Rob N Roll: Aaron Kwok, Lam Ka-tung ham it up in darkly comic crime drama

3.5/5 stars

Lam plays Robby, a downtrodden taxi driver who is being driven over the edge by the constant discord at home caused by his elderly mother – his pregnant wife longs to move out of their cramped flat. Meanwhile, his father has been taking shelter, without paying, in the nursing home run by Robby’s buddy, Fai (Jen).

The latter isn’t doing any better. A widower with a young daughter to provide for, Fai is heavily in debt and struggles to keep his business afloat – not that he runs the home purely for the money. Somehow this kind-hearted man gets the idea of committing a robbery.

Before they can secure a gun, however, the two middle-aged losers inadvertently become involved in the fallout from an armed robbery led by Mui (Kwok), a former pro wrestler and self-proclaimed “tough bandit, not a killer” from a fictional rural town, whose alternately polite and unhinged temperament hides a traumatic past.

Not one but two heists take place in Rob N Roll’s first act to set up the ironic sequence of events to come; meanwhile, the bags of money have been swapped, misplaced and stolen so many times through the course of its story that viewers may find it hard to be bothered beyond a certain point.

For a film that weaves together its various plot lines so meticulously at first, Rob N Roll has a difficult time tying up the loose ends for its criminal protagonists – a predictable outcome, perhaps, given the restrictions on Hong Kong-mainland film co-productions giving lawbreakers a glorious send-off.

Still, there’s no denying that Mak has come up with an offbeat tragicomedy populated with believably human characters. You may not remember exactly what Robby, Fai and Mui have gone through, but you should certainly be able to recognise the way they talk and behave.