Search - Hong Kong Triad on DVD

A pleasant suprise.

Brendan Klein | philadelphia | 02/01/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I saw this film at a film festival which has midnight screenings of Hk movies. I was there for the Chow Yun Fat film festival, but the last film was cancelled. No one was told. I sat down and almost died when the film wasn't 'Peace Hotel'.However, I had paid my eight bucks. I also was intrigued by seeing a Hk film i new nothing about. I was pleasantly suprised. The film was no masterpiece, but it was a lot of fun. It was penned by Wong Jing, so it was the everything-but-the-kitchensink approach, but it was fun. It went from a suspense thriller, to chop socky action, to gun-fu ultraviolence, to late fiftes nostalgia, to love story all in an hour in a half. Quite a feat.All of this under the avid eye of Clarence Fok, it all seemed to work. The story involves Wan and Ng and their joining of the Triad as Teenagers in 50's Hk, then the two split for life when one becomes a cop. The script can get extremely corny, and so can the violence, but there is a fun in this film that exists in most Hk films such as the 'Heroic Trio' and 'Wicked City', although i would put a little more merit in this film than those, the cheese factor is a little less. Overall, a pleasant suprise. Good acting from Wan (the asian Benicio Del Toro!), great direction by Fok, and a spastick script from Jing."