The Shadow’s Edge
捕风追影
China, 2025, colour, 2.35:1, 140 mins.
Director: Yang Zi 杨子 [Larry Yang].
Rating: 7/10.
A surprisingly entertaining and substantial action-psychodrama pitting two Hong Kong veterans against each other in a Macau crime setting.
STORY
Macau, 2024. The Macau Judiciary Police is on the trail of some potential bank robbers, in an operation led by Wang Xuemei (Lang Yueting) from the high-tech Police Command Centre which includes surveillance system Skyeye and AI tracking system Spice Girl. However, when the police, led by Wu Yaolei (Wang Ziyi), arrive at the spot where the technology tells them the gang’s car is, there’s no car to be found. The gang’s tech wizard, Ximeng (Ci Sha), had hacked into the police’s systems and implanted the image of the car. Meanwhile, the gang, masterminded by Fu Longsheng, aka The Shadow (Liang Jiahui), had broken into a safe-deposit box and stolen a notebook containing half of a crypto-currency investor’s passwords. Next morning the police collect the investor, Larry (Yang Zi), who is frantic over his account, worth HK$500 million, being hacked. Meanwhile, the same robbers break into the offices of JH Digital Asset Management in the Macau Tower and download some of its data, including passwords. While doing so, they come across the account of a certain Duan Zihong, a former head of Kuala Lumpur’s biggest crypto exchange who disappeared with US$1.5 billion of crypto and later died in Macau under mysterious circumstances. Against orders the robbers – all of whom are Fu Longsheng’s adopted sons – take time out to download Duan Zihong’s data as well, even as the police are closing in on the building. Fu Longsheng, who is downstairs in the main entrance, easily manages to get away; the gang members go to the top of the building and parachute to the nearby Wynn Macau hotel complex. Helped by Ximeng who hacks into the complex’s CCTV system, they evade the police using elaborate disguises. At a post mortem by the police, Lang Yueting blames their over-reliance on AI rather than using more traditional policing techniques. She recommends recalling from retirement her legendary predecessor, Huang Dezhong (Cheng Long), who is from the pre-AI era, to lead the investigation into Fu Longsheng and his gang. Her proposal is opposed by Wu Yaolei, who believes AI is infallible, but he’s overruled by police chief Cai Weida (Huang Jinshen). Wannabe young police detective He Qiuguo (Zhang Zifeng), who’s a geeky number-cruncher in the operations department, is told to locate Huang Dezhong and follow him. Huang Dezhong spots her immediately and after four hours confronts her in a cafe. He recognises her as the daughter of a former colleague, He Weiming (Yu Rongguang), who died because a mistake Huang Dezhong made – after which, he retired from the police force. The last time he saw He Qiuguo, she was aged eight, but she still holds him responsible for her father’s death. At police HQ Huang Dezhong immediately spots the gang members on the hotel complex’s pre-hacked CCTV screens, as well as identifying Fu Longsheng as the mastermind. He recommends setting up a secret squad to take Fu Longsheng on and, much to the amusement of its members, includes the geeky but determined He Qiuguo. As the complex and dangerous investigation proceeds, He Qiuguo gradually reconciles with Huang Dezhong. Meanwhile, between dealing with Huang Dezhong & Co., Fu Longsheng starts having serious problems with the loyalties of gang members Ximeng, his twin brother Xiwang (Ci Sha) and tough guy Hu Feng (Wen Junhui).
REVIEW
An old-school detective goes up against a longtime nemesis in action-psychodrama The Shadow’s Edge 捕风追影, easily the best film by Cheng Long 成龙 [Jackie Chan] in nine years – in fact, since Railroad Tigers 铁道飞虎 (2016), which in turn was his best film in four years, since CZ12 十二生肖 (2012). Though he still shows no signs of gracefully retiring, Cheng, 71, has seen the hits (both artistic and financial) become more and more widely spaced, especially during the past decade. With a hunky RMB1.27 billion at the Mainland box office (on a reported budget of around RMB145 million), Shadow breaks the mould and, despite a few weaknesses, is an entertaining, substantial piece of cinema as well.
