Da Hei

Nasty criminals in cahoots with town leadership to bilk the local yokels out of their land meet an incorruptible police captain who lets his fists do the talking. The plot isn't anything special, but the film stands out for a few reasons:

1) It's truly dark and grimy, showing a seedy side of China that I frankly did not know the Chinese censors would allow to be shown on film. The criminals carry out their dirty deeds with a level of violence and debauchery that is borderline shocking for Chinese cinema. Look out for the scene where Bao Beier (known for playing baby faced nice guys) bangs a crying girl doggy style while sneering at the cops.

2) The fight scenes are brutal and possibly the perfect marriage of Chinese and American approaches to action. From the American side, the fights are hard hitting with bone crunching grounded moves and energetic camerawork and editing. No elegant wushu kung fu moves here. From the Chinese side, the fights still manage to be long and complex with an intricacy Hollywood rarely reaches. There's a cramped elevator fight that may be the best one ever put to film. If I had to describe the fights, I would almost be tempted to Winter Soldier but way longer fights, no super powered moves, and more complex choreo.

A must watch for action movie fans and people interested in the minutiae of changing Chinese censorship standards.

I have a feeling Qin Pengfei is gonna be a name I remember in the future.

This is such a breath of fresh air for Chinese cinema, considering the industry (in both China and Hong Kong) has been pumping out less interesting stuff than previous decades, at least for me. First off, the storyline and writing is actually pretty solid. A cop returns to his hometown to investigate a disappearance involving a rich and powerful criminal. There's a few surprises, and it's not afraid to get dark and violent. There's also some great characters and performances. Chinese cinema tends to be too melodramatic for me, but I found the acting here to be pretty great across the board. Ashton Chen as the lead plays a believably tough cop, putting in some amazing martial arts work. The same goes for Bei'er Bao who plays the perfectly maniacal lead bad guy. But how's the action? Luckily, it's absolutely fantastic. Qin Pengfei directs them so well, with lots of cool and passionate camerawork. Close-ups when you need them, pulling back when you need to see the big picture. Well thought out fight locations and usage of the environment. It really did remind me of a film from the glory days of Chinese cinema.

Qin Pengfei has a very impressive 9 films directed since 2019, 3 of which came out this year. That's a very impressive output. Hopefully he will be a name more people recognize soon.