Chung tin foh

Imagine throwing up your lunch, and looking down at the result. That's basically what Ringo Lam's 2016 Chinese action flick Sky on Fire is; a collection of random pieces churned together without an ounce of cleverness, the result leaving me speechless - and not in a good way. Though his last foray, Wild City, was arguably sensational, and kept me rooted to the spot, Sky on Fire is an absolute insult to humanity - yes, it is that ridiculous.

Don't get me wrong...the car chases are magnificently choreographed, with enough staged crashes and smashes to get your heart racing. The musical score, from its sweeping melodies to its beating drums is great, and if the film had any idea what it actually wanted to accomplish, the music would have made it that much more captivating. The computer generated effects are continuous, and though they are *ahem* obviously fake, they sure are pretty.

Daniel Wu stars as Tianbo, the security chief at Sky One, a massive pharmaceutical corporation, where Dr Yu (the lovely Zhang Jingchu) has successfully developed the cure to cancer, using ex-stem cells (no idea what the "ex" means). Unfortunately, the stem cells are stolen, during a not-so-daring robbery by a gang of miscreants led by Ziwan (Zhang Ruo Yun), who spends most of the film looking as though he has no idea what's going on. Don't worry Zhang - I feel your pain.

From tracking down the 'masterminds' (dripping with sarcasm I'm afraid) of the heist, to uncovering a slew of underwhelming conspiracies, Wu and the rest of the cast spend much of the film holding guns to each other's heads and shouting, the occasional fisticuffs looking like something ripped out of Team America. You would think with so many guns, someone might actually think to, well, shoot one, something that is rarely the case.

Somehow, Jia (Chang Hsaio-Chaun) and his sister Jane (Amber Kuo), become embroiled in this affair. In the opening of the film, we discover Jane spontaneously, without explanation, has cancer, Jia sacrificing everything to save her. All the while, Yu's husband, Tang (Yao Fan-Kuang), the owner of the conglomerate, uses his personal lapdog Wolf (Li Haitao) to control the situation, his own agenda in mind.

On paper, this almost sounds sane - it's the execution that is beyond acceptable. The aforementioned cast are just a small sample of the many faces that appear, not one of them receiving sufficient characterisation for us to understand their motives. We occasionally receive glimpses, in the form of convoluted flashbacks; example, melodramatic scenes of Tianbo's late wife, though how this relates to the plot, or his character, who seldom seems in mourning, is beyond me. On other occasions, Sky on Fire reveals too much, spoiling the story by revealing the villain halfway through.

Don't even get me started on the dialogue. One moment it's pseudoscientific; the next it's so awkwardly tacky I wouldn't be surprised if it attracts its own face palm memes; the next, it's poetic. There is no rhyme or reason for any of it, Zhang Jingchu being perhaps the only actor who can emotionally empower the otherwise shameful script (I genuinely mean this as a compliment). Occasionally, Lam discusses the preciousness of life, an idea which seems in direct contrast with money, these been two of the central themes which very rarely work, click or do anything else.

Finally, Lam's Sky on Fire has some good action scenes - perhaps he had some spare scenarios lying in his head, and threw them together, hoping for the best (which is a bit like me when I make dinner). Unfortunately, the end result is a punishingly bad film I wouldn't serve up to my worst enemy; to call it stupid would be an insult to every stupid film out there. Skip this if you can.

Sky on Fire has just as many weaknesses as strengths and makes for an entertaining but ultimately underwhelming experience. On the positive side, you have a quite complex and intriguing story which is though at times hard to follow with its numerous characters with different interests. It basically revolves around a company that is working on stem cell research to cure cancer. The leader of the project died in a fire five years earlier and the team is now led by a greedy doctor and his humanist ex-wife. The son of the deceased leader who believes his father was assassinated in a conspiracy robs a truck with important material to put the company under pressure. A headstrong brother and his sick sister get coincidentally caught up in this conflict and while the sister grows fond of the thief, her brother rather tries to find her a cure by any means necessary. The security guard of the company who lost his wife to cancer five years earlier must decide whether he follows the greedy doctor's orders or whether he supports the group of robbers. However, another more ruthless security guard known as Wolf watches every move he makes and will go as far as he possibly can to protect the greedy doctor and his entourage. This intriguing story leads to quite a few spectacular action scenes. One can observe wild car chases, a dramatic duel on a rooftop and a dramatic showdown in the company's modern headquarters. Sky on Fire is entertaining from start to finish and avoids developing any significant ups or downs.

However, Sky on Fire also has several issues. First of all, the acting performances are truly terrible. The often cringe-worthy dialogues are offered without any emotions as the actors and actresses look as wooden as if they were robots. Since none of the actors incarnates his role convincingly, it's difficult to empathize with any of the characters. The story-telling also has issues and is often switching from one perspective to another which is quite confusing with the elevated number of characters. The fact that the villain behind the conspiracy is revealed halfway through the movie makes the film lose momentum. The special effects look obviously fake and overuse CGI techniques. The company's headquarters look as if they were copied from an old science-fiction movie which doesn't go along with the rest of the story which seems to take place in present-day Hong Kong.

In the end, Sky on Fire is a quite difficult film. It has a solid core with an interesting story, several great action scenes and solid pace that keeps the movie entertaining from start to finish. However, it seriously suffers from terrible acting, weak script writing and cheap special effects. This movie had the potential to be much better than what it ultimately turned out to be. If someone ever decided to produce a remake of this film, I would give it a chance because I appreciate the film's main ideas. However, as it is now, I can't recommend Sky on Fire which is an average action-thriller at best.

Ringo Lam's swansong is this disappointing action thriller starring the one and only Daniel Wu, and both star and director deserve better material. Wu plays the head of security for some big pharmaceutical company in China, but there's a conspiracy surrounding cancer-curing stem cells and before long various interested parties are shooting up a storm. I really wanted to like this film but sadly it feels much more like a mainland China movie than a Hong Kong one, if you know what I mean. Lam's direction is incredibly disjointed and the big cast doesn't help lessen the confusion. There are a few fun vehicular chases and at least one good fight scene, but the rest is just a bland and disjointed mess.