CHONGQING HOT POT

China, 2016, 94 minutes, Cover.
Baihe Bai, Kun Chen, Hao Qin.
Directed by Quin Yang.


If audiences wondered about the Chinese sense of humour, here is an example. It has comic situations, characters behaving comically, a lot of slapstick. But there is also the serious side, bank robbery, conflicts, and lots and lots of martial arts fights as well as some street brawling.

The film opens with masked bank robbers going into a bank, putting a closed sign outside, confronting the staff and customers, getting into the vault. There is a comment that the city of Chongqing (the city where the main actor, Ken Chun, actually comes from) is noted for its many subterranean tunnels and the camera goes from the bank down a hole, through the tunnels, finishing up in a Hot Pot restaurant utilising the tunnels and the walls.

Then the film story goes back, focusing on the three friends who own restaurant, one of them an inveterate gambler who is in serious debt, and the plans to sell the restaurant which go very slowly. The three friends have known each other since school days, who had a band together, one of whom is married, the other planning to move to Beijing.

When they discover the hole in the floor of the bank vault, there are many, many temptations. Meanwhile, the boss of the gang who is owed all the money begins to put pressure as well as some bashings.

One idea is to enlarge the restaurant by amplifying the tunnel space – which is against local regulations.

Then there is a brainwave that a friend from school is actually a teller in the bank, disliked by all her fellow workers and shunned. They invite her to a meal at the restaurant, she sensing something amiss, their revealing their plan for her to help them in the recovery of the money – and she agrees. There are several visualising is of what might happen if the plan goes into action.

The two timelines then coincide, with the friend amongst the prisoners of the bank robbers, offering to be some kind of hostage to let the others leave. While the three owners eventually get up into the vault, our hero is apprehended, tied up after he has actually vanquished one of the robbers. However, with the others arriving, everyone is tied up, the robbers masks put on them, including the girl even though the bank staff have been led to safety. And the police intervene.

The robbers, unmasking, pour petrol over the hapless prisoners and are about to set it alight when the leader of the gambling group turns up with his men and there is fight, brawl, lots of action – but also of the kind that leads to various people being injured and deaths.

Needless to say, a knife is found, the group cut their way to freedom, the police round up the robbers – and the leader of the gang is wounded and gives up on the debt.

Everybody is happy, the reward money enables them to buy a bigger and better restaurant, the friend does not go to Beijing and all is well.