Invisible Target

Year:2007
Director:Benny Chan Muk-Sing
Cast:Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung, Shawn Yue, Jaycee Chan, Wu Jing, Andy On Chi-Kit, Elanne Kong Yeuk-Lam, Lam Ka-Wah, Mark Cheng Ho-Nam, Sam Lee Chan-Sam, Kenny Wong Tak-Bun, Lam Suet, Ken Lo Wai-Kwong, Philip Ng Won-Lung, Anson Leung Chun-Yat, Samuel Pang King-Chi, Tommy Yuen Man-On, Deep Ng Ho-Hong, Lisa Lu Yan
Description:
If ass-kicking is your
thing, then Invisible Target is your movie. Directed
by Benny Chan, Invisible Target promises energetic
action and dangerous-looking stuntwork on a scale not
seen since the heyday of Jackie Chan. The film delivers
on that promise, though not without a few debits, most
especially the use of CG, which erases wires and safety
cables, and sometimes replaces people with digital dummies
that can easily take a fifteen-story fall without croaking.
The other debits are standard Benny Chan problems: canned
melodrama, key reveals marred by overdone histrionics,
and an inability to make the film's story and characters
equal to the ass-kicking and pyrotechnics. Ultimately,
Invisible Target isn't a very good film, but
it delivers enough action and even humor to satisfy
the masses. What it doesn't deliver is an interesting
story, truly developed characters, or a conclusion that
feels like anything other than obligatory. In other
words, Invisible Target is a summer action movie
fit for the multiplexes! Just check your brain at the
door.
Nicholas Tse stars as Chan
Chun, a loose-cannon cop who became so when his fianc閑
got offed during an armored car heist. She was shopping
for their wedding rings in Central when the bad guys,
led by Wu Jing and Andy On, blew up an armored car,
which also took out the jewelry store she was shopping
in. Six months laer, Chun is still upset, and takes
out his frustrations on whichever perps cross his path.
Nicholas Tse embodies Chun with ceaseless brimming emotion;
it always seems like Chun is going to explode and either
whup some ass or shed a few tears, and the film gives
him ample opportunity to do both. Tse is a good enough
actor to handle both the tears and the toughness with
admirable finesse, and doesn't elicit laughs when he
starts to weep. Still, this is an action movie, so it's
preferable when Tse's exploding emotions lead to pulse-pounding
foot chases or a flurry of flailing arms and fists.
That stuff happens more often than not, so score one
for Invisible Target there.
Chun obviously wants revenge,
but the perps have eluded him. Luckily, the bad guys
resurface, running into inspector Fong Yik-Wei , who pulls them over on a routine car check and
proceeds to get served by the acrobatic kung-fu and
unflinching cruelty of Tien Yeng-Seng . Fong
is pretty badass himself, and gets an introduction that
most actors would kill for. Early on in the film, Fong
drives up to a restaurant in his Ferrarri and proceeds
to dismantle the entire place with his fists and feet,
taking out half-a-dozen bad guys and breaking more glass
than your average Jackie Chan film. The problem is Wei
still isn't a match for Tien, and finds himself burning
with anger after the humiliation. Shawn Yue is suitably
coiled as Fong, and makes up for his character's lack
of a compelling backstory with strong screen presence
and cool charisma. In contrast to many young Hong Kong
actors, Yu has both range and charisma, and can seemingly
handle action, comedic, or dramatic roles with ease.
However, in Invisible Target, there's only one
goal: action. Yu does fine there. Notch another one
for Invisible Target.
Since both Chun and Fong want
Tien and his gang, they have to track him down, and
the trail leads quickly to Wai King-Ho . Ho is a uniformed patrolman whose
sense of righteousness and justice is so well developed
that he might as well be a walking commercial for the
police force. Ho is smarting because his fellow cop
brother has
disappeared, and is considered by some cops to have
turned to the dark side. Supposedly, Ho's brother is
connected to Tien Yeng-Seng and his gang of baddies,
so after becoming pals over an entertaining restaurant
rumble and a subsequent homoerotic ointment application,
the trio of Chun, Fong, and Ho hop in a car and begin
to pursue their leads. Soon, the mystery surrounding
all the dangling plot threads begins unraveling with
predictable efficiency. Before the film ends, each main
cop will have their personal demons exorcised ,
plus the bad guys will be named, the reasons behind
the lawlessness explained, and all the random, innocuous
conversations conducted by seemingly minor supporting
characters will suddenly be revealed to have great plot
importance. It's almost like someone read a screenwriting
manual.
Too bad they didn't read the
chapter about how to make their script more convincing.
