Invisible Target 男兒本色

Benny Chan once again delivers bombastic action set pieces and hard hitting fight scenes.

Directed by Benny Chan Muk-Sing

Starring: Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue, Jaycee Chan, Wu Jing, Andy On, Vincent Sze, Mark Cheng

Hong Kong, Cantonese

Approx. 129 mins

Benny Chan has always been a very competent commercial director his films for the most part usually satisfy the general audiences action fix, releasing popular action films such as Who Am I? (1998), Connected (2008), The White Storm (2013) and reimagining Jackie Chan’s Police Story saga with New Police Story (2004). In 1999 and 2000 respectively he popularized Nicholas Tse, Daniel Wu, Stephen Fung, Maggie Q and Edison Chen with Gen X Cops and Gen Y Cops, introducing a new breed of talents to spotlight the Hong Kong film industry.

Invisible Target starts with a heist in the busy streets of Hong Kong which leads to countless casualties and amoung them is the death of cop Chan Chun’s (Nicholas Tse) fiancé. Despite the heist being successful the criminals led by Tien Yeng Seng (Wu Jing) find that they have been double crossed and return back to the city to exact revenge and retrieve their loot. During a routine police stop conducted by hot headed police officer Fong Yik Wei (Shawn Yue) and his team they encounter Tien and his band of thieves (Andy On, Vincent Sze and Wang Xue-Mei), which results in a humiliating defeat for Fong and Tien manages to escape. Both Chan and Fong are bent on finding Tien and they come across Wai King Ho (Jaycee Chan) whose brother was an undercover cop who infiltrated Tien’s gang. Banding together they soon uncover the truth about the stolen money and the gang, which all converges in an all-out bout at the police headquarters.

Invisible Target has a wealth of talents involved, the lead protagonists are the “young” breed of talents in Hong Kong (I say young but they have been present within the industry for a pretty good duration but the lack of young spiritual successors qualifies them as the youngest generation) and the villains consist of some of the newer generation of action actors; Wu Jing, Andy On, Vincent Sze and Wang Xue-Mei. As well as appearances from Philip Ng, Deep Ng and Samuel Pang, on top of this is a wealth of veteran talents such as Mark Cheng, Ken Lo and Lam Suet lending there star power. Wu Jing is a true force of power, providing raw charisma and menace with Invisible Target affording him more acting opportunity than what was given to him in SPL (2005). Nicholas Tse sadly fails to act convincingly with his emotions all over the place and his fits of rage and pain coming off as forced. Shawn Yue fairs better with his cool man demeanor but afford the less to do out of the trio of lead actors. Jaycee Chan shines the most out of the lot and commits wholeheartedly with a stand out performance and you ultimately feel his drive and passion. Sadly the likes of Andy On is regulated to a very small role and his confrontation with Jaycee Chan’s character near the end feels oddly out of place and it maybe a case of a side plot being exorcised from the film but a part of it still lingered in the final product.

Fights are handled by former Jackie Chan team member Nicky Li Chung-Chi (assisted by Jack Wong and He Jun) who has been making the rounds in HK film industry as a highly competent fight choreographer with his talents lent to films such as Fatal Contact (2006), New Police Story (2004) and his directional collaboration with Wu Jing, Legendary Assassins (2008). Invisible Target is pretty much the typical Nicky Li style which is usually highly stylized movements with wire work used to emphasis moves opposed exaggerate. Dragon Tiger Gate (2006) saw both Shawn Yue and Nicholas Tse collaborate together and there fight training for that film has clearly aided them in handling the fights for this film. Shawn Yue’s style is more straight up kickboxing and less flashy compared to Nicholas Tse utiising many high kicks and more agile movements. Jaycee Chan is more sloppy and less refined and that perfectly sits with the character. Though his acting is something to be desired Nicholas Tse’s action chops are amazing, he fully commits to all the stunts and the film makers are happy to show its all Nicholas Tse handling the action. Tse is thrown of a building, crash into by a bus and kicked down some stairs all the while throwing all manner of kicks and punches. Wu Jing is fast and furious with combinations of wushu styling and flashy kicks mixed in, he is an unrelenting force. Andy On does not get the opportunity to utilize any of his martial arts skills and is lumped at the end of an anticlimactic confrontation with Jaycee Chan. Martial arts actor Vincent Sze also does not join in in the combat and is regulated to firing weapons and is unceremoniously killed off. Newcomer Wang Xue-Mei shows some deft combat skills akin to wushu style and some impressive pole fighting skills and is pitted against Shawn Yue in an impressive but short lived duel. There are foot chases, hand to hand combat and shoot outs throughout the film and is at a unrelenting pace with everything eventually culminating to one impressive action set piece at a police headquarters, rounding it all off with Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue and Jaycee Chan battling the unstoppable Wu jing.

Thankfully everything is filmed coherently with cinematographer Ko Chui Lam opting for wide angles and optimal framing for the action sequences. Another positive note is that there is none of those quick edits prevalent in most modern films. The film score is bombastic but mixed with odd levels, the sound effects can be over bearing over at time and can over shadow the dialogue and the musical mix is also strange where the finale sees a score underlaid with some occasional croaking effects and once you hear it seems strangely out of place.

Invisible Target does not do anything new or particular to stand out in a midst of action films but it has some very well crafted fight scenes and a cast of talents throwing there all in. Its franticly paced and the action heavy set pieces make for a very entertaining film.