The Blizzard
道高一丈
China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 97 mins.
Director: Jiang Kaiyang 姜凯阳.
Rating: 5/10.
Solid but over-plotted crime drama, set in wintry northeast China and with an outrageous Big Twist.
STORY
Mojiang municipality, northeast China, the present day, March. Gangster Zhu Daneng (Yuan Man) is after a USB stick that Jin Zimeng (Liu Yongxi), the girlfriend of Li Guo (Peng Ling), stole from him. Zhu Daneng tracks her down to Sanya, Hainan island, southern China, where she’s fled to take refuge with Li Guo’s friend, taxi driver Song Chao (Nie Yuan), who’d earlier been forced to flee Mojiang. Zhu Daneng’s men kidnap her, but fail to find the USB stick. When the angry Zhu Daneng tortures Li Guo some more, Song Chao decides to go back to Mojiang, along with his friend Xiaoma (Zhang Lu), to sort things out. However, he does so clandestinely, as a Mojiang police officer, Liu Haiyang (Tan Kai), still believes that Song Chao – who is actually his brother-in-law as well as a onetime co-student at police training school – stabbed his policeman father Liu Shouyi (Wang Zhigang) to death. Song Chao gets Xiaoma (Zhang Lu) to contact Liu Haiyang’s wife, Chu Jie (Xu Lu), in his stead; meanwhile, he arranges to kidnap Zhu Daneng. However, Hu Ziwei (Yu Mingjia), boss lady of her late brother’s influential Guanyu Business Club, part of shady construction empire Guanyu Group, has had Zhu Daneng followed by one of her men, who then lets the police know that Song Chao is back in town. When he meets her, Song Chao denies to Chu Jie that he killed Liu Haiyang’s father. Later, he asks Huang Tiancheng (Qu Gaowei), Liu Haiyang’s police colleague, to tell Liu Haiyang that it was Hu Long (Shi Guanghui), brother of Hu Ziwei, who killed his father, not him. Song Chao then breaks into Guanyu Business Club and rescues Jin Zimeng, who tells him where the USB stick is hidden. But in the meantime Hu Ziwei has bribed Huang Tiancheng, who needs money for his wife’s kidney operation, to kill Song Chao and Jin Zimeng.
REVIEW
A wintry crime drama set in a thinly disguised version of Harbin, northeast China, The Blizzard 道高一丈 is a pretty generic outing that’s memorable for some atmospheric use of its setting and a gleefully outrageous Big Twist near the end. Solid but over-plotted first feature by Harbin-born writer-director Jiang Kaiyang 姜凯阳, 50, who’s worked in TV drama for almost two decades, has heavy South Korean representation in key crew areas (camera, art direction, costumes, action) but looks and feels Chinese nonetheless. Box office was only a throwaway RMB12 million.
Though the setting is winter, anyone expecting a snowbound drama with a freezing finale, as promised by the English title, will be disappointed. (The Chinese one, which could loosely be translated as “Justice Wins in the End”, is a play on the proverb “As virtue rises one foot, vice rises ten.” 道高一尺，魔高一丈) Copious use is made of Harbin’s famous annual Ice & Snow World exhibition, and there’s an okay car chase along the frozen Song river about 50 minutes in; but otherwise, little is made of the cold weather and there’s certainly no blizzard.
The central theme of a wronged petty criminal trying to prove his innocence to his cop brother-in-law sometimes gets lost amid all the busy plotting, with the result that the film rarely pivots on the animosity between the two men. TV actors Nie Yuan 聂远, 40, who was impressive as the new secret police chief in Brotherhood of Blades 绣春刀 (2014), and Tan Kai 谭凯, 46, the smacked-out middleman in Drug War 毒战 (2012), are okay in the lead roles, with Nie the more personable; but both lack the big-star presence to drive the movie and tower over a strong supporting cast. The latter includes TV/theatre actress Yu Mingjia 于明加 in a wonderfully trashy performance as a horny gang boss, Xu Lu 徐露 (Jiang’s TV actress wife) as the cop’s straightlaced wife, Zhang Lu 张陆 as the petty criminal’s breezy pal, and a swarm of low-life gangster types.
Music by Yang Sili 杨思力 is largely generic, following rather than enhancing what’s on screen, and editing by veteran Zhou Ying 周影 is just OK for her. Star technician is Korean d.p. Gim Gi-tae 김기태 | 金基泰 (Confession of Murder 내가 살인범이다, 2012; Monster 몬스터, 2014) who captures wintry Harbin in all its grungy hardness. Action staging by fellow Korean Gim Shin-ung 김신웅 | 金信雄 (Shadows in the Palace 궁녀, 2007; The Throne 사도, 2014) is so-so, lacking real punch.
CREDITS
Presented by iQiyi Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Fire Sign (Shanghai) Pictures (CN). Produced by Fire Sign (Shanghai) Pictures (CN), Jiang Kaiyang (Shanghai) Film & TV Culture Workshop (CN).
Script: Jiang Kaiyang. Photography: Gim Gi-tae. Editing: Zhou Ying. Music: Yang Sili. Art direction: Yi Hyeon-ju. Costume design: Oh Sang-jin. Sound: Qin Shengwen, Ding Yaheng. Action: Gim Shin-ung. Special effects: Gim Tae-yeong. Visual effects: Li Yong (Sun Flower Pictures). Artistic supervision: An Dong-gyu.
Cast: Nie Yuan (Song Chao), Tan Kai (Liu Haiyang), Xu Lu (Chu Jie, Liu Haiyang’s wife), Yu Mingjia (Hu Ziwei), Cheng Yu (caretaker), Song Chunli (Liu Haiyang’s mother), Liu Xiaoning (Xu, police chief), Shi Zhaoqi (Lin, Hu Ziwei’s boss), Luo Dahua (gangster), Qu Gaowei (Huang Tiancheng), Zhang Lu (Xiaoma), Dong Borui (Da Mao), Peng Ling (Li Guo), Liu Yongxi (Jin Zimeng, Li Guo’s girlfriend), Wang Zhigang (Liu Shouyi, Liu Haiyang’s father), Shi Guanghui (Hu Long, gangster), Yuan Man (Zhu Hongyuan/Zhu Daneng), Zhao Yi (deputy police chief), Xing Yufei (Ma Yanli, Huang Tiancheng’s wife), Tai Yongfeng (Luan Yiwu, gunman), Wang Bo (yoga-club head).
Release: China, 6 Sep 2018.