Film Exposure

Herman Yau is on a roll, and nothing can stop him. After releasing no less than four films in 2023 – Death Notice, The White Storm 3, Raid on the Lethal Zone, and Moscow Mission – the prolific Hong Kong director is back this year, having already released his remake Crisis Negotiators, and now taking over cinemas in Hong Kong and beyond with his much-awaited Nicholas Tse-fronted blockbuster Customs Frontline, for which the star also serves as action choreographer!

Many things in Yau’s latest production harken back to a time when Hong Kong action films ruled the local box office and shone well beyond their borders, from the expansive, ambitious set pieces to the weak expositional dialogues, earnest themes of brotherhood and moral rectitude, and uninspired aesthetic choices.

It’s a very run-of-the-mill story that Yau leans on here, an explosive investigation into an arms dealer’s business that uses Hong Kong as a hub for trafficking weapons into unstable African countries at war. If the premise sounds slightly clichéd, it’s because it is: imaginary African nations tearing themselves apart because of foreign greed and apathy, filmed with an eye-scratching yellow filter that easily rivals the yellowest filters in the history of cinema. The plot might seem sinuous at first glance, but the many shot/reverse-shot conversations between customs agents boil down to the need to catch the bad guys because they morally have to.

Main actors Jacky Cheung and Nicholas Tse provide some excellent star power and play each other’s unique personalities, Cheung’s mentoring but at times unstable dimension allowing for the necessary evolution of Tse’s motivations. None of the characters are particularly captivating, relying too much on established tropes of the genre without exactly offering anything fresh. Even the questions related to suicidal tendencies (a rather unusual topic for the genre) that are explored in the film’s second half feel superficial and too quickly sidelined in favour of well-trodden, unambiguous morality plays.

The dialogue is often exposition-heavy, letting characters recount things of the past in an artificial manner as if they were addressing the audience directly. This is especially egregious in some romantic scenes involving Jacky Cheung and Karena Lam, both of whom keep explaining things they should already know. None of this really helps audience immersion or involvement, but we would be lying if we pretended to be here for anything other than some good old Hong Kong action, and that is where the film truly comes alive.

Nicholas Tse, already a massive star, is branching out into action design under the watchful eye of veteran director Herman Yau. Everything is reminiscent of 90s HK action cinema indeed, and if the writing lacks nuance and the dialogues feels too explanatory, the action is another story altogether.

From the first hand-to-hand duel on a sinking inflatable boat to the final orgy of explosions and harbour destruction, Nicholas Tse choreographed this film like his life depended on it. He throws himself into the fray with wild abandon, taking as many punches as he doles out. His and Yau’s formal approach to HK action is traditional in the best sense of the word – energetic, propelling, and legible, all the while offering nostalgic vistas of Hong Kong by night. The kinetics smartly rely on a strong sense of geography that exploits spatial possibilities (see the intense mid-film car chase) and solid editing that utilises inserts or close-ups only to enhance the impact of strikes or falls.

The final 15-min set piece is a golden age HK action fan’s wet dream that combines shootouts, cat-and-mouse games on and among containers, massive budget naval destruction, and an exhilarating one-vs-many fight where Tse takes on multiple attackers at once while Yau masterfully stitches shots together to give a feeling of continuous adrenaline without falling into outrageous oner theatricality.

Customs Frontline plays like a revival of 90s Hong Kong actioners for better and for worse, never circumventing its models’ weaknesses in terms of writing, but making sure it goes higher, harder, louder in the action department. It does not quite reach the high of last year’s The White Storm 3 but comes pretty damn close. Yau proves once again to be one of the most reliable filmmakers currently working in Hong Kong, while Tse comes out as a new, promising voice in action design. See you again in Raging Havoc, Nicholas!

Customs Frontline releases in the United States on July 19^th, 2024. Thanks to Sarah Clinton from Well Go USA for making this review possible.

Customs Frontline – No European release date yet
Directed by Herman Yau
With Jacky Cheung, Nicholas Tse, Karena Lam