Director Dante Lam built his reputation on gritty action films like Beast Cops and The Viral Factor, works marked by relentless drive and exceptional action sequences. His last two films, Operation Mekong and Operation Red Sea, were huge hits in Asia, giving him the equivalent of carte blanche for his latest project, The Rescue.
An adventure built around China Rescue & Salvage, The Rescue follows elite first responders tackling life-and-death emergencies. Unfolding on a massive scale, it’s the kind of patriotic blockbuster perfectly suited for Chinese New Year.
The film opens with helicopters and rescue boats hurrying to an offshore oil rig burning out of control. This is Lam’s wheelhouse: giant sets, pyrotechnics, characters in peril, cameras swirling in and around the action. The acting is convincingly physical, the camerawork lively and vivid. The stunt work, especially shots involving helicopters, is easily the match of Hollywood productions.
But what’s most impressive about the sequence is how Lam conceived the action. His command of movement, narrative, and pacing is superb, building tremendous suspense and momentum while tightening the screws on his characters. Most of what happens on the oil rig is at the least far-fetched, but Lam presents it all so clearly and authentically that he sweeps viewers into the scene.
Another action sequence combines a landslide, a raging river, a tank truck filled with fuel about to explode, a helicopter battling dangerous winds, and two responders on zip lines fighting off debris in the form of downed trees hurtling by. It seems like Lam and his crew can sustain these almost wordless sequences as long as they want while viewers gasp for breath.
Back on land the film sinks into worn-out domestic clichés: single dad coping with loss, commitment-phobic fiancée putting off his betrothed, shy student afraid to speak up in school. The soggy sentimentality threatens to overwhelm scenes about how squad members train (hard and long) and interact (with mixed emotions).
Not quite a change-of-page for Lam (who has directed his share of comedies and sports films), The Rescue is still much more sentimental than American viewers like. It also lacks Lam’s trademark: insanely over-the-top action. (One shot that travels from a helicopter cockpit through the fuselage of a passenger jet sinking in the ocean and from there up and out over the rescue team spread out below gives an indication of how jaw-dropping Lam’s vision can be.) In Asian markets, the film’s huge scope and upbeat message give it obvious blockbuster potential.
This is star Eddie Peng’s fourth film with Lam, and he is effortlessly commanding as hotshot Captain Gao Qian. Peng conveys both determination and humor, with an appealingly light screen presence. (Peng stars in the upcoming Love After Love, directed by Ann Hui.) Xin Zhilei, late of the arthouse film Crosscurrent, plays Fang Yuling, a by-the-book helicopter pilot who slowly thaws under Gao’s charm. The supporting roles are brisk and effective.
The Rescue was scheduled to open in the US through CMC Pictures on Friday, January 24, a day before its China release. However, Covid-19 worries postponed its opening. At the time Lam’s team said in a press release:
At the moment, many medical and rescue personnel are sticking to their posts, stepping forward bravely at the key moment of danger and disaster! The movie ‘The Rescue’ is about exactly this kind of spirit. Let us as millions, all of one mind, with unshakeably unity, win the battle of preventing an epidemic!
CMC Pictures has moved the release to December 18. Check Fandango for theaters: https://www.fandango.com/the-rescue-2020-221972/movie-overview
