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Hong Kong action cinema has taken its lumps and bruises over the past few decades. Once heralded back in the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s as the end all-be all of adrenaline laced, hyper-kinetic, one stop shop action has since seen its star tarnished by other territories like Indonesia, Thailand and especially South Korea which has been essentially crushing it with their chef’s kiss exports. All in all, I never felt that Hong Kong or China ever really lost a step but when you turn out so much product, eventually there are going to be those misfires that grab the spotlight instead of the ones that are solid entertainment. Even the mediocre titles are still much better than what we get most of the time here in North America, but I digress.
With that, I give you the latest Hong Kong actioner from the fine folks at Well Go USA which is titled Customs Frontline and features two stars of China in Raging Fire’s Nicholas Tse and Jacky Cheung, who actually has been missing in action for several years but is no stranger to action having appeared in films like Bullet in the Head and Future Cops. The film has seen success already in its native China and has also played in the states recently during the NYAFF. Both stars have been dishing it out for decades and Tse especially has been putting his body on the line in the name of action cinema with other classic flicks like New Police Story, Dragon Tiger Gate, and Invisible Target. Both men are front and center here in director Herman Yau’s blistering thriller Customs Frontline which sees a limited theater run starting this weekend.
Yau is heralded as an action maestro as well having helmed previous efforts including the Shock Wave films along with last year’s White Storm 3: Heaven or Hell. Yau has a distinct style and calling card when it comes to making his movies which includes adding a dash of heavy drama to go along with the bombastic set pieces of firepower and martial arts beatdowns. This entry is no different as Tse and Cheung portray heroic Customs agents who are indeed flawed in their personal lives.
The plot to Customs Frontline employs a worldwide appeal as it deals with two warring factions in Africa and the ruthless arms dealer Dr. Raw (Amanda Strang) who has taken up her dead, dear old dad’s enterprise who looks to make as much moolah as possible by selling to both armies and playing both sides. With her is her deadly and lethal right-hand henchman named Leo, played with ferocious tenacity by veteran martial arts actor and action designer Brahim Chab (Boyka Undisputed, Monkey Man) who handles all the wet work including transporting said arms and taking out anyone who gets in their way with flashy extreme prejudice which includes his merry old band of highly paid mercenaries. He’s a formidable opponent for Tse’s Chow Ching-Lai, who is a younger Customs agent trying to balance work with an uncertain personal life.
Chow has his fair share of problems including having to work with onetime girlfriend Katie (Michelle Yim) who just happens to be marrying someone else. Having to work with your ex is bad enough but to have to see her daily and getting ready for a wedding to boot makes it hard none the less. Jacky Cheung stars as Cheung Wan-nam, Chow’s superior officer and father figure type and his personal life issues are even more compounded due to the fact that he suffers from a severe mental disorder that affects how he handles stress and work-related issues. Cheung’s wife Athena Siu (Karena Lam) is higher up in the agency, but she too is also recovering from a disorder which binds the two together. This all leads to some very tricky political stepping as Cheung has to report to Athena’s opposite named Kwok (Francis Ng) but really wants to see her get promoted. It’s all part of the slower paced drama that is spliced into the bloodletting.
The action kicks off when one of Raw’s shipments, on its way to one of the warlords in Africa, breaks down in Chinese waters forcing Customs to investigate. Upon boarding the vessel, they discover dead crew members and the nefarious cargo which launches an all-out investigation into arms smuggling and just who is the mysterious and menacing Dr. Raw. The audience knows right away who she is as we see her in various scenes at the beginning. It makes it for a less dramatic impact that the viewer knows what the characters onscreen don’t, and she really doesn’t have anything to do in the movie but talk all menacingly on the phone to people while threatening them. The agency’s look into the shipment of arms leads to a major shipping company that is involved in helping Dr. Raw transport the goods.
Compounding their efforts is the arrival of two Thai Interpol agents including Ying,who is played by Yase Liu (The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan, Money and Love), as they are involved due to the fact that the ship started off in Thailand giving them jurisdiction as well. It’s fine though because she can speak Chinese just fine so she can stick around. Oh, and there’s a mole in the agency as well that makes everything even more complex during the investigation and this features heavily into the twists and turns section of the movie which I did see coming a mile away. Events lead Chow and Ying, who has essentially become his partner, on a mission that includes visiting an arms expo as well as a war-torn African country but all this just feels like filler and the suffering and plight of the innocent people caught in the middle of this African civil war is never really fleshed out. We just get a really nifty action set piece due to an air strike with shots of children crying over the dead bodies of their parents.
