| With the Young And Dangerous-effect spreading its wings over Hong Kong cinema in 1996 thanks to Andrew Lau, it's no wonder it sprung to life outside of the series too. Billy Tang had been tapped to provide some satire and fun of the genre with Sexy And Dangerous the same year and although Street Angels is packed, it's not distinguishable for many reasons, especially not for fans of Hong Kong's king of Category III CINEMA (Red To Kill, Run And Kill). Chingmy Yau is Tung Yen, woman of rising triad mad dog Walkie Pi (Simon Yam) and while he flees to Holland after a kill, she takes a prison sentence for him. Out of jail, Yen starts associating herself with the hostess world and even becomes a great figure. When Pi returns to Hong Kong however, there's no love in the air anymore as the rising triad is now a full blown mad dog...
Straightforward and light for long stretches, Tang doesn't provide a terrific amount of inspired material despite dealing with issues of the 1997 handover but does have some benefits in the acting department to take Street Angels to fun, depraved places (which is all it can and should do). Elvis Tsui is hilarious as the bodyguard Moro who's constantly horny and has no problem swallowing condom if the situation dictates it. The subtitles do wonders for his scenes and even though we're not dealing with a III-rating here, Tsui makes sure to be pushed as far as he can. A little romance and extreme tragedy passes the time but the re-appearance of Simon Yam signals the time for director Tang to have fun. True to form, Yam throws himself 568% into the über-evil persona of Pi and Tang even plays around a LITTLE bit visually to strengthen these extremes. The otherwise straight cast can't compete. They do include a naked and abused Shu Qi, Michael Tao, Valerie Chow, Lee Kin-Yan (nose picking transvestite in Stephen Chow movies), Lee Siu-Kei and Liu Fan. |
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