All the Way

Loehr's Imar Films continues its project to reinvent Chinese mainstream entertainment cinema with a road movie/thriller that treks through country towns and villages in East China. An innocent businessman (Jiang) offers a ride to a hitchhiker (Mok) and finds himself taken hostage by her criminal boyfriend (Taiwanese musician Chang, who also provides some of the score). Afraid that the ensuing chase won't sustain interest on its own, the script crams in subplots and secondary characters: two comic con-men, a retired cop, a gang of swindlers, a cache of fake antique coins. Cut for pace and shot largely handheld, this is likeable, lightweight stuff. But it was the miscasting coup of the year to have sophisticated HK actress Karen Mok play a small town beautician with dodgy taste in boyfriends.