Helios
Longman Leung, Sunny Luk
The story: A portable nuclear device, DC8, has been stolen from South Korea by a ruthless criminal (Chang Chen) and his accomplice (Janice Man). As the weapon will change hands in Hong Kong, Lee (Nick Cheung) from the territory’s Counter Terrorism Response Unit sets up a task force, which includes police officer Fan (Shawn Yue), to deal with the crisis. He enlists physics professor Siu (Jacky Cheung) as an adviser and has to work with South Korean weapon experts Choi (Ji Jin Hee) and Pok (Choi Si Won). Despite their efforts, the elusive criminal mastermind, Helios, is always a step ahead of Lee.

Two heads are better than one when it comes to Hong Kong film-makers Longman Leung and Sunny Luk. In their debut film, police thriller Cold War (2012), they juggled a star-studded cast and an intricate story to entertaining effect. The movie also brushed aside the competition with a haul of nine trophies at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
Their follow-up is even more ambitious, with a cast of A-listers from China, Hong Kong and South Korea jetting around the region, including Macau and Japan.
Tension is ratcheted up as personalities, points of view and agendas clash, along with languages (Leung and Luk cleverly handle the often awkward problem of featuring different tongues in a movie with a plausibly high-tech device which enables instantaneous interpretation; they even wring some humour out of it by having the actors pause and put on their earpieces before proceeding to converse in Korean and Chinese).
The South Koreans want to keep the bomb safe and bring it home. Prickly physics professor Siu wants it out of Hong Kong as well. The paternalistic and patronising senior Chinese official Song (Wang Xueqi) demands that the weapon remain in the territory and has the weight of the law behind him. Lee is caught in the middle, torn between wanting to protect his home and having to follow orders.
Then the big-name stars start getting killed – a sign that Helios – and the film-makers – mean business. But which ones?
Prof Siu, a somewhat fusty and principled academic, convincingly played by Jacky Cheung? The more straightforward heroic characters of Choi (Ji, television’s Jewel In The Palace) and Pok (Choi of boyband Super Junior)? Conflicted cop Lee, a familiar role for Nick Cheung?
Cheung, a two-time Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actor winner (Beast Stalker, 2008; Unbeatable, 2013), is barely tested, but the slugfest between him and Man is an action highlight.
Just as things start to get interesting, the movie ends abruptly. It is either a jarring set-up for part two or a disappointingly anti-climactic resolution to an involving thriller.
If it is the former, one wonders how long audiences will be left dangling, given that the sequel to Cold War – also alluded to at the film’s conclusion – has yet to materialise.
(ST)