Nam yee boon sik

There's nothing invisible about the target in Benny Chan's latest movie Invisible Target. And in actuality, it seems that the constant target for everyone in the movie here, be they the bad guys or the good cops, are the plenty of glass lying around, getting smashed into smithereens by hurled projectiles, or more frequently, human bodies. See that nice looking glass window? It'll be smashed soon. Or that double panel glass facade? Yup, as soon as you notice it, the next scene will show it in a million bits on the floor with a writhing body. It could be aptly titled Glass Target.

But don't get me wrong. Invisible Target is still enjoyable, in that it brings to you the flavour of a typical Hong Kong action movie, with Benny Chan at the helm. As we slowly get nauseated by the frequent mole versus mole plots that Hong Kong crime thrillers formula usually adopted (no thanks to the success of you know what), I thought Invisible Target was reminiscent about an old John Woo movie Hard Boiled, except that it's minus the guns, and instead you get plenty of fisticuffs. A similarly long drawn out ending was a little too tedious to sit through, though it had its fair share of big bangs and segmented action sequences which tried hard to hold your attention. Teahouses remain perfect locales for fights to break out (as in Hard Boiled), and here, it serves as a male bonding moment for our three heroic cops Chan Chun (Nicholas Tse), Fong Yik-wei (Shawn Yue) and Jaycee Chan's Wai King-ho.

But in between the action, are the woefully painful monologues that the villain Tien Yeng- seng (Wu Jing) and his merry gang of 7 (which includes Andy On as brother Yeng-yee) dish out, trying to philosophize their actions as "I'm a villain so I kill", and about justice-injustice in the world. Wu Jing again never failed to disappoint, as he has this charismatic aura around him which doesn't dissipate when he whups everyone's rear, hard! We've seen what he can do in SPL, now watch him do that with double the speed and intensity, and on thrice the number of victims. If anything, Invisible Target is a Wu Jing movie, and one in which I'm not surprised if many actually throw their weight of support behind him. It's a movie that the villain outshines the heroes easily.

With three distinct cops, Invisible Target actually spends a considerable amount of time introducing them one by one. Nicholas' Chan is always brooding, and a reckless one in that he's mourning the loss of his fiancée. He's out to get Tien because she happened to be collateral damage. Shawn's Fong is arrogant, until he's made to eat lead (in a scene you have to see to believe) by Tien, and his bruised ego says he must take the villain down. And Jacycee's Wai is probably the wimpiest of the lot, being a by-the-books street cop who's investigating the disappearance of his brother (do a double take on that cameo!), who might have fallen into Tien's hands. It's no doubt too that all of them are skilled in martial arts, and at any time would prefer to holster their weapons.

Nicholas and Shawn are no newcomers to action, having starred together in recent movies like Dragon Tiger Gate, and thank goodness they've ditched their long locks in that movie for contemporary shorter crop here. And while the two of them are relatively old hands in the industry, I can't help but wince each time Jaycee is on screen. For starters, he's the son of the legendary Jackie Chan, and in Invisible Target, I can't help picture it's a younger Jackie being beaten , battered and bruised. It didn't help that his character, the most naive and innocent of the lot, is in total contrast to the classic cop characters his father portrayed, and I surely think it was deliberate that he remains the least buff of the lot, with many goody-two-shoes scenes occasionally played out for comedy, or to reinforce that he's basically a cut above the rest of the good cops in terms of having a good natured character. Characters like his are hard to come by in an age where grittier cinematic cops roam the street.

So while big brothers Nicholas and Shawn get some fantastical set action pieces to show off their mettle, Jaycee got the shorter end of the stick by being quite a deadweight at times. Oh, and what of Elanne Kwong's role? Sadly there isn't too much for a pretty lass to do since her character Leung works in the Police Intelligence department, and doesn't get directly involved when the going gets tough. A typical flower vase role unfortunately, for a combined screen time of less than 5 minutes.

Despite its reliance on hard hitting action dished out by the actors themselves, and in all purpose are as realistic as they look with the obvious wire work seen in the trailers drastically reduced, a few noticeable continuity errors marred the enjoyment of the movie at times. Invisible Target had all the ingredients for a classic action movie, but the run time of more than 2 hours was due to an overindulgence with the slower moments which were fused with a couple of "I'm a cop" moments, and feel good messages rammed down your throat.

