Young and Dangerous: The
Prequel
Reviewed by YTSL
1996 saw the birth of the “Young and Dangerous”
series of films and the release of what proved to be only the first two
of its many sequels. The following year proved to be a lull of sorts
as far as the (fictional) Hung Hing gang were concerned, with the production
of only one more installment of the hit cinematic adaptations of the at
least equally popular comic books creations of an individual known as Cow
Man (who, if I’m not mistaken, had cameo parts in a few of these movies).
Then came 1998, and the Hong Kong theatrical appearance in January of the
fifth of the visually stylish offerings that have been collectively criticized
by some moralistically inclined critics as “Triad recruitment” works, the
official spin-off -- and more female friendly -- “Portland Street Blues”
a mere two months later, and this effort -- in which Chan Ho Nam, Chicken
and quite a few familiar others appear (albeit in a different plus younger
guise) -- in June of the same year.
There are times when the rapid fire production
pace of these BOB (i.e., Best of the Best) offerings appears to have positively
vested them with such as a certain energetic plus -- especially early on
in this film cycle -- fresh feel. Conversely, there are portions
of YOUNG AND DANGEROUS: THE PREQUEL (not to mention other titles in this
string of incrementally less cartoonish offerings) that I suspect would
have benefited from a less guerilla -- along with slapdash -- style of
movie making as well as continuity checks. This way, those problematic
plot disjunctures that can irritate the discerning viewer of these arguably
not purely mindless offerings might have occurred less frequently (And
while I’m on the subject of that which can aggravate: what’s with the often
illogical proliferation anyways of look-alike individuals in this “Triad
boyz” universe that includes the appearance of -- count ’em! -- three separate,
supposedly biologically unrelated characters who are all essayed by the
shrill voiced Hsu Chi within a single six month period?!).
As things stand, I feel quite justified in suggesting
that a careless error was responsible for the beginning section of YOUNG
AND DANGEROUS: THE PREQUEL deviating in some key ways from the scene in
the trend-setting “goo wat jai” filled effort that it was supposed to recall.
In any event, this action looks to have paved the way for the coming into
being of an alternative Y&D time line; one that, among other matters,
has the memorably monikered Chicken (who gets portrayed in this work by
skinny Sam Lee) becoming a follower of Hung Hing branch boss, Brother Bee
(who comes in the small sized yet still quite formidable form of Ng Chi
Hung), before his good buddy, Ho Nam (Nicholas Tse won a HKFA Best Newcomer
award for his essaying of this character), and their friends (Benjamin
Yuen plays Chou Pan while Yu Ka Ho has the part of his bespectacled brother,
Pou Pan) as well as showing that the latter three -- at least -- of these
troubled youth weren’t necessarily born delinquents.
To be fair though, YOUNG AND DANGEROUS: THE PREQUEL
does adhere to the earlier version of what amounts to a relating of the
creation myth of a future Hung Hing branch head of Causeway Bay in terms
of having this Cantopop (idol) powered series’ principal “righteous rascal”
and his “heng tai” having their fateful encounter with the villainous Ugly
Kwan (Francis Ng reprises the colorful role he played in the original “Young
and Dangerous” movie) on a concrete football/soccer pitch near their housing
estate abodes. Additionally, certain of what might (otherwise) appear
to be no more than confusion-inducing gaffes can be (also) explained away
as somewhat welcome, even if well overdue, retrospective efforts by the
movie’s makers to provide more than one reason for why and how this gang
of four friends (that’s minus the Yee character played by Michael Tse in
some of the other Y&D films) decided to become Triad Boyz.
Amidst all this, there’s the very attraction of
YOUNG AND DANGEROUS: THE PREQUEL being the work in which director-cinematographer
Andrew Lau, scriptwriter cum executive producer Manfred Wong and the ubiquitous
Wong Jing go about quite nicely developing plus fleshing out the character
and story of Chan Ho Nam. More specifically, it is in this particular
film that the multi-part saga’s lead personality gets shown going from
being a music-loving secondary school student -- with a caring mother,
concerned stepfather, cute step-siblings as well as a not (yet) senile
grandmother (whom Helena Law Lan endows with hitherto unrealized depth)
-- to a prominently tattoo-ed Triad. Along the way, the only child
of a (more) luckless member of the underworld -- whose murdered person
was found with a grand total of 47 slashes on it -- is shown doing such
as loving (first Lilian Ho’s “good girl” Kelly character, then the nightclub
hostess played by Hsu Chi who also was coveted by Daniel Wu’s Big Head
character), scraping, struggling, suffering, often losing (but still ultimately
prevailing), and generally having to grow up faster and more painfully
than he -- and other, more mature, individuals -- would have liked for
him to have done.
In a number of other reviews of YOUNG AND DANGEROUS:
THE PREQUEL (including Kozo’s at the “LOVE HK FILM.com” web site), there
has been denouncement of the attempts made in this movie to tie certain
events in Ho Nam’s personal history with those hard to forget (for many
people around the world) ones that took place in Beijing’s Tienanmen Square
in the summer of 1989. Although Andrew Lau and his co-conspirators
don’t have such as Fruit Chan’s touch with regards to the use of cinematic
works to comment on politically significant real life occurrences, I have
to admit that I actually do find the stabs at doing so that appear in this
work -- and more than one of those efforts that it is related to -- to
be rather intriguing, even when misguided or even downright clumsy.
My rating for the film: 7.5
