Young and Dangerous 4
Reviewed by YTSL
The story of Ho Nam, Chicken and company continue
to provide more chills, thrills and food for thought in this 1997 offering
from director-cinematographer Andrew Lau and producer-scriptwriter Manfred
Wong. In this fourth "official" Triad Boyz installment (Prior to
the production of this "Y&D" episode, there had already been produced
a spin-off entitled "Sexy and Dangerous" -- in which Loletta Lee and Karen
Mok portrayed female equivalents of the male Hung Hing society members
played by Ekin Cheng and Jordan Chan -- and two off-shoots starring Francis
Ng entitled "Once Upon a Time in Triad Society"), the topical ground covered
-- including rivalries between different "rascals", ill-fated couplings,
an incursion into Hung Hing territory and affairs by a malevolent individual
(Roy Cheung rather confusingly plays a different character in this film
from that which he portrayed in "Young and Dangerous 3"), plus an excursion
to a foreign land (in this case, Thailand) -- has become largely familiar.
What is different about YOUNG AND DANGEROUS 4
though is its having by far the most pessimistic outlook thus far.
Perhaps it is coincidental that it is the only one of this popular and
influential series that was came out in the year of Hong Kong's Handover
by the British to the Chinese. What surely is not accidental is that
the character who utters the most cynical sentiments and delivers the most
explicit anti-Triad message is that of Ho Nam; supposedly the most successful
as well as "righteous" and heroic of the group who started off this series
of films fairly innocently playing hooky and soccer in a neighborhood recreational
facility. It also seems pertinent as well as just plain intriguing
that Ho Nam and his generation are shown to be under challenge from a younger
but far more vicious and way less honorable one; whose classroom confrontations
and outbursts against their lot, the existing system and their teachers
(whose ranks include characters played by Karen Mok and Michelle Reis)
reminded this (re)viewer of those in Ringo Lam's anti-colonialistic, heavily
censored "School on Fire".
In comparison to the three previous segments,
YOUNG AND DANGEROUS 4 feels somewhat subdued, less intense, less edgy,
and actually tired. While it retains a sense of drama and does contain
the requisite bursts of violence, its ability to shock is mitigated by
the more deadly episodes not suddenly coming off the kind of heartwarmingly
tender or amusingly quirky sections which the other "Y&D" movies had
in spades but which this offering generally lacks (despite the efforts
of Jordan Chan's Chicken, Sandra Ng's Sister Thirteen and Anthony Wong's
Tai Fei). A further factor might be not only that of key individuals
growing older and wearier but the overall cast age -- as well as number
-- increasing with the introduction of older section heads (even as it
has gotten depleted from episode to episode with the deaths of younger,
rawer, more idealistic -- if not naive -- characters).
For those who have yet to enter the Triad Boyz
world proper, I would caution against using the most pathos filled episode
as your introduction to the series and genre that it has spawned.
There also might not be too much here for those who were primarily attracted
to the "Y&D" movies because of their consciously fashioned sense
of style and exciting cinematography (It should not be forgotten that Andrew
Lau has been a Wong Kar Wai collaborator. It probably is no mere
coincidence that along with Michelle Reis and Karen Mok, the actor who
played Takeshi Kaneshiro's father in "Fallen Angels" makes an appearance
in YOUNG AND DANGEROUS 4. It also surely means something that when
Maggie Cheung was asked in London in 1996 to comment about the "Y&D"
films, her remarks consisted of the following: "Yes, they were the
"noise" this year. The director was the cameraman who did "As Tears
Go By", so to me it's still Wong Kar Wai who dominates" (In Miles Wood's
"Cine East", 1998:42)).
Alternatively, those who favor a mature and considered
approach to all kinds of matters might actually be pleased -- even if not
entertained -- by this fourth film in a not at all unintelligent series
that continues to develop and still be capable of springing surprises,
evoking warmth and eliciting (sad) fellow feelings for criminal character
who actually increasingly seem not that different from many "real" ones
we may know. If you do fall into this category of (potential) viewer, I
would recommend that you view all the three previous installments not only
for themselves but also so that you will better appreciate the movie whose
Chinese title of "97 Wise Guys: No War Cannot Be Won" gives little inkling
of its prevailing sense that warring acts never come without costs.
My rating for the film: 7.5