Butcher Hunter
猎屠
China, 2022, colour, 2.35:1, 98 mins.
Director: Guo Xiaofeng 郭晓峰.
Rating: 3/10.
Anti-scamming police drama, set in Southeast Asia, is functionally shot and directed, with a poor script.
STORY
Mueang Kanchanakiri, “M” country, 2020. Xinsheng Group’s senior software engineer Liang Yichen (Kuang Muye) flees to the Chinese embassy with proof that the company has been committing major fraud. En route he calls his girlfriend in China, Chen Qian (Xu Lingyue), telling her to call the police; suddenly a car crashes into his taxi. In China a police investigation into Xinsheng Group is underway: the company, which has well over 100 bank accounts and capital of over RMB500 million, uses its casino in “M” country as a cover for a huge online/phone scamming operation. The process is known colloquially as a “pig slaughter plate” 杀猪盘, with the victims designated as “pigs” and the scammers urged to make a financial “kill” after gaining their confidence. All those involved are Chinese nationals, with Xinsheng’s top management using aliases. Operation Butcher Hunter is launched, headed by officer Zheng Yi (Wang Qianyuan), who arrives in Mueang Kanchanakiri posing as a business investor with his two assistants, Zhou Dan (Ma Yujie) and Gao Kaiyu (Chen Ziming). They are met by secretary-general Huang (Guo Xiaofeng) and chamber of commerce secretary-general Zhou (Zhang Zhaohui), who take them to their hotel. On the same plane from China a batch of new staff also arrives at the airport with Fang Genzheng (Wang Xun), Xinsheng’s head of training; among them is Chen Qian, the whistleblower’s girlfriend. They’re taken to their hotel by Yuan Bao (Chen Minghao), head of security. Zheng Yi and his team are given a welcome dinner and next day they visit the local police HQ, where they’re told by police chief Nankang (Lawang Lop) that there’s been a delay in getting the search warrant they need. Zheng Yi turns down an offer by Nankang for deputy police chief Hongtai (Tashi Dhondup) to be assigned to help them. Meanwhile, whistleblower Liang Yichen, who survived the car crash, is being tortured in an underground cell by Xinsheng co-chairman Yang Li, who has been ordered by his superior (Ni Dahong) to use any methods to extract the new code that Liang Yichen installed on the computer of manager Ding Yifan (Ding Guanzhong); as a result the company can’t access its hundreds of bank accounts to transfer assets abroad. It turns out that Fang Genzheng, Xinsheng’s fanatical head of training, has bene forced to work for the Chinese police, though Zheng Yi cannot be sure of his co-operation now he’s back in “M” country. Also, Yang Li’s superior warns him to be suspicious of Fang Genzheng. Yang Li is also suspicious of new recruit Chen Qian and comes down hard on her for her poor work results. It’s all part of his elaborate plan to trap her and Fang Genzheng, and seems to include doing a deal with Liang Yichen.
REVIEW
Mainland actor Guo Xiaofeng 郭晓峰, 51, mainly seen in film and TV military dramas, makes a weak debut as a director with Butcher Hunter 猎屠, a poorly scripted drama about an undercover operation by Chinese police against online/phone scammers in a Southeast Asian country. The film has all the hallmarks of an official anti-scamming production, and is notable only for some of the names it’s harnessed into service, including lantern-jawed Wang Qianyuan 王千源 who gets top billing as the operation’s leader. Mainland audiences were not impressed, with Hunter making only a feeble RMB12.5 million on release in August.
Lantern-faced Wang, 50, has been trying to make a transition from colourful supporting roles to leading ones, sometimes successfully (The Big Shot “大”人物 , 2019), sometimes not (Lost in the Moonlight 夜色撩人, 2017; The Guilty Ones 你是凶手, 2019), with his hangdog looks often proving an impediment. In the very fine Lobster Cop 龙虾刑警 (2018) he was pretty good as the leader of an oddball police squad; but in Butcher Hunter, cast yet gain as a detective, he simply speaks his lines like a sleepy robot, with no attempt at any characterisation. The script is largely to blame, as his character is more of a bystander than a driver of the plot. But other parts are similarly rote, with comic actor Wang Xun 王迅 going o.t.t. as a fanatical head of training at the scamming company and Guo Xiaodong 郭晓东 (the director’s younger brother) simply clocking in as an ultra-smooth company chairman. Ni Dahong 倪大红 pops up as a behind-the-scenes manipulator, and Hong Kong veteran Zhang Zhaohui 张兆辉 [Eddie Cheung] ditto as a helpful local fixer, and director Guo gives himself a small role as the latter’s superior. None of these names adds much to the finished result, which is functionally shot and directed, with zero tension, poor action, and a wallpaper score.
The film’s title is the name of the police operation, as the colloquial Mainland term for scamming is 杀猪盘, shāzhūpán, literally “pig slaughter plate”, whereby victims are designated as “pigs” that are “slaughtered” (defrauded of money) once their confidence has been won. Though the film is (convincingly) set in an unnamed Southeast Asian country (“M”, i.e. Myanmar), it was actually shot in Yunnan province and Chengdu city, Sichuan province, in late 2021.
CREDITS
Presented by Rong Cheng Legend Film (CN). Produced by Sichuan Xiaoyixiao Media Group (CN).
Script: Liang Weicheng, Nie Jianfeng, Du Yi. Photography: Wang Jiandong. Editing: Liang Weicheng. Music direction: Chen Xiaoshu. Art direction: Wu Yao, Wang Guangyu. Styling: Pang Min. Sound: Chen Jun. Special effects: Lai Ji, Wu Dahai. Action: Chen Shuo. Legal advice: Li Fuqiang. Technical support: Zhang Kunxian, Jiang Xi. Artistic direction: Wu Yiwei. Executive direction: Zhu Yong.
Cast: Wang Qianyuan (Zheng Yi), Guo Xiaodong (Yang Li/Zhang Qiang), Wang Xun (Fan Genzheng), Xu Lingyue (Chen Qian), Ma Yujie (Zhou Dan, Zheng Yi’s female assistant), Kuang Muye (Liang Yichen), Chen Ziming (Gao Kaiyu, Zheng Yi’s male assistant), Ding Guanzhong (Ding Yifan), Ni Dahong (Qi Nianzu), Guan Xiaotong (Ziqi, policewoman), Zhang Guangbei (Yang, department head), Zhang Zhaohui [Eddie Cheung] (Zhou), Guo Xiaofeng (Huang), Lawang Lop (Nankang, local police chief), Tashi Dhondup (Hongtai, deputy police chief), Liang Xiaoheshi (Dawei, security guard), Yang Tiantian (Liu Meimei), Liang Xuefan (Chunli, security guard), Chen Minghao (Yuan Bao, security head), Chen Yilei (Yang Lizhen, Yang Li’s ex-girlfriend), Wang Baohou (fat businessman).
Release: China, 12 Aug 2022.