Once upon a Time in Hong Kong

金钱帝国  追虎擒龙

Hong Kong/China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 105 mins.

Directors: Wang Jing 王晶 [Wong Jing], Xu Yueming 许悦铭.

Rating: 7/10.

Formulaic but entertaining period crime drama, with fresh playing by Wu Zhenyu [Francis Ng] as a bent cop.

STORY

Hong Kong, 1971. The territory is a criminal “money empire”, dominated by druglord Wu Shihao (Liang Jiahui), aka Bo Hao (“Crippled Hao”), working in collusion with the corrupt Xu Le (Wu Zhenyu), chief Chinese detective in the police force. While out with some friends one evening, small-time lawyer Chen Ke (Gu Tianle) and his fiancee, journalist Cui Ying’en (Hu Ran), see a young girl knocked down in the street in the chaos after Bo Hao’s thungs raid a gambling club that’s not paying him protection money. Bo Hao and Xu Le watch the fighting from a car in the street. The police then arrive and make some token arrests. Next evening, when Xu Le is giving a bland speech at a university anniversary dinner, Chen Ke challenges him from the floor on why the real perpetrators were let free the previous night and an innocent young girl was injured. Xu Le shrugs off his questions but is embarrassed by the incident, telling his de facto assistant Zai (Zheng Zeshi) to take care of things. One day Chen Ke is beaten up in the street and his business starts to suffer. Impressed by Chen Ke’s principled stand, his friend and former classmate Bai Song’an (Lin Jiadong) invites him to take a senior position in the fledgling Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) team, whose first priority is investigating police corruption. Chen Ke and Bai Song’an approach Chen Jincheng (Jiang Haowen), aka Qi (“Seven”), a police detective who’s been publically humiliated by Xu Le in front of Bo Hao at a gambling club, into helping them with his inside knowledge of the police force. Chen Ke and Bai Song’an organise a raid on a drug-smuggling operation organised by Gan, a friend of Xu Le. Alerted to the raid, Xu Le takes over the case and pretends to impound the drugs hidden in boxes of fruit. Atva police press conference, Cui Ying’en embarrasses him with photos proving Gan was involved. As a result, Xu Le’s British police bosses are forced to reprimand him. Xu Le and Zai decide that Gan has to be sacrificed by him signing a confession; they also try to have him drowned but the ICAC team rescue him and do a deal. In Feb 1974 the formation of ICAC is officially announced. Multiple crackdowns follow but Chen Ke and Bai Song’an know that Xu Le will be forced to fight back. He does so by giving free rein to the gangs and unleashing chaos. Even Cui Ying’en is attacked in her flat one night. Chen Ke and Bai Song’an realise that ICAC must resort to unorthodox methods to bring down Xu Le.

REVIEW

Of the two anti-corruption dramas released around the May Day holidays, the Mainland-set Break through the Darkness 扫黑  决战 has proved the more successful at the box office, though this Hong Kong-set period one is just as entertaining on its own terms. Cast in the familiar mould of his Chasing the Dragon 追龙 (2017) – i.e. period retro pulp, laden with Hong Kong veterans – Once upon a Time in Hong Kong 金钱帝国  追虎擒龙 is another slice of anti-corruption Wang Jing 王晶 [Wong Jing] style, exposing the naughtiness of bent cops and cocky gangsters in the then British colony while also having a good wallow in nostalgia and making the most of all the seediness in entertainment terms. The formula benefits from a fresh performance by Wu Zhenyu 吴镇宇 [Francis Ng] as a corrupt detective but it looks like Wang’s formula is starting to pall with Mainland audiences, with the film taking only half as much as Chasing the Dragon and even less than its cash-grab follow-up, Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch 追龙II  贼王 (2019). After 2½ weeks it has taken some RMB230 million in the Mainland, and is now falling fast [final tally was RMB244 million], compared with RMB350 million by Darkness, which still has some juice left.

The era is just prior to, and includes the official start of, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which was finally announced in Feb 1974 to tackle the situation in the colony, where collusion between the police and crime gangs was rife. Multiple films have been made on the subject since the 1970s and OUATIHK is basically a rehash of familiar elements, with lightly fictionalised versions of real characters. Following several other films such as To Be Number One 跛豪 (1991), Lee Rock 五亿探长雷洛传 (1991) and Chasing the Dragon, real-life gangster Wu Xihao 吴锡豪 [Ng Sek-ho], aka Crippled Hao 跛豪, is again used to represent the baddies with a minimal name-change to Wu Shihao 吴世豪, while real-life police inspector Lv Le 吕乐, here renamed Xu Le 徐乐, again reps the bent-cop element. Heading the fledgling ICAC team are two former lawyers – played with steely-eyed determination by Gu Tianle 古天乐 [Louis Koo] and more human zeal by Lin Jiadong 林家栋 [Gordon Lam] – whose first priority is to bring down the cocky Xu Le, the colony’s senior Chinese detective, before tackling wider corruption. After first playing things by the book, and Xu Le then unleashing the gangs to protect himself from further investigation, the two lawyers realise they have to resort to unconventional methods.

