Review of "Helios" (赤道)

Just looking at the cast lineup alone already tells you that this is a blockbuster-type of movie. Actors from Hong Kong (Jacky Cheung, Nick Cheung, Shawn Yue and Janice Man), Taiwan (Chang Chen), China (Wang Xueqi, Feng Wenjuan and Josephine Koo) and South Korea (Ji Jin-hee, Choi Siwon, Yoon Jin-yi and Lee Tae-ran) come together in this multi-national production which talks about how the Hong Kong police join forces with the Chinese and South Korean authorities to retrieve a portable nuclear explosive device DC8 which was stolen from South Korea and catch Helios, the elusive thief who is planning to sell the device. On paper, it sounds like a pretty tempting and interesting film because you hardly get to see that many A-listers in a single film. Then again, I'm always wary of such movies being over-estimated because the story tends to be a let-up if the cast lineup is the selling point of the movie. Luckily, Helios defied this conception I had and turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

From this point onwards, there will be some spoilers about the movie so if you do not wish to know about them, you may wish to skip this review.

Given that most movies would last 2 hours only, it is difficult to ensure that each and every A-lister in the lineup gets their time to shine. It is inevitable that some of them don't get as much airtime as the others which leads to the flat presentation of their characters e.g. Shawn Yue's detective role. I find that I hardly know anything about him nor remember what he did except for those action scenes in the multi-storey carpark at the beginning of the film. It may be that he will get another chance at showing more of his acting especially if there is a "Helios 2" but just based on this film alone, his performance was somewhat forgettable. At the other end of the spectrum, Jacky Cheung starts off rather mildly as a subject matter expert and professor but as his true identity is revealed, his importance grows and the significance of his actions become apparent. In terms of airtime, he may not have as much as the others but he sure grows on you over time. As for the Korean actors, the fact that they were in another country meant that their actions had to be somewhat restricted thus it is natural that they were not able to do as many things as the Hong Kong police or Chinese authorities so the constraints they faced made them appear somewhat passive and underachieving.

Due to the fact that this film consists of an international cast, it is also a multilingual film with Mandarin, Korean and English spoken by the characters. Too bad the version here doesn't show Cantonese which I thought was a pity because some lines do have a different meaning and punch in that language rather than Mandarin. In order not to disrupt the tempo  of the story by having interpreters to communicate among the characters, this film has a rather ingenious way of solving this problem i.e. a device worn in the ear which translates among languages automatically based on spoken speech. It doesn't seem like interpreters were doing the translation so I assume that device has some program that does the job automatically.

The story actually does a pretty decent job at defying expectations with twists here and there instead of being another anti-terrorism story where the leads save the world easily. It leads you to believe that something might happen then heads for the other direction. For example, when Janice Man and Nick Cheung had fighting scenes in Macau, the assumption is that the guy tends to prevail because of the physical strength he possesses over the woman. However, Janice Man's character was such a strong fighter that Nick Cheung was rendered powerless and almost got killed if not for his colleagues who came in the nick of time. Another example was when Ji Jin Hee and Choi Siwon were cornered by Chang Chen and Janice Man and were left bleeding to death literally. Then, it is discovered that Ji who was thought to have suffered more serious injuries and passed out first was the one who survived while Choi didn't. When Nick Cheung and Jacky Cheung had the final showdown, most stories would probably stick to the mantra of "good prevails over evil" but it turned out the other way round. Last but not least, when Jacky Cheung and Wang Xueqi met in the train at Kurama, Kyoto, it proved to be that the evil had the upperhand this time and hints that there may be a sequel to settle things once and for all. I like the fact that these twists made the story more unpredictable and interesting but I do fear that if the sequel wants to stick to the "good prevails over evil" principle, it might turn out to be a letdown if the baddies go out without a good fight.

Among the cast, I would say that Jacky Cheung, Nick Cheung and Janice Man were probably the ones who made the deepest impressions on me. I've not seen too many of Jacky Cheung's movies and he is not as active in movies now compared to the late 80s and early 90s. However, the fact that he is able to assimilate into his roles and make the audience feel that we are looking at the character, not the singer Jacky Cheung, is probably what makes him successful as an actor. His portrayal of the professor Siu Chi-yan seemed a bit bland in the beginning because he was playing a supporting role to the police i.e. Nick Cheung and Shawn Yue to help in the arrest of Helios and retrieval of DC8. However, when it was revealed that he is the real Helios (instead of Chang Chen), he was able to show the ruthless side of Helios while maintaining a straight face and strike fear in his opponents without having to do anything. Especially in his final showdown scenes with Nick Cheung and Wang Xueqi, these are when his acting really shines through.

