| An early Chow Yun-Fat vehicle but if you ever were to agree on the fact that the future superstar was box office-poison once, it would apply to See-Bar (re-titled God Father on the vcd). Chow plays happy go lucky mechanic Chieh whose closest ones are drained of all their money via gambling excursions with gangster Kwok (King Hu regular Pai Ying). When even Chieh unjustly ends up in debt with Kwok, he battles back...
Chow presents an annoyingly camp and silly character in the opening reel, only to be taken down a bit to earth by debut director Dennis Yu subsequently. While still creating See-Bar as lighthearted, Yu squeezes no interest, humour or excitement out of any low-budget means at his disposal. Pai Ying has the sole funny scene where his tough guy exterior is penetrated by fear of being caught by HIS boss but the known performers here (that also includes Roy Chiao) had seen and were going to see better days. Same with director Yu who made the effective exploitation nasty The Beasts the same year. Wong Ching, veteran director Ng Wui and Chui Yee-Ha co-stars. |
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