Cya Liu Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Octopus With Broken Arms,’ starring Xiao Yang, Tong Liya, Duan Yihong and Cya Liu

January 18, 2025

by Carla Hay

Xiao Yang in “Octopus With Broken Arms” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

Directed by Jacky Gan

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in China, the action film “Octopus With Broken Arms” features an all-Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A billionaire widowed businessman fights mysterious enemies after his 8-year-old daughter is kidnapped.

Culture Audience: “Octopus With Broken Arms” will appeal mainly to people who don’t mind watching action crime thrillers that are convoluted, just for the sake of having “shocking” twists.

A scene from “Octopus With Broken Arms” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“Octopus With Broken Arms” has plenty of suspenseful action, but it has too many far-fetched plot twists. The melodramatic overacting looks too fake and does a disservice to the film’s serious subject of children who are kidnapped and enslaved. “Octopus With Broken Arms” takes this subject and puts in a very manipulative story that constantly insults viewers’ intelligence

Directed by Jacky Gan and written by Li Peng, “Octopus With Broken Arms” (formerly titled “Sheep Without a Shepherd 3”) takes place in unnamed cities in China. The movie begins by showing that billionaire widower Zheng Bingrui (played by Xiao Yang) proudly watching his 8-year-old daughter Tingting (played by Chloe Ye) performing on stage for a school play. Tingting’s teacher Li Huiping (played by Tong Liya) seems to have a good relationship with her, which is why Bingrui invites Huiping to Tingting’s upcoming birthday party.

Bingrui is the chairman of Ruiting Group, a company that he owns. It’s briefly mentioned in a news report that Ruiting Group makes facial masks. Because of his wealth, Bingrui is famous throughout China. The movie is named “Octopus With Broken Arms” because Tingting, Bingrui and Huiping having matching octopus stamps on their hands.

At the birthday party, things seem to be going well until Tingting disappears. Not long after the disappearance, Bingrui gets a call demanding a $100 million ransom (which is about ¥732,500 RMB) for the return of Tingting. Bingrui is willing to pay the money, but he understandably wants law enforcement to catch the kidnapper or kidnappers.

Bingrui immediately names two possible suspects: Shi Fu’an (played by Feng Bing) is someone who is Bingrui’s enemy, for reasons that are revealed later in the movie. The other suspect is a mute gardener named Lu (played by Bokeh Kosang), who was seen on a surveillance video appearing to driving Tingting to Fu’an’s home. Lu goes through an intense and brutal interrogation by police.

However, early on in the movie, it’s shown that someone else has been making the ransom calls, using a device that disguises the caller’s voice. This person wears a hooded jacket and is in a room that has several video monitors that can watch every move made by Bingrui, even when Bingrui and Huiping zip around on a boat in a lake to deliver the ransom money. This “everywhere all at once” video surveillance is when the movie starts to fall apart and spirals into nonsense.

Meanwhile, another child named Daymond Pankong (played by Chayanon Akradamrongdet) is kidnapped and used as bait for Bingrui to find Tingting. Pangkong is named after his father (played by Jack Kao), who is the director of China’s National Security Agencyu. There’s also a woman named Yayin (played by Cya Liu), who has a big role in the story because of something that happened in her past.

The police leader in the child kidnapping investigation is police captain Zhang Jingxian (played by Duan Yihong), who is somewhat helpful, but “Octopus With Broken Arms” is really about making Bingrui the vigilante action hero of the story. Liang Su’e (played by Sandrine Pinna) is a police officer who assists in the case. The violence in “Octopus With Broken Arms” can be quite gruesome, such as a scene depicting a child’s finger being cut off by a kidnapper. There are also shootouts, chase scenes, fist fights, explosions and other action movie clichés.

A tragedy that happened in 2017 is the catalyst for some of the characters’ motives. As explained in the movie, in June 2017, a ship was headed to the border of China, when a gas leak caused the ship to explode. All 619 people on board were killed, including 23 children. The people on the ship were refugees trying to cross the border illegally.

The relationship between Bingrui and Huiping is never adequately explained. Why is this schoolteacher running around with Bingrui and getting herself into dangerous situations like a superhero sidekick? It’s because she’s in a preposterous movie.

Unfortunately, “Octopus With Broken Arms” tries to cram in too many ideas without much cohesive thought. The movie jumps from one plot twist to the next—and almost none of them are believable. The choppy editing often makes “Octopus With Broken Arms” look incoherent. And by the time secrets are revealed (along with the movie’s many plot holes), none of it makes enough sense for the movie’s ending to have its intended impact.

