The Bullet Vanishes

消失的子弹

Hong Kong/China, 2012, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 106 mins.

Director: Luo Zhiliang 罗志良.

Rating: 8/10.

Classy period whodunit, dominated by Liu Qingyun [Lau Ching-wan] as a master criminologist.

STORY

Tiancheng county, Northern China, mid-1920s. Yan (Xu Xu), a worker at a munitions factory owned by ruthless businessman Ding (Liao Qizhi), is accused of stealing a bullet and forced to play Russian Roulette; she loses to Ding and dies. Song Donglu (Liu Qingyun), a renowned forensics expert and criminal psychologist, is transferred by his superior (Gao Hu) to Tiancheng under instructions to clean up the town under the new government. En route, he tells his fellow passengers about a “perfect crime”, involving a husband and wife (Qian Jiale, Jiang Yiyan), that he encountered a few years ago. In Tiancheng, the local police force is headed by Jin (Wu Gang), who is in cahoots with Ding and about to retire. The brightest spark in the force is maverick young detective Guo Zhui (Xie Tingfeng), who’s known as “the fastest gun in Tiancheng”. Jin gives Song Donglu an office in a basement storeroom but the latter immediately accompanies Guo Zhui to the munitions factory, whose bullying foreman (Liu Yang) has just been murdered. The bullet, however, cannot be found at the scene of the crime, and the workers say it’s another case of a “phantom bullet”. Investigating, the two policemen meet Wang Hai (Wang Ziyi), a former army comrade of Guo Zhui who works at the factory. Later, Song Donglu and Guo Zhui hear from a fortune-teller in the red-light district, Little Skylark (Yang Mi), that the factory’s workers are convinced the place is cursed, after a warning was daubed in blood on the walls following Yan’s death two weeks ago. While Song Donglu and Guo Zhui, accompanied by their assistant Xiaowu (Jing Boran), are getting the workers to restage Yan’s death, Ding intervenes, furious. After hearing a shot, the policemen run to find another worker, Zhuo (Da Bao), dead in a hidden room, apparently from suicide. Song Donglu believes he was murdered, but can’t work out the method. However, he accepts a bet from Ding to solve the case in seven days.

REVIEW

After an absence of three years, Hong Kong writer-director Luo Zhiliang 罗志良 (Double Tap 枪王, 2000; Koma 救命, 2004; Kidnap 绑架, 2007) comes up trumps with The Bullet Vanishes 消失的子弹, a whodunit centred on a dingy munitions factory in northern China during the chaotic and corrupt warlord period of the 1920s. Co-written with Yang Qianling 杨倩玲 (Love in the City 男才女貌, 2007; ghost story The Matrimony 心中有鬼, 2007), with whom Luo scripted Fly Me to Polaris 星愿 (1999) a decade or so ago, it’s a quietly classy production on every level, shot in Shanghai on a sizeable budget and very different from most of Luo’s generic Hong Kong productions.

Well cast down the line, and dominated by another classy performance from Liu Qingyun 刘青云 [Lau Ching-wan] – following terrific turns in Life without Principle 夺命金 (2011) and The Great Magician 大魔术师 (2012) – Bullet boasts a satisfyingly corkscrew plot about disappearing bullets, a reasonable amount of detection work, and sharply etched characters. It’s not a classic whodunit, and is light on regular thriller elements, but adds up to a thoroughly engaging ride at a comfortable 100-or-so minutes.

The whodunit genre isn’t as deeply embedded in Chinese fiction as in the West, but Liu, wearing a moustache, Homburg hat and weathered face as he nears 50, makes a convincing master-criminologist without overdoing the eccentricities. Younger co-star Xie Tingfeng 谢霆锋 [Nicholas Tse] looks hardly in period but the two build good screen chemistry without any buddy-buddy antics or Holmes & Watson parallels. It’s that understated chemistry that is vital to making the finale work.

In a smallish role, Mainland babe du jour Yang Mi 杨幂 holds her own opposite the two as a perky fortune teller, while fellow Mainlander Wu Gang 吴刚 is impeccably tart as a corrupt police chief and Jiang Yiyan 江一燕 – in the script’s smartest idea – is suitably ethereal as a murderess who featured in a past “perfect crime”. Equally memorable, as a cool forensic doctor, is Hong Kong singer-actress Zheng Xiyi 郑希怡, who pops up throughout the case.

Production design by Zhang Shihong 张世宏 [Silver Cheung] is flavoursome, photographed in grey, desaturated colours by d.p. Chen Zhiying 陈志英 (Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame 狄仁杰之通天帝国, 2010) in factory scenes and in slightly warmer hues in backstreets and town interiors. The Bullet Vanishes doesn’t parade its budget or production values, or batter the viewer with visual effects: it’s simply well-written entertainment that puts its characters first and invites the audience to share their journey.

CREDITS

Presented by Emperor Film Productions (HK), Le Vision Pictures (CN). Produced by Film Unlimited (HK).

Script: Luo Zhiliang, Yang Qianling. Original story: Yang Qianling. Photography: Chen Zhiying. Editing: Kuang Zhiliang, Chen Zhongming. Music: Guan Weipeng [Teddy Robin], Wei Qiliang [Tommy Wai]. Production design: Zhang Shihong [Silver Cheung]. Art direction: Li Jianwei. Costume design: Zhang Shijie [Stanley Cheung]. Sound: Zheng Yingyuan [Phyllis Cheng], Lin Shaoru. Action: Li Zhongzhi [Nicky Li]. Special effects: Huo Jintang. Visual effects: Chen Zhidao, Xie Jinghao (Herbgarden).

Cast: Liu Qingyun [Lau Ching-wan] (Song Donglu, police inspector), Xie Tingfeng [Nicholas Tse] (Guo Zhui, police captain), Yang Mi (Xiaoyunque/Little Skylark, fortune teller), Jing Boran (Xiaowu, Song Donglu’s assistant), Wu Gang (Jin, police chief), Liao Qizhi [Liu Kai-chi] (Ding, factory boss), Jiang Yiyan (Fu Yuan), Qian Jiale [Chin Ka-lok] (Wu Zhongguo, Fu Yuan’s husband), Zheng Xiyi (Li Jin, pathologist), Wang Ziyi (Wang Hai), Zhou Shaodong (prison warden), Gao Hu (senior police official), Xu Xu (Yan), Chen Juhui (Qitiao), Da Bao (Zhuo), Zhang Xulong (Xiaotao), Liu Yang (Chen Qi, factory foreman), Yi Zhaobo (Yang), Ruan Deqiang (Nan Cheng), Li Guangbin (Li Jin), Jiang Daohai (sulphur manufacturer), Ran Weiqun (copper manufacturer), Tao Siyuan (guard), Zhou Mujie (thief), Liu Qilu (prostitute), Ren Luomin (butler), Zhang Heng (reporter).

Release: China, 14 Aug 2012; Hong Kong, 13 Sep 2012.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 24 Dec 2012.)