Explosion: Naturalistic Noir Goes Boom

In China’s western provinces, it is every man for himself. There is no OSHA regulating mine safety. The media doesn’t report on what goes on below ground and the cops only care about playing their own angles. When Zhao Yu-dong is set up to take the fall for a blasting disaster, the smart play is to take the hush money. It is not like he would even have to worry about jail time, because nobody would dare report the incident. However, the egregiousness of the “accident” and Zhou’s hardheadedness make him go lone wolf in Chang Zheng’s Explosion (trailer here), which is now playing in New York.

Zhao never wanted to be a blaster, but he followed in his father’s footsteps anyway. He certainly has enough experience to know one stick of dynamite should never produce the massive conflagration that resulted. He would like to start a new life with his fiancée Xiao Hong, but only a minimal amount of investigation turns up evidence of foul play. Before he knows what hit him, Zhao finds himself in the middle of a violent feud between two mining oligarchs. Li Yi was his predatory boss, but the vengeance-seeking Cheng Fei will become his main nemesis.

Of course, Zhao cannot count on any help from the cops, especially including his opportunistic former friend Xu Feng. They have already settled on him as their prime suspect for the subsequent murders they know about—and they have still only heard vague rumors of the original blasting mishap.

Explosion is a truly subversive film, because it presents itself to be an action movie chocked full of pyrotechnics, but it simultaneously delivers some very pointed social criticism, with respect to workers rights, workplace safety, public corruption, and to a much lesser extent, the despoilment of the environment (the latter is never directly addressed, but the arid ravaged landscapes silently speak volumes). Yet, it still functions as particularly lethal film noir, most definitely in the tradition of Black Coal, Thin Ice (bad things just seem to happen in and around Chinese coal mines).

Duan Yihong is terrific as Zhao. He projects a sense of danger even when he is getting the snot beat out of him, which happens often. Probably nobody is better at playing tough but vulnerable women than Yu Nan, who shines again as Xiao. There is also a wickedly effective tag-team of villains, including Cheng Taishen as the sinister mastermind, Cheng Fei, and Yu Ailei portraying his chief fixer.

Don’t worry, Chang does not let the social realism prevent him from blowing up a bunch of stuff. The wardrobe department also deserves credit for Li Yi’s flamboyantly evil-looking blue suede boots. This is a slam-bang thriller that should not be flying so low under the radar. Very highly recommended, Explosion is now playing in New York, at the AMC Empire.

NYAFF ’17: Battle of Memories

When it comes to memory, we’re like Goldilocks. We always want a little more or a little less. It’s never exactly right. The temptation to start fiddling around with how memories are processed, stored, and accessed in that strange device called the human mind has taken on Frankenstein-like implications in speculative fiction and psychological thrillers. When bestselling novelist Jiang Feng has a few select memories extracted, it similarly leads him down a rabbit-hole he won’t soon forget in Leste Chen’s Battle of Memories (trailer here), which screens during the 2017 New York Asian Film Festival.

Pained by his upcoming divorce from Zhang Daichen, Jiang goes in for the Spotless Mind treatment. However, for reasons that will be revealed later, she insists he have them reinstated, before she signs the papers. This is a process that can only be done twice, so the next memory removal will be permanent. In a colossal mix-up, the wrong memories are re-inserted into Jiang’s noggin. Suddenly, he is getting flashbacks to murders he never committed.

Due to the suspense-enhancing circumstances of the process, it will take seventy-two hours for the memories to fully reconstitute themselves. He is also emotionally detached from the dramatic events in question, watching them unfold in his memory like a spectator. Yet, the killer’s identity remains unknown, because Jiang has no context for knowing it a priori. Instead, he will have to deduce it from clues within the flashbacks. The detectives investigating the latest murder, grizzled Shen Hanqiang and his eager junior Lei Zi, mostly believe Jiang, but they are not as proactive as he would like protecting Zhang Daichen. Logically, he figures if he has the killer’s memories, it stands to reason the unknown psychopath must have his.

