| Director Andrew Lau weighs in with the third installment of the cinematic soap opera known as the Young and Dangerous series. The ongoing series of films, filmed and set on the eve of the return of Hong Kong to the mainland Chinese government, revolve around the exploits of a group of up-and-coming hoods in the lower echelons of Triad society. The films' popularity resulted in a recent flood of crime flicks starring attractive young actors, including Gen-X Cops and Sexy and Dangerous.
As in many Triad films, loyalty is a primary theme in Young and Dangerous 3. The charismatic hero, Chan Ho-Nam, played by the ultra-pretty cantopop heartthrob Ekin Cheng (Storm Riders) and his sidekick Chicken Chiu, essayed by Jordan Chan (Bio-Zombie), find their loyalty to the gang tested when a ruthless pair of rivals frames Chan for their own treachery.
Like The Godfather, Y&D3 opens at a traditional celebration that introduces many of the main characters. Chan and Chicken join leader of their Hung Hing faction, Brother Chiang (Simon Yam, veteran of such notable Hong Kong action flicks as Bullet in the Head, Naked Killer, and Once Upon a Time in China, among many others), at the festivities. Chan is a rising star among the Triads, and his mentor Chiang has just named him the boss of the Hung Hing's turf in the Causeway Bay shopping district.
Camel (Wai-Man Chan), head of another Triad faction, and his hardnosed henchmen, the bespectacled Tiger (Chi Hung Ng) and the muscular psycho Crow (Roy Cheung), are also present. Tension results among the two gangs' footsoldiers thanks to Crow's taunting, and Camel rebukes his underling for making waves at what should be a pleasant celebration.
Also like The Godfather, betrayal results from the ambitious of ruthless gangsters to engage in the dangerous but profitable drug trade. Chiang, who enjoys a connection to Holland, and Camel are unwilling to jeopardize their secure position (Chiang's squeeze is even a pretty pop star!) with risky trafficking, and adhere to notions of harmony considered obsolete by ruthless rascals like Tiger and Crow. The film's main plot revolves around Tiger and Crow's efforts to frame Chan for their own treachery.
But first, the film ties up some loose ends from the previous movie as Chan, Chicken and crew visit Chan's girlfriend Smartie (Gigi Lai) in the hospital. A bullet wound suffered in an earlier movie has caused her to lose her memories of her time with Chan. On her doctor's advice, Chan takes her home, hoping that exposure to familiar settings will return her memory. In a funny scene, two of Chan's friends re-enact the scene from an earlier movie in which Chan and Smartie met. (The film evidently subscribes to the Gilligan's Island theory of amnesia, as a subsequent blow to the head will prove to undo its effect.)
Moments later, Chicken nearly runs down a flashily dressed woman on roller skates (the exquisite Eurasian actress Karen Mok, of Sexy and Dangerous fame) by accident. The woman, Shuk-Fan, berates Chicken with a flood of British-accented derision that the gang pretend not to understand. Face is important in Triad society -- several scenes involve intricate rituals of posturing and intimidation -- and Chicken has recently been demoted, so he's unwilling to be bested by the feisty woman.
We soon learn that Shuk-Fan is the daughter of the local priest (Spencer Lam, who also appeared as a strict father in Sexy and Dangerous). Although playing the dutiful choir girl at home, Shuk-Fan actually has a taste for fun and wild clothes. Karen Mok's character, like the actress herself, was educated in England. (Mok speaks not only Cantonese and English, but also Mandarin, Italian, and Japanese.) The priest asks Chicken to keep a protective eye on Shuk-Fan, and their bantering rivalry soon blossoms into romance.
Indeed, the romantic subplot between Chicken and Shuk-Fan nearly steals the movie. Jordan Chan and Karen Mok are fine actors. Mok brilliantly conveys the subtle emotions behind her character's quirky behavior, and Chan is amazing at suggesting the depth of feeling behind his deadpan façade. Their relationship is both laden with chemistry and hits all the right notes. In one funny and touching scene, the pair are in an all-night convenience story half-jokingly considering buying a box of condoms, when the priest suddenly appears on the scene.
Chicken tries to assuage their embarrassment by asking if the books in the priest's hands are pornography, but they turn out to be about parenting instead. Shuk-Fan realizes that her father wants to protect her and understand her need to live her own life, and is greatly moved.
The warming relationship between Chan and Smartie as she grows to know and trust her former lover again also brings its own strong current of romance to the film. But all is not hearts and flowers, alas. Crow and Tiger are grade-A examples of modern punks with no respect for loyalty or tradition, and they're seriously on Chan's case.
First, they disrespect him by opening a karaoke bar on Chan's Causeway Bay turf. Then they assassinate Chan's boss, Chiang, and arrange to have our hero take the fall for the dirty deed. (The dastards even force Chiang's pop-star girlfriend to pose for nude photos, and use them to blackmail her into supporting their story.) Crow and Tiger also have it in for their own chief, Camel, who soon falls victim to their murderous ambition.
Fortunately, this is the third movie in the series, and Chan has acquired some heavy rep. Although he's tops on the Triad hit list -- and Crow and Tiger are looking to have him rubbed out for reasons of their own -- Chan's friends and allies refuse to believe he could have betrayed his boss. Chicken, especially, remains loyal to his friend, and hides Chan from his own Triad superiors. And Tai Fai (Anthony Wong), one of the Triad's ruling council, is reluctant to take the word of Chan's enemies about his guilt.
Things come to a head when Crow and Tiger kidnap Smartie and use her to induce Chan to turn himself over to them. In a shocking scene, Crow brutally murders Smartie in front of a helpless Chan, shooting her repeatedly while doing a mocking dance. Only a timely intervention by a grenade-wielding Chicken saves Chan from the same fate.
At Camel's funeral, Tiger and Crow seem poised to take over their gang -- an obvious symbolism of the old traditions yielding to the new wave of hoods. It's up to Chan, Chicken and their loyal crew to expose the pair's evil doings and avenge their many wrongs. The climactic sequence features a cameo by the late Sau Leung 'Blacky' Ko, who played the dim-but-loyal Gi Dog in Jet Li's The Enforcer.
Throughout the film, Lau's hand-held camera work conveys a sense of energy to the proceedings, even when there's little action. Face is vital among the Triads, and there's more posturing and intimidation that actual combat.
When fighting does break out, the weapons of choice among the Triad's lower ranks are fists and feet, machetes and sticks, rather than guns. The action is often chaotic as rival gangs clash in a full-tilt melee.
In one funny sequence during a pitched street battle, Karen Mok riffs on John Woo-style two-fisted gunplay by grabbing an oversized blades in each hand and cutting a swath -- literally -- through Tiger's thugs. When a character pulls out a piece, it means he's playing for keeps, as in the deaths of Smartie and Brother Chiang.
Young and Dangerous 3 is a hard-edged entry in the chronicles of Hong Kong's hip young gangsters. The fast-paced film features excellent performances by a cast of familiar Hong Kong actors, with standout turns by Cheng, Chan, and Mok. Director Lau keeps the action moving, and although some of the fight scenes are a trifle confused, they convey the fluid and perilous action of a street fight. While not on the level of John Woo's heroic epics, Y&D3 is a worthy addition to the collection of any Hong Kong film fan. |
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