By Social media has fundamentally changed the way in which people look at the world. While nothing was ever sunshine and roses, it seems that the rise of social media networks has seen an equal rise in people doing stupid things to garner fame. Be that imbeciles like Mr. Beast running what could charitably be called a Squid Game, or jackasses like Logan and Jake Paul flying to foreign countries and desecrating local monuments, there’s always some idiot that will do literally anything on camera just to have their 15 minutes of fame.
That idea isn’t entirely what Smashing Frank is about, but it does play into the overall theme. As I was watching the movie, the first thought that came into my mind was, “Michael Mann’s Heat for the social media age.” The plot revolves around misfits of dubious young age who commit ever escalating feats of robbery to attract a social media following. They film every step of their crimes, from the planning down to the execution, and seemingly are building an army of fans for some greater purpose.
While a neat concept, the problem with Smashing Frank is that it doesn’t commit. Maybe that’s also a critique of Gen Zers, but I think it actually comes down to Chinese censorship more than anything.
Smashing Frank
Director: Trevor Choi
Release Date: April 17, 2025 (Hong Kong), July 16, 2025 (NYAFF)
Country: Hong Kong
So, the background to Smashing Frank’s production might actually explain most of its shortcomings, but let’s start with a summary. Smash Frank begins by showing audiences a robbery in progress being committed by the titular bandit group, “Frank.” A ragtag group of misfits who are serving probation for unrelated crimes, the goal of Frank is to get society to notice that certain crimes are happening on the streets of Hong Kong. Apparently, Hong Kong media is likely to overlook certain crimes in an effort to present the city as stable, something that infuriates Frank’s leader, Ayla (Hedwig Tam).
Ayla’s backstory is that many years ago during her training for hotel management, she witnessed a guest attempting to rape a young girl and intervened. Beating him within an inch of his life, Ayla winds up being arrested for assault while the perpetrator uses his financial means to buy a non-guilty verdict. Disenfranchised by that turn of events, Ayla now wants to make her crimes public so that Hong Kongers actually wake up to the injustices going on under their very noses. Noble, in a way, but obviously skirting the edges of legality.
One of the targets of Frank is a Catholic church called “Unity Haven,” which has allegedly been linked to money laundering and bribery. The church is made up of wealthy members of society all paying its leader, Ho Ka-wang (Ben Yuen), ludicrous amounts of cash. Wishing to expose the criminal side of this institution, Frank goes on a mission to hit various joints of Unity Haven and force the church to address the public about the reality of its being.
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Now, in summarizing everything, I’ve kind of filled in the gaps that Smashing Frank leaves with its plot. In probably the biggest compliment I can give the film, Smashing Frank is structured very much like a classic Hong Kong film. I was reminded of how Jackie Chan used to pace his movies, specifically Project A. The first two acts are mostly about setting up the different characters here before the final act really hones in on the “villain” and gives Frank’s actions more purpose beyond social disruption. In that sense, Smashing Frank is almost like a lost Johnnie To film.
Sadly, I think the narrative deficiencies of the film kind of ruin any sort of messaging the film is going for. I do have to wonder how much of this film was censored by the Chinese government, but despite having a kind of smash-the-state vibe, Smashing Frank makes it pretty explicit that its targets aren’t society itself, but just religious fanatics. There is one speech where Ayla explains how she started off stealing jewelry as a means of showing the public that Gen Zers have it much worse than their ancestors, but that’s really it.
I’m also not sure I really care about the supporting cast here. Frank consists of not just Ayla, but her boyfriend, Hugo (Locker Lam), and Chun (Kaki Sham), a fellow probation member that gets dragged into things. Eventually, Chun introduces his partner, Chelsea (Renci Yeung), into the mix and Frank starts to shift its tactics from larceny to extortion and blackmail. Chelsea was previously a high-class escort and, along with Chun, the duo would entrap the rich and extort them for cash.
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The connective tissue between members of Frank is that they’ve all been convicted of some kind of crime in the past. While not everyone has a noble reason for getting pinched, each person has become a dreg of society due to the culture of modern Hong Kong. No one wants to hire a person with a criminal record, even if their crime is something stupid like spray painting graffiti or swiping a luxury watch. You can tell that writer/director Trevor Choi is trying to make a social statement here, but that never quite comes together.
