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James Marsh

1/5 stars
Nick Cheung Ka-fai plays a former soldier on a quest to take down a Golden Triangle drug cartel in Go for Broke, a ludicrous action thriller from actor-turned-director Marc Ma Yuhe.
Set in a fictional Southeast Asian country where the entire population is either corrupt or the victim of corruption, Ma’s film bristles with flippant xenophobia, alarmist anti-drug rhetoric and a dizzying stream of ridiculous twists and turns.
Only in its action beats does Go for Broke find clarity, but these pyrotechnics are just superficial distractions from what is otherwise disposable nonsense.


Zhang Yao (Cheung) returns home to discover that he has lost his wife (Zhang Li) and young daughter to a drug epidemic that has ravaged “Man City”.
It is an open secret that all production and supply is overseen by local crime lord Mukun (Vithaya Pansringarm), in cahoots with Anpei (Jack Kao Jie), head of the local police force’s Drug Enforcement Division.
At the behest of ambitious young drug enforcement officer Andu (Ethan Ruan Ching-tien), who is also Anpei’s nephew, Zhang agrees to go undercover, posing as Mukun’s long lost son, Sawang.
As Sawang, a bleached-blond Zhang is welcomed by Mukun, and installed as heir apparent to his criminal empire. Sawang’s arrival comes much to the dismay of Herta (Danny Chan Kwok-kwan), Mukun’s loyal number two and next in line for the cartel’s leadership.

Herta enlists addict Balai (a jittery Marc Ma) to help him stage a power grab, but he is not the only one making plans.
Andu is also plotting to help his beautiful young stepmother (Sandrine Pinna) escape his uncle’s abusive grip – but these machinations are just the tip of a wildly convoluted tangle of revelations and betrayals.
Go for Broke is by turns preachy and preposterous, and just the latest in a growing wave of mainland-China-produced thrillers looking to paint Asia as a lawless hellhole.
These unspecified Asian countries are almost always governed by bandits and tycoons, and crippled by a rampant dependency on unspecified narcotics that immediately consume anyone foolish enough to sniff, snort or shoot them up.

As Zhang’s wife mumbles, before pitching herself off an overpass into oncoming traffic, once you try drugs, your life is over.
Towards the climax of Go for Broke, an epic shoot-out erupts in a vast marble and gold mansion that recalls both the balletic gunplay of John Woo Yu-sum and the unbridled decadence of Scarface in a single, blood-spattered bacchanal that ranks among the year’s very best action sequences.
Everything else is incomprehensible, irresponsible hogwash.
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Go for Broke movie review: Nick Cheung, Ethan Ruan lead nonsensical drug cartel thriller

Nick Cheung as former soldier Zhang Yao in a still from Go for Broke.

Nick Cheung as former soldier Zhang Yao in a still from Go for Broke (category IIB, Mandarin), directed by Marc Ma and co-starring Ethan Ruan.

Ethan Ruan as drug enforcement officer Andu in a still from Go for Broke.

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Zhou You (left) and Ni Ni in a still from Bound in Heaven.

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(From left) Ni Ni as Xia You, Liao Fan as her fiancé and Zhou You as Xu Zitai as her lover in a still from Bound in Heaven.

Zhou You (left) as Xu and Ni Ni as Xia in a still from Bound in Heaven.

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Terrance Lau as aspiring stuntman Lee Sai-long in a still from Stuntman.

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Liu Chu-ping in a still from The Chronicles of Libidoists.

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Nick Cheung plays an ex-soldier who takes on a drug cartel after his family die, in a ridiculous thriller whose action scenes can’t save it


Nick Cheung plays an ex-soldier who takes on a drug cartel after his family die, in a ridiculous thriller whose action scenes can’t save it.


Chinese language cinema

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An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review

Review | Go for Broke movie review: Nick Cheung, Ethan Ruan lead nonsensical drug cartel thriller

Nick Cheung plays an ex-soldier who takes on a drug cartel after his family die, in a ridiculous thriller whose action scenes can’t save it