With the continued success of the Fast and Furious franchise, there has been a resurgence of car-oriented action movies. Usually, these releases are dumb testosterone-filled fare that provide high-speed thrills bracketed by stories that are as flat as the pavement the vehicles are racing on. Soi Cheang's 2012 picture Motorway proves that you can indeed have both an interesting story and enough adrenaline-pumping chases to keep gearheads happy.

Cheang re-teams with one of his favorite leading actors, Shawn Yu, who here plays Chan, a hot-headed member of an arm of the police force dedicated to busting speeders and racers. Before visions of a cheap Fast and Furious knock-off run through your head, Motorway takes a different path on the usual cops versus racers storyline, mostly through Lo, Chan's world-weary partner, who is expertly played by Anthony Wong.

A veteran actor with almost 200 roles in his filmography, Wong is one of the elder statesmen of the Hong Kong movie world and probably could have pulled off this role in his sleep. But he injects Chan with a sense of humanism that brings the character to life, even though there is nothing really outwardly special about it. Basically, Lo is the old cop that's been through too much in his career and is ready for retirement, and so wants to take the safe way out. There are events which telegraph his rise in the story arc which could have fallen into the realm of cliche, but Wong's strong performance gives them gravitas that keeps the audience's interest.

Some note must also be given of Soi Cheang's (along with his action director, Chin Kar-Lok) filming and use of the car chase scenes. Most of these employ the usual sort of cinematic tricks, such as point-of-view shots, but are still exciting. However, during the finale, there is a sort of cat-and-mouse game played between the cops and criminals that uses stealth and shadow, not gas and horsepower, to great effect. It's one of the most unique chases ever portrayed on film, and goes a long way into making this recommended viewing material, especially for those fans of Hong Kong cinema who are growing tired of all the epic historical films that have come out lately.

RATING: 7