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Operation Billionaires

1998

Director: Andy Ng

Stars: Simon Yam, Sherming Yiu, Patrick Tam

Unlike America, where "true crime" films are often regulated to movie-of-the-week TV trash status, in Hong Kong many of them get theatrical releases, often right after the crime has happened. Operation Billionaires tells the story of Cheung Tze-Keung (changed to Cheung Chi-Ho for the film) a kidnapper nick-named "Big Spender". Released to theatres on the date of Cheung's date in a Mainland court, the movie shows how Cheung had a healthy "career" by kidnapping sons of tycoons, but eventually falls to his own code of honor, when an attempt to rescue a former partner gets him arrested.

These pulpy kind of movies can be fun, but Operation Billionaires never fully delivers the goods. Simon Yam gives a good performance as Cheung, but the film-makers over-glamorize him so much (he is showing helping old ladies across the street) that it's hard to take him too seriously as a hardened criminal. The rest of the cast is just kind of there. The only real one of note is Sherming Yiu (who play's Cheung's wife), and that's just because of her ample cleavage. Sadly, there is an almost total lack of violence, sex, gore or crude language that make these kinds of movies fun to watch. It really does just feel like a TV movie, and that is Operation Billionaires' biggest downfall.

RATING: 5

Note: for those of you wondering about Cheung's fate, he was executed in China shortly after this movie came out.

A review for the VCD of this movie can be found here

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