Nightfall

大追捕

Hong Kong, 2012, colour, 2.35:1, 106 mins.

Director: Zhou Xianyang 周显扬 [Roy Chow].

Rating: 5/10.

Routine crime drama squanders good leads on a poor script with only average direction.

STORY

Hong Kong, the present day. Twenty years after being imprisoned for murder, Wang Yuanyang (Zhang Jiahui), a mute, is released and put on parole. In the country, he rents an old house in view of that of world-famous tenor Xu Hanlin (Wang Minde) and eavesdrops on him and his family. Xu Hanlin, who is about to give his farewell concert, lives with his wife (Yu An’an) and daughter Xu Xue (Wen Yongshan), who is studying piano and of whom he is violently over-protective. When a burned and disfigured corpse is found by the seashore nearby, it is finally identified as Xu Hanlin’s. The police detective in charge, Lin Zhengzhong (Ren Dahua), who specialises in reinvestigating cold cases and is still traumatised by the apparent suicide of his Taiwan wife (Zheng Xiyi) five years ago, suspects Wang may be involved, as he was originally imprisoned for raping and murdering Xu Hanlin’s elder daughter, Xu Yiyun (Wen Yongshan). Wang has also become obsessed by Xu Xue, who looks exactly like her late sister. However, the truth of both cases, spread across 20 years, is not so simple.

REVIEW

To its credit, Nightfall 大追捕 lacks any Huge Unbelievable Twist on the scale of Murderer 杀人犯 (2009), the over-rated first feature by director Zhou Xianyang 周显扬 [Roy Chow], but there’s still the same feeling of good talent put to waste on a poor script – again by Du Zhilang 杜致郎 [Christine To], who wrote Fearless 霍元甲 (2006) and Secret 不能说的秘密 (2007) – and direction that again is routine at best. After an arresting main-title sequence and a set-up with various damaged characters on a collision course (a paroled convict with revenge in his eyes, a cop traumatised by his wife’s suicide, a world-famous tenor who abuses his daughter), the movie fails to generate any accumulated tension or even psychological credibility as it yoyos between murders past and present that are seemingly connected.

Stranded in a mute role as the vengeful convict, the usually interesting Zhang Jiahui 张家辉 [Nick Cheung] does the best he can on a physical level, mining elements of his psycho in Beast Stalker 证人 (2008), while Ren Dahua 任达华 [Simon Yam], as the burned-out cop, just goes through the motions. Neither has much to work with in Du’s script, whose psychology is schematic at best and which doesn’t exploit any cat-and-mouse tension between the two. (Typical of the script’s random construction is the way it simply ditches the back story of Ren’s character instead of bringing it to bear on the present drama.) Instead, to liven things up – given that the Chinese title means “The Big Hunt” – there are various chases through Hong Kong landmark buildings that are just so-so, plus a spliced-in setpiece of the pair battling in a cable car whose thrills are undercut by its sheer unlikeliness.

How the clumsily written script ever got past the producers remains a mystery. Too much of the dialogue is either explanatory or expository, and the loose ends are still being sorted out under the end titles. Other performances are so-so, with Xie Anqi 谢安琪 (the lovelorn laundry girl in the same producers’ Lover’s Discourse 恋人絮语, 2010) miscast as the cop’s torch-holding assistant, Wang Minde 王敏德 [Michael Wong] straining credibility as an abusive concert tenor, and veteran Yu An’an 余安安 [Candice Yu] punching the clock as his long-suffering wife. As the couple’s daughter (and her own dead sister), Wen Yongshan 文咏珊 [Janice Man] brings nothing special to the two roles, while the rest of the cast is dotted with cameos, including newcomer Dou Xiao 窦骁 [Shawn Dou] as a young Zhang Jiahui, veteran Liu Jiahui 刘家辉 [Gordon Liu] as a retired cop, and even Mainland director Tian Zhuangzhuang 田壮壮 as a former prison guard.

Zhou’s experienced crew – d.p. Lin Guohua 林国华 [Ardy Lam], editor Zhang Jiahui 张嘉辉 [Cheung Ka-fai], art director Huang Bingyao 黄炳耀 [Pater Wong] – keep the film on track technically and provide a smoothly packaged product, with faded and fogged footage for the flashbacks and a cool look for the present. But they still can’t disguise the fact this is mutton dressed up as lamb.

CREDITS

Presented by Sil-Metropole Organisation (HK), Irresistible Delta (HK), Edko Films (HK), Film Development Fund (HK). Produced by Mega Luck Asia (HK).

Script: Du Zhilang [Christine To]. Photography: Lin Guohua [Ardy Lam]. Editing: Zhang Jiahui [Cheung Ka-fai]. Music: Umebayashi Shigeru. Art direction: Huang Bingyao [Pater Wong]. Costume design: Wang Baoyi. Sound: Chen Weixiong, Li Zhixiong, Zeng Jingxiang [Kinson Tsang]. Action: Huang Weiliang [Jack Wong]. Visual effects: Zhang Zhonghua (VFX Nova Digital Productions).

Cast: Zhang Jiahui [Nick Cheung] (Wang Yuanyang/Eugene), Ren Dahua [Simon Yam] (Lin Zhengzhong/George, inspector), Wen Yongshan [Janice Man] (Xu Xue/Zoe; young Xu Yiyun/Eva), Xie Anqi (Ouyang Ying, Lin Zhengzhong’s sidekick), Wang Minde [Michael Wong] (Xu Hanlin), Yu An’an [Candice Yu] (Xu Hanlin’s wife), Dou Xiao [Shawn Dou] (young Wang Yuanyang), Tian Zhuangzhuang (former prison guard), Liu Jiahui [Gordon Liu] (Long, retired cop), Gong Shuoliang (former acquaintance of Wang), Lu Huiguang [Ken Lo] (convict in opening fight), Zhang Fuoqiang (interviewee), Luo Yingjun (Yu, Lin Zhengzhong’s boss), Hong Zhuoli (Xu Xue’s boyfriend), Yan Zhuoling (Lin Zhengzhong’s daughter), Zhou Ziju (Wang Yuanyang’s younger brother), Zheng Xiyi (Lin Zhengzhong’s late wife), Zhou Ziyang (Qiang, detective), Chen Fei (Fei, detective), Lu Haoming (coroner), Guan Yiyang (detective), Huang Jiale (young Lin Zhengzhong), Li Jianrong, Ladnongkee Adil, Ou Bingbiao (prisoners), Huang Fangwen (TV newsreader/reporter), Liang Jinlong (boyfriend of Lin Zhengzhong’s daughter), Liao Ailing (school head), Nicholas Atkinson (Spencer, superintendant), Mike Leeder, David Oxley, Clive Barker, Dong Weiqiang, Li Zhiwei (detectives), Zhao Mintong (correctional services officer), Zhang Wanjun, Lin Kangwei (young Wang Yuanyang’s classmates), Li Deya (school employee), Chen Huiyi (salesman), Chen Jinquan (landlord).

Release: Hong Kong, 15 Mar 2012.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 31 Mar 2012.)