There are no ejector seats or naked women painted gold in this glitzy tale of financial shenanigans in the later years of British-governed Hong Kong, nor is there any outlandish plan to irradiate Fort Knox. Instead the greed in this Goldfinger is of a much more prosaic nature. What it does do, which will prick up the ears of many film fans, is reunite Tony Leung and Andy Lau, the stars of Infernal Affairs, one of the most iconic thrillers of the 21st century, along with one of its writers, Felix Chong. The central pairing is the principal reason to watch this entertaining but shallow (loose) dramatisation of a real scandal.
Henry Ching (Leung) is a penniless Singaporean who lucks into a quick million playing a role in a shady real estate deal. From there he undertakes a series of schemes in which he cons various investors into believing he is richer and more powerful than he is, until he eventually becomes just that. Dogged anti-corruption agent Lau Kai-yuen (Lau) begin to investigate Ching, and over the course of decades attempts to reel in his prey as Ching’s empire proves inevitably unstable.
Far from the explosive drama of Infernal Affairs, The Goldfinger plays more like ‘The Wolf of Exchange Square’. There’s a lot of champagne-popping, stock market screaming, and boardroom hand-shaking; director Felix Chong ensuring that the story doesn’t get bogged down in the minutiae of the frankly tedious industry. As such, the narrative skips along like a stone skimmed across a pond as it overs the years in episodic manner. Wong’s visual approach mirrors Ching’s flamboyant fortunes, bathed in gaudy golden hues as Ching works his way to the top, and far more muted as the stocks crash.
Sadly, there isn’t enough for the two stars to get into anything too juicy between then. It’s far from the complex, morally murky machinations of their earlier collaboration. There isn’t even anything like the pivotal De Niro/ Pacino collision in Heat. Lau is lumbered with a straight-man role, and far less screen time. Leung gets to showboat with wolfish largesse, but he isn’t exactly being stretched. The underlying charisma of both are in evidence, but their scenes together are basic and rather one-note, the pair occasionally getting greyer as the years pass.
The Goldfinger is far from a dud, but it’s a much more basic and surface-level drama than its stars’ previous collaboration. It’s more of a caper, and on that level it works nicely. It doesn’t even get bogged down presenting itself as a cautionary tale. When a golden Buddha head is helicoptered in, in a cheeky nod to the famous Jesus scene that opens La dolce vita, it indicates that if anything it’s operating on a level of louche irony – what goes up must come down. Ultimately disposable, but an engaging enough rise and fall crime drama.
In selected cinemas from Fri 5 Jan 2024