Top Danger

cover

Year of release: 2003

Genre: action

Director: Zhang Qian

Action director: Zhang Qian

Producers: Liao Shuhui, Yan Xiaoming

Writer: Huang Weiruo

Cinematography: Yang Geliang

Editor: Nancy Wu

Music: Li Haiying, Ding Ning

Stars: Pan Yuenming, Tao Hong

Rated I for mild violence

DVD available for purchase at www.hkflix.com

HKFlix

Movie Review Index / Main Page

Top Danger  Top Danger

Top Danger  Top Danger

Top Danger is a Mainland China-produced take on the big disaster movie. Its' main problem is that it really doesn't have the budget to compete visually and sonically with US films of similar ilk produced around the same time, like The Day After Tomorrow, or even straight-to-TV entries like 10.5. Still, for what it is, Top Danger is an effective, if totally average, big dumb action movie.

The film begins with Lam (Pan Yuenming) taking his post as the new safety deputy of a province. There's a huge accident which results in a tanker full of explosive gas being dangled off of a bridge. Lam begins mobilizing his crew, and as luck would have it, the head of the gas company, Wai (Tao Hong) is already on the scene. Can Lam and Wai avert disaster? Do you really have any doubt to the answer? If so, please give yourself a swift punch to the breadbasket.

Anyway, Top Danger has all of the elements that these sorts of films usually have. Lam and Wai were once lovers, so there's some sexual tension -- at least as much as a Mainland production will allow, which means not very much. Most of the authority figures are a bit dim-witted, yet still don't trust Lam because of his age, but then accept him after a heroic act. There's a scientist whose rantings provide totally unnecessary plot exposition. And, of course, we have the mandatory annoying kids who manage to escape detection and then put everyone in peril.

Still, Top Danger does have some good-natured charm to it, and the action scenes are done competently enough. There's nary a casualty during the proceedings; a couple of people get cut kind of bad, but that's about as far as the violence goes. It was actually kind of nice seeing a movie like this that didn't have a nihilistic tone to it. If Top Danger was produced in Hong Kong by someone like Wong Jing, we probably would have seen the annoying kids get killed and then gotten a few toilet jokes to boot.

As it stands, Top Danger isn't anything really worth rushing out to see, but if you're in the mood for a brainless action movie that you can have fun with whilst hanging around some buddies and quaffing a few beverages, it fits the bill.

RATING: 5