CMC Pictures released “Octopus With Broken Arms” in select U.S. cinemas on January 10, 2025. The movie was released in China on December 28, 2024.

Review: ‘Customs Frontline,’ starring Jacky Cheung, Nicholas Tse, Karena Lam, Cya Liu and Francis Ng

July 29, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Customs Frontline”

Directed by Herman Yau

Cantonese with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Hong Kong and in Africa, the action film “Customs Frontline” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people and black people) portraying the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department agents battle against a group of weapons smugglers led by mysterious and ruthless dealer.

Culture Audience: “Customs Frontline” will appeal primarily to people are fans of the movies headliners and action movies with mindless plots.

Jacky Cheung in “Customs Frontline” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

Awkward acting, a poorly written screenplay and an overcrowded cast make “Customs Frontline” a dud. This story about customs officials versus criminal smugglers tries to do too much but ends up with very little meaning. All the action scenes look fake.

Directed by Herman Yau, “Customs Frontline” (formerly titled “War Customised”) has almost no imagination because the outcome and the weak plot twists can be easily predicted long before they’re shown on screen. Eric Lee and Erica Li wrote the unimpressive screenplay, which is populated with hollow characters and dull dialogue. Making things worse, most of the acting in the movie is atrocious.

“Customs Frontline” tells the story of Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department agents going on the hunt for an elusive and mysterious arms smuggler named Dr. Raw (played by Amanda Strang), whose arsenal ranges from guns to bombs to submarines with missiles. Strang’s stiff and vacant acting as Dr. Raw is so pitifully bad, this character is unconvincing as someone who would even know how to use a toy gun, let alone have the type of massive supply of weapons that is supposed to make her a dangerous terrorist. And for a chief villain, Dr. Raw is not in the movie as much as you think she might be.

Instead, “Customs Frontline” has mostly generic and anonymous goons in showdowns with the customs agents. The movie is overpopulated with unnecessary characters who show up and then disappear in subplots that go nowhere. And needless to say, many scenes in this movie look rushed and jumbled.

The “heroes” of the story are a disjointed group of agents. Chow Ching-lai (played by Nicholas Tse) is the principled protagonist, whose boss and mentor Cheung Wan-nam (played by Jacky Cheung) has bipolar disorder. The movie’s depiction of this mental illness is problematic for how it plays up the worst clichés of bipolar disorder by having a lot of over-exaggerated acting.

A flashback scene shows a doctor telling Wan-nam that Wan-nam has a high EQ (emotional quotient, also known as emotional intelligence), but Wan-nam has bipolar disorder where he can self-harm when he’s in a manic state. And sure enough, the movie shows some of this self-harm later when Wan-nam gets some bad news and deliberately presses a hot iron on his left shoulder to burn himself. The self-harm gets worse.

Wan-nam’s girlfriend is Athena Siu (played by Karena Lam), who is the custom department’s assistant commissioner of customs and excise. Wan-nam’s demanding and disrespectful boss is Kwok Chi-keung (played by Francis Ng), the custom department’s assistant commissioner, who often belittles Wan-man. There are multiple scenes where Wan-nam gripes about Chi-keung to Athena, and they try to think of ways to make Wan-nam’s life easier on the job. “I’ll beat Kwok for you,” Athena tells Wan-nam.

Early on in the movie, agents from Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department find a unaccounted-for cargo ship that has arrived from Thailand and is filled with weapons that are believed to be stolen. When the agents go to investigate the ship, they find out too late that it’s a trap set by Dr. Raw. Several customs agents are killed by Dr. Raw’s thugs in this ambush, including Ching-lai’s ex-gilfriend Katie (played by Michelle Wai). By the way, do these “hero” customs agents know how to date anyone who isn’t a co-worker?

Not long after this massacre, a Thai intelligence officer named Ying (played by Michelle Wai) arrives from Thailand to investigate. She teams up with Ching-lai to do some undercover work. The movie shows them posing as journalists in Africa, where they visit the fictional country of Lokumoa and interview leaders who tell them about how dangerous illegal arms have been to the people in their country. Note to the “Customs Frontline” filmmakers: You don’t have to pretend to be a journalist to find out that information.

