Man on the Edge
边缘行者
China/Hong Kong, 2022, colour, 2.35:1, 112 mins.
Director: Huang Mingsheng 黄明升.
Rating: 6/10.
Above-average Hong Kong crime drama has a strong raft of lead performances and a dense, interesting script.
STORY
Hong Kong, 1994. Hong Kong detectives Luo Zonglun (Zhang Zhaohui) and Cheng Guobin (Fang Zhongxin), who have worked together for years in the Organised Crime & Triad Bureau, are increasingly frustrated at trying to bust the drugs gangs, one of the biggest of which is led by Lin Yaochang (Ren Dahua), who seems untouchable. Lin is now looking to step back from running his gang and lead a peaceful life as a bar owner. Leadership is expected to pass to one of his four most trusted lieutenants: the excitable and violent Tian (Tan Yaowen), who’s good at business and runs the day-to-day drug trafficking; the very loyal, old-style triad Huihuang (Chen Guokun), who’s into martial arts; old friend Luo Zhiming (Ren Xianqi), who took the fall for Lin Yaochang after street fighting in 1991 in Tuguawan [To Kwa Wan], Kowloon, and served three years in prison on his behalf; and the likeable Suanbao (Lin Xiaofeng), who’s a close friend of Luo Zhiming who once saved his life. One day, Tian takes Luo Zhiming along on a drugs deal with a Vietnamese gangster (Lu Huiguang), which ends in a shootout on the boat when the gangster tries to trick them. The police arrive but Tian and Luo Zhiming manage to escape. Lin Yaochang invites Tian to manage his bar, but Tian, though respectful, is clearly not interested. Lin Yaochang secretly meets the head of the police’s political affairs department, Richard Harrison (Gregory Charles Rivers), who has been protecting him for years, and tells him they must stop working together as he’s discovered his gang has a highly-placed informer. Richard Harrison guarantees Lin Yaochang a UK passport any time, but Lin Yaochang declines, saying he’s Hong Kong born and bred and will stay in the territory. The police informer is actually Luo Zhiming, who contacts his handler, Luo Zonglun, and reveals Lin Yaochang is obviously protected by someone high up in the police establishment. Luo Zhiming threatens to stop being a stoolie; but Luo Zonglun promises to investigate the matter, reminding Luo Zhiming that it was he who first approached the police, wanting to end corruption and uphold justice. As Luo Zonglun leaves their meeting, he’s killed by a lorry in a hit arranged by Tian. Luo Zhiming runs for his life and Tian doesn’t manage to identify him. Richard Harrison tells Cheng Guobin that the political affairs department will investigate the killing, not Cheng Guobin. While Luo Zhiming quietly watches, the other three contenders for Lin Yaochang’s crown start fighting among themselves. Luo Zonglun’s widow (Chen Wei) gives Cheng Guobin a notebook that her late husband told her pass on if he ever died; as a former employee in the political affairs department, she warns Cheng Guobin to be very careful how he uses it. Lin Yaochang says he’ll announce his successor on the 7th of the following month. Meanwhile, he consults with gangland elder Jin (Hong Jinbao) who once helped him become boss. Lin Yaochang says he favours Suanbao, but Jin doubts whether he’s a strong enough character to lead a gang. Then one night Chuanbao is gunned down while chatting to Luo Zhiming in an alleyway outside a bar. And later Luo Zhiming discovers he’s not the only police informer in the triad.
REVIEW
A quality directing stint – finally! – for Hong Kong veteran Huang Mingsheng 黄明升, Man on the Edge 边缘行者 is a triad action-drama that starts out like a generic stoolie story but rises above the norm thanks to some fine performances from a cast led by veterans Ren Xianqi 任贤齐 [Richie Ren] and Ren Dahua 任达华 [Simon Yam] and a script that defies usual expectations. Set three years prior to the territory’s 1997 handover to China, the Mainland-funded feature is partly another yarn about how rotten the former administration of the territory was; but at a dramatic level it’s more about the death of traditional triad codes and loyalties than a straight gang-busting shoot-’em-up. The April release has taken a polite RMB165 million in the Mainland (actually not so bad in the middle of zero-Covid restrictions) but has yet to open in Hong Kong, where cinemas have been closed for most of the year.
