Invisible Target (2007) December 1, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Action, Thriller, 2000s films , trackbackDirector: Benny Chan Cast: Nicholas Tse; Shawn Yu; Jaycee Chan; Wu Jing Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Sil Metropole Organisation Ltd
Chan Chun (Nicholas Tse) is a cop who lost his fiancée when a jewellery shop gets blown up as a result of a hit on an armoured car. Carson Fong (Shawn Yu) is another cop who is beaten and humiliated by a criminal gang. Wai King-Ho is yet another cop, this time one who has lost his brother. All three join up to bring down the Tien gang headed by Tien Yeng-Seng (Wu Jing), the gang responsible for all three officers’ circumstances.
Invisible Target starts out with a bang not unlike a Hollywood blockbuster. It serves as a plot point in that Chan Chun’s fiancée gets killed (no great loss – she doesn’t have her own voice. I don’t think I could ever love a woman who was badly dubbed) and sends him on a path of revenge. It easily brings to mind films like Die Hard and you start to worry that this is going to be yet another Hong Kong film aping Hollywood and failing miserably. While this is true to a small degree regarding the CGI, let me put your fears at rest and tell you categorically that Invisible Target is a darn good romp.
Nicholas Tse gets a lot of stick for his film work (I admit I’ve never heard a note of his music and am quite happy to keep it that way) but fair’s fair, he puts on a good show as the haunted young cop out for revenge. I must admit that Shawn Yu has previously slipped under my radar, but he also impresses as Tse’s partner by circumstance. Jaycee Chan (son of Jackie) is so earnest and serious as Wai King-Ho that his character seems to verge on parody at times, and is the least believable of the trio. In one early scene, we see him giving CPR to a foul-smelling vagrant without showing any signs of discomfort while those around him are blowing their lunch. He then modestly goes home to his grandma. He strikes you as the kind of person who wouldn’t think twice about risking his life to save a bunch of young children on a bomb-laden bus, an opinion that is reinforced later in the film where he risks his life to save a bunch of young children on a bomb-laden bus, oddly enough. Nevertheless, Wai King-Ho is the glue for the partnership of the three disparate cops. He is searching for his brother, who may or may not have gone undercover in the Tien gang. Seeing Jaycee Chan in action is an uncomfortable sensation – seeing someone who is clearly the son of Jackie Chan doing fight scenes brings a weird feeling of deja vu and brings up the inevitability of the passage of time. It sure made me feel old, anyway.
Wu Jing will be familiar to all who have seen the somewhat over-rated SPL, and many will agree he was the best thing about that movie. One great compliment to this film is that Wu Jing is still great, but he’s no longer the best (or at least the only good) thing about the project. Whereas most Hong Kong action films fail these days to entertain (for me at least) due to a number of reasons, Invisible Target succeeds, and a lot of that goes down to a more back-to-basics approach to the stuntwork and action choreography. It still goes over the top occasionally, and some of the wirework doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, but the good far outweighs the bad. In fact, after a couple of action scenes I could have sworn they were accompanied by the same tinny, lo-fi synth music that went with all those great 80’s action scenes. Upon rewinding, I found this was not the case, but it’s an interesting association.
The film – at ten minutes over two hours – is slightly too long, but paradoxically doesn’t feel bloated with extraneous material. There are some nice plot turns and interesting characters to root for and hiss at, and a couple of really standout moments. The scene where the gangster explains to Wai King-Ho, without malice or bravado, what happened to his brother and how he felt about it is one such outstanding moment.
So despite being too long and having a corny character or two, Invisible Target is still very much worth a watch, and I’m looking forward to a second viewing already.
If you’ve been reading my stuff on the more contemporary Hong Kong films both here and elsewhere, you have probably noticed that I’ve been mentioning a certain guy quite a lot. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Lam Suet:
The reason I’ve been mentioning him is because I’m starting to feel like the man is stalking me via DVD. He’s appeared in absolutely everything I’ve watched in the past couple of months that has been made in or after 2002. Has this guy got some kind of global domination thing going or has he got a really good (or bad) agent that blags him a role in every Hong Kong film made? Sure enough, I stick Invisible Target on and bang!, less than ten minutes pass and he’s there on screen. He seems to favour playing villains, although is at home playing both henchmen and criminal masterminds. Other than appearing in all these films, I know next to nothing about him, and neither does anyone else I ask. Is there anyone who can shed some light on this extraordinarily prolific actor?
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I wrote a quick summation on my feelings (no long essay on the film yet; I want to watch a few more Cop/Triad movies before I start writing reviews on them; plus I need the extra time). Now my feelings can change (either better or worse) if I watch it again.
semi-terse comments on:
Invisible Target (2007: HK: ***/****): Benny Chan has always been the sort of director that has mixed results when he is in the helm. I liked Rob-B-Hood (2006), though that might have had to do more with Jackie Chan, I did not like New Police Story (2004) while I still have Divergence (2005) to see (and his Heroic Duo (2003) and before directorial work). There is much to like in this movie, but everything seems OK to good with not enough inventiveness, excitement, unique story development to make this truly a good film. The characterizations are somewhat stereotypical with the young hellbent officer Chan Chun (Nicholas Tse, Gen-X-Cops, New Police Story) who has lost his fiancée to an explosion six months earlier, an angry young officer Carson Fong (Shawn Yu, Infernal Affairs II) and a straight arrow very young police officer Wai King Ho (played by Jacky Chan’s son Jaycee) who’s brother has disappeared under undercover assignment. All three of these officers are after Tien Yeng Seng (Wu Jing, SPL, Fatal Contact) who has returned to Hong Kong to retrieve money and exact revenge on those who interfered with his and his gang’s robbery six month’s earlier.
