The Adventurers
It was in 1975 that eight-year-old Wai Lok-yan watched from hiding as his parents were murdered by his father’s former colleague, both of them undercover agents of the CIA but Ray Lui a traitor serving the agenda of the Khmer Rouge, the house burned as they left and Yan’s sister dying in the fire, he taken from the green fields of Cambodia by his uncle Shang to Thailand where he was raised and became a pilot in the air force.
Twenty years passed, Lui having become a billionaire arms smuggler with close ties to the corrupt General Buboei in the interim, Yan still bears the grudge, his misconceived and bungled assassination attempt seeing his cousin Mark captured, tortured and killed and Yan himself only escaping with the help of Lui’s bitter mistress, Mona, instead joining the CIA and travelling to San Francisco track Lui’s estranged daughter Crystal.
Directed by Burning Paradise‘s Ringo Lam from a script co-written with Yip Kong-yam and Sandy Shaw, The Adventurers (大冒險家) stars Running on Karma‘s Andy Lau as Wai Lok-yan and his alter-ego Mandy Chan under which he marries Crystal Lui (Jacklyn Wu) and so finds himself welcomed into the inner circle of Ray Lui (Paul Chun) but also uncomfortably close to Mona (Rosamund Kwan) who knows his secrets.
An action thriller romance drama of wartime survival, the bonds of family, betrayal, post-traumatic stress disorder, jealousy, automatic weapons, helicopter chases, air strikes and lots of explosions, plagued by his traumatic past in black and white flashbacks which are intrusive rather than illustrative Yan is astonishingly inept in his role, going off book and incurring reprimands and tracked not once but twice, first by Lui’s henchmen then by his wife as he has an assignation with Mona.
Shot in Hong Kong, the United States and the Philippines doubling for Cambodia, like the locations the plot is all over the place, not played for comedy but veering into the absurd with Yan’s rising collateral body count untallied as farming communities are burned down and everyone he touches tainted, standing by in mute confusion as Mona assaults the pregnant Crystal and puts her in a coma, all considerations secondary in the driving quest for revenge he’s not all that well prepared for.
Presented on Blu-ray from a new 2K restoration, The Adventurers is supported by a new audio commentary by film critic David West, an interview with Gary Bettinson, editor of Asian Cinema journal, an interview with writer and producer Sandy Shaw, a trailer and multiple audio options as well as newly translated subtitles and a limited edition collector’s booklet featuring an essay by Hong Kong cinema scholar Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park.
The Adventurers is available on Blu-ray from Eureka now
