Born Wild
Reviewed by YTSL
The first -- and way darker -- of two 2001
efforts from Patrick Leung boasts not one but three action directors, and
impressive ones they look to be too. Despite their comprising Yuen
Tak (whose previous credits include collaborations on “The Iceman Cometh”,
“She Shoots Straight”, “Once Upon a Time in China III” and “My Father is
a Hero”) and Mars (a long-time member of Jackie Chan’s stunt team) as well
as Yong Wai Fai (someone without as sterling connections as his colleagues)
plus the visually stylish movie they worked on being categorized as an
“action” film on the HKMDB though, the fourth full directorial effort of
the helmer of the very first Milkyway Image production -- “Beyond Hypothermia”...but,
interestingly, no other since -- actually is his least blood-splattered
(crime) dramatic offering of the three that I’ve viewed thus far (if nothing
else than because boxing gloved hands, rather than firearms, are the weapons
of choice of this work’s primary fighters).
Once more then, like he did with the under-rated
“Task Force” (that may be best known as the luminescent Charlie Yeung’s
last film), director Leung has confounded my expectations with regards
to the action quotient of a production headed by someone who had been John
Woo’s frequent assistant along with the scriptwriter of “Bullet in the
Head”. While I don’t necessarily consider it to be a bad thing for
a movie to not be very bloody, I do reckon though that this fiery titled
film -- which essentially starts off with two policemen informing an individual
of the untimely death of a loved one -- would have benefited from its (supposed)
main character having demonstrated that he had indeed been BORN WILD.
That such did not occur is something I attribute less to the moody work’s
having an admittedly lackluster story than to pretty boy Louis Koo having
the lead role in this offering (as Tan Ho, a previously undefeated underground
boxer who gets killed the day before he would have reached his 26th year).
Another factor that surely contributed to BORN
WILD’s failing to be as exciting as it could have (otherwise) been was
that of too much screen-time getting devoted to: Tan’s tamer fraternal
twin brother (Daniel Wu was too restrained, and therefore didn’t exude
much charisma, as the younger -- by three minutes -- Tide); and that quiet
individual’s low-key efforts to belatedly plus slowly -- albeit surely
-- learn more about the young adult life as well as violent death of the
sibling who had walked out of his and their father’s life eight years ago.
While Wu’s fight moves and ability to take a battering look more convincing
than Koo’s, by the rather overdue point in the film that his windsurfing
instructor character finally gets aroused to decisively embark on a serious,
life-threatening even, course of action, my sympathies had already gone
to two supporting as well as flawed -- but also way more interesting --
players in this Chang Hing Kar and Amy Chin co-scripted offering:
Namely, Tan’s romantic rival-turned-soul mate and fight manager-turned
toll booth operator, Mann (Patrick Tam gave what ended up being a Golden
Horse Best Supporting Actor performance here); and often sad-eyed Sandy
(The under-rated Jo Kuk portrays the woman who steals more than one man’s
heart).
IMHO, that this is so is more a tribute to what
Patrick Tam and Jo Kuk were able to make of their underwritten roles than
anything else; and they it was who added some spark to BORN WILD plus almost
succeeded in making the movie feel like it had “heart” as well as -- to
quote Peter Martin of the “A Better Tomorrow” web site -- “style to burn”.
Unfortunately, all their efforts -- plus the no less admirable one of cinematographer
Joe Chan -- were severely undermined by this 109 minute length film seeming
to being bereft of much real intelligence as well as substance. A
case in point of this lack of what’s needed to allow this mediocre movie
to rise above some of its limitations comes in the form of the problematic
-- not least because it didn’t seem all that necessary and therefore seemed
quite distracting -- padding attempt to (biologically) explain how and
why it was that Tan and Tide could have such divergent personalities even
though they were born of the same mother (a woman who only appeared in
somewhat disjointed flashback scenes).
To my mind, the nominal brains of BORN WILD also
showed their stupidity by their choice of target for Tide to attempt to
exact revenge on for the murder of his twin brother. Since I risk
spoiling the movie for those who have yet to view it (and still want to
even after reading this review of that which I would feel frustrated with,
if I could get motivated to care that much about it), it is suggested that
they stop reading at this juncture. To those who have viewed this
work (and actually do think that it’s worth discussing), here’s soliciting
your opinion re why it was that Tide opted to only go after the individual
who delivered the fatal blows that killed Tan -- but really was just as
much of a small potato in the greater scheme of things -- instead of the
truly underhanded characters who run the sleazy plus illegal world of underground
boxing plus do gain the most from having certain men beating others into
a pulp?
My rating for this film: 5.