On the other hand, Nick Cheung had a heavier role in the sense that he had to be hot on the toes of Helios in order to achieve his mission. However, his character as the police officer Lee Yin-ming was somewhat not a typical police officer. Most police-and-thief stories would make the police officer be brainy or a tough fighter but Lee seemed rather ordinary. He was no good fighter (especially against Janice Man) nor was he the super-brainy type. Nonetheless, Nick Cheung managed to make Lee appear believable as a "normal" police officer who still managed to get to the truth, albeit in the end, he let down his guard too much and ended up losing his life. He was so convincing in that scene when he was struggling before his death and deserves a lot of praise for making it look so real. I thought Nick Cheung was fantastic in making a character appear "ordinary" which was probably more difficult than the other way round.

Last but not least, Janice Man is an eye-catching actress. It's not just her looks which I'm talking about but the fact that she could be such a mean fighter means that she'll likely be a top action actress in Hong Kong since there aren't that many now. Granted that she had very few lines in this movie, it was difficult to see if she could handle emotional scenes well but I liked that her facial expressions were strong enough to give off the icy feeling of the Messenger so it seemed like lines were superfluous this time for a femme fatale like her.

As I mentioned above, I thought Shawn Yue had too little to do in this movie which was a real shame. Likewise, Chang Chen, Ji Jin-hee and Choi Siwon probably had some issues which prevented them from shining in this movie. Ji and Choi had the problem of their characters being somewhat hampered by the fact that they were not on home ground but at least Choi got to do a motorbike chasing scene with Chang Chen through the busy streets of Hong Kong. Since they had to abide by the rules of the HK jurisdiction, that effectively meant that they could not do many action scenes especially if it involved guns. In addition, in those scenes when they were searching for intelligence with another agent played by Yoon Jin-yi, those seemed rather odd too because they seemed to be led around by Yoon who irritated me a lot with her overboard facial reactions in a bid to emphasize the severity of the situation they were in but all these guys could do was to get frustrated at each other during the argument at the da pai dong. It's kinda funny and ironic, considering how they were depicted to be potential heroes who could save their country and complete their mission in the beginning of the film but had a rather undependable colleague in Hong Kong who seemed to be able to do nothing. Last but not least, their endings also made them look a sorry sight as they were heavily defeated by Helios and his sidekicks. Wonder if the Korean audience would take issue with this? One thing about Choi, although I've not seen his dramas in full before (did catch glimpses of him in a Taiwanese drama and "Poseidon" with Lee Si Young), I think he was better at the action scenes compared to those which required emotions as he was practically squeezing the expressions out from his face. He probably just needs to loosen up a bit, blend in a little more with his character and can probably carve out a decent acting career with his looks and ability to do some serious action scenes.

As for Chang Chen, he was depicted as the main villain i.e. Helios from the start and spoke some pretty good English although some words were pronounced in a rather funny way. That aside, I liked the fact that he was able to balance the demands of being a cool villain with his other human side especially through his interaction with his godmother Josephine Koo. However, once it was hinted that Jacky Cheung was the real mastermind i.e. Helios, Chang Chen's importance seemed to dwindle sharply and he was hardly seen towards the end of the film. As such, I thought it was a pity that he was conveniently "chucked aside" after serving his purpose as the decoy for the real Helios.

If you are in the cinema for this film, do stay till the ending credits for the theme song sung by Jacky Cheung and Choi which is in Cantonese and Korean. For a brief moment, I doubted that Jacky was singing both languages on its own but the Korean voice was obviously different. Later, I went online to check and confirmed that it was the two of them singing the song together. Then again, it seemed like Choi was doing mostly the chorus while Cheung could be heard almost all the time.

In summary, this film was enjoyable in the sense that it defied my expectations in a good way and had some intense action scenes with great acting and nice scenery especially as the snowy Kurama. I don't deny that there are some flaws here and there but I guess this is inevitable with such a big cast and the fact that it is a multinational production where there were many factors to take care of. I like the fact that it tried to show the irony of the geopolitics situation which the HK police were in because the Helios case was developing in their territory and the other interested party should be South Korea only but the Chinese authorities just had to poke their finger into this to complicate the situation. If this was a purely Chinese-HK production, I doubt that this not-so-subtle hint would be allowed to stay in the movie. It would be fantastic though it there is going to be a Helios 2 since the story is far from finished but with Nick Cheung's character out of the way, would Shawn Yue step into his shoes in the fight against Helios or someone else would join the cast lineup? I also hope that Jacky Cheung continues to reprise his role as Helios because the thought of having anyone else in that character just breaks the continuity of the story and spoils the appeal of the sequel, at least to me.