While in Africa, Yin and Ching-lai suddenly get caught in an explosion attack. It’s a laughably terrible scene with sloppy editing. At one point, Dr. Raw is hiding out in Egypt, where she utters more ridiculous lines while dressed as if she’s going to business cocktail party. Scene after scene is just all time-wasting nonsense that are often just an excuse to have mindless shoot-outs, explosions, ship crashes and fist fights.

During one of these fights, an opponent of Ching-lai asks him, “Why are you doing this?” He replies in a monotone voice, “It’s my duty.” When the opponent gets wheeled away by a medical responder, the opponent asks Ching-lai: “Why did you save me?” Ching-lai says in the same flat voice: “It’s my duty.” You can see better acting in a lot video games with computer-generated image characters.

“Customs Frontline” is loud and bombastic in all the wrong ways because the movie just isn’t interesting and is actually quite lazy when it comes to the story. The movie’s characters might as well be robots because they have the personalities of monotonous robots, except for the horrible depiction of Wan-nam’s bipolar disorder. “Customs Frontline” is one of those movies that is unlikely to be remembered by most people who see it unless anyone is unfortunate enough to get a headache from watching this noisy mess.

Well Go USA released “Customs Frontline” on July 19, 2024. The movie was released in Hong Kong on July 5, 2024.

Review: ‘The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan,’ starring Han Geng, Ryan Zheng, Zeng Mengxue and Kelly Yu

October 16, 2023

by Carla Hay

Ryan Zheng and Han Geng in “The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“The X-Files 4: Marriage Plans”

Directed by Tian Yusheng

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Beijing, China, the comedy film sequel “The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plans” has an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two male best friends—one who’s divorced, and one who’s in a live-in relationship with a woman—navigate society’s pressures to settle down and get married.

Culture Audience: “The Ex-Files Marriage” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and romantic comedies that don’t do anything original or clever.

Ryan Zheng and Kelly Yu in “The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan” is the very definition of an unnecessary sequel. There’s not much to this story except people whining about how they have relationship problems. Viewers of the movie don’t have to know anything about the previous three “Ex-Files” movies, although it helps to have some context about the returning characters and what types of relationships they had in the previous “Ex-Files” movies.

Directed by Tian Yusheng, “The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plans” (which takes place in Beijing, China) continues the story of best friends Meng Yun (played by Han Geng) and Yu Fe (played by Zheng Kai, also known as Ryan Zheng) and shows what happens in their love lives. The previous “Ex-Files” movies are 2014’s “The Ex-Files,” 2015’s “Ex-Files 2” and 2017’s “The Ex-File 3: The Return of the Exes.”

In “The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plans,” Yun is divorced and still looking for love. He’s skeptical but hopeful that he will find his soul mate. Yun has a somewhat tense relationship with his ex-wife Lin Jia (played by Kelly Yu), since they had a bitter divorce. who has a son with her current boyfriend. Soon after Yun and Jia make peace with each other, she tells him that she’s getting married to the father of her child. Yun has mixed emotions and feels a little envious that his ex-wife has found a new spouse.

Fe is living with his girlfriend Ding Dian (played by Zeng Mengxue), who is pressuring him to marry her. Dian has owns a coffee shop that is struggling financially. Dian asks Fe for advice on what to do about the coffee shop, but he tells her it’s her decision. Dian and Fe also have to decide whether or not to split their financial obligations equally. Dian thinks Fe should be more emotionally invested in their relationship and more willing to commit to marriage. Predictably, Fe and Dian have many arguments about their relationship.

Meanwhile, a large portion of “The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan” is about Yun getting back into the dating scene. He ends up casually dating two women around the same time: opinionated divorce attorney Huang Yue (played by Zhu Yan Man Zi) and perky Liu Liu (played by Cya Liu), who both find out that they are dating Yun. The movie shows if Yun chooses one woman over the other. A female bartender named Xiao Ai (played by Zhang Tian Ai) at Yun’s favorite restaurant/bar (where he romances Yue and Liu) observes all of these shenanigans and is a friendly listener whenever Yun tells sob stories about his love life.

“The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan” has adequate acting performances, which are hampered by a fairly dull screenplay. The problem is that the movie doesn’t go beyond the usual romantic comedy stereotypes about unmarried people and problems in their love lives. There are breakups, makeups, jealousies and misunderstandings. It all adds up to a very lukewarm story for a sequel that didn’t need to exist.

CMC Pictures released “The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan” in select U.S. cinemas on September 29, 2023, and in China on September 28, 2023.