Bursting Point (2023) Review

“Bursting Point” Theatrical Poster

Director: Calvin Tong
Co-director: Dante Lam
Cast: Nick Cheung Ka-Fai, William Chan Wai-Ting, Isabella Leung Lok-Sze, Shaun Tam Chun-Yin, Philip Keung Hiu-Man, Chrissie Chau Sau-Na
Running Time: 139 min. 

By Paul Bramhall

Since helming 2016’s Operation Mekong Dante Lam has become China’s go-to man for bombastic big budget actioners that espouse the virtues of the country’s various military divisions, with the army, navy (2018’s Operation Red Sea) and Search & Rescue (2020’s The Rescue) all getting their moment in the spotlight. Next out of the ranks is Operation Leviathan, expected to hit screens in 2025, but before that Lam was given a brief respite to return to the kind of movie that put him on the map back in the late 00’s – the gritty Hong Kong crime thriller. In 2023 he released Bursting Point, which marked the first time for him to return to the streets of Hong Kong since 2014’s That Demon Within almost 10 years prior.

Lam made his debut as a director with 1997’s Option Zero and became one of Hong Kong’s most consistent filmmakers over the next 10 years, but it was 2008’s Beast Stalker that really made audiences sit up and take notice. A taut thriller with a cast against type Nick Cheung as a relentless villain, the pairing of Lam and Cheung (who first worked together on 2001’s Runaway) resulted in a string of hits during the first half of the 2010’s, encompassing The Stool Pigeon, Unbeatable, and That Demon Within. Bursting Point reunites the director and star, this time with Lam co-directing alongside first timer Calvin Tong, and the title could just as well be a reference to the amount of plot and characters the excessive (almost) 140-minute runtime attempts to cram in.

It almost feels as if Lam has probably spent much of the past decade wanting to return to the Hong Kong thriller where he made his name, but the opportunities just haven’t been there, so now that he’s back on home turf has looked to squeeze in every idea that’s crossed his mind into a single movie. At its core we have Cheung cast as an anti-narcotics inspector who plants an undercover cop, played by William Chan (Overheard, The Yin Yang Master), into a gang of drug traffickers. Shaun Tam (Star Runner, Playboy Cops – and for those who like their HK cinema trivia, the son of Ti Lung) plays the ruthless leader of the gang, who suffers from a blood platelet disorder requiring regular transfusions, and after a deal goes awry loses his brother in the crossfire. Swearing revenge on the cops responsible and suspecting a mole in the ranks, the trio find themselves on an increasingly violent collision course.

Proceedings certainly kick off in a way that mean business, with an opening minute cameo from Ken Lo that sees him turn up purely for the purpose of being dragged along the ground by a speeding vehicle, the aftermath of which leaves him literally ripped in half, his remains a bloodied mess strewn all over the road. We learn he was also an undercover, and having found a new mole in the form of Chan, the plot starts in earnest 2 years later with Chan now firmly embedded in the underworld, as the pair patiently wait for the opportunity to take them down. The plot has echoes of The Stool Pigeon in its relationship between Cheung and Chan, on occasion feeling reminiscent of the dynamic between Cheung and Nicholas Tse in their 2010 feature. The Stool Pigeon’s biggest issue was its sheer number of subplots, the result of which made the narrative feel unfocussed, and unfortunately 14 years later Bursting Point suffers the same fate.

Over the course of the runtime we meet Cheung’s ex-wife and their son, Tam’s Japanese boss in Tokyo, the drug manufacturer in the Golden Triangle, a mother and daughter held against their will, and then to top it off throw in all the cops and gang members as well, some of whom are fleshed out more than others. It should hardly come as a surprise then, that when some characters disappear for extended stretches, when they re-appear chances are it’ll take a second for the audience to remember why they’re important to the plot. It should be said that all of them are, the main issue is that too much of the script (written by Tong Yiu-Leung and Wang Shengbo based off a story by Lam) gives supporting roles main character syndrome, offering up extended scenes to characters who are ultimately there to move the plot along rather than needing emotional investment from the audience.

This is particularly applicable for the mother and daughter, played by Isabella Leung (Diary, Missing) and newcomer Natalie Hse (one more piece of HK cinema trivia – the daughter of Ann Bridgewater). Leung’s husband was a drug manufacturer who was forced to work in the Golden Triangle against his will, and after passing away in prison Leung was forced to take over his work. Chosen to go to Hong Kong to secure a deal due to the fact a mother and daughter are likely to go under the authority’s radar, we’re unfortunately subjected to one too many scenes of Hse’s insufferable behaviour as an unruly teen, with their whole storyline being one that could have easily trimmed down.

Despite the bloated narrative Bursting Point earns goodwill by looking and feeling like the kind of Hong Kong thriller the territory churned out a seemingly endless supply of in the 1980’s and 1990’s. There’s a nihilistic streak throughout which ensures it earns its Cat III rating with aplomb, with characters biting the dust in a variety of gruesome ways. Bodies are set on fire, limbs are decapitated, knives are plunged into stomachs, and acid painfully burning through flesh are just a few of the ways characters meet their demise, with Lam apparently on a mission to ensure almost nobody makes it to the end credits alive. I was also reminded not once but twice of Hong Kong cinemas ability to go where others fear to tread, with a couple of scenes that induced the reaction of “wow, they really went there” (one of which is sure to receive the Billy Tang stamp of approval).

On action director duty is Stephen Tung Wai, who’s worked with Lam before in the same role on Operation Mekong and Beast Stalker, and here the action leans heavily into a sense of desperation, with several sequences falling into the category of the pursuer and those being pursued. Many of the go-to Hong Kong locations are present and accounted for, from container yards, dilapidated building rooftops, and my personal favorite, the top of an elevated pedestrian walkway (which I haven’t seen utilised since 2020’s Shock Wave 2), and Tung Wai does a solid job orchestrating the chaos. While the hand-to-hand action is instantly forgettable, in this case it gets a pass since it’s never intended to be the focus of Bursting Point, with the action scenes instead utilised to convey the backed into the corner nature many of the characters are operating in, and to that end they do an effective job.

Despite this there are a few too many contrivances to be fully immersed in the events that unfold. In one scene Cheung is searching everywhere for his son while driving, at which point his son literally runs in front of his car, of which the chances of happening in a city as crowded as Hong Kong, even with a suspension of disbelief, must be close to none (interestingly Lam’s Viral Factor from 2012 suffered from the same issue). Similarly when Cheung meets with a triad leader regarding one of his son’s misdemeanours (in another one of those unnecessary subplots), once he leaves the building a small crowd of reporters suddenly surround him out of nowhere, the nonsensical nature of the scene resulting in an unfortunate case of unintentional amusement.

Overall Bursting Point remains a far cry from Lam’s best work, and I’m not sure if it’s just me but I increasingly feel like the soundtracks to modern HK action movies are completely interchangeable, almost making me long for the minimalist keyboard OST’s of yesteryear. However to see such a violent and nihilistic story play out in Hong Kong remains an undeniable pleasure for fans of the territory’s cinematic heyday, and there’s a certain joy in seeing Lam throw in a homage to Wong Kar Wai amongst the chaos. Strip away 30 minutes of Bursting Point and there’s a lean and mean action thriller in there somewhere, but as it is it almost feels like we get 3 movies crammed into 1, and with the bloated runtime not everyone who watches will likely be willing to see it through to the end credits. Fans of Dante Lam will likely be far more forgiving, and for full disclosure, I’m one of them.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6.5/10