And what do you know, Invisible Target still can't shake off the mole versus mole type plot line, unfortunately. If it could have been a little more compact, and gotten to the point faster than it did, it would have been a tad more enjoyable, given the wealth of cameo/ supporting talent at its disposal, like Sam Lee (Dog Bite Dog) and the evergreen Lam Suet, rather than feel the need to tie up all the loose subplots it introduced, and exposing some technical loopholes in some action sequences.

The action is great, and all the fight scenes are great. The only issue is that in the middle, the movie trails off and sort of becomes a "buddy cop comedy" thing for a while, which takes the movie down and just adds unneeded minutes to this film.

It is too long and needed some more editing to trim it down to a good 90 minutes. Overall the action is really good even if they are pushing Jackie Chan's kid a little too hard in this movie. They also give him a very very cheesy melodramatic scene towards the end which is kinda cringy. None of it worked and his career kinda went downhill and it is pretty much dead at this point.

Anyways, 7/10.

Some spectacular action scenes, i miss old style Hongkong action movies. So much grit and realism, no stupid vfx .

I wish story had more humor and glamour.

Some slow motion scenes would have helped.

Director Benny Chan and staff do a mighty fine job with their cops and robbers story, Invisible Target. Seven orphans who grew up in battle torn countries take on most of the Hong Kong police force. These orphans mean business as they go about their criminal activities. The movie is almost all kinetic action, chases where the actors seem to jump 20 feet down from roof top to roof top, as the HK police try to stop the gang from getting the loot they are after. There are dull sections,especially when Jaycee Chan is describing his bland philosophy of policing, but, hey, the Chinese censors won't allow movies to be released on the mainland unless they put the police in a good light.

In Invisible Target, you don't see any police (aided by goons hired by real estate developers) clubbing farmers whose land was stolen, so a new factory can be built, enriching the local Communist Party boss who gets an ownership share in the factory. In the Shanxi province that would be the brick factories that used kidnapped children and mentally challenged adults as slave labor. But dealing with life's grim reality in one of the world's great bastions of robber baron capitalism would be too dull for most viewers, besides getting the HK filmmaker in big trouble with the People's Public Security Bureau if he or she ever set foot in mainland China.

So Benny Chan and company go the crime drama route, with shootings, car chases and a great explosion sequence at the start that keys in a major plot element. If there is one thing wrong with this movie, it is another scene at the start where Jaycee Chan's cop gives a ticket to a guy for parking illegally, a big mouth who is out with his young son. When Jackie Chan's cop character in Police Story 2 stopped and ticketed a line of trucks (all Nissan trucks, then and now a Chan corporate sponsor), it showed Chan was no nonsense when it came to his job. Jaycee's parking ticket scene is a crummy way to introduce his character, people nowadays don't like cops or anyone else who gives out parking tickets.

Invisible Target is a good way to spend a little over two hours watching a very well made if improbable crime story.

"Invisible Target" ("Naam Yi Boon Sik") was really an adrenaline rush like none other. And it is well-suited for anyone who went through the late 1980s and early-mid 1990s watching Chow Yun Fat movies. There is a lot of action in the movie, in the likes of gunfights, martial arts and chase scenes.

The story is about three very different police officers in the Hong Kong police who are chasing after a group of criminals on a wild chase taking them wide and far around Hong Kong. The officers are heartbroken Detective Chan Chun (played by Nicholas Tse) who lost his fiancée in an explosion during a robbery of an armored truck, the arrogant Inspector Carson Fong Yik Wei (played by Shawn Yue) and fresh-out-of-the-academy officer Wai King Ho (played by Jaycee Chan). Who is the mastermind behind the well-orchestrated robbery, and whom can they trust?

"Invisible Target" is driven by a great story that comes off a very plausible and realistic, but it is also driven by the non-stop action, not to mention the vivid and detailed characters.

The people cast for the various roles really did good jobs with their given roles, and that really helped the movie well along.

Being a fan of Hong Kong cinema and having lived there myself, I found this movie very enjoyable, especially because it does show off a lot of aspects of Hong Kong, not just showing the glamour, fluorescent lights and the rich and famous.

I will say that that music score for the movie wasn't all that impressive, and it was not standing out in anyway. It was mostly just faded into the background and hardly noticeable. But towards the end, it ticks over and becomes rather irritating.

"Invisible Target" is highly recommendable for people who enjoy Asian movies and action movies in particular. It is a worthy movie in any movie aficionado's DVD collection.