Over the years, the quality of Hong Kong-made action movies has been good and bad.
Why?
"Rage: A Serious Case", which was released in 2021, only had a box office of more than 50 million on the first day.
Such a result that many people are not optimistic about this movie.
Unexpectedly, in the following days, the box office of the film increased in a straight line.
It broke 300 million in 4 days, 500 million in 9 days, and 1 billion in 27 days.
The final box office was 1.314 billion, becoming the box office champion of Hong Kong films in recent years.
I have to say that when many people questioned that only Louis Koo and Zhang Jiahui dared to make cinema Hong Kong films, Nicholas Tse brought the audience a long-lost freshness.
So Nicholas Tse officially announced 6 action movies at once, and it seems that the future of Hong Kong films is on his shoulders.
It's a pity that this freshness didn't last long before it was ruined by this movie.
The movie "Customs Front" can be said to have made many viewers wait for 2 years.
There is no other reason.
First, the cast includes Jacky Cheung, who has been in the film for 8 years, as well as "Hong Kong's last superstar" Nicholas Tse, and the powerful Wu Zhenyu.
Second, the film is directed by director Qiu Litao, who is good at hot action scenes.
It's a pity that with the blessing of these factors, the movie is a big disappointment.
Of course, it's not bad, it's just a bit mediocre.
From the story to the action scenes, there is not much innovation, just a decent shooting.
Speaking of which, the story is quite simple.
Zhou Zhengli (played by Nicholas Tse) is a customs investigator, and Zhang Yunnan (played by Jacky Cheung) is his boss.
Once, during the course of their patrols, the two accidentally found a large number of smuggled weapons from an unpowered nameless ship.
However, as soon as the weapons were transported to customs, they were confronted by a large number of masked armed men who snatched the weapons.
So Zhang Yunnan sent Zhou Zhengli to the Middle East, and pretended to be a reporter with Interpol Ah Ying (played by Liu Yase) to interview the warlords who bought arms, hoping to dig out the boss behind the arms smuggling.
As a result, Zhou Zhengli found that there were internal ghosts inside the customs.
Investigate the inner ghost, which is divided into two lines in total.
One is Zhou Zhengli is responsible, and the other is Zhang Yunnan is responsible.
To be honest, this part of the plot feels frequent.
Why?
In my opinion, the problem lies with the character of Jang Yun-nam.
In the first half of the plot, Zhang Yunnan gave people a good feeling, and there was no big problem.
However, in the middle of the stage, I was suddenly diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
In front of people, he flattered and acted as a smiling tiger in officialdom. After the person, he has a serious tendency to violence, and he also has convulsions at home from time to time.
If you have bipolar disorder, you shouldn't continue to stay in such an important position, and it's best to go home to recuperate.
The reason why he became an inner ghost is also unexpected and completely unreasonable.
And the most important thing is that whenever the word "inner ghost" appears, the camera will focus on Zhang Yunnan's face, for fear that others will not know that he is an inner ghost.
The length of the film is 117 minutes, and when it is nearly 60 minutes, Zhang Yunnan's ghost identity is discovered.
Not long after Zhang Yunnan was revealed to be an internal ghost, he suddenly went offline......
I can only say that it was originally a good Infernal Affairs drama, but it was filmed with no logic at all.
At the end of the movie, it became Nicholas Tse's solo show.
He led his team members to successfully solve this big case, and the story ended here.
After watching the whole movie, the first feeling given to people is that they seem to have watched it, and it is as if they have not seen anything.
The plot starts with Jacky Cheung going offline, and it is completely divided into two sections, just like watching two movies.
And the interaction between the characters is also very rare in the movie, purely relying on personal acting skills to make up the plot.
As for the action scenes in the movie, there are only 3 scenes in total.
The first was a clash between masked armed men and customs.
The enemy dispatched helicopters to besiege them in the air and on the ground, and the gunfight scene was very appropriate.
The second scene was Zhou Zhengli's hand-to-hand combat.
In fact, this scene has always been the specialty of Hong Kong-made action movies.
It's a pity that the camera switch was too fast, and there was slow motion, so it didn't shoot well.
The third is the decisive battle of the submarine.
As the sea continues to seep in, both sides need to settle the battle quickly.
At the beginning, Zhou Zhengli was suppressed by the opponent's offensive, and it was not until later that he had the opportunity to counterattack.
may be the most exciting part of this film.
In general, the literary drama of "Customs Front" is not good, and the martial arts drama is a little too little.
The movie was released for 4 days, and the box office was only 75 million, which can only be said to be expected.
I think this movie also reflects Qiu Litao's directing skills, which is really not suitable for making action movies.