Huang, 55, started as an actor/stuntman in Hong Kong action films of the mid-1980s before becoming an action/martial-arts director and a key member of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team 成家班 from the 1990s. He first started directing whole features a decade ago, with the Hong Jinbao 洪金宝 [Sammo Hung] period vehicle Choy Lee Fut 蔡李佛 (2011, co-dir. Luo Huide 罗惠德) followed by horror Murcielago 蝙蝠别墅 (2013). He’s also continued to handle action sequences on higher-profile films like Mainland comedy Father and Son 父子雄兵 (2017, dir. Yuan Weidong 袁卫东) and costume comedy Oolong Courtyard 新乌龙院之笑闹江湖 (2018, dir. Zhu Yanping 朱延平), plus Hong Kong drama Bodies at Rest 沉默的证人 (2019, dir. Renny Harlin). Edge is his third theatrical feature (second as solo director), and his best work to date. For someone who’s come up through the ranks of Hong Kong (and latterly Mainland) action and comedy fodder, it’s even more of a surprise as it relies more on character than action and manages to make even the well-worked idea of a police stoolie in a triad gang seem fresh.
The script by Huang and seven others – mostly unfamiliar names, apart from TV’s Ma Yan 马焱, plus Ling Weijun 凌伟骏 (boxing drama One Second Champion 一秒拳王, 2020) and seasoned HK crime-movie writer Chen Jianhong 陈健鸿 – juggles a large number of leading characters with some skill as well as various competing storylines, from internal tensions within the police and the triads to what seems the central story of stoolie Luo Zhiming (Ren Xianqi), a dyed-in-the-wool criminal and longtime pal of triad leader Lin Yaochang (Ren Dahua) who nevertheless has some private calling to inform on his colleagues in the name of justice. On top of that, both his boss and another colleague are secretly working with a corrupt police high-up (for differing reasons) and, as his boss prepares to retire, he and three other colleagues vie with each other for the crown. All of these many threads surprisingly resolve themselves about half-an-hour before the end – at which point the film carries on in a totally unexpected direction before closing with a ringing dismissal of the whole rotten Hong Kong system prior to the 1997 Handover.
Man on the Edge doesn’t exactly rewrite the rules of the Hong Kong crime genre but it does manage to hold the attention without too much exaggeration. There’s a shortage of really waah! moments – such as Wang Jing 王晶 [Wong Jing] has served up in recent retro crime sagas like Chasing the Dragon 追龙 (2017) or Once upon a Time in Hong Kong 金钱帝国 追虎擒龙 (2021) – but, apart from a sequence on a boat where people seem to miss each other at point-blank range, the action is solidly staged in a fairly realistic manner. Brawls dominate over shootouts, and again have a realistic feel; likewise a couple of well-staged car chases, especially one in Jianshaju [Tsim Sha Tsui] near the end. If the film has a major fault, it’s that it’s all a bit too clean: this is a nouveau Hong Kong triad drama, complete with anti-smoking warnings.
Though the casting as a whole again shows how veteran Hong Kong actors simply aren’t being replaced by newer names, the many male roles are at least clearly defined, with Tan Yaowen 谭耀文 especially good as the craziest and most violent of the triad contenders and Lin Xiaofeng 林晓峰 [Jerry Lamb] ditto as the nicest. Sometimes variable and/or miscast, Taiwan actor/singer Ren Xianqi, 55, is surprisingly believable here as the gangster/stoolie; but he and the rest of the cast are comprehensively outclassed by co-star Ren Dahua as the ageing but commanding leader who can still whip his squabbling underlings into order. Now 67, the Hong Kong veteran has so much character etched in his face that he hardly has to open his mouth any longer (cf. his jaded cop in hospital hostage drama Fireflies in the Sun 误杀II, 2021). Despite the film’s title, it’s his character, not Ren Xianqi’s, who embodies the heart and soul of the picture.
