Done and Dusted
It’s clean, tidy and delivers the right message (duh), but Jonathan Li’s sophomore effort has good cat-and-mouse energy.
Dust to Dust
Director: Jonathan Li • Writer: Chou Man-yu
Starring: Da Peng, Gordon Lam, Zhang Songwen, Qi Xi, Sunny Sun
Hong Kong • 1hr 52mins
Opens Hong Kong October 26 • IIA
Grade: B
Dust to Dust | 第八個嫌疑人 is quite possibly the most Soi Cheang Pou-soi-ish movie Cheang never made. The grime-obsessed director – known for his nihilistic crime dramas like Shamo, Dog Bite Dog, Limbo, and the recent Mad Fate – is a producer here, ushering along sophomore filmmaker Jonathan Li Tsz-Chun. Loosely based on a true story about the “biggest bank robbery in the history of the PRC,” Dust to Dust jumps around in time, starting in 1995, following dogged cops (are there any other kind?) Wang Shouyue (my boy Gordon Lam Ka-Tung) and his small town partner He Lan (Zhang Songwen, Knock Knock) as they track down a shoddy robber gang that stole RMB15 million from a provincial savings bank and killed three guards. Shoddy as in they were pretty reckless and not very good at keeping a low profile.
Li’s first film was the stylish if narratively underwhelming The Brink in 2017 (also produced by Cheang), whose raison d’être was getting on that boat for the big final throwdown (admittedly impressive). Dust to Dust is a staggering improvement in the actor and character department. The Brink’s biggest stumbling block was its inconsistent characterisations, which were forgiven because of the bonkers action sequences. This time around he has a better handle on who these cops and robbers are, thanks to a solid, if rote (and approved), script by Chou Man-yu, and strong actors that avoid bad overdubbing. As long as you’re prepared for some Cheang-lite and the standard messaging about law and obedience, Dust to Dust is a tight little heist thriller with no less than two team building montages (cops and robbers). Bonus.
Crime really doesn’t pay
The story kicks off with an unidentified man clobbering another one on the head with a rock and pitching his dead body over the side of a quarry. The rest of the film tells us how we got to this point, beginning with Chen Xinwen (Da Peng, Hidden Blade) sweet-talking the staff of his shady AF construction company. Despite geological fuckery and financial mismanagement, his firm is going to get back to work on building a commissioned bridge. His solution to his financial problems is a bank heist, much to the chagrin of his cousin and business partner, Chen Xinnian (Sunny Sun Yang, much better here than in No More Bets). This is in Qingyuan in 1995. The Chens recruit five desperate types, pull off the robbery – which of course goes sideways – and scatter. Wang and He join forces, get the five losers, but have to give up on finding the Chens, who are in the wind. Later, the retired Wang finds himself in the depths of Ruilong thanks to some grainy news footage that tipped him off as to where the Chens might be, and though retired he has enough sway as the swinging dick that caught the robbers the first time around, he re-opens the case. It takes two decades, but Wang gets his man.
Chou’s screenplay cries out for Cheang’s bleak voice (seriously, this movie should be a grim Cat III) and so to call it a Hong Kong film is a stretch. In the bad ol’ days the bad guys might get away with their crimes, but that ship has sailed. Nonetheless, Chou gives Lam and Da more than a handful of memorable moments together, designed to go beyond the cat-and-mouse game of films like this. In the end, Dust to Dust feels like a modest meditation on fate, free will, whether our past sins will always haunt us and whether it’s really possible to re-make your life. Can you go straight? The security bureau says “No!” but Li and Chou seem to wonder, and it gives the film some surprising texture – as do the bodacious ’90s pagers, man purses and high-waisted trousers.
Da picked up an acting prize at Shanghai for his turn as Chen, and it’s well earned. He and Lam bounce off each other nicely and he makes Chen Xinwen’s arc almost tragic. And if that weren’t enough,in a welcome departure Qi Xi (First Night Nerves) as Chen’s wife Yang Fang is allowed to be suspicious, angry and smart when she figures out the details of her predicament. Dust to Dust takes a bit too long to end; no way was this shooting in China, getting a slot in the Shanghai film fest and making RMB400 million in general release with an ending other than one with the Chens in cuffs. So why string it out? Then there’s the epilogue touting the efficacy of the police, but we knew that was coming. If you only see one corruption thriller this year, Dust to Dust trumps Under the Light for one simple reason: This one makes sense. — DEK