‘A Long Shot’: Tokyo Review

Dir/scr: Gao Peng. China. 2023. 118mins.

In the mid-90s, the industrial northeast of China is a region that has been hit particularly hard by the seismic cultural and economic changes that are sweeping the country. State-owned factories are caught up in the privatisation process; those that have yet to be bought out are struggling to make ends meet, to the increasing frustration of the workers. This handsome but slightly overstretched crime drama is inspired by a real event – an armed heist by workers at factory located in what was formerly known as Andong province – and stars Zu Feng (Mystery) in the central role of Gu Xue Bing, a careworn competitive marksman-turned-security guard.

This handsome but slightly overstretched crime drama is inspired by a real event 

The film marks the feature directing debut of Gao Peng, who cut his teeth in advertising and directed the iQiyi drama series Make A Wish. It’s a solid genre piece, albeit one which leans a little heavily on tropes of the crime thriller – the decent man caught in the mire of corruption trying to do right by a boy who we suspect is his son; a score featuring lots of twangy reverb-heavy guitar; a teal and gold colour palette. But a bullet-strewn action climax is impressively lean and suggests that Gao’s main talents as a director may lie in the more explosively violent end of the action movie spectrum. Following its premiere in competition in Tokyo, A Long Shot should be of interest to further festivals, particularly those looking to showcase new voices from China.

Zu Feng has already demonstrated a gift for playing taciturn, quietly tortured men with his directorial debut, the Cannes Un Certain Regard title Summer Of Changsha, in which he also stars as a haunted, grieving detective. Here, his character mourns his former life and potential as a sportsman – he was forced to retire from competitive shooting after damage to his right ear impacted his sense of balance. Now he has the rather thankless job of keeping order at a near-bankrupt factory which has not paid its workers for months.

Perhaps understandably, many of the aggrieved employees would rather steal scrap and tools from their employer than starve. It’s Xue Bing’s responsibility to stop them from doing so. To this end, he has customised himself an intimidating-looking pistol; a tangible link between his past life and his present one.

Gao paints a bleak backdrop to the story – this corner of China seems to be permanently lashed with rain. Bored kids amuse themselves by chucking fire-crackers at each other (one memorable scene shows the factory’s boss ambushed by kids who hurl a string of exploding crackers at the windscreen of his car). And with no wages coming in, the locals are forced to make money in any way they can: Jin Yu Jia (Qin Hailu), Xue Bing’s female friend and presumably his former lover, puts a brave face on her job in a sleazy bar, hawking drinks to powerful men. Her son, Xiao Jun (Zhou Zhengjie), who sees in Xue Bing a mentor and a father figure, is torn between the responsible path that the older man shows him, and the lawlessness and rebellion of his friends.

There’s an inevitability to the slow build towards a violent and tragic conclusion – the only question is just who will survive this pressure cooker of anger.