Director: Han Han
Writers: Han Han, Zhou Yunhai, Meng Wenyu
Stars: Teng Shen, Yin Zheng, Wei Xiang
Synopsis: Bearing the glory of being the “King of Bayanbulak,” Zhang Chi once again embarks on his racing journey, aiming not only to win the race but also to achieve something beyond the competition itself.
In the opening scene of Pegasus 3, a montage intricately set to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now,” the evolution in the directing skills of former rally car driver Han Han is loud and clear. Whereas the first movie in the popular trilogy of Chinese sports films was an aesthetic (and editing) nightmare, Han began to hone in on his capabilities as an artist in the second installment, with more fluid cuts and sharper camerawork, but it wasn’t perfect. In Pegasus 3, he takes criticisms to heart and crafts a final hour of bravura filmmaking so exhilarating it might as well give Joseph Kosinski’s F1 a run for its money.
The first Pegasus was terrible. The second was much better, but the difference between Pegasus 2 and 3 is night and day. Instead of retreading the same narrative beats as the previous two films, which saw rally car driver Zhang Chi (Teng Shen) stage a comeback in the Bayanbulak race, Han makes everything grander in scale and scope by ditching the central race of the first two films and prepping Zhang and his partner Sun Yuqiang (Yin Zheng) to compete in the MuChen 100. It’s essentially a longer (and more dangerous) version of the Bayanbulak, but it’s undoubtedly the best thing Han has ever directed.
Old rivalries become friendships, as Zhang discovers that the team that initially brought them on board has been purposefully sabotaging their chances of competing. It gives Zhang, with the aid of Manager Ye (Wei Xiang), the opportunity to plan an intricate finale to get back at the people who have always doubted them at every second. Nothing is truly reinvented from a narrative perspective, most of it is actually plucked from F1 meets Neill Blomkamp’s Gran Turismo, but the aesthetic experience of Pegasus 3 is second-to-none and is well worth the time you’ll spend in a cinema with a sold-out crowd that will erupt in applause by the time Han reaches his final setpiece and consistently dazzles your eyes and ears.
It does take a while to get there, and the forward-momentum can be slightly hampered by some lethargic pacing, but Han more than compensates with the trilogy’s funniest comedy and a genuinely heartfelt performance from Teng Shen, whose Zhang Chi is more vulnerable than he’s ever been and is still trying to make ends meet, despite retaining the title of “King of Bayanbulak.” In the more talky opening half, we ruminate more with the protagonist as he grapples with what the world of racing means for him and the friends he’s forged along the way, which makes the resulting propulsive energy of its final race more urgent and tangible.
The final race is where the movie truly comes to life – a staggering hour-long scene where literally anything can happen, and every camera technique you can think of is employed. There isn’t a single moment where my jaw wasn’t on the floor, as we observe Zhang precisely execute his plan, where not even one step can falter. Of course, this being a movie, the inevitable pitfalls do happen, but how he surmounts them is when the movie is at its most dynamic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a race quite like the one Han visualizes on screen before. The less you know about it, the better, because it takes turns (pun absolutely intended) you will not expect.
What I can say, however, is that Han draws a cogent message on the use of AI integration and contrasts it with the sheer human willpower of Zhang’s plan. As sophisticated as machines can get, nothing – and I mean nothing – will beat human creativity and feeling. When the inevitable machine vs. human final stretch comes into play, who do you think will come out on top? I could spell it out for you, but the pleasures of watching a film like Pegasus 3 lie in your being transported by Han’s sheer mastery of the visual medium of cinema, who finally shows us the thrills of rally racing in a way no other filmmaker could. It took him several tries for the former racer to get to that point, but one can absolutely say that the third time is indeed the charm.
