Expired - Ryan Kwanten (2021) - Soy Street, Mongkok

I'm going to finish up 2025 with a film I had heard about afew years back but then forgot about. I was expecting to hear more about it but, after watching it, I realise it sank into obscurity because it's just a bit of a dull film. Originally called Loveland, the film was renamed to Expired. Quite fitting because that's what happened to my interest about ten minutes into it.

To be fair it is a low-budget independent Australian movie. That doesn't excuse the confusing plot and uninspiring dialogue though. The locations are all over the shop, making it a real pain to post about them in any sort of linear fashion but the cinematography is nice. I just wish they had saved their money on the Hong Kong airfares and put it into some better "futuristic" effects though. You'd think shooting in Hong Kong would offer the opportunity of some great locations, but the vast majority are just the rathershabby looking streets of Mongkok, making me wonder what the point was. They could've just saved their dosh and filmed it in Australia, at least at street level. The film was released in 2021 but it looks like a pre-Covid Hong Kong on view. 

Anyway, the film centres around a hitman called Jack (Ryan Kwanten) who stalks, and then forms a friendship with, April (Jillian Nguyen), a girlie bar singer/performer. Jack's ill because he is the product of some sort of corporate experimentation and the company want him back for tests. But then all of a sudden he is better again and I have no idea why.

The film opens with Jack walking along Soy Street on his way to meet a policeman who tells him who to kill, and gives him the info and money. Soy Street is probably the most used location in the film and keeps cropping up from a variety of different angles throughout. I think I got them all more or less in the screencaps below which are from multiple points through the film.

The robot thing in that lower image (above) used to stand outside a cafe called "Double Happiness Cart Noodles" - 旺囍車仔麵. I think the place was a victim of Hong Kong Covid policy because it closed soon after the film was shot. The shop sign outside had a huge bowl of noodles stuck to it which also made it into the film (below).

Soy Street also pops up in a scene when Jack is being followed by a mystery bald man (Andrew Ng).

The west side of Soy Street also pops up later in the film as Jack tracks down and follows Dr Bergman (Hugo Weaving).