I thought Smashing Frank would lead into a plot point where Ayla had a past history with Unity Haven or that any of the characters would reveal some deeper motivation for wanting to upend society, but there simply isn’t enough time for that to happen. At 88 minutes long, Smashing Frank blitzes through everything until the final act and then… just ends. I wasn’t expecting an action sequence or anything, but there isn’t even really a climax to speak of.
Smashing Frank’s third act attempts to bring the Unity Haven church into the picture, but I get the feeling that a script was not finalized before shooting started. One of the claims to fame that Smashing Frank has is that it was initially crowdfunded on Kickstarter back in 2022. Set to be produced by Choi’s own production company, 16By9, the campaign raised HK$2.5 million in 2022 and things were off to the races. In 2023, however, additional funding came from outside investors and the project was completely reworked. Original cast members, which included Hanna Chan and Alma Kwok, left and some backers started to request refunds. Following the conclusion of its principal photography that same year, the movie would enter a protracted two-year post-production that eventually culminated in its HK theatrical release this April.
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I bring this up because it does potentially explain some of the issues with the script here. I can’t fault the actors as most of them are pretty decent. Hedwig Tam, in particular, is amazing and even has a similar vibe to Maggie Cheung in her prime. She brings a lot of gravitas to her action bits and also displays a softer side when interacting with her grandmother, a character that both Wikipedia and IMDB don’t even bother listing as she doesn’t serve much purpose to the film. In a better movie, her presence could have elevated things to instant classic status. Smashing Frank, though, feels as if it had several different ideas thrown together without much thought for how to link them all together.
I can excuse the semi-disconnected storytelling from the first hour because that’s not an uncommon thing in Asian media. One of my favorite modern films, Baby Assassins, works with similar slice-of-life narrative trappings that eventually results in its characters tackling a major problem. The thing is, Smashing Frank doesn’t build up to anything interesting and when the team finally suffers a loss, the film is just over. I suppose the next bit will constitute as a spoiler, so if you’d like to see this film blind, stop reading here. I won’t talk specifics, but just be warned.
Towards the end of what feels like the film’s second act, Frank stages this ambitious scheme that sees them handing over one of the priests from Unity Haven, Father Tang (Yeung Wai Lun), back to the church for a ransom. They want to expose this live on stream, but things go south. Tang is killed and Hugo gets injured in the process. At the same time, the other team members from Frank are in the streets of Hong Kong to collect the ransom, but Unity Haven upends the plan and causes chaos. The police start grabbing people, including most of Frank, which ruins that. Ayla is left alone and in tears as she has to deal with this fallout.
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In any other Hong Kong film, this would be the moment where the protagonist would stage some kind of payback by storming the enemy base and killing everyone. While I wouldn’t have expected that, I did believe Ayla was going to kick down Ho Ka-wang’s door and beat him up. Instead, she throws some money off the roof of a building and the credits roll. I don’t even understand what the hell the idea is here other than being a callback to an earlier conversation where Ayla and Hugo joke about being “Robin Hood.” Moreso, however, it ends the movie on the idea that “no matter how hard you try, corruption wins.”
I know that’s not the goal Smashing Frank had in mind, but I get the feeling that the Chinese government didn’t want an ending where criminals win. That was very specifically a thing back in the heyday of Hong Kong cinema, where all villains or criminals had to end the movie either behind bars or dead, but this sort of pessimistic conclusion doesn’t even flow naturally from the prior events. It just feels like the budget ran out and everyone had to scramble to finish.
There are some other elements of Smashing Frank that I enjoyed, such as how it puts a spotlight on modern HK culture, but overall, the film simply doesn’t work. There is a kernel of a great idea here, but the execution makes it fall flat. I suppose a sequel could make up for the narrative shortcomings here, but no movie should have to rely on a continuation to feel whole. There’s also no guarantee anything else is coming, especially not with the messy production history behind this film.
Smashing Frank is a movie I wanted to like, but ultimately, I just became frustrated with it as it went on. It’s a shame as I do believe Hedwig Tam, the rest of the cast, and even the director are capable of something better.
