Unlike Weir's mostly serious romantic drama, Wild Search has an endearing undercurrent of humour, but that's not the only difference. Instead of the witness being a young boy, here it's four-year-old Ka-Ka, a cute girl orphaned when the bad guys kill her mother, Elaine - who was hosting a meeting for illegal arms dealers when shooting broke out. Now, the girl's aunty Cher (Cherie Chung) is forced to take care of the tot, while cops hover around to offer protection while getting involved in the bereaved family's on-going domestic struggles, which are caused by rural poverty and by the harassment of Cher's estranged husband.

There's sharp-suited menace in the form of cocaine-snorting gangster Hung (played with a suitably oily charisma by Paul Chun), and a vicious hitman known as Bullet (Roy Cheung), but the film primarily concerns the realistically low-key romance between cop Lau and the troubled Cher. This leads to episodes in both the city - a visit to police headquarters for the perusal of mugshots, and violent confrontations (including the fiery finale) at Cher's farming family homestead.

Wild Search is less flashy than other crime films by director Ringo Lam, yet it's distinguished by compelling performances from the main cast, and an engagingly mature attitude to the romantic subplot that eschews the obviously music-linked soap opera passions that characterised, and in my view spoilt, Weir's original.

Well, well, well... it's the same "protector who falls in love with the protected" plot that we've all seen many times before. So it all boils down to a question of how well the film is done. Not suprisingly, under the direction of Ringo Lam, Wild Search is done well. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but it is a solid cop action/romance. Both Chow and Chung are good in their roles (Chow, as is most always the case, does manage to look better than many of his co-stars and is quite excellent as the tortured cop) and have nice chemistry together, though not as developed as in their next project together, John Woo's great crime caper Once a Thief.

As would also be expected from Lam, Wild Search also sports some excellent action sequences, even though they do fall prey to melodramatics at times, which undercuts a lot of the built-up tension. The film's main drawback is a lack of focus. I felt it spent too much time with small subplots, such as the one between the little girl and her ornery grandpa, which slowed down the pacing of the movie. Wild Search is also a bit more lighthearted than many of Lam's other movies (which may put off those looking for Lam's signature gritty action/drama), but still should not disappoint fans of his (and Chow Yun-Fat's) work.

Why Would I Like This Movie? The romance story is charming and the kid herself adorable. Some great acting from Chow Yun Fat and Cherie Chung, and from the supporting cast: Tommy Wong Kwok-Leung as the 2nd cop, and malevolent grandpa Ku Feng. I also enjoyed Roy Cheung's performance in this movie, which is not always the case.

Why Wouldn't I Like This Movie? If you don't like seeing Chow Yun Fat outside hero roles, this flick is not for you. He gets beat up quite a few times, and there is no crowning moment of vengeance to set the record straight. You will also be put off if you want your movies to have social value; Wild Search is only (but wonderfully) a sweet romance.