Across the Furious Sea

Across the Furious Sea  is a 2023 Chinese crime thriller drama film directed and co-written by Cao Baoping, and starring Huang Bo and Zhou Xun. The film was adapted from the novel by Lao Huang of the same name published in Fiction Monthly. It is the last instalment of Cao's "Heartburn trilogy" following The Dead End and The Perfect Blue. It was released theatrically in China on November 25, 2023.

Plot
Jin (Huang Bo), who is captain of a Chinese fishing trawler, is informed that his daughter Nana (Zhou Yiran) has gone missing while studying at Kyoto University. He goes to Kyoto and tries to question Nana's boyfriend Miaomiao (Zhang Youhao), but the latter evades him and flies back to China. The body of Nana is discovered and the preliminary autopsy concludes that she was gang-raped and stabbed non-fatally seventeen times, after which she slowly bled to death. Jin returns to China and breaks into the mansion of Miaomiao's father, but the latter says that he does not know Miaomiao's location. Miaomiao's mother Jing (Zhou Xun), who is divorced from her husband, returns to China from Germany and confers with Jin. She asks Jin to refrain from interfering for three days while she tracks down Miaomiao and hands him over to the police. However, it is revealed that she is lying. She has hid Miaomiao in a safe house within a forest and is working to obtain a German visa for him. Upon receiving the visa, she tries to retrieve Miaomiao, but being someone addicted to cos-playing, he has run off to a cos-playing convention. Jin is arrested for the break-in but is released by a sympathetic Officer Dai. Jin correctly guesses that Miaomiao will be at the convention, and chases him onto the roof of the convention-center, whereupon both of them fall and land on an inflatable figurine. Miaomiao races back to his father's mansion and hides upstairs. Jin forces his way into the mansion, attempts to search the basement, and is locked inside the basement by Jing, who calls the police. Jing sends Miaomiao to the airport with her private chauffeur. Minutes before the police arrive, Jin attempts to escape the basement by starting a fire, and nearly kills himself through smoke-inhalation, being saved by Jing at the last minute.

The police arrest Jin and start driving to the station, but Jing, for unclear reasons, desires to meet her son at the airport and drives in that direction in her SUV. The police-car decides to follow Jing instead of going to the station. A fierce storm occurs leading to a collision between the police-car, Jing's SUV, and the car containing Miaomiao and the chauffeur. All parties except Jin are incapacitated. Jin proceeds to kidnap Miaomiao. He is later arrested but refuses to disclose Miaomiao's location. He asks that the police release him for three days so that he can fly to Kyoto to attend his daughter's funeral, after which he will disclose Miaomiao's location. Officer Dai scoffs at his proposal, but Jing accepts and tells the police that she will not testify against Jin if the police do not release him. In Kyoto, Jin tracks down the three students who gang-raped Nana using evidence taken from Miaomiao's phone, and either kills or severely injures them. Upon returning to China, Jin meets with Jing, shows her evidence that Miaomiao called Nana a slut and shunned her after she was gang-raped, and tells her that he has killed Miaomiao already and dumped the body. Jing tries to kill herself by driving her SUV into the sea but is rescued by Jin. The two of them come to an understanding, and Jing refuses to testify against Jin, giving Officer Dai no choice but to drop the kidnapping charges.

Jin finds out (probably through Jing) that Miaomiao's father resents Miaomiao for having been involved in an accident which crippled his younger sister, and that just recently, after returning from Japan, Miaomiao played a prank on his sister, causing a further injury. The Japanese police conclude their investigation and report to Jin that Nana's stab-wounds were self-inflicted and that she bled to death over the course of hours next to her phone without calling for help. Nana's digital diary shows that she was aggrieved even prior to the gang-raping because of an unsatisfactory sexual relationship with a convenience-store manager. Miaomiao's insulting and shunning of her after she suffered the gang-raping was the last straw which led to her decision to kill herself. Jin reflects on his past and realizes that Nana had grown up in an emotionally neglected state. In the final scene, it is revealed that Miaomiao is still alive, having been chained inside a lighthouse. Jin sets him free and is seen placing a call to Officer Dai. The concluding text explains that Jin was convicted for the break-in and the kidnapping, Miaomiao was convicted for the prank which injured his sister, and Officer Dai was penalized for mishandling the case. After serving his prison-sentence, Jin sells his fishing trawler and donates the proceeds to a charity for adolescent mental health.

Cast

 * Huang Bo as Lao Jin (Jin Lina's father)
 * Zhou Xun as Jing Lan (Li Miaomiao's mother)
 * Zu Feng as Li Lie (Li Miaomiao's father)
 * Zhang Youhao as Li Miaomiao
 * Zhou Yiran as Jin Lina
 * Yan Ni as Gu Hong
 * Yan Bei as Dai Zhen
 * Wang Sun as Lao Qin
 * Sun Anke as Shen Xiaolin
 * Tsuyoshi Abe as Shimazu
 * Kira Shi as Wu Weiwei
 * Tizzy T as the boy

Background
The film is adapted from Lao Huang's novel of the same name, which tells the story of a father's crazy revenge after his daughter was murdered, and is the third part of Cao Baoping's "Heartburn (灼心) trilogy" following The Dead End and The Perfect Blue. The film marked the first collaboration between Zhou Xun and Huang Bo, which is also the reunion of Cao and Zhou after 12 years since The Equation of Love and Death.

Filming took place in Dalian, Liaoning on July 8, 2019.

The water scenes of the film were shot at the Underwater Production Center located in The Oriental Movie Metropolis Film and Television Industrial Park. During the filming of these scenes, the director utilized three underwater viewfinders to observe and make necessary adjustments to the underwater shots. During the filming process, Huang Bo engaged in extensive shooting at sea and portrayed a wide range of emotional fluctuations. To fully embody the role and immerse himself in the character, Huang underwent a period of immersion in Dalian prior to filming. He visited a seaside fishing village, engaged in conversations with various captains, accompanied fishermen on fishing trips, and familiarized himself with the equipment aboard the ships.

Promotion
On September 16, 2020, the film was included in Huayi Brothers Pictures' "Project H" Season 7 film list of the 5 major chapters of the "Human Fireworks".

On November 17, 2023, all the cast, crew and stars gathered at the first premiere of the film in Beijing.

Box office
Across the Furious Sea was a box office success and proved to be a popular film upon its release.

On November 25, 2023, the film grossed over CN¥100 million. By November 27, the box office had exceeded CN¥200 million. By November 30, the film's box office reached CN¥250 million. By December 2, the total box office of the film surpassed CN¥320 million. By December 9, "Across the Furious Sea" had been released for 15 days, and the total box office exceeded CN¥500 million. On December 21, Across the Furious Sea grossed CN¥547 million and surpassed the 12.92 million admissions mark at the Chinese box office, ranking first in the box office for the time of release.

Overall, Across the Furious Sea grossed a total of CN¥549 million from China alone.

Critical response
John Berra of Screen Daily, describing it as "one of the most relentless Chinese thrillers in recent memory" and he also especially praised the "riveting performances" from Huang Bo and Zhou Xun.