I must sound like a broken record when I continually complain about the garbage movies that are coming out of China these days. In case you’ve missed my previous rants, Chinese films of late have fallen into one or even a combination of four categories: they’re thinly disguised propaganda pieces meant to either (1) extol the hard work of the members of the country’s disciplined services, (2) show a revisionist view of historical events that put Chinese patriotism front and center, (3) hype the country’s advances in high tech, or (4) denigrate their regional neighbours by portraying those countries as sh*tholes that are run by criminals. With the film GO FOR BROKE, writer-director Marc Ma/馬浴柯 (WOLF HIDING/新秩序) hits on #4 but with a revisionist twist.

After drug addiction destroys his family, fisherman Zhang Yao (Nick Cheung/張家輝, PEG O’ MY HEART/贖夢) mysteriously ends up in the country’s most notorious jail. While he’s there, drug kingpin Mukun (Vithaya Pansringarm) who is literally on his last gasp of air, decides that he wants to meet Sha Wang, the son he never knew, so that he can turn the empire over to him. The only problem is that Sha Wang, who is one psychopathic badass, is in the same prison as Zhang Yao. Unknown to Mukun, his lieutenant Herta (Danny Chan/陳國坤), corrupt anti-drug police captain Andu (Ethan Juan/阮經天), and his fellow drug kingpin Anpei (Jack Kao/高捷), Zhang Yao kills Sha Wang and takes his place. Now with Zhang Yao out of prison, he has to work fast to bring these criminals down before he gets found out.

GO FOR BROKE is complete rubbish that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever until the end when a massive exposition is dumped on the audience. While it answers pretty much every question, it does stretch the bounds of credibility to galactic proportions. Even with the exposition, the story itself is full of nonsensical scenes. I know nothing about the drug business but I know enough not to put my company’s logo on my drugs. I also know enough not to locate my cash vault in a room that has floor-to-ceiling glass windows that face out to the city.

The bottom line here, and it’s one that the Chinese government no doubt loves, is that drugs are bad and even one hit will destroy your life and put you out on the street. But, curiously, the movie puts out a couple other messages as well, the first being that Thailand must obviously be a province of China where official business is conducted in Mandarin rather than in Thai. The other is that even though you can become addicted to drugs, you can still function quite clearly, thank you. Nowhere is that more evident than in the ruthless Scarface-wannabe junkie killer, Balai (Ma, pulling triple duty).

While GO FOR BROKE isn’t the worst movie you’re going to see this year, it comes pretty close. Sadly, it’s just another garbage movie from a country that once made great films.

GO FOR BROKE opens in Hong Kong on Thursday (October 10th).

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