Chinatown Video releases for October 1999
Weasel Alert: I occasionally do a bit
of work for Chinatown Video.
A BETTER TOMORROW 2 (1987) Rated R. 95
mins. Rental.
The creative partnership of director John Woo and producer Tsui
Hark came unstuck during this sequel to the 1986 smash hit A Better Tomorrow.
The result is a somewhat schizophrenic picture which manages to quadruple the body count
of the original film, but at some cost to the plot and soul. The first problem Woo
faced was the fact that a popular character had been killed off last time - no problem,
the old identical twin routine saves the day. Chow Yun Fat dons
sunglasses, trenchcoat, toothpick and charisma, Ti Lung and Leslie
Cheung reprise their roles as brothers on different sides of the law, and Dean
Shek chews oranges, raw slabs of steak and the occasional bit of scenery as a mob
boss who is betrayed and subsequently unhinged. Fans of the Hard Boiled school of
blood letting will wallow in the film's berserk finale, in which our heroes don black ties
and white shirts (the Reservoir Dogs look starts here) and storm the bad guy's
mansion without a formal invitation. Once there, they paint the walls red with a mixed
assortment of automatic weapons and high-powered explosives, including the celebrated
stunt which came close to blowing up Chow Yun Fat for real. I'm not sure
if this all adds up to a narrative whole, but the film has enough sensational moments to
carry it through, and to burn itself into your memory long after the final whisp of
gunsmoke fades away.
Note: Chinatown Video were only able to source a Mandarin print of this film, so this
release is not the original Cantonese version. This is a shame, as you miss hearing Yun
Fat's English in the famous "You don't like my rice?" scene. However,
all the action works just fine in any damn language.
FULL ALERT (1997) Rated MA. 98 mins.
Rental.
This sensational heist flick comes your way from the fevered brain of director Ringo
Lam. In my opinion, he never quite topped his 1987 grand slam of City on Fire
and Prison on Fire - that is, until this picture. Lam
leaves aside the more pyrotechnic aspects of the Hong Kong crime genre to weave a
claustrophobic account of a policeman's (Lau Ching Wan) obsession to
catch a thief (Francis Ng). Lam brings off not only a
great character study, but also a raw vision of 1997 Hong Kong, a vision propelled by his
hit-and-run film-making style - after he failed to get local permission to film car chase
scenes, he went ahead and shot them anyway. If you watch Hong Kong crime for the two-gun
mayhem, then stick with A Better Tomorrow 2, above; but if you want a more
psychological approach, don't miss this one. Although it has a fraction of ABT2's
body count, the conclusion is infinitely more devastating. The Hong Kong Film Critics
Society awarded this Best Film of 1997, and Best Actor to Lau Ching Wan.
Amen.
