Motorway
车手
Hong Kong, 2012, colour, 2.35:1, 86 mins.
Director: Zheng Baorui 郑保瑞 [Soi Cheang].
Rating: 8/10.
Slick, engaging thriller blends cars, crime and characterisation in a fresh way.
STORY
Hong Kong, the present day. Maverick fast-car enthusiast Chen Xiang (Yu Wenle) and the cautious, about-to-retire Lu Feng (Huang Qiusheng) are two plainclothes speed cops based at Kowloon East Police Station. After a chase in which a speeding car escapes, the young Chen Xiang is again berated by his superior, Zhuang (Lin Jiadong), for his hot-headedness and the pair are put on speed-radar duty. Meanwhile, Mainland criminal Jiang Xin (Guo Xiaodong), an expert driver, has been summoned to Hong Kong by his boss, Tan Yi (Li Guangjie), to extract his colleague, Huang Zhong (Li Haitao), from prison. Jiang Xin lets himself be chased and arrested by Chen Xiang on a highway one day; taken to prison, he arranges a jailbreak in which he and Huang Zhong escape by car. After the police lose them, Chen Xiang picks up their trail in Guantang [Kwun Tung] district but is tricked by Jiang Xin and trapped in a narrow alleyway. The two Mainland criminals get away. Later, Lu Feng, seeing Chen Xiang’s frustration at being bested by Jiang Xin, takes a major decision. As the Mainlanders move towards their master plan, Chen Xiang gets further chances to take on Jiang Xin.
REVIEW
The first film in three years by Hong Kong-based film-maker Zheng Baorui 郑保瑞 [Soi Cheang], Motorway 车手 has been worth the wait. A fast-car movie in which character is as important as screaming tyres, it’s Zheng’s second film under producer Du Qifeng 杜琪峰 [Johnnie To] and, like their previous collaboration, Accident 意外 (2009), shows the Macau-born director definitively moving away from his playful/violent genre roots (Diamond Hill 发光石头, 2000; Horror Hotline…Big Head Monster 恐怖热线之大头怪婴, 2001; Dog Bite Dog 狗咬狗, 2006) into well-crafted action entertainment. Though less challenging than the high-concept Accident, it’s every bit its equal in other ways, with good casting allied to a strong script and weakened only by a finale that doesn’t quite deliver after some strong earlier setpieces.
The first and most pleasant surprise is that – unlike, say, Initial D 头文字D (2005) – Motorway is a fast-car movie that doesn’t require a love of fast cars by its audience. And unlike most US movies of the same ilk, it celebrates the grace and skill of the obsession rather than its aggressiveness. As the camera swoons over bodywork and camshafts with sensual delight, the car stunts by Wu Haitang 吴海棠 accentuate the almost balletic beauty of the driving, rather than pure testosterone. Chen Xiang, the flawed hero played by Yu Wenle 余文乐 [Shawn Yue], weaves in and out of highway traffic as if on a crowded dance floor; he and the Mainland villain of Guo Xiaodong 郭晓冬 prowl Hong Kong’s spaghetti road system like hunters in a forest; and in one remarkable sequence, Yu’s Chen Xiang circles his motor in a graceful street waltz around his reluctant quarry, played by actress Xu Xiyuan 徐熙媛 [Barbie Hsu].
The special quality of the film, on an action side, is that it manages this fresh approach without losing out on thrills. A 10-minute prison break and chase sequence is terrifically staged, as a battle of wits in which Guo’s villain remains in total control; and a later mountainside sequence, of similar length, is equally good in pacing and rhythm. So strong are those that the finale, a game of cat-and-mouse partly set in a multi-storey car park, doesn’t manage to provide a dramatic capper – partly due to the weak music scoring – though in any other film it would be good enough.
The other big surprise is the deft characterisation, with its small grace-notes. Yu, not Hong Kong’s most expressive actor, is surprisingly good as the hotheaded Chen Xiang: though the role (and its dramatic arc) is a cliche, Yu handles it in a discreet way, and is paired well with a reined-back Huang Qiusheng 黄秋生 [Anthony Wong] as his older partner who’s looking forward to a trouble-free retirement. As this is a pure genre movie, things don’t quite pan out that way, but on the way both Yu and Huang have their moments. Between the two, Mainland actor Guo (the evil general in An Empress and the Warriors 江山美人, 2008) is excellent as the two Hong Kongers’ ice-cool nemesis.
Though Motorway is basically a guys’ film, even the smaller female roles are concisely etched: Taiwan’s Xu as a poolroom tease who gives Chen Xiang a run for his money, Mainland-born Ye Xuan 叶璇 [Michelle Ye] as the wife of Huang’s veteran cop, and Hong Kong’s He Chaoyi 何超仪 [Josie Ho] as an in-charge senior police officer. One reason the central mountainside sequence is so good is that, by then, characterisation is beginning to kick in alongside the stunts. The script, by US-born writer Joey O’Bryan (Fulltime Killer 全职杀手, 2001) and Hong Kong’s Situ Jinyuan 司徒锦源 [Szeto Kam-yuen] (Accident), never forgets that the best action movies are those in which the audience is already emotionally engaged with the protagonists.
If there’s one thing Zheng has sacrificed on the altar of slickness, it’s the quirkiness that made his earlier movies so enjoyable. Accident still had traces of that, whereas Motorway has none at all. But he’s proved he can deliver a good-looking, dramatically effective package with its own identity.
The original Chinese title simply means “Driver(s)”.
CREDITS
Presented by Sil-Metropole Organisation (HK), Media Asia Films (HK).
Script: Joey O’Bryan, Situ Jinyuan [Szeto Kam-yuen], Feng Rijin. Original story: Joey O’Bryan. Photography: Feng Yuanwen [Edmond Fung], Xie Zhongdao [Kenny Tse]. Editing: David Richardson, Liang Zhanlun. Music: Javier Jamaux, Alex Gopher. Art direction: Su Guohao. Costumes: Wang Baoyi. Sound: Zhu Zhixia. Visual effects: Luo Weihao (Different Digital Design). Action: Qian Jiale [Chin Ka-lok]. Stunts: Huang Weihui. Car stunts: Wu Haitang.
Cast: Huang Qiusheng [Anthony Wong] (Lu Feng), Yu Wenle [Shawn Yue] (Chen Xiang), Guo Xiaodong (Jiang Xin), Lin Jiadong [Gordon Lam] (Zhuang, Chen Xiang’s boss), Xu Xiyuan [Barbie Hsu] (Jiayi), He Chaoyi [Josie Ho] (Hui, senior police officer), Ye Xuan [Michelle Ye] (Lu Feng’s wife), Li Haitao (Huang Zhong), Li Guangjie (Tan Yi), Liu Haolong, Liang Junyi [Anson Leung], He Xiwen (Chen Xiang’s friends), Li Kaixian [Brian Siswojo] (Dutchman), Luo Yongxian (Jiayi’s friend), Yuan Fuhua (Du), Tan Zanqiang (mechanic), Hu Yiming (BMW driver), Liang Cuishi (woman driver), Tan Qibiao, Huang Jianzhong (drivers), Ou Xuanwei, Wu Jiaxing (crime unit officers), Liu Zongji (police officer), Liu Weihong (Fu, jewellery company boss), Lin Shijie (police traffic officer).
Release: Hong Kong, 21 Jun 2012.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 4 Jul 2012.)