Lin
A-hai’s gang doesn’t merely steal from the most vulnerable. They do so at the
most annoying times. His motley crew of phone and internet scammers operates
out of Thailand, using Chinese nationals lured using bait-and-switch tactics. They
are a slippery bunch, but an upright HK cop and his undercover ex-girlfriend
are determined to bring them down in Oxide Pang’s The Big Call (trailer
here),
which screens during the 2018 New York Asian Film Festival.
Lin
is the brains of the outfit, but since the cops have nothing on him (despite
the best efforts of driven Ding Xiaotian), he can strut around Hong Kong at his
leisure. His girlfriend Liu Lifeng is the operational manager, overseeing the
women (primarily) forced to work in their Bangkok boiler room. Xu Xiaotu has
infiltrated the operation, having been vouchsafed by a recruiter the electronic
bunco squad busted. Liu can’t make up her mind whether she suspects Xu is a
plant, but she respects her toughness and even seems to enjoy hang time with
her. Meanwhile, an even more ruthless rival from Taiwan threatens to move in on
their operation.
With
Big Call Oxide Pang proves you can
make a slam-bang action movie about telephone scamming. Perhaps this means
somebody lost a bet—possibly to his filmmaker brother Danny Pang. Regardless,
he pulled it off and as an additional coup he scored Gwei Lun-mei’s virtuoso
performance as a straight-up unambiguous-right-from-the-start villain as the ruthless
but tragically co-dependent Liu.
Wow,
as much as we adore Gwei, even we didn’t know she could express such ferocity.
Yet, we still end up feeling for her deeply. Jiang Mengjie is simultaneously strong
and sensitive as undercover Xu, while Peng Xinchen is downright heartrending as
Lin’s estranged sister Xiaoqin. In comparison, Cheney Chen’s Ding is rather a
righteous bore, but at least he has more stamina than T.J. Hooker running after
cars and jumping down fire escapes and the like. However, Joseph Chang
Hsiao-chuan’s Lin is so cold and calculating, he really makes him spectacularly
detestable.