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Edmund Lee

2/5 stars
The employees of the Hong Kong government’s Customs and Excise Department receive the cinematic homage they have probably never realised they deserved in Customs Frontline, a ludicrously conceived and literally all-guns-blazing action thriller that at times plays like a war movie.
Herman Yau Lai-to may have gradually supplanted Dante Lam Chiu-yin and the late Benny Chan Muk-sing as Hong Kong action cinema’s most productive filmmaker in the years since he tried his hand at big-budget crime thrillers with 2017’s Shock Wave, but it is also fair to say that his recent efforts have not been great.
Watching Customs Frontline, suspension of disbelief is essential as we follow Nicholas Tse Ting-fung’s heroic and utterly fearless customs officer while he wages a one-man war against an international firearms trafficking syndicate that is foolish enough to pick Hong Kong as a transit point.


While one would be hard pressed to find any record of Hong Kong customs officers opening fire, Yau and his screenwriters Erica Li Man and Eric Lee Sing are not ones to let the facts get in the way of a good story – one that sees the city suffer major collateral damage from some made-up warfare in Africa.
And so, after a vessel carrying a large cache of weaponry is found in Hong Kong waters, mid-level customs officer Lai (Tse) leaps into action. Things get much worse when an army of mercenaries appears out of nowhere and, with deadly force, shoots its way into a government warehouse to retrieve the seized cargo.

Lai loses an ex-girlfriend that he still loves in the attack. Meanwhile, his friend and mentor at work, Nam (Jacky Cheung Hok-yau), is caught up in the power struggle between his own nasty boss, Keung (Francis Ng Chun-yu), and the latter’s rival, Athena (Karena Lam Ka-yan), who is also Nam’s secret lover.
Amid the mayhem these personal dramas add a refreshing element, but whatever intrigue viewers may harbour will soon give way to incredulity as Customs Frontline takes some very bizarre turns. These include a clumsy reveal of mental illness and a shocking scene of self-harm that inspires more giggles than gasps from the audience I watched it with.
It is a mystery why this messy battle with terrorists stays on the plate of the customs service – and not the police or the Chinese army – although the fact that it does allows the narrative to go off on ever wilder tangents, such as when Lai goes on a globetrotting espionage mission alongside a Thai Interpol agent (Cya Liu Ya-se).

Tse has done a fine job in his first official credit as an action director. It’s just a pity that his hard work is in the service of such an outlandish piece of fantasy. Instead of an insider look at how the customs service operates, we are left with an empty spectacle in which Tse’s superhero outshoots every nameless goon in sight.
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Customs Frontline movie review: Nicholas Tse is a one-man army in this ludicrous actioner

Nicholas Tse as a Hong Kong customs officer in a still from Customs Frontline (category IIB; Cantonese), directed by Herman Yau. Jacky Cheung and Karena Lam co-star.

Jacky Cheung as customs officer Nam in a still from Customs Frontline.

Karena Lam as Athena in a still from Customs Frontline.

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Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination candidates Tang Ngai-hong (front) and Hui Yin in a still from Once Upon a Time in HKDSE (category: IIB or IIA, Cantonese) directed by Leung Yik-ho.



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Hong Kong customs officers seize an arms cache and all hell breaks loose in Herman Yau’s film. Tse’s fine job as action director is wasted


Tse, who also directs the action, plays a customs officer who intercepts a boatload of weapons and single-handedly stops their terrorist owners grabbing them back in Herman Yau’s highly implausible film.


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Review | Customs Frontline movie review: Nicholas Tse is a one-man army in this ludicrous actioner

Hong Kong customs officers seize an arms cache and all hell breaks loose in Herman Yau’s film. Tse’s fine job as action director is wasted