Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch

追龙II  贼王

Hong Kong/China, 2019, colour, 2.35:1, 101 mins.

Directors: Wang Jing 王晶 [Wong Jing], Guan Zhiyao 关智耀 [Jason Kwan].

Rating: 6/10.

Unconnected to the fine original, this undercover-cop drama, set in 1996, is just largely formulaic.

STORY

Hong Kong, sometime during the first half of 1996, prior to the territory’s handover to Mainland China. Soon to retire, senior Hong Kong police official Li Qiang (Ren Dahua) persuades his colleague He Tian (Gu Tianle) to go undercover across the border in Chang’an township, Dongguan city, Guangdong province, to help him and his Mainland colleague, Guangdong police captain Zhou (Du Jiang), bring down veteran criminal Long Zhiqiang (Liang Jiahui) and his gang. Long Zhiqiang’s two recent kidnappings have brought him a combined HK$2.5 billion, but he needs a new explosives specialist as the former one (a police informer) is now dead. He Tian, who’s devoted to his mother (Cheng Kewei) and just wants a quiet life, is unwilling to go but, as he has the necessary bomb-making skills, finally agrees. Posing as real-life (but now dead) criminal He Ziyang, he makes contact with Long Zhiqiang’s spendthrift son, Long Zhifei (Ye Xiangming), who gambles at an underground club in Huizhou city. He Tian saves him during a police raid but is himself arrested. After coming out of prison, he’s met by Long Zhiqiang’s girlfriend, Tutu (Qiu Yinong), and taken to meet Long Zhifei, who tests his skills by locking him in a container with a time bomb. He’s also drugged and given a lie-detector test; Long Zhiqiang is present, and finally okays his entry into the gang. He Tian wakes up at Long Zhiqiang’s home in Macau, where he’s introduced to the rest of the “family” – including one member, Boshi (Lin Jiadong), who recognises him from a 1992 shootout in the Hong Kong district of Jianshazui [Tsim Sha Tsui] but for some reason doesn’t let on. Boshi later tells He Tian that at the time he blamed Long Zhifei for the death of his pregnant wife (Wen Kailing) in that shootout, but has stayed on in the gang hoping to get his revenge sometime. Long Zhiqiang announces that their next kidnapping target will be Macau’s richest man, He Bufan (Wang Minde). Later, however, He Tian overhears Li Zhiqiang saying that he knows there’s a police informer in the “family”. Li Zhiqiang sets a trap for He Tian and, after confronting him, turns him into a walking time-bomb to collect the ransom.

REVIEW

With almost zero connection to the 2017 film – apart from also being a period crime movie directed by Wang Jing 王晶 [Wong Jing] and d.p. Guan Zhiyao 关智耀 [Jason Kwan] – Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch 追龙II  贼王 hardly deserves to hitch a ride on the earlier film’s success. Where the original was a topnotch slice of retro pulp cinema, with a strong sense of period (1960s Hong Kong) and strong leads in Zhen Zidan 甄子丹 [Donnie Yen] and Liu Dehua 刘德华 [Andy Lau], this one is just an entertaining but largely formulaic gangster outing, set just before the Handover in 1996 and with a scenery-chewing performance by veteran Liang Jiahui 梁家辉 [Tony Leung Ka-fai] as the villain. Mainland box office reflected the opportunism of the cash-grab, with CTDII taking only about half (RMB307 million) of the original’s tally (RMB575 million).

In a further remove from the first film – whose title is Chinese slang for inhaling drugs – this time the theme isn’t even narcotics. But Wang, again producing through his own Hong Kong company, is one step ahead on that: by making the villain’s surname Long 龙 (“dragon”), this time the title literally means what it says – “Chasing Long”. Very amusing.

All that aside, CTDII is basically a standard undercover-cop story, with Gu Tianle 古天乐 [Louis Koo] as a mother-loving detective who, at the request of his police pal (Ren Dahua 任达华 [Simon Yam]), goes undercover as a bomb-making specialist in a kidnapping gang led by Long (Liang), only to end up hoist by his own petard. There are a couple of nice surprises – smart plot developments rather than real twists – and an extension to the finale which not only allows the villain to be caught on Mainland territory (stressing cross-border co-operation after the imminent Handover) but also allows Liang’s villain to develop some pathos beyond the more rote action. It’s a nice touch, and unusual in this kind of genre movie, which could so easily have just ended 10 minutes earlier. Despite all that, the film will be remembered for its long finale, which takes up the last 40 minutes and is dominated by a tense sequence of Gu’s cop trying to get out of a suicide jacket without letting the villains know – mostly done through sign language rather than regular dialogue.

