Cold War 1994 Review: Where Did All The Big Stars Go In This Overstuffed Prequel?

Cold War 1994  (NC16 )

Starring Daniel Wu, Terrance Lau, Tse Kwan Ho, Louise Wong, Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Chow Yun Fat, Louis Koo, Hugh Bonneville, Aidan Gillen

Directed by Longman Leung

If you're a Cold War conspiracy-thriller fan expecting another reunion with series veterans Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Chow Yun Fat, etc ..... be duly informed. They don't appear much in this tale.

Because this third instalment is mostly a prequel featuring new characters and a younger version of Leung's Hong Kong security bigwig, M.B. Lee. Who, back in 1994, was just Chief Superintendent Lee (Terrance Lau as the younger self) leading the Organised Crime unit.

After losing a man in a botched drug bust where the kidnapped brother-in-law of HK's most powerful tycoon, Sir William Poon (Tse Kwan Ho), is also held, Lee is aided by a high-level ally, Deputy Commissioner Peter Choi (Daniel Wu), to go into hiding.

The Special Branch squad, made up of arrogant Brit officers, goes after their fellow cop for interfering with the major kidnap case. While Lee barges right into the lair of a big gangster clan headed by a too-hot woman, Boss Yuen (Anita's Louise Wong), whose No. 2 turns out to be the kidnapper.

Beautiful hood and bad-boy cop gallivant together like Romeo And Juliet With Guns. Somebody please call Johnnie To.

Meanwhile, Dy Commish Choi, secretly ambitious himself, clashes with his own boss, the Commissioner Of Police (Michael Chow). The latter is angling to retain his powerful post after Britain hands over the colony to China in upcoming 1997.

Everything is manipulated in the cosy meeting room of the ultimate power players — HK law enforcers, British masters and most importantly, the island's richest magnate, Poon. His own gilded family, particularly his iffy son, Simon (Abang Adik's Wu Kang Ren), is a cesspool of dark deceit. Gotta say — pappy and sonny butt heads in the best scenes here in Lifestyles Of The Rich And Filthy.

Here's the deal.

Cold War 1994 is undoubtedly watchable as part of the franchise that's like the snootier, knottier companion series to Infernal Affairs. This pic certainly features more youth, vitality, attitude and action. Shootouts, motorbike chases, vehicle rams, airport runway stunts, disobedient stare-downs.

But it also comes with less kick, less star presence, certainly less believability, and definitely more, much more, conspiracy-addled mush. The more it goes on, overloaded by its power-behind-the-power setup, the more preposterous it becomes.

Series writer-director Longman Leung seems to be afflicted with some kind of post-colonial damn-those-rich-bastards hangover with his convoluted shadowy spin set on the cusp of a historic handover. Every greedy, grabby interested party, both local and ang moh, jostle for position in the murky new dawn. Including even covering up quite absurd murders for it.

Leung overwrites this latest chapter with duplicity coming from all directions. As though everybody, even the good guys, is coming into the plot from a dubious angle.

Except for squeaky-clean Cold War cold fish Aaron Kwok and Chow Yun Fat whose sartorially elegant meet-up in the story's present time of 2017, as current Police Commissioner Sean Lau and senior lawyer Oswald Kan, flashbacks and unearths the sinister underbelly of 1994. Lau comes calling because M.B. Lee, their old opponent, has himself been abducted. With all this to be followed up, as the closing credits show, in Cold War 1995, coming soon.

Basically, instead of focusing on the first two Cold War flicks' more plausible police in-house dirty deeds, Leung expands his nefarious universe to businessmen, mobsters and even the UK government itself which spies on HK with a Union-Jacked space satellite looking like it's from a James Bond movie.

Now, two notable Brit faces are inserted here to pile on the uppity Western sleaze. Games of Thrones’ Aidan Gillen pops up as a devious spymaster alongside Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville playing a smiling-tiger cabinet minister oozing a stench of Downtown Shady.

At which point, you can't help but snigger out loud because in the midst of all this far-fetched excitement, the one true power that really matters isn't even mentioned one bit.

Where the hell is China in all this hullabaloo?

Hey conspiracy buffs.

Do we need to see the pirated version of this flick to get the real picture here? (3/5 stars) in cinemas now

Photos: GV Pictures/Clover Films