While the films we see from Mainland China in festivals mostly follow arthouse social/family drama paths, the ones we see outside of the circuit, mostly in various streamers and occasionally in distribution, are almost always of the crime/action variety and quite frequently, of dubious quality. “Go For Broke”, a Chinese/Hong Kong production by Marc Ma, checks both these last two boxes.
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In a hidden corner of Mancheng, a profit-seeking drug cartel is unscrupulously causing countless people to fall into the abyss of drug addictions and tearing apart families. Zhang Yao was persecuted by the drug traffickers until his family met their ruin, so, with his life in shambles, agrees to cooperate with anti-narcotics captain An Du to seek revenge against the leaders of the criminal syndicate, Mu Kun and An Pei. To do so, Zhang Yao takes the place of Mu Kun’s lost son, who has been in prison for years and, as the story begins, is murdered by An Du’s men. Zhang Yao is quite successful in the part, with his “father” liking him more and more as time passes, to the innervation of Heta, his right hand for years who now sees his authority undermined.
Soon, Balai, a drug addict Zhang Yao is to destroy for stealing for the family but instead takes him to their side, also gets involved, while An Pei’s woman, Nancy, also comes to the fore. As time passes, the tension rises, loyalties are proven false, and a number of people are revealed to have ulterior plans completely different than what anyone predicted.
As it also happened frequently in the past in the HK action movies, the story is filled with characters, makes very little sense and is filled with plot holes anyone would have a hard time to ignore. Furthermore, the loans from John Woo in the action scenes and from “Infernal Affairs” regarding the many ‘master plans’ unfolding are rather evident, and not particularly well handled for that matter. Lastly, the plethora of music video scenes, usually presenting the blights of forced drug addiction or intense melodramatic moments, do become annoying after a point, while not offering much in terms of narrative.
As such, it is quite easy to state that the film is a total mess on a number of levels, with the characters suffocating in what is particularly bad writing. There are, however, some redeeming qualities. The obvious big budget of the movie results in a number of impressive exterior shots, with DP Kenny Tse taking full advantage of the locations in Bangkok to present a series of truly memorable scenes. Furthermore, the action scenes are rather amusing on occasion, with their hyperbole working particularly well in terms of entertainment, with the use of guns especially being quite fun to watch.
Lastly, the charisma of some of the protagonists frequently fills the screen, with Nick Cheung as Zhang Yao, Ethan Juan as An Du and Marc Ma himself as Balai being quite appealing to watch, particularly in their interactions. On the other hand, Vithaya Pansringarm could have had a meatier role as Mu Kun.
In the end, “Go For Broke” emerges as another crime action movie from China that does not reach the levels of “Walled In” or “The Pig, The Snake and the Pigeon”, resulting in one of those titles one watches, has some fun, and then forgets almost immediately.