On the financial side, Cheng’s films during the past decade have averaged around RMB200 million-300 million each at the Mainland box office, a polite figure for the kind of celebrity-stuffed action movies he’s known for. The one exception was the lazy, cliched KungFu Yoga 功夫瑜伽 (2017), a China-India co-production that somehow managed to take RMB1.75 billion. On the artistic side, it’s been one slow decline for Cheng, with tired vehicles like Vanguard 急先锋 (2020, RMB294 million) or A Legend 传说 (2024, a mere RMB80 million) – both directed, like Yoga, by Cheng’s old Hong Kong pal Tang Jili 唐季礼 [Stanley Tong] – or cute heartwarmers in which Cheng isn’t even the sole attraction (Namiya 解忧杂货店, 2017; The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang 神探蒲松龄, 2019; Panda Plan 熊猫计划, 2024). He’s also contined to plug away at the international market, with the equally tired Hidden Strike (2023, mostly released on Netflix) and Karate Kid: Legends (2025).
In the light of all that, The Shadow’s Edge comes as a nice surprise. And its success is due to many of the same reasons that made Railroad Tigers so enjoyable: Cheng being part of a strong ensemble, not required to over-extend himself on the action side, and not able to just coast on his cheekie-chappie routine. Where Tigers was under the control of the notable Mainland writer-director-editor Ding Sheng 丁晟, Shadow is steered by China-born, US-educated writer-director Yang Zi 杨子 [Larry Yang], 44, who’s had an eclectic but solid career across his seven features to date, from commercial (Sorry I Love You 对不起我爱你, 2014; My Other Home 我是马布里, 2017; Adoring 宠爱, 2019) to artier stuff (Mountain Cry 喊•山, 2015). Like Ding, Yang had previously directed Cheng in more routine fare – the cute heartwarmer Ride On 龙马精神 (2023), about a stuntman and his regular horse, that was stuffed with Mainland names but only managed to scrape RMB211 million at the box office.
Shadow, however, is in another league – a dark drama, with no cuddly animals or youngsters, set in Macau, and co-starring fellow Hong Konger Liang Jiahui 梁家辉 [Tony Leung Ka-fai], 67, one of the territory’s most resonant veterans who’s also become a relatively rare sight on the big screen in recent years. Yang’s script is (very) vaguely based on the 2007 Milkyway Image production Eye in the Sky 跟踪, which was co-produced by Milkyway boss Du Qifeng 杜琪峰 [Johnnie To] and was the directing debut of one of his regular writers You Naihai 游乃海 [Yau Nai-hoi], co-writing with another regular, Ou Jian’er 欧健儿 [Au Kin-yee]. Liang played the villain in that and again plays the main villain here, in a story that also updates the content to the present AI age. To its credit, the film (like Eye in the Sky) doesn’t become obsessed with all the surveillance gadgetry after making the point that it can’t really replace traditional policing methods – which is where Cheng’s character, as a retired, old-school surveillance expert, comes in to hunt down the criminal mastermind known as The Shadow.
Like Eye, The Shadow’s Edge starts with a big action setpiece. But instead of being centred on passengers on a tramcar, it’s focused on police cars being led by an AI tracking system (nicknamed Spice Girl) that’s already been hacked into by the bad guys, and the thieves’ objective is not a jewellery store but the passwords to crypto deposits. Welcome to the 2020s. And this time the whole opening setpiece, set across two days, is no less than 17 minutes of uninterrupted, tense action that includes paragliding from the Macau Tower to the nearby Wynn Macau hotel complex and elaborate disguises (face masks, clothing) to avoid CCTV detection. With well-known landmarks and show-off stunts, it’s all typical of a regular Cheng movie – though it’s only after all that, 20 minutes in, that Cheng actually appears on screen, in a self-mocking montage (that also refers to Yang’s own pet movie, Adoring) as he campily takes a dozen over-dressed dogs out for a walk. Initially, Cheng’s jet-black hair and ageing face come as a shock in closeup – especially as some recent Cheng movies have used AI to rejuvenate his looks – but it soon becomes unnoticeable as character-building becomes the order of the day.
