The Whistleblower [Chui shao ren] *** (2019, Jiayin Lei, Wei Tang, Xi Qi) – Movie Review

Writer-director Xiaolu Xue’s entertaining Chinese-Australian co-production The Whistleblower (2019) is at heart a good old-fashioned epic chase conspiracy thriller, with some modern trimmings – OMG, way, way too much CGI! The CGI is no doubt needed to make Xiaolu Xue’s film seem ‘modern’, but it actually erodes the excitement and credibility of what are some very good action and chase sequences, with some great stunts, road driving and car smashes. Try to keep it a bit ‘real’ please!

Never mind, and never mind that the story and incidents defy all credibility, increasingly as the movie moves along. It is easy to suspend disbelief and enjoy The Whistleblower for what it is, an escaping entertainment with an undercurrent of social awareness: the horrors of international big business, industry’s threat to the environment, the dangers of working abroad, corporate ignorance, human greed, etc.

It is set in Melbourne, where Mark (Jiayin Lei) is a Chinese expatriate working for a mining company in Australia discovers that new technology developed by his company may be a health risk, and investigates a web of conspiracies. A married man, he nevertheless hitches up for the night with Zhou Siliang (Wei Tang), who oversleeps, misses her plane and survives the aircraft’s crash with all aboard. Nobody, except her dodgy husband, knows she’s alive, but she contacts Mark and the two of them set out to find the truth. Mark’s work predecessor Peter (Ce Wang) turns up dead, and a mysterious guy called Tom Baker (Brett Cousins) is dead too, and of course the bad guys want Mark and Zhou dead too, so they have to run for their lives.

Unfortunately, soon Mark’s wife Judy (Xi Qi) finds out about Zhou, and Mark has got to contend with her, as well as his dodgy boss Harrison (John Batchelor). The plot then thickens and thickens. There sure is plenty of plot to fill the 135 minute running time.

You could say it is over-plotted, convoluted, tricky to follow and not without the genre’s clichés I’d just say it is involved and involving. And I don’t think Hitchcock would have minded it too very much. It has a North by Northwest sort of vibe.

The production looks expensive, both slick and smart, filming on unusual locations. Indeed it is the largest foreign production to be filmed in Victoria, Australia, since Steven Spielberg’s The Pacific (2010), and the biggest Australian-Chinese co-production in Victoria.

Jiayin Lei makes an unlikely hero, edging into comfy middle-age, but that’s what makes him effective. Wei Tang is very alluring as a femme fatale, and that’s what makes her effective. Xi Qi is suitably wifely and John Batchelor suitably oily.

Though the film doesn’t have much youth appeal, I’m going to go for ‘pretty good movie’.

The African scenes were shot in Victoria, Australia, with about 350 people from Melbourne’s African community cast as extras.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

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