The action is good, without being great. The lead bad guy played by amazing martial artist Wu Jing is quite fun to watch, though his skills are definitely better than anyone else in this film. The stuntwork is good with some painful stunts by the lead actors (some painful scenes not doubled, though wire work is used; like when Tse gets kicked off a building, hits the branches of a tree, bounces off a truck corner and then hits the ground; he really is hurt during that scene even though wirework was used).
I like the way Benny Chan has incorporated humor into his newer work (definitely thanks to his involvement in Rob-B-Hood) which works as a counterbalance (situational humor not slapstick) to the drama. The movie is a bit overlong for what it tries to accomplish, but it is still interesting without bringing anything new to the cop/triad genre.
– end of what I originally wrote
Thinking back on this; I really liked half of the film with the set-up of characters and less as the film went on (still enough to recommend this since I gave it ***/****). The lack of a decent female lead (or secondary character) reminds me of how Jean Pierre Melville did his action films (I saw Le Cercle Rouge this weekend; have you seen any of his directed films?; Melville being very influential on much of HK action post John Woo).
Later I will put down my comments on the extras on the Dragon Dynasty edition.
I agree with most of what you wrote especially on the wirework, Suet
, Jaycee Chan that is hard to find any contention points to argue with 
.
Looking forward to your FATAL CONTACT review.
No, I haven’t seen any Melville films (not even aware of him to be honest). Thanks for your thoughts on the film. Personally, as I’ve said, I really enjoyed it and if I had my way I’d like HK action films to go in this direction rather than, say, the direction of FATAL MOVE. FATAL CONTACT (I HATE these two word film titles!!! They are so generic!) has been a no-show as yet (I’m hoping it comes soon as it’s been quite a while since I ordered it).
Important point here: I watched this film before my second viewing of SPL and I’ve changed my mind entirely on that film. I was sniping at SPL in this review for INVISIBLE TARGET and it’s completely unjustified. I really like SPL now and I wish I’d set the record straight earlier. I WILL make amends one day, I promise!
I have mixed feelings about Benny Chan. Unlike you, I prefered NEW POLICE STORY to ROB-B-HOOD (although to be honest I wasn’t too keen on either). I always liked him for WHO AM I which I tend to think was Jackie Chan’s last great film because it reminds me, at its best, of OPERATION CONDOR which I have a great sentimental attachement to.
Looking forward to your summary of the extras too. You have a knack for catching the interesting points and making me feel I’ve seen them with my own eyes!
There are two directors that are the most influential on John Woo: Chang Cheh and Jean Pierre Melville (in fact John Woo is always on the extras of the Criterion Melville films like Le Cercle Rouge and Le Samourai). In fact Chow Yun Fat of Woo’s A Better Tomorrow is partially based (as well as his attire) on Alain Delon in Le Samourai.
I too need to give SPL a second watch (though that second will watching the Logan commentary).
I know I shouldn’t have probably liked ROB-B-HOOD, but I did (I have a thousand plus review/essay on it) and I cannot go against my own feelings
. Technically my review was between **½ and *** out of **** (on amazon I gave it ***½/*****). Contrarian reviews are not always popular 
. But then again I liked Enter the Phoenix 
.
It’s been a little while since I’ve seen WHO AM I, so I’m not sure what I would state as Jackie’s last great film (nothing recent though).
Quick note on Melville. While he has influenced Tarantino also, his films are very much French oriented crime works (even though Melville’s fanatisim of film noir is quite known). So they might be a little slow for you (but you should eventually get to them some day).
Well, I ordered La Samourai just to check it out! Thanks for the recommendation and I’ll probably end up writing about it here (it’s always healthy to have a few non-Asian films on here to keep from being too obvious).
When I end up watching it, though, is another matter entirely!
Speaking of Melville: apparently Johnny To is going to remake (originally the rumor was John Woo) Le Cercle Rouge.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0965377/
I’m not particularly thrilled by this. But you can see that Melville is an important French director to know (especially for action fans). If you ever want me to bore you with Traffaut, Louis Malle, Eric Rohmer etc… just ask
. (note my Godard knowledge needs work)
Here is a French article (in French
): http://www.toutlecine.com/star/articles/0000/00007612/00003057-alain-delon-orlando-bloom-dans-la-peau-de-delon.html
I’ll probably have some notes on INIVISBLE TARGET extras next week. I watched (and noted) the making of director on the first disc (actually not too bad for a making of); tons of extras on the second which I’ll get to. This weekend I’ll either watch ELECTION, DOG BITE DOG, HK TRIAD, or LONGEST NITE? Must get through more triad movies.
Which edition of this film do you have (or did you see this in the theater)? How are the extras and what did you think of them?
Actually, this was the one-disc version of the film and I don’t belive it can with any noteable extras. To be honest, I wasn’t too bothered as I wasn’t expecting to like the movie that much!
I haven’t seen LONGEST NIGHT or HK TRIAD yet, but ELECTION’s pretty good. Not as good as EXILED, mind…