On Tuesday, Well Go USA released China Lion’s Hong Kong international action film, The Viral Factor, on blu-ray and DVD. The film, which stars Nicholas Tse and Jay Chou in the leads, is an intense and action packed picture that feels like a highly sylized but realistic action version of Contagion.
I saw the film earlier this year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Below is my review from when I saw it in theaters plus additional commentary on the limited special features the disc comes with.
There aren’t many Chinese directors out there who constantly have a presence in the US market as much as Dante Lam recently has. The man has made his mark here with his stylistic and sometimes even intelligent action films and he is now set to release his latest big budget thrill ride, The Viral Factor, starring Jay Chou, Nicholas Tse and Bing Bai.
While on a mission in Jordan to protect a scientist who knows the whereabouts of a modified smallpox virus, International Security Affairs Agent Jon’s (Chou) life gets flipped upside down as the mission goes haywire because of a traitor on his team. This results in a former lover being killed, a bullet getting lodged in his head, and the virus being controlled by money hungry criminals. While on medical leave from his headshot, Jon finds out from his mother that he has a brother who is currently residing with his father in Malaysia. Jon decides to take a trek and meet up with his family but things begin to get crazy as he finds out that his brother, Yeung (Tse) is working as a mercenary for the same guy who stole the smallpox virus.
The Viral Factor has a lot going for it from the start. Dante Lam has carved a solid name for himself when it comes to action films and the busy director has shifted gears somewhat dramatically from The Stool Pigeon to make a full blown spectacle that’ll have any action fan yearning for more. Not only will Lam’s name attract an audience, but the presence of Asian superstar Jay Chou (The Green Hornet), Dante Lam regular Nicholas Tse (The Stool Pigeon) and the ever present Bing Bai are sure to lure in Asian film fanatics with relative ease, I know it got me. Though being in the film doesn’t guarantee anything, the performances by the leads were above par for an action film and both Chou and Tse have had enough experience portraying similar characters that they were able to pull their parts off effortlessly.
Much like the title suggests, the viral aspect of the film is a small but extremely influential part of the film, acting as a mere backdrop for the actual story that the film revolves around. Yes, this is a movie about stopping criminals from unleashing 
an epidemic on the planet but it is more about the relationship between the two brothers and how people from two different world’s would go about solving the same problems.
As briefly mentioned earlier, this film is full of striking action sequences and it lets up only to establish the characters and its basic plotline. For his opening scene, Lam immediately grabs your attention with exploding vehicles, RPGs and a big gun fight in the middle of Jordan. Once that scene ends you’re immediately hooked to the film and Lam is able to build upon each action sequence by making the prior one pale in comparison. Also, due to some nifty camera work, he is able to have low and long aerial shots that make his chase scenes visually unique in comparison to other action films. Plus, to top it all off, he somehow manages to shoot a low flying helicopter chase in Kuala Lumpur which is insane. That’s like shooting a helicopter chase in Manhattan with the choppers flying 200 feet above the street.
Overall, The Viral Factor is one Chinese actioner that deserves to be seen on the big screen. It has awesome chases, long gunfights and even a decent plotline with some modern day relevance. Even with some rather tedious lulls in the story and some mediocre acting from some of the cast, Dante Lam’s latest is definitely one worth seeing.
Rating: An Intense and explosive action spectacle (6.5/10)
As for the blu-ray itself, the movie comes with only three special features: a 14:37 minute long ‘Making of…” featurette, 31:27 minutes worth of individual interviews with Dante Lam, Jay Chou and Nicholas Tse, and the theatrical trailer for the film.
The ‘Making of” featurette is the best of the three simply because it combines interviews taken from the actual interview section and mixes it with behind the scenes footage to give us a nice, comprehensive look at what the shoot was like for the cast and crew. The best part was learning about Dante Lam’s obsession with guns and how, when he yelled “action!,” he would fire off a gun at the same time. The featurette also touches on the intensity of the shoot and how it was probably the most difficult and demanding shoot any of the talent or crew participated in. It’s one of the literal reasons why the movie is titled Uphill Battle, the Chinese title for the film. Furthermore, Jay mentions that he started doing his own stunts because Nicholas would do everything, even the very dangerous ones. My other favorite part was when they showed their mini flying camera which was a remote controlled helicopter that was used for one of the chase scenes. It was cool to see that in action.
Overall, there wasn’t much in the way of bonus features but what was there was interesting, particularly because of the nature of the film
Blu-ray rating: 5/10
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