Hardly stretched in the role of the undercover cop – especially so soon after playing a similar role in P Storm P风暴 (2019), released two months earlier – Gu largely cruises with his inexpressive, hatchet face. He does register some emotion during the suicide jacket sequence, but is otherwise comprehensively out-acted by fellow Hong Kongers Ren (at his most relaxed as a police colleague) and Liang, now 61 but looking older here in the role of the long-haired, half-crazed villain. Now seemingly limiting his roles, it’s good to see the veteran in a really meaty part, even if the character is seriously over-cooked.

As ever, Lin Jiadong 林家栋 [Gordon Lam] turns in a fine, considered performance, as a gang member with a personal agenda, and among the other supports Wei Jiaxiong 韦家雄 (younger brother of writer-director Wei Jiahui 韦家辉 [Wai Ka-fai]) is notable as a suspicious gang member and Mainland TV’s Ye Xiangming 叶项明 as the villain’s spoilt son. Older Hong Kong names pop up here and there: half-Chinese American Wang Minde 王敏德 [Michael Wong] as the sleazy kidnap victim, former Shaw Brothers contractee Yu An’an 余安安 [Candice Yu] as his no. 1 wife, and editor-turned-director Luo Yongchang 罗永昌 [Law Wing-cheong] as a taxi-driver. As the villain’s babe, Mainland actress Qiu Yinong 邱意浓, aka Qiu Lufan 邱璐璠, the tomboy daughter in Wang-produced underworld drama Colour of the Game 黑白迷宫 (2017), again starts strongly but is then sidelined by the script.

Again doubling as d.p. and co-director, Guan brings a characteristically gritty edge to some of the proceedings, though with none of the sheer period glee of the first movie. Car stunts by Hong Kong ace Wu Haitang 吴海堂 are good, while the music score by Dai Wei 戴伟 is notable for its restraint. In the Mainland, the film was released as just Chasing the Dragon II 追龙II, without any English or Chinese handle; the poster also played down the money theme.

CREDITS

Presented by Sil-Metropole Organisation (HK), Beijing Bona Film Group (CN), Mega-Vision Project Workshop (HK), Alibaba Pictures (Beijing) (CN). Produced by Mega-Vision Project Workshop (HK).

Script: Wang Jing [Wong Jing], Lv Guannan, Chen Jianhong. On-set scriptwriting: Ye Minghao. Photography: Guan Zhiyao [Jason Kwan], Guo Zhenming. Editing: Li Jiarong, Xian Wenzhao. Music: Dai Wei. Art direction: Li Zifeng. Costume design: Zhang Fangdi. Sound: Wu Zong, Li Yaoqiang, Yao Junxuan. Action: Huang Mingjian. Car stunts: Wu Haitang. Visual effects: Mo Haoxin, Cao Zhanneng, Zhong Weiliang (BigLabel Creation). Executive direction: Xu Yin, Yang Qingxi.

Cast: Liang Jiahui [Tony Leung Ka-fai] (Long Zhiqiang/Logan), Gu Tianle [Louis Koo] (He Tian/Sky), Lin Jiadong [Gordon Lam] (Boshi/Doc), Qiu Yinong (Tutu/Bunny), Ye Xiangming (Long Zhifei/Farrell), Wei Jiaxiong (Zhuge), Chen Weixiong (Shendeng/Genie), Huang Junfeng (Huobao/Fiery), Wang Baobao (Chang’e/Luna), Ren Dahua [Simon Yam] (Li Qiang, Hong Kong police captain), Du Jiang (Zhou, Guangdong police captain), Yu An’an [Candice Yu] (Rebecca, He Bufan’s wife no. 1), Cao Shiping (Li Baichuan), Wang Tianlong (Li Zhitao, Li Baichuan’s son), Liu Daomin (Huo Bingxiang), Zhuang Simin (Huo Bingxiang’s wife), Cheng Kewei (He Tian’s mother), Yang Lihong (Zhang Xiaoying), Wen Kailing (Boshi’s wife), Han Xinyi (Long Zhiqiang’s girl), Gui Jingjing (Long Zhifei’s girl in KTV), Wang Minde [Michael Wong] (He Bufan/Stanford), Danil Zakharov, Pan Bo (He Bufan’s bodyguards), Zhang Huiyi (He Bufan’s wife no. 2), Meng Yao (He Bufan’s wife no. 3), Luo Yongchang [Law Wing-cheong] (Jiu, taxi driver), Qin Huang (Ma Kongteng).

Release: Hong Kong, 12 Jun 2019; China, 6 Jun 2019.