A good decade after “Colour of the Truth” and “Colour of the Loyalty” came the final installment of what is to date a loose thematic trilogy produced by Wong Jing. With the first two riding the wave of crime thrillers that followed the smash hit “Infernal Affairs”, this latter piece feels a bit out of time, as usually sequels tend to follow thick and fast in the region. With an eclectic cast of up and coming talent mixed with veteran performers, is it able to stand out from what is a fairly crowded genre?
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After an incident involving the rape and murder of gangland boss Dragon's (Lau Siu Ming) wife, Wallace (Simon Yam) is ordered by Slaughter (Lam Suet) to put a team together to take out the culprit, Robert, the son of another boss Nine (Waise Lee). He recruits Chun (Jordan Chan), BBQ (Cheung Siu-fei), Superman (Lit Wai Leung) alongside his no 2 Sky (Philip Ng) and daughter Lily (Sabrina Qiu). After a failed attempt that leads to BBQ being wounded, the team is forced into hiding. Unbeknownst to them, Sky is actually an undercover policeman and is the one the triads are also trying to find. Loyalties become increasingly conflicted as they find out they have been betrayed and set up to take the fall by any means. As the truth emerges, a final confrontation must take place but not all will survive unscathed.
Simon Yam has a world-weary air in the lead role. It's a downbeat performance and his face looks like it has lived every year. He retains his charisma, but we get both sides of his character. One that inspires loyalty from his team yet also a man that has to survive. He knows the world in which he resides and the dangers it includes. Like many of his contemporaries, as he has aged, his performances have become more nuanced when the effort is required, and he is a perfect fit for the part. Similarly, Jordan Chan who in his youth was fairly annoying in his past works, but possesses a more lived in look here. His Chun is essentially playing how an older version of his “Young and Dangerous” style character if he had graduated to middle age. Philip Ng, representing the younger generation, gets to do a bit more than martial arts as the undercover cop questioning his loyalties part that is almost requisite for these features, and a debuting Sabrina Qiu is more than capable as Wallace's feisty daughter Lily. Cheung Siu-fei as the loyal BBQ and Lit Wai Leung as Superman provide solid supporting turns as the remainder of Wallace's crew.
Fatalism is something that is interconnected with the genre and it does mean that we know where the outcome is heading, long before the conclusion. These characters, however, accept this as part of the life they have chosen and therefore death is inevitable, just a matter of when. Scratch beneath the surface gloss (bright white suits that inevitably are blood stained at the end for example) and there is a melancholic air about proceedings. BBQ needs to do the job as has medical bills to pay for his wife, despite Wallace's reluctance to involve him. Loyalty is a shifting sand and despite the pretext of honour, it is sacrificed throughout for financial gain. From the moment they take on the job they are doomed, and Wallace seems to recognize it straight away. We get a clear contrast in the actions of the foot soldiers that act within their own code of honour and their bosses that will do anything for the pursuit of power. While the police side of the story appears weaker with their flitting in and out of the narrative, they are not the focus so a lack of depth here can be understood.
Familiarity though does not always bring contempt and we get a very well-crafted narrative almost from the outset. With the acting kept straight (apart from Waise Lee who I think started making me twitch watching him overact) there are scenes of dark comedy that play really well. The crew's invasion of a slaughter's house to interrogate him is a pitch perfect sequence of mounting tension amidst the nervous laughter. Desperate to avoid questioning, he keeps taking helping after helping of the meal, trying to postpone the inevitable. It's a fantastic scene that is beautifully played by all and especially by Lam Suet. Some of the narrative may feel a bit contrived but genre tropes are what we expect at times. Brotherhood and loyalty is a theme that goes back to the days of Wu Xia fiction and combined with the fatalism that this belief often leads us to understand the actions of the characters. There is one exception to this and comes right at the conclusion that feels like a narrative device as it the character's actions feel out of place.
The action sequences are efficiently done with a couple of explosive shootouts and a finale that recalls the best of heroic bloodshed. We even get a brutal duel that allows Philip Ng to cut loose with his martial skills. The sequences are clearly shot with little of the frenetic editing that mars them at times. What makes the final scenes even better is the flashbacks to the earlier days of Wallace, BBQ and Chun as we see their former selves in the same location joining the triads. It gives us the sense of life coming full circle as they meet their fate.
“Colour of the Game” is one of the better modern era crime thrillers. With a solid storyline, it reminds of the heroic bloodshed movies that resonated with my generation. It's well directed and performed and featuring enough action to satisfy the inner adrenaline junkie. It involves you with the characters and has a sincerity that many of its genre lack. If, like me, you reminisce about how they don't make them like this anymore, well in this case they did.
