another huge mudslide buries everyone and everything. Only a few survive: Yao Yao, Wang Jinhao, Wu Zhifeng, Sun Ji and Wang Lie (Gao Zhiting). Unknown to them, Guo Erlai has also survived. But when they examine the sandbags from the smugglers’ convoy, they find there’s no heroin inside. And they need to find a phone in a nearby village before the whole area is flooded by the reservoir.

REVIEW

Somewhere between a drugs-busting thriller and a disaster movie, Raid on the Lethal Zone 绝地追击 is among the best of the four films by tireless Hong Kong director Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau] that were released during the summer of 2023. It’s up there with The White Storm 3: Heaven or Hell, released seven weeks earlier, as an example of how Qiu can take the cheesiest, pulpiest material but still make a slice of entertainment that’s also good fun. Less packed with big-name Hong Kong actors than White Storm 3, and more tied to the Mainland’s heroic military genre, it was, however, the weakest performer of the four at the box office, taking a paltry RMB23 million, lower even than Death Notice (RMB81 million) and way below White Storm 3 (RMB285 million) and hit Moscow Mission (RMB658 million).

Bankrolled by online platform iQiyi, the film is supposedly based on a true case. Back in 2019 iQiyi had sent Qiu the script – by a certain Pang Xiao 庞晓, and originally titled 8077, after the Border Police Battalion number – and the director reportedly liked the mixture of genres that made it more than just a routine encomium about China’s military. An equal part in the drama is played by the weather – rain, rain, rain, in every scene – and the resulting mudslides as a small group of survivors from the Border Patrol and anti-narcotics squad hunts down a missing consignment of heroin in the treacherous hills of southwest China.

Quietly breaking some of the rules, Qiu has made a fun, tongue-in-cheek action movie from an approved Mainland genre by relentlessly keeping things moving and forever upping the ante on what his protagonists have to face. As in all his films, there’s not an ounce of spare flesh – when other film-makers would have added a further 10-15 minutes to fill out characters and side plots. The drama is more driven by the bravery and comradeship between the members of 8077 Battalion than by the well-worn theme of cross-border drug smuggling, though the latter does return to centre stage for the grand shoot-out of the final half-hour.

There’s no shortage of other action setpieces, from the surprise opening sequence, through the reasonably convincing mudslides, to a major car chase/gun battle in the hills some 40 minutes in. The finale is a car chase in which both parties are also chased by advancing flood waters – possibly a first in action cinema. Oh, and along the way one character tries to rescue a boy who’s stepped on a landmine just when a reservoir is about to flood the whole area.

Actor-singer Ou Hao 欧豪, who’s essayed tougher roles of late (The Bravest 烈火英雄, 2019; Vortex 铤而走险, 2019), is okay as a leading member of the battalion but is comprehensively outclassed on screen by actress Huang Yao 黄尧 (so good in The Crossing 过春天, 2018, and The Italian Recipe 遇见你之后, 2022) as his maybe-ex-girlfriend – a token female role that she very much makes her own. Other parts are characterfully cast and played, with no major standouts. The whole production is the real star, and Qiu’s team of Hong Kong regulars (d.p. Ni Wenxian 你倪文贤, editor Zhong Weizhao 钟炜钊 [Azrael Chung], composer Mai Zhenhong 麦振鸿 [Brother Hung]) delivers a pro package.

The film started shooting in Yunnan province, southwest China, in May 2021, the same year as the spread-out production of White Storm 3, which was also partly shot in Yunnan. The Chinese title means “Pursuit in Dangerous Territory”.

CREDITS

Presented by iQiyi Pictures (Suzhou) (CN), iQiyi Pictures (Shanghai) (CN). Produced by Rainbow Studio iQiyi Pictures (CN), iQiyi Film Group (Hong Kong) (HK), Shenzhen Shenk Film & TV Production (CN).

Script: Pang Xiao. Photography: Ni Wenxian. Editing: Zhong Weizhao [Azrael Chung]. Music direction: Mai Zhenhong [Brother Hung]. Art direction: He Jianxiong [Cyrus Ho]. Styling: Zhuang Zhiliang [Thomas Chong]. Sound: Huang Yuanming. Action: Han Ping. Car stunts: Wu Haitang. Visual effects: Yu Guoliang, Lin Jiale, Xu Debiao, He Jiaquan (Free-D Workshop).

Cast: Ou Hao (Wang Jinhao), Gu Jiacheng (Guo Erlai), Yu Haoming (Sun Ji, A Squad leader), Aruna (Dragon), Huang Yao (Yao Yao), Gao Zhiting (Wang Lie), Wang Yutian (Kong Zhuguo/Da Zhu), Shi Pengyuan (Liu Chunsheng), Jiang Xueming (Chong/Bug), Liu Junqi (Luo Qi), Liang Yongqi (Wu Zhifeng), Dong Borui (Zhang Yongshun/Ghost), Jin Zhong (C Squad leader), Chen Tianming (Xiaopeng), Pang Yunong (drug dealer), Jiu Kong (Wang Hejiu, Nine Dragons gang boss), Xu Guangyu (Wei), Wang Ting (Song Qiu), You Yongzhi (Wu, director), Shao Bing (Li, deputy director), Du Yuan (Liu Chunsheng’s grandfather), Qian Bo (Luo Qi’s father), Zhao Xuan (Zhang Li), Zhou Dehua (Liu Zhiyuan), Zhu Yanmanzi (Wang Juan, Wang Jinhao’s sister, Guo Erlai’s girlfriend), Ai Xiaoqi (TV newscaster).

Release: China, 25 Aug 2023; Hong Kong, 5 Oct 2023.