The script, by Wang and regular writers Chen Jianhong 陈健鸿 and Lv Guannan 吕冠南 (Chasing the Dragon II; Enter the Fat Dragon 肥龙过江, 2020), is pretty up-and-down with none of the complexities of Chasing the Dragon, and largely relies on the star power of its leads to deliver its so-so dialogue. Unlike in Chasing, the British are let off the hook this time, even though corruption among that element of the police force was sizeable. Here, the focus is all on Chinese characters, with Xu Le irredeemably bent and one of his men (played by veteran Jiang Haowen 姜皓文 [Philip Keung] with a nice mixture of strength and weakness) convinced to join ICAC. With nothing about the main characters’ personal lives, and a very procedural structure, the film depends entirely on the momentum of the team’s investigations. So much so, in fact, that when the first major action sequence arrives an hour in – with the team literally fighting for its life – it comes as quite a surprise. Thereafter the personal drama ramps up as the previously straitlaced team resorts to undercover tactics, trying to get to Xu Le via an old and trusted friend (tubby veteran Zheng Zeshi 郑则仕 [Kent Cheng] in a very similar role to that in Chasing).

As signified by the first half of the Chinese title, 金钱帝国 (literally, “Money Empire”), the film is basically a kind of follow-up to Wang’s I Corrupt All Cops 金钱帝国 (2009, aka Empire of Golden Calf), and was initially announced as I Corrupt All Cops 2. In that movie, Wang himself played the de facto Crippled Hao part and veteran Liang Jiahui 梁家辉 [Tony Leung Ka-fai] the Xu Le part. In OUATIHK Liang takes on the Crippled Hao role in an amazing feat of make-up that’s actually quite simple but renders him almost unrecognisable. It’s an immensely subtle, minimal performance that chimes nicely with Wu’s as the bent cop. But with more screen time, it’s Wu who quietly steals the whole film, without any overplaying and a kind of woozy delivery and a hunched-up body language that mirrors Liang’s.

Co-direction by Wang and fellow Hong Konger Xu Yueming 许悦铭 – who made the online feature Chasing the Dragon 追龙番外篇之十亿探长 (2020), another Wang anti-corruption knock-off, starring Hong Kong-based actor-singer Wang Haoxin 王浩信 – is okay without any special care, and visuals by Hong Kong action/horror specialist Wu Qiming 伍启铭 – better known as Wu Wenzheng 伍文拯 (The Rookies 素人特工, 2019; Rigor Mortis 僵尸, 2013) – ditto. Scoring by veteran Lu Guanting 卢冠廷 [Lowell Lo] is above average, with choral/orchestral music for the big moments. The period look by art director Liu Yuenan 刘越男 and costume designers Bai Yiting 白伊廷 (aka Bai Xipo 白希珀) and Bai Yike 白伊可 (Europe Raiders 欧洲攻略, 2018) is okay, without being over-emphasised, and action direction by veteran Wu Yunlong 伍允龙 [Philip Ng] the same.

The film’s Chinese title literally means “Money Empire: Chasing Tiger(s), Capturing Dragon(s)”. Its prior Hong Kong title was Money Empire 金钱帝国  岭峰之战 (literally, “Money Empire: Peak War”). In the Mainland the film was released as The Unbeatable 追虎擒龙, omitting any mention of “Money Empire”. It was shot in two months, between late Aug and late Oct 2020.

CREDITS

Presented by Mega-Vision Project Workshop (HK), Er Dong Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Moke Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Emperor Film Production (HK), Beijing Yuanshang Culture Media (CN), Shanghai Zhongyan Culture Media (CN), Nanjing Jiangshance Films (CN). Produced by Mega-Vision Project Production (HK).

Script: Wang Jing [Wong Jing], Chen Jianhong, Lv Guannan, Xu Yueming. Photography: Wu Qiming [Wu Wenzheng]. Editing: Li Jiarong. Music: Lu Guanting [Lowell Lo]. Art direction: Liu Yuenan. Styling: Bai Yiting [Bai Xipo], Bai Yike. Action: Wu Yunlong [Philip Ng]. Visual effects: Zheng Wenzheng, Xu Weijie.

Cast: Gu Tianle [Louis Koo] (Chen Ke), Liang Jiahui [Tony Leung Ka-fai] (Wu Shihao/Bo Hao/Crippled Hao), Wu Zhenyu [Francis Ng] (Xu Le), Lin Jiadong [Gordon Lam] (Bai Song’an), Jiang Haowen [Philip Keung] (Chen Jincheng/Qi/Seven), Hu Ran (Cui Ying’en, reporter), Zheng Zeshi [Kent Cheng] (Zhuyouzai/Pig Oil/Zai), Cai Jie (Lin Shanyi, senior ICAC staffer), He Haowen (He Guoyong, ICAC staffer), Lin Zishan, Gong Ci’en, Liu Haolong, Huang Haoran, Li Tianxiang, Huang Bowen, Yin Yangming, Chang Yuci, Wang Juntang, Guo Zhenghong, Yu Kang.

Release: Hong Kong, 29 Apr 2021; China, 1 May 2021.