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 ingle Ma's "Seoul Raiders", the sequel
to his semi-hit "Tokyo
Raiders", is not so completely without merit that it finds itself
tagged as a movie in search of a purpose. To be sure, it's nothing you
couldn't live without, and is certainly nothing you should go out of your
way to find. In its basest form, "Seoul Raiders" is Jingle Ma's
attempt at convincing the world that the "Raiders" movies are a
franchise in the making. Not that anyone was clamoring for a sequel to the
2000 action-comedy starring Ekin Cheng, mind you, but bless his heart,
Jingle Ma decided to give us one anyway.
"Seoul Raiders" has
only one returning star, Tony Leung, who is back once again as Lam, a
Chinese man who is also a Japanese secret agent, but who seems to be
freelancing nowadays. After Lam gets wind that unsavory types are looking
to sell U.S. counterfeiting plates off to a gangster named Polar Bear, who
just happens to have ties to terrorism, Lam decides to steal the plates
first so he can sell it back to the U.S. for a nice reward. During the
theft, Lam crosses path with female thief JJ (Qi Shu), and after a long
running fistfight that would become the film's staple (as a variation of
it dominates much of the film's hour and 40 minutes), Lam hightails it to
the U.S. Consulate to claim his just rewards.
At the Consulate, Lam hands the plates over to
American agent Owen (Richie Ren), who quickly drugs Lam and flees to
Korea. The traitorous Owen plans to sell the plates to Polar Bear and make
a quick buck. Luckily for world security, the vain Lam is feeling a tad
peeved about having his reputation tarnished by Owen's backstab, and
spends the next hour pursuing Owen through the amazingly clean streets,
bath houses, bars, and subways of Seoul, Korea. (Hence the title, if you
were wondering.) Helping Lam out are three giggling Korean girls,
essentially his version of Charlie's Angels, who from what I can gather
are part of Lam's global harem of hot-to-trot assistants that are at his
beck and call. All he needs to do is whistle and they come running --
giggling all the way, of course.
"Seoul Raiders" is an action-comedy like
its predecessor, and Ma wisely avoids a lot of the pitfalls of his Asian
brethrens, namely staying clear of out-of-left-field sober melodramatic
moments in the Third Act. This is fluff entertaining all the way. It's no
mystery why Leung agreed to come back, as his character seems to be in on
the joke from the very first frame. (And they probably paid him a nice
sum, as his stock seems to have risen tremendously in recent years.) After
dark turns in the "Infernal
Affairs" film and Wong Kar Wai's heavy "2046",
Leung was probably looking for a movie that didn't require emotional
investment. "Seoul Raiders" is definitely that film.
Like most Hong Kong action-comedies, "Seoul
Raiders" has its narrative focus backwards, with the "A"
story taking a backseat to the general foolishness of the "B"
story. In this case, the B-side is Lam and his Korean Angels spending most
of the film's first hour chasing Owen all about town and engaging in
elaborate, but pointless fisticuffs. Every now and then Owen meets up with
representatives of the oft-mention but never seen Polar Bear to remind the
audience there is actually a point to all of this. Well, not really a
point, as the premise revolving around the counterfeit plates is so
uninteresting that when the villain finally reveals all, you don't quite
understand if you're supposed to be surprised at the revelation or annoyed
that the movie thinks we care about any of it.
The action in "Seoul Raiders" is of the
"choreograph the hell out of it" variety, in which Lam, Owen,
and JJ can take on dozens of faceless opponents at once while grinning
their way through it, and not surprisingly, no one ever develops any after
effects of getting kicked, punched, and generally thrashed about something
awful. While all this activity supplies the movie with an endless supply
of slickly choreographed action, it also doesn't do anything to inject the
audience with suspense. The only sequence where writer/director Jingle Ma
comes close to generating any decent tension onscreen is when Owen has to
wade through a sea of Korean baddies in a parking lot fight at night. The
rest of the action is so outlandishly and overly choreographed that
they're beyond being taken seriously.
"Seoul Raiders" doesn't really mark any
real improvement (or, for that matter, decline) in quality from 2000's
"Tokyo Raiders". There's no Ekin Cheng, of course, but Richie
Ren does well enough in the shallow role. Although another actor might
have been a better choice, as the Owen character is somewhat schizophrenic
-- sometimes ultra cool, other times bumbling. Ren, coming off an ultra
serious turn in Johnnie To's crime film "Breaking
News", still has the cool part down, but when the script requires
him to be anything other than suave, viewers will get flashbacks of his
(supposedly) "comic" turn in the terrible "Silver
Hawk". Also, it's a shame how little Jingle Ma works Qi Shu into
the film. There's supposed to be something of a love triangle between JJ,
Owen, and Lam, but chances of the perfunctory romance angle convincing
anyone is nil.
It's no surprise that "Seoul Raiders" is
popcorn entertainment through and through. In that respect, it certainly
lives up to its billing, and is no better or worst for it. Without a
doubt, the chances of you liking the film is higher if you also like the
three leads. If you don't care for them, or are indifferent, then the film
will probably irritate with its lack of ambition and creativity. The only real
bone of contention everyone should be able to agree on is Jingle Ma's vast plagiarism of
the "Kill Bill"
theme music. It's one thing to re-use music from an obscure film, but did
Ma consider his use, re-use, and still more use of the "Kill
Bill" theme to be homage? One has to wonder what he was thinking.
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