The script is
full of details connecting each cop to one another and
also to perpetrators, and even features such common
themes as brotherhood, righteousness, and how to be
a good cop, i.e. you should arrest the bad guys and
not pursue the "eye for an eye" thing. The themes do
lend themselves to a few surprising emotional payoffs,
some involving Jaycee Chan. The offspring of HK Cinema's
real JC overacts sometimes, but his performance is sincere
and likable, and works well for his innocent, neophyte
cop role. Likewise, Wu Jing and Andy On make interesting
bad guys, and are given plenty of backstory to flesh
out their characters. In between the chases, there's
some face-to-face dialogue between the cops and the
killers, showing us that these aren't necessarily evil
guys, but directed villains who have their reasons.
However, the reasons don't
resonate. Benny Chan and company take great pains to
explain everyone's issues, but the issues only tie to
the plot in a perfunctory fashion. Too often we get
soul-searching and key confrontations at unbelievable
times, e.g. in the middle of a firefight, and some of
it is so cheesy that it can be painful . Ultimately, there isn't a reason that
these characters need to be so damn pained. Sure, it
gives everyone a personal stake, but it's hard to say
that it makes the film that much more compelling. The
actual plot, which involves stolen money and hurt feelings,
is rather uninteresting and far from memorable. It's
unnecessarily convoluted in that it attempts to tie
every character in the film together, and by the time
Invisible Target reaches the end of its protracted
two hour-plus running time, it's questionable if the
storyline will even matter to anyone in the audience.
Still, Gen-X Cops -
which was also directed by Benny Chan and may be the
blueprint for commercial HK police actioners like Invisible
Target - didn't have much of a story either, but
its high-concept premise made its story deficits much
more digestible. Invisible Target is high concept
in execution, but sometimes serious in intent. The filmmakers
put lots of weight on the film's emotions and themes,
but some are quite cheesy, and few really make the film
better. Ultimately, it feels like the story in Invisible
Target is connected entirely by contrivance. Characters
conveniently bump into one another, plus they manage
to show up in exactly the right place at exactly the
right time, and it happens so often that everything
starts to feel a bit unbelievable. Nowhere is this more
noticeable than in the blowout climax, which takes place
at a massive police station infiltrated by Wu Jing and
crew. Despite hundreds of cops milling about, the characters
manage to find nice deserted areas for mano-a-mano knockdowns
or soul-searching conversations, most of which are routine
cop movie stuff. Benny Chan has always been one of Hong
Kong's best commercial film directors, but his handling
of story and character has seen little improvement over
the years. Basically, it always feels like filler.
But thanks to the action, few
people may really care about the filler. Invisible
Target does the usual pop-star action vehicle better
by actually putting its stars in harm's way. Nicholas
Tse, especially, does plenty of his own stunts, including
falling off buildings, falling down stairs, getting
hit by buses, jumping over stuff, etc. The actor obviously
has some help from wires, but the physicality and sheer
energy on display is admirable. Shawn Yue and Jaycee
Chan handle their share of danger too, either hitting
people or getting hit convincingly. The trio get plenty
of action opportunities, playing with knives, fire,
explosives, and vehicles, all with the goal of delivering
the season's biggest action spectacle. Give them credit,
because it looks like they succeeded . Action director Lee Chung-Chi previously
worked with Benny Chan on both New Police Story
and Rob-B-Hood, and though they don't have Jackie
Chan's experience here, they do have something else:
youth and energy. Really, it makes a difference.
Some of the supporting performances
help, too. Mark Cheng and Lam Ka-Wah have their moments
as two senior police officers, and it's nice to see
Sam Lee and Lam Suet in nearly anything. Unfortunately,
Benny Chan still cannot find a way to use his female
characters; the highest-billed one here is newcomer
Elanne Kong, who plays Shawn Yue's underdeveloped Girl
Friday. However, one of Chan's best moves was convincing
Wu Jing to return to the dark side for Invisible
Target, and the actor is charismatic in his first
post-SPL villain role. As expected, he also handles
his action sequences impressively, and the filmmakers
have the good sense not to pretend that Nicholas Tse
could take Wu Jing in a fight. He'd need some help,
and the film's solution to that problem is surprisingly
affecting. But that occurs at the end of the film, and
before that there are street chases, car chases, rooftop
chases, gunplay, two brawls in restaurants, and more
painful-looking impact than has been seen in a Hong
Kong film in quite a while. Benny Chan and action director
Lee Chung-Chi know action, and they deliver enough of
it here, and in an exciting enough manner to make Invisible
Target worthwhile for those needing their action
fix. Invisible Target isn't a very good film,
but is it fun? I think so.