Four 3, The | aka The Four: Final Battle (2014) Review

“The Four 3” Theatrical Poster

Director: Gordon Chan
Co-director: Janet Chun
Cast: Crystal Liu Yi Fei, Deng Chao, Colin Chou, Ronald Cheng, Yu Chenghui, Anthony Wong Chau Sang, Wu Xiubo, Jiang Yi-Nan, Alec Su, Ada Liu
Running Time: 107 min. 

By Paul Bramhall 

The closing scenes of The Four 2 saw the team’s internal strife come to a head, leading to Crystal Liu’s Emotionless leaving both the Divine Constabulary and her brooding boyfriend, Deng Chao’s Coldblood, after learning that Collin Chou’s Iron Hands was involved in the massacre of her family 12 years earlier. The opening of The Four 3 sees the team continuing to disband, with Chao announcing that he’s returning to Department Six to help with the investigation into the Sheriff King’s murder, and Ronald Cheng’s Life Snatcher continuing to wonder exactly what his role is in the series. Only one will have more clarity by the time the end credits roll.

Co-directors Gordon Chan and Janet Chun return to close out the trilogy with 2014’s The Four 3, shot back-to-back with its predecessor, as the father of the original’s villain continues his dastardly plan to overthrow the emperor, and presumably cause more pain and suffering for his own personal gain. Played by Mainland martial arts cinema royalty Yu Chenghui, he heads up a villainous side which consists of his own son (and big bad of the first instalment) Wu Xiubo, Department Six’s traitorous double agent Jiang Yi-Nan, and face shifting temptress Ada Liu (Jian Bing Man, Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy). There’re a few character tweaks this time as well, such as Xiubo’s ability to only communicate through telepathy revealed to be a ruse, and he can actually talk after all. Why the deception? Who knows, but it does give him the opportunity to speak such classic lines like “All I am now is a stool.” So, there is that.

The plot gets straight down to business with the face shifting Liu attempting to assassinate the emperor, played by Alec Su (The Message, The Assassins), while on a visit outside of the palace walls. Blowing up the boat he’s travelling on in a set piece that refreshingly uses minimum CGI, Su barely escapes and seeks shelter at the Divine Constabulary, believing their unflappable leader Anthony Wong to be the only person he can trust. With the big bads finally making their power move and our heroes in all sorts of disarray, once word gets out that Su is still alive The Four 3 essentially becomes a ‘good guys on the run’ flick, as traitorous palace officials, super powered villains, and yes, even a stool all aim to finish the job.

The transition away from the mystery format that hindered the first 2 entries benefits the closing chapter of The Four saga, with the more straight forward narrative and a shorter run time offering up a sense of urgency which was previously lacking. Of course by this point it’s clear that co-directors Chan and Chun consider the series VIP’s to be Crystal Liu and Deng Chao, so those hoping for a refrain from their epic romance will find such hopes quickly dashed. While Chao here gets to run around in his flashy Department Six uniform and look simmering, Liu once more is ladened with wince inducing attempts at emoting that require a commitment far beyond her range. Can she really forget the times she shared together with Chao? Will Chao have a change of heart now he’s working alongside his old flame Jiang Yi-Nan? Enjoyment of any of The Four movies requires forcing yourself to care about the answers to such questions.

The addition of Alec Su as the emperor is a welcome one, his portrayal striking a balance somewhere between empathetic and authoritative, and the fact that he initially ends up in the care of Liu sets up a scenario rife for creating tension. Responsible for ordering the massacre of Liu’s family 12 years earlier, Su has no idea that he’s being harboured by the surviving daughter, leaving him vulnerable to her conflicted feelings over taking revenge. It’s an indication of just how off Liu’s performance is that the audience sympathy ends up more with the none the wiser emperor than it does with the character who lost her entire family (and use of her legs!), however the situation isn’t really capitalised on with the arrival of Anthony Wong and his zen like demeanour.

If Wong’s blatant refusal to show even the slightest sign of flusterment in the first 2 entries felt like it had reached its peak, in this instalment it’s taken to previously unknown levels. During one of the franchises omnipresent communal hotpot scenes a massive brawl breaks out when the Divine Constabulary is attacked by palace guards, a chaotic scene which Wong reacts to by continuing to calmly eat while the gang take care of business. If there’s ever a case study for how to stay calm under pressure, then a compilation of Wong’s performances from The Four trilogy would be the ideal place to start. The scene is representative of the final instalment leaning more into action flick territory than its predecessors, with once more action director Ku Huen-Chiu on choreography duty.

While the action on display doesn’t particularly elevate anything we’ve already seen from the previous 2 entries, it does deliver more of it and on a grander scale. Considering Chao’s superpower of turning into a raging Hulk like beast has been completely under utilized so far in favour of brooding over his feelings for Liu, here we finally get to see him let loose in beast mode during a group melee. Sure, it may only last a few seconds at best, and his initial transformation from The Four which showed him as a bulked-up monstrosity is now reduced to him basically growing a pair of fangs, but at least it ticks the box. The whole superpowers angle is most confusingly portrayed by Liu, although admittedly through no fault of her own, with a narrative that can’t seem to decide if she can use her powers to float around at will like in the first instalment, or if she needs the hydraulic metal legs to be upwardly mobile like we saw in the 2^nd.

Huen-Chiu’s ambitions for the all-out finale against Yu Chenghui unfortunately don’t translate to the screen quite as impressively as they probably sounded in theory. With the now re-assembled Four ready to take on all sides, at one point they opt to go all Power Rangers by combining to create a kind of flying human sword, a move which ends up looking more laughable than anything else. We do get some bright spots though, with Liu and Yi-Nan joining forces to take down Ada Liu in an all-female dose of wire-fu, and Ronald Cheng finally makes himself useful by taking out various lackeys with his energy blasting kicks (although I’m still not fully sure exactly what his power is supposed to be).

As a sidenote, from a historical perspective reflecting on the relationship between HK and Mainland cinema during the 2010’s, it’s the closing credits of The Four 3 that stand out most as demonstrating the greater influence the Chinese government was beginning to exert on the film industry. While today it’s common place, this is the first time I can recall that sees the actors that come from Hong Kong and Taiwan denoted with a bracketed ‘Hong Kong, China’ or ‘Taiwan, China’ after their names, utilising cinema to assert China’s stance on the 2 territories as their own. It may have seemed excessive at the time, but writing in 2024 these end credit additions are now one of the subtler ways the government has incorporated its stances into the film industry. Ultimately the practice marks The Four productions as ones that represent a time of transition to the more restrictive, censorship cautious approach filmmakers must take today.

While The Four 3 brings the story arc to a close, as a trilogy it never really felt like it took full advantage of its premise, spending far too much time on sappy romance, and failing to understand that sometimes it’s best for the audience to be kept in the dark. I’d originally intended to close this review by suggesting how, in today’s filmmaking climate, The Four could likely be successfully reborn as web movies, only to discover with a bit of research that they already have (director Xiang Qiuliang helmed the identically titled The Four and The Four 2 for YOUKU in 2018 and 2019 respectively). As it stands though, as a trio of big budget tentpoles that attempted to blend the wuxia and superhero genres together, The Four trilogy falls way short of expectations.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 5.5/10