Stoo returns with a bag of goodies in the form of his account of 4 days of watching films, reviewing, networking etc at the 2010 Terracotta Far East Film Festival. Also included are various audio excerpts from the Q & A sessions, including the one with Bodyguards & Assassins director Teddy Chen!
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Return To A Better Tomorrow?
Another Wong Jing Movie?
Really Bad?
No! Yes Many people hate Wong Jings movies and this title taken from the popular A Better Tomorrow series by John Woo. But this movie doesn’t star Chow Yun-Fat or Leslie Chung. Wong Jing uses fresh faces such as…Ekin Cheng, Chingmy Yau, Ben Lam and even Michael Wong…
Ekin Cheng plays Tony Chun, a triad leader with a heart. After being framed for possession of some bad drugs, soon Tony is forced to leave Hong Kong. Leaving behind his girlfriend, Chili (Chingmy Yau). Now staying Mainland China for the mean time. Meanwhile we find out it was Brother Lui Wei (Tony’s Triad Boss, played by Ben Lam) who framed him and is now attempting to kill him with help of one his henchmen; Holland Boy (Ngai Sing, also known as Colin Chou).
One of Tony’s low ranked followers; Lobster (Lau Ching-Wan) has an interesting side story. Lobster, aloving father to his little girl, Little Lobster! After being released from hospital, his greeted by Tony and his wife. Although Lobsters wife seems to have lost interest in him and her daughter, after finding out that she covered her daughter in cuts and bruises. Lobster realizes that she is cheating on him and beaten his daughter. Lobster doesn’t take this easy…I wont spoil the rest of the subplot for you. Read More
Plot: Ryu Saeba (Jackie Chan) is the number one guy when it comes to being a private detective and professional girl chaser, with his partner Makimura (Michael Wong). They make a indestructable duo, until Makimura dies! In Makimuras last words he plays with Ryu to look after his younger sister Kaori (Joey Wong). Although Makimura only has one request, “Keep your hands off her!”.
Saeba agrees with Makimura, until he notices that Kaori is a stunner! Saeba holds a strong face and treats her more of a sister than a girlfriend, yet she is mad for him!
One day Saeba is approached by Mr. Imamura, head of the Imamura Newspaper Company. His daughter, Kiyoko ran away after a family desput, leaving Saeba on a trail to bring her home.
Ryu Saeba ends up on a luxury cruise with Kiyoko and Kaori too has come along, but with her puny twat of a cousin. Which is quite sick when you find out he is in love with her!
Little do they know that the cruise is being taken over by Cornel MacDonald (Richard Norton) and his group of masked terrorists. Although Saeba isnt the crime fighter aboard! Tramp Kao-Ta (Leon Lai) is a fast handed card slinger. There is also sassy cop (Chingmy Yau) and her no-brained big breasted side kick! With this fighting force, they plan on putting MacDonald behind bars, before its too late! Read More
Oh Yes, a film the Y&D fans have been waiting for. In the first installment of the series we seen Chan Ho-Nam (Ekin Cheng) and his gang of merry men out smart the evil Kwan. In the sequel we see Chicken (Jordan Chan) get into all sorts of trouble in Taiwan. Now the third film of the series, Chan Ho Nam has become the branch leader of the Causeway Bay in Hong Kong. Although another group have opened a club right besides Ho Nams club…
This new group consists Camel, Tiger and Crow. Camel (Chan Wai-Man) is a reasonable fella and doesn’t want trouble from the Hung Hing group as he has been a good friend with Mr. Chiang (Simon Yam). Tiger (Chi Hung Ng who play Brother Bee in the first Y&D) seems to be rather rebellious, with his clean cut image and trendy glasses he seems to be a acceptable gang leader. Crow (Roy Cheung), now he is pure evil, through out the film you find him guilty of murder, gang rape, public shooting, blackmail and so on… Trust me when you see him go trigger happy in Holland it lets you know how sinister he is…
Now the Causeway Bay boys are all back…
Chicken has some funny moments in the film, with him rejoining Hing Hung, but he’s right at the beginning again, having to be a follower of Banana Skin (Jason Chu). He has even found a new love interest Shuk-Fan (Karen Mok), who is the daughter of THE LETHAL WEAPON! Yes our kick ass priest (Spencer Lam) is back and surprisingly enough has an army with him! Pou Pan (Jerry Lamb) is still in the group, although he seems to have gone soft…well he has always been soft but in this movie he seems to have a bad stammer instead of Smarty! Tin-Yee (Michael Tse) is back and he’s grown a goatee and got some muscles compared to the first film. He is still dating KK! And yes her big brother Tai Fai (Anthony Wong) is back too and loyal as ever. He even has a big decision to make when he is chosen to kill a member of the Hung Hing group!
Oh another positive part of the movie is Smarty (Gigi Lai) recovering from her coma. Yet she has gotten a case of amnesia. This gives Andrew Lau the chance revisit many memorable sets from the original Young and Dangerous. Including the Football pitch, the hills where they made Smarty eat Buns and Tin-Yee even recreated the scene where Smarty had stolen Ho-Nams car and tried to sell it back to him.
In conclusion Young and Dangerous III is a fine edition to its series. Having only seen the first three films, this film has kept me interested in the series and wanting to know more about the character and how they develop in further films…
The Podcast On Fire Network aims to provide a large, continually expanding overview of Asian cinema. On the flagshow Podcast On Fire, the big guns out of Hong Kong cinema gets a spotlight through discussion and review while the remainder of the network shows gives you insight into Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese cinema and the history of adult oriented Hong Kong cinema!