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Review | Hand Rolled Cigarette movie review: Lam Ka-tung shines as a former British soldier in Hong Kong-set crime thriller
- Director Chan Kin-long shoots himself in the foot with his decision to inject his socially aware drama with a dose of over-the-top gangland violence
- It is nevertheless a technically accomplished film, with an extended fight sequence towards the end worth the ticket price alone
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3/5 stars
Fruit Chan meets Takashi Miike for Hand Rolled Cigarette – or so it must have felt to actor-turned-debutant-filmmaker Chan Kin-long when he decided to inject his history-minded, socially aware drama with an awkward dose of over-the-top gangland violence.
The film was a nominee in seven categories at the 2020 Golden Horse Awards (including best picture), though its schizophrenic shifts in tone nevertheless reinforce the impression this is more style than substance.
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Riding a hot streak of gruff leading roles that often see him lurk on the fringes of the law and society – beginning with 2016’s Trivisa, and looking set to continue with the upcoming Limbo – Lam Ka-tung plays Chiu, a former Chinese soldier for the British army who has lost his job, his best friends from that era, as well as the will to make a better living for himself since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
The film’s black-and-white prologue, showing Chiu and his squad back in 1996 when they were on the verge of disillusionment, shares the premise of Fruit Chan’s The Longest Summer (1998); indeed Tony Ho Wah-chiu, the leading man of that film, also shows up in Hand Rolled Cigarette as one of the veterans.
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But it soon transpires that Chan Kin-long is not as interested in that legacy as it would initially appear.
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