Teamed with a nerdy number-cruncher who dreams of becoming a detective – and also happens to be the daughter of a former colleague whose death he accidentally caused – Cheng’s character takes on Liang’s mastermind in a series of tense, umbrous sequences across the streets, back alleys and tenement buildings of Macau (a sequence of the three leads together in a lift is a particular standout). And just as Cheng’s character has troubles getting on with his young assistant, so Liang’s also has troubles keeping his team – all adopted twins with various psychological problems – in order. Referencing rather than re-making the 2007 film – already remade, slightly more closely, as the South Korean Cold Eyes 감시자들 (2013) – it all makes for a characterful action movie that, unlike so many nowadays, just about justifies its two-hour-plus running time, mixing some very dark psychodrama with slightly lighter moments.
As the ruthless mastermind who can still knock his adopted sons around when necessary, the experienced Liang, not surprisingly, dominates the film with a performance that distills several of his previous unsavory characters (such as in Island of Greed 黑金, 1997). But Cheng, who’s shown in the past that he can handle serious roles when pushed (New Police Story 新警察故事, 2004; Rob-B-Hood 宝贝计划, 2006; Shinjuku Incident 新宿事件, 2009), holds his own in the acting stakes, especially in his scenes with Mainland actress Zhang Zifeng 张子枫 (well cast as a spikey, resentful wannabe) where he shows an avuncular charm that doesn’t just play to his usual gallery. Supports are strong down the line, with newish Mainland name Ci Sha 此沙 (likeable in Promise of Decades 多想和你再见一面, 2024) playing three of the mastermind’s team with believable variety, and the two leads of Yang’s Mountain Cry – concert pianist-turned-actress Lang Yueting 郎月婷 and actor Wang Ziyi 王紫逸 – strong in rather undeveloped roles as senior members of the Macau police. (Lang and Wang are both regulars in Yang’s films, and have also been in other Milkyway Image movies.) Yang himself makes an amusing cameo as the petulant victim of the opening robbery.
Action staged by Jackie Chan Stunt Team member Su Hang 苏杭 (Knock Knock 不速来客, 2021; Flaming Cloud 三贵情史, 2023; Last Suspect 拯救嫌疑人, 2023), cleverly shot in often dark surroundings by up-and-coming Mainland d.p. Qian Tiantian 钱添添 (Post Truth #保你平安, 2022; To Gather Around 胜券在握, 2024; Clash 冲•撞, 2025) and chopped up into typically nervy bits by editor Zhang Yibo 张一博 (Better Days 少年的你, 2019; Leap 夺冠, 2020), manages to show Cheng to convincing effect without engaging in any flashy stunts. Music by France’s Nicolas Errèra (Mountain Cry) is unimpressive, with no clear character. The film’s Chinese title is a pun on a similar-sounding four-character phrase (捕风捉影) that literally means “to chase the wind and clutch at shadows”, typifying the police’s pursuit of Liang’s master of disguise, The Shadow.
CREDITS
Presented by iQiyi Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Shanghai Taopiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN), Beijing Hairun Pictures (CN), Dongfang Chenxiang Investment (CN), Shanghai CMC Pictures (CN), Beijing New Film Association (CN). Produced by Beijing Hairun Pictures (CN).
Script: Yang Zi [Larry Yang]. Photography: Qian Tiantian. Editing: Zhang Yibo. Music: Nicolas Errèra. Production design: Yang Wei. Art direction: Liu Li’na. Styling: Wang Baoyi. Sound: Wang Yanwei. Action: Su Hang. Visual effects: Liu Qin, Han Chao.
Cast: Cheng Long [Jackie Chan] (Huang Dezhong), Zhang Zifeng (He Qiuguo), Liang Jiahui [Tony Leung Ka-fai] (Fu Longsheng/Yingzi/The Shadow), Ci Sha (Xiwang; Ximeng/Simon; Xitai), Wen Junhui (Hu Feng), Zhou Zhengjie (Liu Jinxiao), Wang Ziyi (Wu Yaolei, police captain), Lang Yueting (Wang Xuemei, judiciary police operations head), Lin Qiunan (Xiaoxin), Wang Zhenwei (Wei), Li Zhekun (Zaizai), Yu Rongguang (He Weiming, He Qiuguo’s father), Gu Zhixin (young Huang Dezhong), Huang Jinshen (Cai Weida, judiciary police chief), Liu Junxiao (Song Zhixiang), Yang Zi [Larry Yang] (Larry).
Release: China, 16 Aug 2025.