Director – Larry Yang – 2025 – China – Cert. 15 – 141m
****1/2
To hunt a criminal mastermind adept at eluding their surveillance systems, Macau cops bring back an old surveillance man whose expertise predates contemporary technology– Jackie Chan cops and robbers movie pairs him with acting legend Tony Leung Ka Fai – out in UK cinemas on Friday, October 3rd
This remake of Eye in the Sky (Yau Nai-Hoi, 2007), already remade in South Korea as Cold Eyes (Kim Byung-seo, Jo Ui-Seok, 2013), introduces the idea that modern technology has its limitations, so it’s sometimes better to resort to older methods of doing things which are less reliant on the new technology.
Macau, 2025, and the police are monitoring four young men in a car using the Surveillance and Pursuit All System (SPAIS – possibly something got lost here in translation) and cleverly manage to get a fleet of patrol cars to box the car in at a roundabout. The only problem is, while HQ can see the trapped car on their real time monitors, the cops on the ground can see that there’s no car there.
Then, a daring bank vault raid to steal the pass code for a crypto currency account throws a pursuing cop into disarray when, following a spectacular fight with a cop in a lift, the perps paraglide off the top of the building to make their bold escape.
The Lady Inspector decides that to defeat this gang, she needs to bring back Wong (Jackie Chan), the best man the force ever had from the time before surveillance systems. Wong puts together a covert surveillance force using the old methods, riding around in a van equipped with the means to keep in constant touch with the young officers under him. For his No.2, he chooses He Qiuguo (Zhang Zifeng from Detective Chinatown, 2015), the daughter of his former partner on the force who died in the line of duty thanks to Wong’s misjudgement on a job.
The four criminals they are after appear to be guided by a mysterious fifth, who recently broke his own protocols and was captured on camera. And who Wong identifies as The Shadow (Fu Longshen, played by acting legend Tony Leung Ka Fai, completely reworking his role in the 2007 original). Spotting him on the street, Wong sends Qiuguo after him to ascertain his flat number in the vast housing block in which he lives. Posing as a father and daughter living in a nearby flat, the two cops invite him over for a meal, an invitation he accepts. But perhaps the Shadow is onto their game.
Overly long at in excess of two hours, this reunites Jackie Chan with director Larry Yang (Ride On, 2023) who again seems to perfectly understand how to best use the ageing action star. There are fight and action scenes galore, with all the choreographed panache one would expect from a Jackie Chan move, but the ageing star plays in only a small number of them, with younger members of the cast taking centre stage as either cops or criminals. Tony Leung Ka Fai has quite a few action scenes too.
Both these older actors, however, do a lot of either following others (Chan) or being followed (Leung), or interacting dramatically (i.e. outside of stunts) with others. In both cases, this works extremely well, and you find yourself getting caught up in their characters’ situations. No masterpiece, but thoroughly entertaining throughout.
The Shadow’s Edge is out in cinemas in the UK on Friday, October 3rd.
Trailer: