‘Under Current’ review: ‘Infernal Affairs’ co-director Alan Mak serves up flat Hong Kong actioner

Dir: Alan Mak. Hong Kong. 2025. 115minutes

After the spectacular and very public death of a charitable foundation’s CFO, a principled Hong Kong barrister finds himself untangling a complex money laundering conspiracy, and wrestling with personal responsibility, alongside an equally principled police investigator. Under Current, from Infernal Affairs’ co-director Alan Mak, is an entertaining but silly crime thriller that tries to tap some of the territory’s former genre glory days, and only occasionally succeeds. 

Can’t raise itself much above moderate diversion status

The difference between then and now is the distinct lack of the nuance and friction that made Affairs (with Andrew Lau) and its ilk – anything by John Woo, Ringo Lam, early Johnnie To and so on – so compelling in addition to being stylish. Without it, Under Current can’t raise itself much above moderate diversion status.

The film scored a rare day-and-date release at home in Hong Kong, China, North America and Malaysia, and a top-loaded cast of veterans, among them Aaron Kwok, Simon Yam and Francis Ng, should attract attention from die-hard fans. Mak’s last Hong Kong feature was Integrity (2019), and this is something of a spiritual sequel – although its retro disdain for lawyers renders it closer in tone to Donnie Yen’s The Prosecutor (2024). Genre and niche festivals might take a look given the starry cast and production pedigree, and a regional release isn’t out of the question, but streaming platforms should ultimately deliver Under Current its largest audience.

The film starts on a promising neo-disco scored note, as Yeung To (Yam, Election, PTU), the seemingly popular and amiable finance boss of charitable trust Tsai Bat Tong, is preparing for its glitzy annual gala fundraiser. Shorty after Tsai Bat Tong chair Ko Sing-man (Mak regular Alex Fong) takes the stage, Yeung hangs himself above it, throwing the audience into a panic, the media into a muckraking frenzy and the police department’s criminal investigations division – headed up by Or Ting-pong (Ng, Exiled, The Prosecutor) – into overdrive on a money laundering tip.

Simultaneously, barrister Ma Ying-fung (Kwok, Port Of Call, Cold War) is in court defending an accused rapist, who gets acquitted. Ma was assigned as counsel for the entitled son of another client but as he makes clear outside the courthouse, he wants nothing more to do with the case. Back at the office Ma, catches a couple of Or’s officers nosing around Tsai Bat Tong files; Ma’s firm represents the trust. It seems HK$200m is unaccounted for, Yeung is an embezzling suspect, and Ko – who we learn early on is indeed directing donations into his own offshore accounts – is getting pressure from his criminal boss, Mr Kah (veteran character actor Felix Lok, quietly menacing in his few scenes), to find that money. 

The action is wrapped in cinematographer Kenny Tse’s (Ip Man, The Battle At Lake Changjin) oddly hazy images that lend a suitably unfocused air of the hypothetical, complemented by Tse and editor Curran Pang’s graceful transitions from past to present. But, despite Despite Mak and co-writer Lam Fung getting the story rolling with some perfunctory character set-up and a healthy dose of expository dialogue, Under Current is hampered by choppy pacing and a few too many sub-plots for its own good. These range from the initial embezzling and laundering thread to drug trafficking, murder for hire, early-onset dementia and frame-ups – all in the service, ostensibly, of interrogating where and how we draw our personal moral lines in the sand. 

That’s ironic considering moral ambiguity and shades of grey are no longer factors in contemporary Hong Kong crime thrillers, even if outdated (at best) or inappropriate (at worst) jokes and ideas remain. And watery statements about morality and corrupt institutions neuter any statements the film is trying to make, as well as undermine any real narrative tension.