Starring Sammy Hung, son of HK movie deity, the one and only Sammo Hung, this police action thriller of very simple international title (although its original Chinese title is no better, “Break the Ice”, however both titles are related with the plot), follows the adventures of a workaholic police officer (Sammy Hung) with marital problems and obsessed with catching a dangerous elusive drug dealer, that risks his integrity and his dear ones to have the job done.
The final result is a small low budget VOD production in the wide and vast chinese streaming service world, that presents a non-stop action feature full of repetitive and anodine ballistic action and brief glances of fighting sequences, so brief that we can´t barely appreciate whether are worth it or not. Besides that, the director even attempts to innovate with POV sequences videogame style that only ruins the rythm of the sequences.
The plot is tangled between countles of subplots that burdens the main storyline. Sammy does a decent job but is unable to lift the interest of what we´re witnessing on the screen.
The characters are mere archetypes of this kind of productions, and the story is unable to lift the emotions on its dramatic scenes that feels forced and even out of place in the middle of all the chaotic action that fills the screen.
Its second act, is a confessed homage to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, in fact, one of the characters appears watching it in an old black and white television, And logically, this confessed hommage where a scene from Nolan´s film is replicated, lacks of the budget and the mastery of the American film…but it is acceptable.
The third and final act, triggers an explosive finale full of action that fails to achieve the spectacularity that it surely intended, leaving the viewer too cold and with the expectations of finding in Sammy a worthy successor to his legendary father thrown to the ground.
In conclusion, this is just a fast consuming production for chinese audiences with no higher expectations. A mindless entertainment that if the viewer is not very demanding could even consider it an enjoyable passtime.
Whoever wants to give it a chance, the film is available on Iqiyi and Youku video