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Synopsis:
After 16 years of prison, Lung Ho-Tin is ready to get his life back.
As a powerful crime boss living in Canada, Lung is at war with the Vancouver mafia. When his wife is killed by his rivals, Lung seeks bloody revenge and is sent to prison, but not before he entrusts his baby daughter to his brother to be raised safely in Hong Kong. Many years pass but Lung can think only of his child. When he is finally released, he's determined to find her and start a quiet life - but his criminal past is not ready to let him go... |
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Review:
Well, those hoping for a big dose of Andy Lau will be the first to be disappointed with this film: the headlined star gets only about 15 minutes of screen time. The real star is Andy Tang, who does well enough, and really looks the part of a triad kingpin released from jail and searching for his daughter, but he's not Wah-jai. Others might not be overly thrilled when they discover that the Wong Kar Wai who penned this script was not, in fact, creating a lyrical visual poem like the cited In The Mood For Love, but was more likely a starving young writer desperate for a quid. Lets be clear about this, Chungking Express this ain't.
That said, it's not a bad movie. Simon Yam turns in a slick and despicable villain, May Lo and the other (un-named) girl are suitably lovely, and there's plenty of the plot twists that Hong Kong audiences demanded at the time. In fact, it's a good example of the kind of triad action films that were churned out by the dozen in the late eighties and early nineties, although most were not as well-constructed as this. I suppose we can thank Wong Kar Wai for that.
Overall, a reasonable film but not a great one. There's an obligatory shoot-em-up scene, where an astonishing amount of ammunition gets expended, as well as compulsory hostess club scenes, dining gang boss scenes, and some assorted violence and mayhem. There's no surprises, and no great irritations. It's not great, but if you find yourself watching it you're not going to want to jump out the window.
5 really odd hairdos out of 10 by Alison Jobling back to the top
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DVD Releases
| Distributed by Force Entertainment: |
| Return Engagement | available now |
Extremely basic: viewers get a choice of watching the film in English, Mandarin with English subtitles, or Cantonese with English subtitles. The subs aren't great, but they're visible most of the time. After listening to the appalling English dubbing on the gwailo characters on the Canto track, I didn't dare listen to the English track.
Also, the picture is rather annoyingly jerky, particularly in some spots. Mostly it's a nice clean transfer, but the jerkiness will make you twitch after a while. |
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