Invisible Target is a high-octane, passionate action flick from Hong Kong, but it should be noted that it is almost 20 years old – and feels as if it has been 30. Released in the 1990s and this would have been a gripping stunt-filled thrill ride. Unfortunately for Invisible Target Hong Kong cinema had rather moved on. A new wave of directors including Andrew Lau and particularly Johnnie To led audiences to expect something a little more from their local action thrillers. As it stands the film fails to offer Hong Kong movie viewers anything they haven’t seen before – and indeed they have probably seen better before. It is a competent but fairly missable film experience. If nostalgia is what you are after, however, it is probably a film for you.

The film comes from the late writer/director Benny Chan, who boasted a long pedigree in Hong Kong action cinema before his death in 2020. I have always had a lot of affection for Gen-X Cops, which he directed in 1999. He also directed several Jackie Chan films – Who Am I?, New Police Story and Rob-B-Hood. If anything Invisible Target feels like another instalment of Chan’s famed Police Story franchise, albeit one missing its most crucial ingredient. It feels as if the film is seeking a replacement, either Chan’s own son Jaycee Chan or New Police Story alumni Nicholas Tse, but the vacancy never quite seems to vanish. Like a Jackie Chan film the actors largely do their own stunts, which is always fairly impressive to watch. Even if the film’s narrative fails to grab your attention, it is always enjoyable to see what a fit, skilled and extremely foolhardy human being can do. For certain Hong Kong film fans it is also nice to see Tse in an earlier phase of his screen career.

The film’s narrative, in which a professional robbery team faces off against vengeful Hong Kong police detectives, is a literal case of ‘cops and robbers’, and while there are no awards for its creativity it does at least provide a framework for cool young actors to pose, pout, shoot, and leap for cover. Joining Chan and Tse are the likes of Shawn Yue and Wu Jing. The former was already a popular actor based on roles in Infernal Affairs, Dragon Tiger Gate, and Initial D. Wu Jing is included here well ahead of his breakout film Wolf Warrior (2015), which he both starred in and directed.

It is not a film of subtlety or depth. The lead cast are essentially in a contest over how can be the moodiest and the coolest.

If you are after a retro-styled trip to the heady days of 1980s and 1990s Hong Kong action, with outlandish action, slow-motion replays of dramatic stunts, and wafer-thin characterisation, Invisible Target may just be the nostalgia trip for you. It is, after all, not bad – just par for the course. If you, like the best of Hong Kong’s cinema, have moved on to fresher and more interesting pastures, then this film is regrettably most likely to disappoint.