Though I wouldn’t take it as an accurate representation of the Chinese authorities’ feelings about the A.I. revolution, this expensive-looking Hong Kong actioner by Larry Yang, set in Macau and presented in Mandarin rather than Cantonese, does raise questions about how far you should trust the new technology with matters like law and order. The opening heist has more to do with hacking into the Macau police department’s CCTV system than with any analog skills such as safe-cracking or tunnel-digging. A lithe crew of young thieves steals a set of hard drives that contain data which could unlock a billion dollars’ worth of crypto currency by fooling the police surveillance software into thinking it is tracking their getaway when it isn’t. Obviously the new equipment doesn’t work as well as it’s been advertised to do so the old school police chief decides to bring in a retired cop who actually knows how to organize a stakeout. When we first meet Wong (Jackie Chan), he’s walking a kennel’s worth of dogs and seems keen to get back in the game. 

There’s no use in trying to make Chan look less than his age, so Yang takes advantage of this fact by pitting him against an equally grizzled bad guy known as the Shadow (Tony Leung Ka-fai), who himself is not much on new tech, and thus relies on a bunch of orphans he raised from childhood to be his partners-in-crime. This heist is meant to be his career-defining magnum opus, and Yang stages it all with a pompous rigor, showing how the intricate plans, using Mission Impossible-grade disguises and aerial equipment, easily outfoxes the constabulary. Wong’s job is to retrain the departments younger recruits, including the pint-sized daughter (Zhang Zifeng) of his former partner, who was killed in the line of action while Wong was distracted, to rely on their smarts and senses rather than on their gadgets. Yang does a good job of showing this educational process with a surveillance detail that seems to take a couple of weeks before Wong and his team locate the Shadow, whom no one has ever actually identified. 

While the dramatic components are as sentimentally shaped as you’d expect them to be—especially on the Shadow’s side where his charges have their doubts about his capacity to lead them effectively— and the shilling for the Wynn integrated resorts is a casino too far, the action is pretty cool. Obviously, neither Chan nor Leung can pull off the kinds of moves they performed with alacrity in their heyday, but thanks to some clever camera work and cutting their fights are still inventive, thrilling, and almost insanely witty, which, of course, is what Chan has always been about. Hardcore fans will probably prefer to savor the old movies, but if this is a swan song, it’s a pretty sweet one. 

In Mandarin and English. Opens Dec. 12 in Tokyo at Marunouchi Piccadilly (050-6875-0075), Shinjuku Wald 9 (03-5369-4955).

The Shadow’s Edge home page in Japanese

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