''Caught in Time'' () is a 2020 Hong Kong/Chinese

crime action film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

based on the robber and serial killer Zhang Jun. It is the second film from director Lau Ho-Leung, after '' Two Thumbs Up''. It stars

Wang Qianyuan Wang Qianyuan is a Chinese actor who graduated from the Central Academy of Drama. He won Best Actor at the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival for his role in the movie, ''The Piano in a Factory ''The Piano in a Factory'' () is 2010 Chine ...

Daniel Wu Daniel Ng Neh-Tsu (, born September 30, 1974) is an American actor, director and producer based in Hong Kong. He is known as a "flexible and distinctive" leading actor in the Chinese language film industry. Since his film debut in 1998, he has ...

Jessie Li Jessie Li (; born 5 December 1992), known professionally as Chun Xia, is a Chinese actress. She is best known for starring in '' Port of Call'' (2015), which earned her a Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress. Biography Li was born in Kunming. ...

, and

Michelle Wai Michelle Wai (; born on November 24, 1984) is a Hong Kong actress. She was a part-time model before entering the entertainment industry. Now she is an actress under the Emperor Motion Pictures Emperor Group is a diversified group of compan ...

Plot

Set in

southern China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

in the 1990s, the film follows detective Zhong Cheng as he tracks the "Eagle Gang", a sophisticated, well-trained, and ruthless group of robbers led by gangster Zhang Sun (codename "Falcon"), over the course of years. The gang members commit a series of horrendous crimes, and Zhang Sun taunts the detective by pulling down his mask to show his face. A

cat-and-mouse game Cat and mouse, often expressed as cat-and-mouse game, is an English-language idiom that means "a contrived action involving constant pursuit, near captures, and repeated escapes." The "cat" is unable to secure a definitive victory over the "mouse ...

ensues as Zhong Cheng works to find the gang. The chase ends with a shirtless battle between Zhong Cheng and Zhang Sun in a bathhouse. The film is based on a real string of robberies and murders committed by Zhang Jun, who was dubbed "China's number one outlaw" when he was active in the 1990s. Zhang Jun killed or injured around 50 people before being apprehended in September 2000 and executed the next year.

Cast

as Zhong Cheng *

as Zhang Sun *

as Wen Juan *

as Chen Qian *

Nina Paw Nina Paw Hee-ching (in Chinese 鮑起靜, born 20 July 1949) is a Hong Kong actress. Paw got her start in film but came into prominence portraying mothers on ATV television dramas, such as ''Fatherland'' (1980). Having portrayed many mother a ...

as Zhang Sun's mother

Production

Production officially started on 13 November 2018 in

Jiangmen Jiangmen (), alternately romanized in Cantonese as Kongmoon, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province in southern China. As of the 2020 census, its three urban districts, plus Heshan City being conurbated, with 2,657,662 inhabitants ar ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, and

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

was finished in January 2019. Filming locations included Heshan,

, and

Zhongshan Zhongshan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is now part of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen conurbation with 65,565,622 i ...

. Reportedly, Wang Qianyuan and Daniel Wu nearly injured themselves trying to make the action as realistic as possible. Wang also said in an interview that in preparation for the shirtless fight scene at the end of the film, he and Wu spent 40 days on a diet and exercise regimen to tone their muscles. Michelle Wai started getting tan and gaining weight about six months before shooting began in preparation for her role as a 1990s police officer. The production used a total of 48 guns, 6,243

blank cartridge A blank is a firearm cartridge that, when fired, does not shoot a projectile like a bullet or pellet, but generates a muzzle flash and an explosive sound ( muzzle report) like a normal gunshot would. Firearms may need to be modified to allow a bl ...

s, and 4,312 explosive cartridges. The film's working title was , literally "Solving the case in time", but in September 2020 the title was changed to , literally "Getting rid of outlaws", in support of the ongoing law enforcement campaign to crack down on underworld crimes.

Release and reception

Though originally planned for a 2019 release, the film was released in China on 20 November 2020, after screenings on 14 and 15 November. Screening audiences rated it 8.8 out of 10 on

Taopiaopiao Tao Piao Piao (, lit: 'hunting for tickets'), or Taopiaopiao , is an online movie ticket distributor and film promotion service. Together, Taopiaopiao and its main rival Maoyan control approximately 80 percent of movie ticket sales in China. Form ...

and

Maoyan Tianjin Maoyan Culture Media () is a Chinese company that owns the largest online movie ticketing website in China, maoyan.com, with 30% share of the market in 2015. In 2016, Wang Changtian of Beijing Enlight Media offered to buy a controlling stak ...

. Among their reactions were sentiments like "Now I understand why China is one of the safest countries in the world nowadays" and "Being a police officer back then was really tough". It was also released in Australia on 10 December 2020. The weekend of its release, ''Caught in Time'' was the top-grossing film internationally. It was the box office number-one film in China for weeks 47–48 of 2020. It received mixed reviews. '' Jiemian News'' wrote that the film was bold and innovative for adapting the style of classic Hong Kong crime films to the context of mainland China, but noted that not all viewers were pleased with this choice. Critic Dong Jing said that after an exciting first half, the second half of the film was disappointing and Zhong Cheng's character was not developed enough, but she still felt the film was worth watching. The film was praised for its detailed recreation of 1990s China. Viewers enjoyed the final fight scene in the bathhouse. While commentators praised the realistic punches, they also joked that the men kept their towels on improbably well. "Daniel Wu's towel never falls off even when he fights" became one of the top searches on

Weibo Weibo may refer to: * Microblogging in China, or China-based microblogging services (), including: ** NetEase Weibo (), launched by NetEase ** People's Weibo (), launched by ''People's Daily'' ** Phoenix Weibo (), launched by Phoenix Television ** W ...

Sequel

On 3 December 2020, a sequel was announced. ''Caught in Time 2'' will feature the same cast, and director Lau Ho-Leung is writing the screenplay.

References

External links

* * * * {{imdb title, tt9877138 2020 crime action films Chinese crime action films Chinese mystery films Films based on actual events Films set in China Films set in the 1990s Films shot in Guangdong Hong Kong crime drama films Hong Kong heist films 2020s Mandarin-language films