Target
狙击时刻
China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 85 mins.
Director: Yang Jiang 杨江.
Rating: 5/10.
Well-shot genre tale of cross-border drug traffickers suffers from a confused script.
STORY
Somewhere in southern China, the present day. Ye Feng (Song Yang) is the top sniper in Blue Fox Group, a commando team fighting cross-border drug trading and terrorism. Two years ago his best friend Ye Lei (Yang Juncheng) – then the group’s top sniper – left the army after being wounded while saving Ye Feng, then his observer, in an operation. He hasn’t been heard of since. In fact, Ye Lei is working for drug trafficker Walang (Yi Jixi), under cover of managing a teashop in Shun’an; he’s also taken a liking to the young woman who works in the shop, Xiao Lan (Wang Zhongxin), apparently unaware that she’s spying on him. When Ye Feng hears from one of the commando group, observer Yang Ji (Ran Tian), where Ye Lei is, he drives there to check out the information. Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities launch an operation to lure Mujin (Shi Guang), an ex-colonel from K Country (K国) who’s now working for a drug cartel, across the border into China in order to arrest him; Blue Fox Group is told to work closely with the border police. Among Mujin’s bodyguard is a champion sniper, Kana (Maria Makarenko), who follows and kidnaps Xiao Lan. Meanwhile, a Japanese chemist, Kaneo, has been murdered in K Country, and Walang tells Ye Lei to investigate his background. Walang also contacts Mujin’s assistant, Pingba (Chen Chunsheng), as he knows Pingba is holding Kaneo’s girlfriend, Qianye (Yu Xin).
REVIEW
A thoroughly generic action drama about a Mainland commando group fighting drug traffickers on the border with a fictional “K Country” (K国), Target 狙击时刻 manages to hold one’s attention thanks to its above-average performances and cinematography even though the story is so confusingly told that it’s often close to indecipherable. It’s the first fully-fledged film, after a series of digital movies, by Yang Jiang 杨江, a writer who’s worked regularly with director-producer Huang Jianxin 黄建新 and whose script credits include A Confucius Family 阙里人家 (Wu Yigong 吴贻弓, 1992), Dragon Town Story 龙城正月 (Yang Fengliang 杨凤良, 1997), Huang’s The Marriage Certificate 谁说我不在乎 (2001, written under the pen name Fan Yi 凡一), as well as horror films Curse of Lola 诅咒 (Li Hong 李虹, 2005) and The Door 门 (Li Shaohong 李少红, 2006). Though it isn’t up to the standard of any of those, it’s still a curio that deserves more than passing attention.
Shot in southern Yunnan province, around Puer (where the tea comes from), just across the border from the Golden Triangle, it has an authentic feel for location as well as some care in its visuals. On the commando side of the story, it’s equally convincing – the film was co-funded by a video label attached to the PLA’s August First Film Studio – even though the characters, members of a sniper unit, are fairly one-dimensional hunky types, led by actors Song Yang 宋洋 (from martial arts dramas The Sword Identity 倭寇的踪迹, 2011, and Judge Archer 箭士柳白猿, 2012) and TV actor Yang Juncheng 杨钧承. Livening up the genre side is Russian actress-model-athlete Maria Makarenko, as a slinky sniper baddie in a brunette wig. Action is just OK until a final showdown that’s grittily staged in a cement factory.
However, Yang’s script, co-written with producer Wang Fang 王方, has problems not only with straight narrative but also with the more personal elements: the theme of the two snipers’ friendship is simply dropped in the second half in favour of the confusing drug-trafficking story. As such, Target ends up as a genre curio. Its Chinese title means “Sniper Moment”.
CREDITS
Presented by Zhongguo Sanhuan Yinxiang She (CN), Nanjing Lan Image Culture Media (CN), Jiangsu Daye Film & TV Culture Investment (CN). Produced by Nanjing Lan Image Culture Media (CN).
Script: Yang Jiang, Wang Fang. Photography: Wang Wei. Editing: Yu Dong. Music: Yang He. Art direction: Zhao Bin. Costumes: Shi Yi. Sound: Ji Jing, Ren Liang. Action: Lan Haihan. Visual effects: Wang Tieying.
Cast: Song Yang (Ye Feng/”Lightning Eagle”), Yang Juncheng (Ye Lei/”Flying Eagle”), Wang Zhongxin [Kara Wang] (Xiao Lu/Lamluna), Maria Makarenko (Kana), Ran Tian (Yang Ji/”Brave Eagle”), Huang Jinlong (Tian Hai/”Mountain Eagle”), Yi Tiankai (Wang Chao/”Heavy Fist”), Lv Shiqiang (Geng Xinbiao/”Cloud Leopard”), Wang Zezong (Lu Liang/”Viper”), Ma Qiang (Huang Shilong/”Old Eagle”), Mou Mo (Chen Qingyu), Shi Guang (Mujin), Yi Jixi (Walang), Chen Chunsheng (Pingba), Yu Xin (Qianye), Tian Xiaowen (Jin Zhiyong).
Release: China, 24 Oct 2014.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 8 Jul 2015.)