Motorway (Pou-Soi Cheang 2012) Hong Kong

Reviewed by Robin Eriksson. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2013.

Motorway directed by Soi Cheang is a fast paced action thriller about street racing in a modern day Hong Kong. The story is told from the perspective of the rookie traffic cop played by Shawn Yue. He gets paired up with the a veteran cop played by old action legend Anthony Wong. A mentor/student bond soon forms between the wto cliches, old grumpy teacher and the young hothead once they get past their differences.

The movie feels like an asian reimagination of the Fast and the Furious. It never really gripped me. The chasing scenes felt fake and plastered. For instance, when they were driving at normal speed there were lots of cars around them, but as soon as they were driving fast all of the other cars just vanished. This made it feel like the whole thing was shot on a fake road or something. The story itself is not very original, student and teacher don’t get along in the beginning, they find something to bond over, in this case it’s driving really fast. Then the teacher is killed by the bad guy and the student has to revenge him. When i walked out of the theater I felt “meh”. Meaning that it didn’t feel fresh or like something I’ve never seen before.

Like alot of other asian movies I feel as if the actors are overdoing it, I prefer a more subtle approach by the actors and this stressfull and in your face acting by the young police was getting on my nerves and I actually found myself rooting for the more mellow bad guy (who by the way was a much more interesting and nuanced character than any of the “heroes”)

That being said it was still a beautifully shot movie with at moments great cinematography, some of the shots made me think of the movie Drive and it felt as if they were greatly inspired by that one. I’m thinking especially the dark interior shots of the car while driving at nights, lot’s of colorful streetlights blurred out in the background combined with very deep shadows inside the car and different colors shining from the cars panel.