Gen-X Cops (2000)To boil this one down, here's a basic plotline: The cops are out after the thieves of ten tons of explosives and the Japanese terrorist deemed responsible. Universally derided mental patient cop Chan (Eric Tsang) decides the approach to foil the crims is to recruit cops who 'don't look like cops' to infiltrate for a sting. Out on his own, he recruits three wayward academy kids and morphs them into the hip young copsters of the title. They are: Jack (Nicholas Tse), Match (Stephen Fung) and Alien (Sam Lee). Out tailing Akatora's henchman Daniel (woefully underused Daniel Wu), the lads spot a girl (Grace Yip) pulping heavies in the alleyway - she's Y2K, and she becomes their helpful technogal. But Chan's undercover operation goes foul, and they're plunged into the grot of gangland. The boys (and girl) discover more than they've bargained for when it becomes clear that arch-evil Akatora wants to blow up a certain Mr Shimada in a streak of pent-up revenge. And the big bang is slated to happen in none other than the harbour-fronting Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre - a monolithic construction that to some is a symbol of Hong Kong. Gen-X Cops fuses this into a western-styled blastfest of explosions, action and slick packaging. Though I regularly avoid 'blockbusters', the novelty value, the expected HK factor and the effort expended on making this film got me to the ticket window. It certainly aims high - foreign effects experts (including the team that worked on Independence Day and the US version of Godzilla) are drafted in to help pump up the firework. And I must say, the effects looked good too. But even better are the car stunts and the human action/stunts, which are delightful. But even with these on hand, there wasn't enough of Hong Kong (the city itself) for my fickle tastes - certain scenes, for example, were set in remote places like Tai Po while some aerial shots (the skydiving) had to be done overseas. But for its occasional pitfalls (plotfalls?), the casting is terrific - the leads all turned out to be savvy looking casting decisions. In fact, whose role wasn't well cast? Francis Ng gets a darkly comic grimy gangster's part, Lai Yiu-cheung is ably slotted in as a police academy trainer, and Toru Nakamura steadily, and straight-faced, delivers some outrageous hardass gangster oneliners as if he's been talking the talk since kindergarten. And even though Brisbanite actress Jaymee Ong has her Antipodean twang way, way out of place for her role as a Canadian, she's still icy cool as Daniel's girlfriend Haze (one of many silly, but somehow fitting, names in the film). As for Daniel Wu, he should be playing lead roles from now on. On the whole I recommend Gen-X Cops. Yes, there's novelty. And yes, there's the occasional drop-off. But there's an effort here to help raise the quality of HK output, using newer, younger faces and refreshed production techniques to get Hongkongers back into the local cinemas for a couple of hours of entertainment escapades. Promo DVD information: Finding televised making-of shows on individual Hong Kong movies is pretty rare - Storm Riders, Flying Dagger and F***/Off are among the few that come to my mind - and finding it subtitled is next to impossible. Producers Media Asia have put together a slick package named Gen-X Cops: No Pain, No Gain to help plug the void. There's plenty of straight PR-type stuff in the show, of course, but a lot of intriguing behind the scenes action is woven-in to shed light on filmmaking techniques. To get a better idea of what went into this film, and the people behind the stuntwork, this subtitled 34-minute disc is a handy title to have on hand. (Note: the cheaper VCD version isn't subtitled but it comes with a nice mousemat, stickers, a bumbaggy thing and a small strip of leather instead.) |
Credits: Produced and directed by Benny Chan |
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