Movie Review: Black Ransom/撕票風雲

My friend Tim and I watched this last night at the Dynasty. It was a lot of fun, and featured some notable performances, but more on that later. tells the story of a veteran cop (Simon Yam) trying to figure out whois kidnapping local gang bosses and demanding ransom. More importantly, he wants to know why these people are being ransomed, since none of them are very wealthy (at least by local standards).

In a funny Hong Kong Movie Moment, it is a treat to watch Simon Yam, who portrayed kidnapper 'Big Spender' Cheung in Operation Billionaires/驚天大賊王, play a cop trying to catch kidnappers.

The film is completely genre-fulfilling, and at times has plot holes nearly big enough to fit the narrative's monstrous logical lapses into: Why is it so easy to get past a police cordon in the movies? "No, that's my father in there!" (with the bad guy shooting at each other and blowing stuff up) "Oh, go ahead, miss...

Or how about when the bad guy sends a photo of Simon's daughter to him, and shortly thereafter Simon leaves her alone in their flat (he's a widower) to go and catch the guy who sent the photo?"Ahhh, she'll be fine, what the f@#$?"

There are a few of those, but even so, the film manages to entertain. It's not designed to break new generic ground, and it doesn't need to.

What sets this film apart for me, if in an admittedly limited fashion, is  the performances by some of the characters. Simon Yam has become a very dependable presence, and his character seems very believable. Granted, it's not a big stretch, but he brings a lot of believability to an aging detective raising a daughter alone while facing his growing irrelevance/age handicap at work.

This aspect of the film is handled with more sensitivity and depth than usual, such that there are some smaller roles by actors of yesteryear (their names escape me and I apologize) and its a nice surprise to see them. In addition, they act well in their roles.

My biggest pleasant surprise inis a cameo appearance by AnD artist Gloria Wong. She has a very small role, in just one scene, but she acts with a level of intensity and veracity that are very noteworthy.

I'm not saying that to be nice, or because she looks like this: "No flattery won't, Sean..."I'm not even saying it because she knows Chrissie Chau: "The two of us together are still younger than you!"  I'm saying it because it's true. Maybe the fact that I have met her helped, but her acting was very believable and realistic and you will find yourself being very empathetic.

Speaking of empathy and realism, Andy On turns in a performance notable for it's sheer physical demands.

And I'm not just saying that because he looks like this:If I looked like that, I wouldn't wear pants either.His fight scenes are the kind of thing that make me realize I'm getting old; I find myself wincing at the stunts, which are both difficult and fun to watch. What I mean is, I am glad to watch Andy in these scenes, but I'm also glad it's not me in them!

He doesn't have many lines, and he's dubbed, but at least he gets away better than his co-stars.

The two leading female actors are dubbed in Cantonese but very obviously speaking Mandarin, and it really distracts from their scenes.

As does the fact that one of them appears to have some kind of clause in her contract that ensures she will always be shot in soft focus; she looks practically CGI for the whole film, and I have no idea why.is totally China-friendly, but achieves that goal through the narrative rather than any 3rd-reel revelations. The realization that it can play 'up above' is something I realized after the end of the film, and not because ofthe end, as is so often the unfortunate case.

 So while this film is unlikely to sweep the Golden Horses, I still recommend it just for its entertainment value. There are more than a few good things about it, and I hope at least some of you will support it in theatres.