Memories is the second serious-as-a-heart-attack psychological thriller Chen has made featuring a star of China’s blockbuster “Lost in” slapstick comedies, following The Great Hypnotist, featuring Xu Zheng. In this case, it will be Bo Huang carrying the film quite well as the increasingly disoriented and disturbed Jiang. In fact, his sad hound dog face is rather perfect for Jiang. He always looks like he is confused and suffering from a massive migraine.

NYAFF honoree Duan Yihong is terrific as the flinty Det. Shen and newcomer Liang Jieli (a.k.a. Patricio Antonio Liang) shows real breakout potential as Lei Zi. However, the film’s real not-so-secret weapon is Yang Zishan (star of the monster hit So Young) as police doctor Chen Shanshan, who will keep viewers guessing as her backstory is revealed.

The mystery Leste Chen and screenwriter Peng Ren have devised is devilishly clever and the murder scene flashbacks are stylishly eerie, while scrupulously adhering to their own internal logic. However, the film can be a bit confusing in terms of segues and transitions. Too often, viewers have to piece together on-screen context to get their bearings. However, Charlie Lam’s cinematography (soft, noir De Palma-esque color for the waking scenes and stark black-and-white for the inserted memories) is always visually dramatic and helpfully delineates the past from the present. Despite a few rough edges, Battle of Memories is easy to recommend for fans of psychological thrillers when it screens Saturday night (7/1) at the Walter Reade, as part of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.

NYAFF ’17: Extraordinary Mission

As we slowly steadily de-criminalize drug possession, China has doubled and tripled down on the drug war. Permissiveness just isn’t Xi-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed Jinping’s style. Tragically, the 2011 Mekong River Massacre of Chinese merchant sailors provided plenty of propaganda fodder. At least the war on drugs is explosively entertaining in Alan Mak & Anthony Pun’s Extraordinary Mission (trailer here), which screens during the 2017 New York Asian Film Festival.

Lin Kai, as he is now known, is an undercover cop, who has a very personal reason to crusade against the drug cartels. He quickly apprentices himself to Cheng Yi, the chief distributor in the depressed industrial city of Yunlai, but when a drug deal goes suspiciously sour, Lin Kai makes a play to ingratiate himself with the Golden Triangle supplier.

The Double Eagle Cartel is led by the erratic but charismatic leader, Eagle. His chief deputies are his surrogate son and daughter. With Cheng Yi under cloud of suspicion, Lin Kai makes a bid to replace him. Of course, Eagle’s vetting process is pretty harrowing. He even drugs the undercover into a temporary state of heroin addiction. However, our hero is made of stern stuff. Ordinarily, his handler, Li Jianguo is also highly disciplined. However, when Li learns Eagle has secretly imprisoned his presumed dead partner for ten years, all bets are off.

There is plenty of corruption and betrayal in Mission, but karma is the real killer. These characters have shared history and grudges worthy of classical tragedy. Everything and everyone is connected, in ways that simmer and burn.

Established HK director Mak knows his way around the underworld and its intersection with the realm of law enforcement, having co-helmed the Infernal Affairs and Overheard trilogies. Of course, working with Mainland and Southeast Asian settings frees his characters from any pesky constitutional restraints that could slow down the action. He and Pun (the cinematographer who shot the Overheards, making his [co-]directorial debut) put the pedal to the metal, especially during the maelstrom of the third act. Bullets fly, motorcycles fly, cars crash, and bodies go thud.

Xuan Huang is perfectly serviceable as the silently brooding Lin Kai, whereas Duan Yihong is flamboyantly villainous as the borderline psychotic Eagle. Zu Feng is awesomely steely as Li, while Lang Yueting is terrific as Eagle’s haunted and mysterious “daughter,” Qingshui.

Mission might be considered a Mainland picture, but there is a heck of a lot of HK talent behind the camera. That is a good thing, because Hong Kong cinema has a natural comparative and competitive advantage when it comes to making cops and gangster movies. This one emphatically delivers the goods. Very highly recommended for action fans, Extraordinary Mission screens Saturday night (7/1) at the Walter Reade, with Duan in attendance to accept the 2017 NYAFF Star Asia Award.