Viral Factor

A team of military special forces are escorting a scientist and his family in the Middle East when they are ambushed by terrorists, intent on taking the scientist's work on a genetically engineered super-strain of smallpox and using it for their own private financial gain. One of the operatives receives a bullet in the head, but declines to stay in hospital to recuperate, instead heading off to Malaysia to look for his estranged father and the brother he never knew he had. As luck would have it, this course of action brings him back in contact and indeed conflict with the terrorists.

Hong Kong does not typically do hi-tech action thrillers very well, and terrorists seeking super-viruses is certainly a red flag when it comes to a Hong Kong movie. The smarter Hong Kong's scriptwriters try to make their characters sound, the dumber they usually come across, and this is no exception. Additionally, credibility-stretching coincidences are rarely a hallmark of a well-written script. One incredible coincidence which becomes the centre-piece of the story, exploring how the effects of random probability or the hand of fate can transform a person's life, can make for an interesting story and film. When your hi-tech action thriller introduces at least 3 unbelievable coincidences in an attempt to make your story about super-viruses seem more coherent, you should probably realise you've taken the wrong track.

In short, the script for The Viral Factor is a mess... ridiculously, eyeball rollingly so, really. The annoying thing is that it's all quite unnecessary... at its heart there is a story of two estranged brothers that have found themselves on opposite sides of the law, but who have to cooperate to protect their family and see if they can find forgiveness and redemption. The implausible coincidences don't really add anything to that scenario, and the whole terrorists with super-viruses aspect is basically not needed, too. They're plot devices that speak of a weak writer, one who feels that the simple motivations of family, love, guilt and redemption just aren't enough to engage the viewer... when in fact they're the only parts of the script that do.

Somehow, the glaring flaws in the story do not derail The Viral Factor nearly as much as you feel they ought to. The writing is awful, but pretty much everything else about the film is good. Dante Lam's direction is strong, the performances from Jay Chou and Nic Tse are good, visuals and production values are excellent and the action scenes are top calibre. Some individual scenes are well written and executed, and there is generally a lot to like about the film. Generally, the further the whole 'Viral Factor' aspect is pushed into the background, the more engaging and enjoyable the film is - and for much of the running time it is indeed relegated to the background.

If Lam had had the confidence to just excise all the hi-tech espionage type fluff and focus on the emotional core of the story, he could have made a great film here... though admittedly he'd have robbed himself of some excuses for staging some quite remarkable action scenes (though I'm sure he'd have found a way). As it is, I guess he can take some credit for managing to produce a pretty solid film despite the self-imposed handicap of a ridiculous script.

Having just sat down to watch the 2012 action thriller "Jik Zin" (aka "The Viral Factor") for the first time ever here in 2022, I will have to say that the narrative in the movie was somewhat confusing and chaotic. It felt like writers Dante Lam, Candy Leung and Wai Lun Ng were writing independently of one another and the end result was a mash of random scenes filmed and put together.

The storyline in "Jik Zin" was simplistic enough, but there simply were too many things being crammed into the storyline, which cluttered up the narrative flow unnecessarily. And the end result was a somewhat botched narrative that felt incomplete and in disarray. Running at 122 minutes, the movie is long, so very, very long to sit through, especially with all the things crammed into the storyline. When the movie was about to come to an end, I checked the run time, and I was only 55 minutes into the ordeal, but at that time it felt like I had been spoon-fed enough contents to fill up two movies.

There is a lot of action in "Jik Zin", and it is definitely that action that keeps the movie afloat and keeps it being a watchable movie. So if you enjoy fighting, chases, gun fights, etc. Then director Dante Lam doesn't disappoint with "Jik Zin". If you are looking for a properly enjoyable action thriller storyline, then "Jik Zin" is not the best of choices.

The movie has a good cast ensemble to help make the movie stay afloat as well, with the likes of Jay Chou, Nicholas Tse, Andy On and Kai-Chi Liu.

Sure, "Jik Zin" was watchable, but it was by no means an outstanding movie experience. I doubt that I will ever return to watch this movie a second time.

My rating of "Jik Zin" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars. If the movie had a more focused storyline and narrative, and they had trimmed out all the cluttering elements, the movie would have been a far more enjoyable one.

This is another typical action movie from HK that will be loved by those who watch with their right-sided brain but not those with left-sided brain. Better still if watch without working on the brains.Anyway, you have no time for the brain. Scenes are fast, action start right from the beginning till end, mostly well filmed, fast paced but the whole story, main plots and sub-plots right to the action details are full of multi-layered coincidental happenings or actions and events all in the nick time that the audience will find it unconvincing and unbelievable. If only they have paid more attention to the script instead of the action. Revealing the characters or more of the story will spoil the fun, there are also too many loose ends. One important role's mum actually got lost in the middle of the action. Most of the acting are good except for Jay Chou who look lost throughout the movie but it's OK considering his "problem". The location of KL(Kuala Lumpur) made the movie better; instead of usual HK.

'The Viral Factor' could have been so much better had they kept the premise simple. They tried so hard to complicate the film. With so many characters and back stories, the film is complicated on another level, though.

This film has a number of issues. There's too much unnecessary killings (like a John Woo film). The background actors were very bad. They did not act realistic at all. Even during gunfire scenes, they simply stood there passively watching. They were stocky and seemingly had no idea what to do. They didn't act or react to the circumstances.

Despite these flaws, though, this is not a bad movie. The photography is stunning and the action sequences are sensational. This fast-paced action-packed thriller is pure adrenaline and worth watching for the action alone. 'The Viral Factor' truly is exciting entertainment.

well, 3 stars is for the nice action stunt carried out seamlessly. 7 stars minus is for the lousy casting job and the moronic screenplay that messed up the whole nine yards.

here are the problems:

1) if the small pox bio-virus so important, why use ground transportation instead of air lift? 2) why the scene is originated from Jordain? Jordain is not war-torn country, it's Iraq, stupid. 3) a bullet resided in the brain where is non-operable and the nerve center would be totally messed up within 2 weeks, after the guy stayed in the hospital for 3 months, and the guy was able to walk out the jordanian hospital, went back to china. well, that journey would have wasted how many days? the math was somewhat confusing a lot, dude. 4) if the young son (the one who carried a bullet in his brain) was brought up by his mother, why his mandarin pu-tong-wha with an Taiwanese accent? if the mother's hometown was Beijing, why her accent was without any Beijing tone? 4) so the younger brother was a police, what country's police force he belonged to? 5) then again, same problem happened again. the female bio-chem doctor spoken a common mandarin pu-tong-wha, her mother spoke typical Cantonese. why her daughter could speak the mandarin Chinese pu-tong-wha without any Cantonese dialect accent? no Cantonese could speak mandarin without any localized Cantonese accent. absolutely impossible! 6) so the brother was a dangerous criminal, in Malaysia? so, the father had migrated from Beijing(?) or hongkong(?) or canton (?) to Malaysia? the elder son became a local criminal. and the younger brother would be so accidentally got involved in his caper right after he landed in the twin-tower city? how convenient, dude.

this is a movie typically treated viewers as brainless morons without any reasoning logic. but after all the criticism been said, lets sit back and enjoy the nicely shot exotic locations this movie's lens carried around and also try to appreciate the well managed stunts and special effect of the fighting scenes, the flying bullets, the nicely done explosions, the car jack and so on.

this is an action movie full of heavily flawed scenarios and plot twists, some way too shallow, some way over the top. strongly recommend to watch but you must turn off your i.q. reasoning function first.