For the Hollywood studios and the cinemas that screen their films, the summer of 2024 is turning out to be a conundrum as they scramble to figure out what audiences want to watch. They clearly don’t want rehashed IP, like FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA, and they don’t want the stars of two of 2023’s biggest films to appear together, as Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt do in THE FALL GUY. In Malaysia, a local film is taking the box office by storm. Since its release in mid-April, SHERIFF: NARKO INTEGRITI has pulled in RM63.2 million (about US$13.5 million) at the box office. It doesn’t sound like a lot but the film had a production budget of just one-tenth of that. With the film now rolling out across the region, its financial prospects should only get even better.

Nazri (Syafiq Kyle), an inspector in the Narcotics Department of the Royal Malaysia Police, doesn’t like that meth kingpin Tony Ifrit (Aaron Aziz) always manages to elude justice from the courts so he decides to take matters into his own hands by killing some of Tony’s underlings. Although the public considers the “Meth Killer” to be a hero, the police department isn’t happy with this mysterious vigilante, who is believed to be a police officer, and the chief brings in Sherifuddin “Sheriff” Hussein (Zul Ariffin) from the Integrity Unit to investigate. At the same time, Special Detective Jennifer “Just Call Me Jane” Wong (Elizabeth Tan) is brought in to investigate the death of the head of the Narcotics Department’s Criminal Investigation Unit. In both cases, the prime suspect is Assistant Superintendent Syazlin (Azira Shafinaz), who also happens to be Nazri’s sister.

With the huge international success of South Korea’s THE ROUNDUP series, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that another country would want to jump on the bandwagon and come up with their own crime drama series centered around a charismatic detective. Similar to THE ROUNDUP‘s Ma Seok-do (Ma Dong-seok/Don Lee, ETERNALS), Sheriff isn’t afraid to let his muscles do the talking. Writer-director Syafiq Yusof knows what he has in Zul Ariffin and he plays up his star’s movie star looks with a number of slow-motion walking shots of Sheriff. Unlike THE ROUNDUP though, which has its share of humour, SHERIFF: NARKO INTEGRITI is serious to the point of being borderline melodramatic. Although it’s revealed in the opening scene that Nazri is the Meth Killer, the story still goes through a few good twists and turns to make it interesting as both Sheriff and Jennifer/Jane dig deeper.

Not surprisingly, a sequel has already been greenlit and SHERIFF: NARKO INTEGRITI 2 should be released next year. The ending of this film makes it very clear who, or what, Sheriff’s next target will be.

SHERIFF: NARKO INTEGRITI opens in Hong Kong today (June 13^th). It’s not nearly as much fun as THE ROUNDUP series but it’s pretty good and Zul Ariffin makes for a believable action star.

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