Director: Jacky Lee
Year: 2021
Country: Hong Kong
Alternate Titles: La Jing Ba Wang Hua: Ao Men Xing Dong
Genre: Action
Plot:
Still haunting by a tragic operation years later, a police officer is tasked with joining a security detail that will intend to help cooperation between their hometown of Macao and Hong Kong. When a series of criminal incidents prove to have a connection to the original confrontation he had with the criminal gang, a squad of officers including several survivors of the encounter is gathered together and sent off to bring them to justice, fueling decades-old traumas and unresolved secrets that bring up switching allegiances and switching sides onto other sides of the law. More determined than ever, the events end up bringing together the team like never before to put an end to the situation before it gets out of control.
Review:
There was a lot to like with this one. Among its better features is the highly enjoyable storyline that provides a great excuse to burst into action every so often but still has a grounded approach to the storyline. The initial setup of the officer struggling to come to terms with the disastrous operation that took place several decades prior to the main action is a fine starting point, giving us a sense of his duty to the job as well as the pain he went through with everything that initially transpired on that fateful confrontation. Seeing the loss of innocent lives as well as the other officers injured or struck down in the incident serves this one well to give an emotional connection to him in his work that carries itself nicely with the modern-day storyline involving the officers trying to do their duties while overcoming the trauma brought forth by the anniversary of the incident. This all makes for a great storyline involving the past and the present.
As mentioned, that storyline provides an excuse for a lot of great action throughout here. The opening shootout that serves as a troubling memory for the surviving officers is quite fun with plenty of extended gunplay and shootouts to highlight the overwhelmed nature of the police at the time. Given the repeated flashbacks to the incident showing the beginning stages of the incident, from the car chase down the freeway to get to the location and the various shootouts to expand upon the main encounter all serve this one well. When it gets to the encounters with the team trying to take down the new criminals, the film is a lot more frantic and fun with the raid on the drug-dealers’ den or the prisoners’ escaping from custody serve as exciting martial arts displays to counterbalance the shootouts and gunplay from earlier and leads into the exhilarating final shootout that features some fine stuntwork and unexpected outcomes, making for a generally fun time overall.
There are some problems to be had with the film. The biggest issue is a clear and defined sense of motive for everything that happens here since things just seem to happen for no reason. There’s little about the reason for the anniversary to trigger the fighting with everyone or what was even brought up about the squad hunting these particular criminals from the start, so it just seems as though they’re just chasing after random criminals on the anniversary of an incident that happened two decades earlier. However, the finale is especially confusing with a lack of clarity as for what’s happening, with characters switching allegiances at a whim, fighting with others simply to drive up the action quotient in the film, and just plain acting weird for no reason which makes the whole thing quite confusing overall. Coupled with some unnecessary artistic shots that don’t serve any purpose overall, these hold the film back overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
As an exercise in simple, straightforward Action, this one comes off rather nicely with a lot to like but the overall presentation elsewhere here is pretty much a mess that doesn’t make much sense overall. Give this a watch if you’re a fan of these hard-hitting throwback Action films or if you’re intrigued by this one but those turned off by the style or approach should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment