Chung chong ging chaat

(2000) Hit Team (In Chinese with English subtitles) ACTION/ SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Hit Team is a small Chinese tactical police unit that's assigned to take on specific duties such as gun smuggling similar to narcs doing drug busts etc... Anyways during an undercover stand off one of it's members from another group gets himself fatally injured while going undercover, and slipping through the cracks to get Police compensation since he was accused of working alongside the gun smugglers instead of working alongside the law because he wasn't following instructions or following proper protocol. While injured his other 'hit team' unit even tried to argue on his behalf but with no avail, but at the same time another hit team is intervening on some gun smuggling and accidentally gets himself caught in a dilemma. What's great about this film is that it takes out all the sappy stuff and gets to the point, rather than drag it's viewers with pointless nonsense which always involve a love interest for the protagonist etc... Very straight up but wish their was more gun battles than the few that is shown.

I wonder why I sat all the way through this movie even though it was obvious within the first 3 minutes that it was bad....probably because I paid money to rent it instead of seeing it on TV for free. First of all, don't be fooled by the slick video cover, the movie looks awful - it has that unmistakable straight-to-video look of any low-budget American actioner. The script is disconnected and doesn't make any sense - most of the time you can't even tell the characters apart. And if you're expecting quality action (it is a Hong Kong movie, after all), forget it: the "action" comes mostly in the form of generic shootouts, which are so badly directed it's hard to know who's shooting at whom. There is also a brief, unexciting car chase, and absolutely no martial arts. The two main actors aren't bad, but everything else surrounding them is. 0.5 out of 4 stars.

HIT TEAM (Chong Zhuang Jing Cha)

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Sound format: Dolby Digital

Members of an elite police squad investigate a series of raids on an underground Triad bank, carried out by rogue officers to fund medical treatment for a colleague (Chin Kar-lok) who was injured in the line of duty.

Minor league crime drama, toplined by rising star Daniel Wu as the team leader torn between devotion to duty and compassion for his quarry's altruistic motives. Unfortunately, Wu is much too young for the role, and he allows himself to be upstaged by co-star Alex To (SKYLINE CRUISERS) as the wayward cop prepared to sacrifice everything for his beloved friend (veteran actor/director Chin). Action specialist Dante Lam (JIANG HU: THE TRIAD ZONE, THE TWINS EFFECT, etc.) overcomes the limitations of a meager budget to fashion a series of dynamic set-pieces, though he relies heavily on the combined efforts of cinematographer Tony Cheung and editor Chan Kei-hop to shape the material accordingly. Like so many HK movies before it, HIT TEAM is tinged with melancholy, as good men are forced to sublimate their law-abiding instincts for the greater good, regardless of the consequences, and the movie is strengthened considerably by this emotional undercurrent.

(Cantonese dialogue)

One of the few action films from Hong Kong in 2001 that went mostly ignored. Despite the cast of mostly pop idols (a sure sign that a film will, in a word, be "lame"), HIT TEAM works as an action film and nothing more. The story needs some sort and is rather predictable, not to mention being a bit cheesy, but the film's superior action sequences save it from Hong Kong oblivion.

Of nose is a couple of gunfights where director Dante Lam channelled Michael Mann ala HEAT. HIT TEAM is one of recent Hong Kong action films that have started to break the mold of what a "Hong Kong action film" is. The gunfight is now more realistic, which translates into sheer excitement.

Still, HIT TEAM does have some big problems. Of note is the storyline, which is too formulaic. Also, the movie boasts some of the worst English subtitles known to man. Truly, truly horrible. But the whole thing is worth it just for the thrilling action.

7 out of 10.

You won't believe your ears as HIT TEAM (Dante Lam's CHUNG CHONG GING CHAAT from 2001) unleashes a virtual film budget full of lead in this relatively formulaic cop thriller that still manages to pull some excitement from an already explored themes.

When one of their cop partners faces paralysis as the result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time on an undercover mission, four friends band together -- three of them resigning in protest over the police dismissing the injured comrade -- in an attempt to come up with enough money for the necessary treatments and surgery. Their plan is simple: steal the money from the exact thugs involved in the undercover mission.

What they don't count on is the Hit Team, a special division of the police force dedicated to solving crime involving heavy artillery, of which the vengeful friends have plenty thanks to their fourth friend -- the one who stayed on the force happens to manage the police artillery.

Fast, frenetic, and fun, HIT TEAM owes a lot of its inspiration to John Woo, Walter Hill, and, quite possibly, Michael Mann (the film's climax has a set-up that is almost lifted out of Hill's 48 HOURS, and one of the film's major gun battle action sequences is strikingly reminiscent of Mann's work in HEAT). This is a film where the ending is predestined; the tension builds as the viewer tries to understand how the good guys are going to convince the police that what they're doing is serving not only their injured comrade but the greater good as well.

The transfer is quite good, with only a handful of grainy shots that probably were originally bad images. The sound is crisp, and you can enjoy every gun blast in the peace and quiet of your home. The subtitles are very good; if they have any failing, it is the common problem that some translations simply carry too much information in the flash of an eye -- I found myself reaching for the remote, rewinding, and rereading what was said a half-dozen times.

Those concerns aside, HIT TEAM definitely deserves to be a HIT!