A True Mob Story
Reviewed by YTSL
If this 1998 Triad drama cum Andy Lau star
vehicle were to be judged solely on its own merits, I think that it might
be safely considered to be a solid enough effort that benefits quite a
bit from having higher production values than one generally associates
with Hong Kong movies. For various reasons -- including its containing
its share of scenes and elements that have an all too familiar feel to
them -- however, this (re)viewer found it damn near impossible to refrain
from (unfavorably) comparing and contrasting this Wong Jing work -- that
actually was a local box office hit but, judging from such as the batch
of reviews of it on the HKMDB, has received a more mixed reception internationally
-- with a number of other films, including certain of those with which
the offering’s still boyish looking leading man and/or prolific producer-director-scriptwriter
are integrally associated.
The powerfully emotional “Full Throttle” (which,
incidentally, was the first work that paired up this China Star movie’s
main man and his many years younger leading lady). The Wong Jing
co-produced “A Moment of Romance (I)” (Probably the foremost offering to
come to mind whenever I see Andy Lau on a motorbike, and particularly with
a blissful looking female pillion rider in tow). The B.O.B. produced
“Young and Dangerous” series of films (Some of which supporting actors
-- though not their characters -- also figure in this Triad-centric effort).
Pretty much any movie (including Wong Kar Wai’s directorial debut making
“As Tears Go By”) in which Andy Lau plays a rascal who actually is not
all bad and/or appears in an outfit that prominently includes a sparkling
white singlet or t-shirt. All these are among the popular -- plus
well-regarded -- productions that get referenced, or recalled, at certain
points of that whose English title appears to contain the claim that it
is A TRUE MOB STORY (but often comes across as being too slick and over-dramatically
improbable as well as redolent of fictitious others to be acceptably “real”).
Still, this is not to say that no effort was made
to set apart A TRUE MOB STORY from these (somewhat) kindred offerings --
and, specifically (even if arguably), by endowing it with a more mature
plus darker tone than many a(nother) work whose protagonist is, as the
ambitious offering’s Chinese title suggests, a “Dragon in the Underworld”.
One rather obvious way in which this got attempted was by having Andy Lau
play a Triad whose identity, very person and outlook is strongly shaped
by his (also) being a father (of a son born in wedlock); especially after
he suffers the fate of prematurely and violently losing his wife (an obviously
much loved -- by her husband, son and best friend -- individual who gets
all too briefly portrayed by Angie Cheung). A related measure of
general complexity -- along with set of plot complications -- look to have
been planned to arise from the series of events -- which take place early
in the Charles Heung presentation, and five years before most of the others
in the rest of what can seem more like a character study than conventionally
flowing story -- that caused Andy Lau’s Wai Cheung Dee character to be
“elevated’ from the ranks of lowly car jockey to the actually more trouble-causing
than respect-bringing station of fairly senior “tai ko” being one and the
same as that which was responsible for turning him into an over-burdened
widower cum single parent.
A TRUE MOB STORY further distinguishes itself
from many of its contemporaries by opting for a depiction of much of the
Triad universe -- but especially its senior figures (including those essayed
by Michael Chan, Wong Tin Lam and executive producer Lee Siu Kei) -- as
a bunch of individuals who don’t even pay lip service to being -- never
mind actually try to act in ways that are -- “righteous”. To be fair
though, not every “goo wat jai” in this picture is shown being Evil Incarnate
(with Ng Chi Hung’s “Gutsy” Chuen and Sam Lee’s Sum Su characters turning
out to be surprisingly loyal supporters of their supposed better, even
after his opting to behave for a time in a manner that causes him to be
denigrated by others as a “dog” of another Hung Tai group member).
Nonetheless, even while there may be only one certifiably loony loose cannon
inside of it (who comes in the form of Ben Ng’s “Crazy Ball” character),
there’s no denying that Cheung Dee’s “professional” world is filled to
the brim with the sort of beastly men who most anyone would have cause
to majorly regret having ties to (and, in the case of Mark Cheng’s wholly
despicable Prince character, having effectively traded the life of a good
woman for).
In light of all this, the ungenerous view of Cheung
Dee harbored by Alex Fong’s Organized Crime and Triad Bureau officer is
somewhat understandable. Indeed, what is way less generally fathomable
-- and, I would argue, is something that consequently considerably weakens
A TRUE MOB STORY -- is the ease with which Gigi Leung’s lawyer character
falls so heavily for the by no means legally innocent client of hers who
seems to have absolutely convinced the apparently very competent barrister
of his wanting to be a “model daddy to my son” (and multiply stressed that,
primarily for that reason, “I can’t go to jail”); and this especially when
-- okay, my biases are showing here (...but what the heck!) -- The Lanky
One’s Sandy Leung possessed such a suitably attractive fiancé in
Alex Fong’s Michael character.
Still, by far the most detrimental -- to the overall
narrative and film as well as the movie-makers’ quite extensive efforts
to present a sympathetic portrait of A TRUE MOB STORY’s main personality
-- relationship of all is that of Cheung Dee and the remarkably under-appreciated
woman named Ruby (who was given much emotional depth by Suki Kwan).
My advance apologies for the unavoidably spoiler filled nature of the following
revelation: However, here’s feeling compelled to state my opinion that
much was lost from this -- despite it all, still not entirely un-recommendable
-- expertly lensed (by Cheung Siu Keung) and edited (by Marco Mak) offering
by way of Andy Lau’s character not showing sufficient concern and care
for Ruby’s well-being in the wake of his being informed of her having been
gang-raped by an enemy of his and that loathsome entity’s minions.
My rating for the film: 6.5