Where Yau fails to deliver is the dramatic aspects of the film and he introduces concepts like Cheung’s mental health issues and subsequent self-torturing of himself, including burning himself with an iron, as well as the aforementioned African genocide. It’s like Yau wanted to immerse the audience in everything and anything but then realized he was making an action picture for the most part and had to cut it all short so nothing is really fleshed out the way it should be for the sake of the bang, bang and boom. This offering isn’t as full throttle as some of Yau’s latest like Moscow Mission and Raid on the Lethal Zone and it’s during the softer moments where the film almost stands still at times, and one has to question if Yau was trying to throw everything and the kitchen sink into the plot. Don’t get me wrong, some of it works and most of the characters get backstories that make them appear more than just bodies on the screen.
Where Yau succeeds and gets massive brownie points is the action which includes four major set pieces with a raid on a Customs compound being the starter fuse. It is here where we see Chab’s Leo in action for the first time as he launches a brazen assault to steal the arms back which leads to the deaths of several agents including Katie. It’s a serviceable firefight filled with substantial muzzle fire and explosions culminating with Chow battling mercs on top of a cargo container being suspended in the air by a helicopter. It’s absolutely ludicrous and awesome all at once.
Tse is always a treat to behold when it comes to delivering action on all fronts and here, he also serves as action coordinator alongside Hidden Strike‘s Alan Ng with this movie being his first foray into action design. Tse has worked with the best that Hong Kong action has to offer including Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan and Coey Yuen so he has learned from the best and has become a tier one action hero operator both in front of the cameras, so it only makes sense that he translates his knowledge behind them as well.
Other action-packed sequences include a blistering race through the streets of an African city as things blow up all around and Chow and his Thai counterpart hold on for dear life behind a moving truck as well as an exhilarating car chase at night that includes tracer fire and henchmen being thrown from speeding cars. Everything comes to a head in the last half an hour as Chow and the agents launch their winner take all mission which includes assaulting a transport vessel and submarine in the span of ten minutes. Fans are treated to extended, breakneck shootouts and stunt work galore that Hong Kong is known for and Tse is leading the charge with all guns blazing as he looks to make the most out of his first time serving as action coordinator.
The highlight of the pulsating finale sees Tse’s Chow turn on his full-blown one-man army mode as he singlehandedly attacks Leos’s mercenaries in a series of shootouts and hand to hand, CQB throwdowns. The best of the best in terms of battle action is a scene where Leo orders his men not to shoot in fear of triggering the bioweapons on board leading to one kick butt one take sequence involving Tse hammering bad guys with his fists, feet, elbows, knees and some pipes used effectively as makeshift, on the spot Escrima sticks. It’s certainly the icing on the cake in terms of high adrenaline and it was my favorite scene of the entire film.
We can’t forget to mention the inevitable showdown between Chow and Leo where Chab is finally set loose to do what he does best and he equally matched Tse with every lethal blow. Their altercation is made all more satisfying as they have to face off with submerging water pouring in on the sub limiting what they can do with their skill sets. It makes for a more complex and involved fight to the end.
It’s the action that really saves the day, but I will say that some of the drama is warranted as it makes us care more for these people especially when the danger comes rampaging in. Unfortunately, a lot of it, especially Cheung’s character arc, is thrown to the wayside in favor of showcasing the action elements. With Customs Frontline clocking in at just under two hours, this is one case, I would have liked a longer running time to fill in more blanks. If not, then maybe removing some of it would have made for an even more enjoyable viewing experience and a tighter one.
Overall, I enjoyed Customs Frontline and especially the action set pieces where star Nicholas Tse is really one of the few international action stars who can sell it on both sides of the pond. Tse’s other legit effort, Raging Fire, saw him as the heavy so it’s refreshing here to see the heroic side of him and the action design that comes with it. It’s a welcome sight to see Jacky Cheung back but his character and story arc are mishandled in favor of the adrenaline, and he deserved a little something better as did the dramatic aspects of the story.
Customs Frontline succeeds when the ferocious action takes charge and it’s here where we see Hong Kong combat cinema at its purest form. It might not stand up to other exports from the region like the aforementioned Raging Fire, but it still manages to invoke the right level of testosterone when the time calls for it. Nicholas Tse proves why he has been working in the genre for so long and he is a welcome sight in any action pic from any region as he is a maestro of unarmed and armed action design on the screen. Some of the heavy dramatic elements fail to deliver a spark but that’s OK when the action still manages to light the fuse.
VERDICT: 3.5 Out of 5 Stars
Customs Frontline falters in melodrama but still manages to erupt with some of the finest Hong Kong combat cinema ever with Nicholas Tse providing the spark!
Now Playing in Select Cinemas from Well Go USA!