As the two police inspectors, both Zhang Zhaohui 张兆辉 [Eddie Cheung] and Fang Zhongxin 方中信 [Alex Fong Chung-sun] are solid, while other veterans pop up to add flavour – Hong as a criminal elder, Lu Huiguang 卢惠光 [Ken Lo] as a batshit-crazy Vietnamese drug peddler, and (in one of his last roles) the late Zeng Jiang 曾江 [Kenneth Tsang] as a corrupt retired politician. Female roles are fleeting to almost non-existent, including a pointless cameo by Lin Jianxin 林嘉欣 [Karena Lam].
A soppy song montage before the narrative shift half-an-hour before the end is a mistake. But technical credits are generally fine throughout, especially the tight editing by Huang Hai 黄海 and realistic widescreen images of Cao Wanqiang 曹万强 (the From Vegas to Macau 赌城风云 series, 2014-16; Fat Buddies 胖子行动队, 2018). For the record, the film’s plot has no connection with that of South Korean hit Man on the Edge 박수건달 (2013).
CREDITS
Presented by iQiyi Pictures (Beijing) (CN), iQiyi Film Group Hong Kong (HK). Produced by iQiyi Pictures (Beijing) (CN), iQiyi Film Group HK (HK), Beijing Sunflower in Serenity Pictures (CN), BF Magic (CN).
Script: Huang Mingsheng, Wang Yan, Ma Yan, Fang Xufeng, Wu Yu, Ling Weijun, Chen Jianhong, Feng Jiaming. Photography: Cao Wanqiang. Editing: Huang Hai. Music: Chu Zhendong [Anthony Chue]. Music supervision: Chu Zhendong [Anthony Chue]. Theme song: Peng Juxin (music), Ren Xianqi [Richie Ren], Peng Juxin (lyrics), Ren Xianqi [Richie Ren] (vocal). Art direction: Zhou Defu. Costume design: Ouyang Xia [Connie Auyeung]. Sound: Mai Zhi’an, Hou Zishan, Li Ke. Action planning: Huang Mingsheng. Action direction: Yi Tianxiong, Chen Jialiang. Car stunts: Yang Weixiong. Visual effects: Huang Hongxian, Zhang Zhicong.
Cast: Ren Xianqi [Richie Ren] (Luo Zhiming), Ren Dahua [Simon Yam] (Lin Yaochang), Fang Zhongxin [Alex Fong Chung-sun] (Cheng Guobin), Tan Yaowen (Tian), Wu Zhuoxi (He Jiaju), Chen Guokun (Huihuang), Lin Xiaofeng [Jerry Lamb] (Suanbao), Gregory Charles Rivers (Richard Harrison), Yin Yangming (Qian), Zhu Jianran (Kun), Hong Jinbao [Sammo Hung] (Jin), Lin Jiaxin [Karena Lam] (Jiaqi), Zeng Jiang [Kenneth Tsang] (old gentleman), Zhang Zhaohui [Eddie Cheung] (Luo Zonglun), Chen Wei (Luo Zonglun’s wife), Guan Lijie (Guan), Zhang Wenjie (Shan Qi), Luo Haoming (Xiang), Zhou Zhijun (Aaron), Lu Huiguang [Ken Lo] (Chama’nan, Vietnamese gang boss), Liu Yixian (Gao), Gu Tianxiang (Carols), Li Ze’en (Ronny), Chen Yongchang (Mark), Li Haoqun (Godzilla), Zhang Hua (Huawei), Xian Linwo (Lu Bao), He Huachao (accountant), Li Kaixian [Brian Siswojo] (Fat Dong), Luo Kaoyong (Shapi).
Release: China, 15 Apr 2022; Hong Kong, tba.