Hand Rolled Cigarette (2021) Review

“Hand Rolled Cigarette” Theatrical Poster

Director: Kelvin Chan
Cast: Gordon Lam, Bipin Karma, Michael Ning, Singh Hartihan Bitto, Ben Yuen, Chin Siu-Ho, To Yin-Gor, Tony Ho Wah-Chiu, Tommy Chu Pak-Houg, Tai Bo
Running Time: 110 min.

By Paul Bramhall

From an audience perspective, the Hong Kong crime genre has been extinct since at least the mid-2010’s, with the last production to truly deliver a slice of uncompromising (re: disregarding Mainland censorship requirements) HK cinema being 2015’s Port of Call. The classic crime flicks that populated the golden era like City on Fire, and even in more recent times like Beast Stalker, have long been considered a thing of the past, so whenever a new Hong Kong crime thriller pops up it always feels like the equivalent of stumbling across a dodo. It’s interesting then that in 2021 we got not one but two of them, both starring Gordon Lam (Nessun Dorma, The Brink). Auteur Cheang Pou-Soi returned to the dark and gritty with Limbo, and actor Kelvin Chan made his directorial debut with Hand Rolled Cigarette.

Chan’s name may not be immediately familiar, however as an actor he’s featured in supporting roles in just about every Hong Kong movie that’s been worth watching over the last few years, including the previously mentioned Port of Call, and personal favorties The Midnight After and Robbery. His decision to move behind the camera proves to be a welcome one, as Hand Rolled Cigarette reveals itself to be a masterfully restrained and intimate look at the lives of two disparate characters, who find themselves thrown together through circumstance.

Penned by both Chan and Ling Wai-Chun, who contributed to One Second Champion and Raging Fire, the script takes the time to establish Lam’s character and his place in Hong Kong’s history. We learn in an opening black and white flashback that Lam and his buddies were soldiers in the British Army when HK was still British territory. As the 1997 handover approached the military granted UK passports to those of a certain rank and experience, but nobody in Lam’s unit was eligible, leaving them without employment and instilling a sense of being left behind once HK became part of China once more. Skip forward to 2019, and Lam’s living in the rough and ready Chungking Mansions in Kowloon, having become a trusted middleman between a local triad gang led by Ben Yuen (Integrity, Shock Wave 2) and a group of Taiwanese gangsters, his job to broker deals and take a cut of commission for his troubles.

Also living there is a South Asian immigrant played by Nepalese actor Bipin Karma, here making his debut after working on a number of his own short films. He and his younger brother reluctantly work as drug runners for an operation run by their cousin, played by Singh Hartihan Bitto (Mad Detective, Helios), however he dreams of creating a better life so he can send his brother to university. When the latest delivery involves a large amount of cocaine, Karma decides to steal it and attempt to somehow sell it himself. The drugs were bound for the same triads who Lam collaborates with, and when Karma’s cover is blown he ends up being pursued by Yuen’s ruthless enforcer, played by a heavily scarred Michael Ning (The White Girl, Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight). After a frantic chase, Karma ends up in Lam’s apartment, refusing to leave for fear it’ll result in almost certain death.

It’s the relationship between Lam and Karma that becomes the crux of the plot, as a pair of characters that society has let fall through the cracks for different reasons, and how a friendship can form even though each is ultimately using the other – Karma is using Lam for safe haven, and Lam agrees to it on the basis he gets a cut of the deal, an amount large enough that it’ll allow him to clear his debt. A modestly budgeted affair, we spend a lot of time in Lam’s apartment, however it never for a moment feels dull, with a quiet tension simmering just beneath the surface, one which occasionally comes to the boil, such as when Karma looks through Lam’s old army photo albums and videos without permission. 

Meanwhile just beyond the front door the corridors and alleyways that make up the sprawling Chungking Mansions are being shaken down by Ning’s enforcer and his lackeys, targeting the South Asian residents and subjecting them to some particularly wince inducing (at least if you’re a guy) beatdowns. When Lam’s latest deal that he’s cut with Yuen also goes south, it feels like only a matter of time before Yuen and his gang close in on the pair. While on the surface Hand Rolled Cigarette may sound like fairly standard genre fare, its in the subtle nuances that it sets itself apart. The character Lam plays is one rarely seen in Hong Kong cinema, and the aftermath of the handover wasn’t kind to these now unemployed soldiers, with no support from the UK and none from the HKSAR either, they were essentially left to fend for themselves.

Estranged from his military buddies except for Chin Siu-Ho (The Tai-Chi Master, Fist of Legend), Lam’s closest acquaintance seems to be that of his masseuse whom he shares stilted conversations with, however within them there are small moments of tenderness. Indeed it’s these small moments that Chan’s debut feels like it’s most about, portraying those little moments of hope and human connection in a dog-eat-dog world. The racial prejudices that South Asians face in Hong Kong are expectedly touched on, however Chan chooses to portray them as they are, rather than framing them from the perspective of trying to deliver any kind of message. In one scene Karma reflects on the fact that it’ll be easier for Lam to start over with the money, a comment pointed at the fact he’s a local, to which Lam replies “Race doesn’t have any bearing on shitty luck.” It may not necessarily be a fair statement, but it’s one that hold true to his character.  

While the mutual respect that develops between Lam and Karma may be at the heart of the story, Hand Rolled Cigarette never forgets the genre it’s taking place in, and along with the tension the violence steadily creeps up as events transpire to gradually close in. A confrontation between Yuen and the Taiwan gangster, played by To Yin-Gor (Trivisa, Embrace), deserves an award for throwing in a reference to Shaw Brothers in the middle of a particularly brutal scene. However it’s when Tai Bo (Police Story, Zombie 108) clocks in a scene stealing appearance in the latter half that proceedings really escalate, with Lam, Karma, Yuen, and Tai Bo all converging in the same location to straighten things out.

As with any good HK crime flick though, things don’t go smoothly. Shots are fired, and the tension finally simmers over in the final reel as Lam is left to fend off 4 attackers in a desperate and scrappy brawl. Choreographed by Johnny Tang Shui-Wa, who contributed to the action in the likes of Golden Job and Caught in Time, the protracted scene is filmed as one take, and its brilliance lies in how it completely subverts the expectations of what audiences think a HK fight scene should be. Director Chan stated that his inspiration was the corridor fight in Park Chan-wook’s Old Boy, and that becomes immediately evident. Lam may not be fighting off wave after wave of attackers like Choi Min-sik did almost 20 years ago, however the dedication to realism means that 4 opponents is more than enough, and despite the brutality of it Chan imbues a streak of black comedy thanks to one attacker unintentionally setting himself on fire.

Anchored by a pair of stellar performances from Gordon Lam and Bipin Karma, who’s a revelation in his big screen debut, Hand Rolled Cigarette marks Kelvin Chan as an exciting new Hong Kong talent to look out for, and perhaps more importantly, that Hong Kong cinema in the 2020’s is definitely not dead. Capturing Hong Kong from both a local and a foreigner’s point of view, with the shared perception of it as a land of broken dreams, the perspective from those on the fringes is a powerful one. Quietly compelling and punctuated with bursts of brutal violence, Hand Rolled Cigarette doesn’t just represent a return to form for the HK crime flick, but also shows how good Hong Kong cinema can still be when it stays true to itself.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 8/10