ReviewRob N Roll movie review: Aaron Kwok, Lam Ka-tung ham it up in darkly comic Hong Kong crime drama with an ambitiously convoluted story
- There’s shades of Johnny To’s crime capers in Rob N Roll, a diverting comedy whose story is confidently told but with a few too many twists to be captivating
- The performances of Aaron Kwok, as an unstable bandit, Lam Ka-tung, as a put-upon taxi driver, and Richie Jen as an indebted business owner, are the draw here
3.5/5 stars
Lam plays Robby, a downtrodden taxi driver who is being driven over the edge by the constant discord at home caused by his elderly mother – his pregnant wife longs to move out of their cramped flat. Meanwhile, his father has been taking shelter, without paying, in the nursing home run by Robby’s buddy, Fai (Jen).
The latter isn’t doing any better. A widower with a young daughter to provide for, Fai is heavily in debt and struggles to keep his business afloat – not that he runs the home purely for the money. Somehow this kind-hearted man gets the idea of committing a robbery.
Before they can secure a gun, however, the two middle-aged losers inadvertently become involved in the fallout from an armed robbery led by Mui (Kwok), a former pro wrestler and self-proclaimed “tough bandit, not a killer” from a fictional rural town, whose alternately polite and unhinged temperament hides a traumatic past.