All About Ah Long (1989)


	All About Ah Long		Return to Review Archive - A
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	Year:	1989	Sylvia Chang and Chow Yun-Fat
	Director:	Johnnie To Kei-Fung
	Producer:	Raymond Wong Bak-Ming
	Cast:	Chow Yun-Fat, Sylvia Chang, Wong Kwan-Yuen, Ng Man-Tat, Wong Tin-Lam
	The Skinny:	Lauded melodrama starring Chow Yun-Fat and Sylvia Chang which is certainly touching, though more as a function of sentimentality than actual sentiment.
	Review by Kozo:	Johnnie To's punishing melodrama gives us Chow Yun-Fat as we’ve never seen him before: with bad hair. Chow is Ah-Long, a single father who works as a construction driver and moonlights as a motorcycle racer. He shares a whimsical, fun relationship with his son Porky (Wong Kwan-Yuen). Then mommy (Sylvia Chang) pops up, disrupting everything. Sylvia is now a well-off commercial director living in America and Chow is happy to see her because he still loves her even after ten whole years. Sylvia is shocked at discovering Porky (she thought he was dead, don’t ask why), but soon she warms to him and eventually wants to take him back to the States. But she doesn’t want to take Ah-Long, which is pretty awful for Chow. Subject matter-wise, you’d have to be dead not be be touched by what goes on, and Chow is incredibly charismatic and likable even when he plays a heel with bad hair. However, some of what happens is laughable and the whole motorcycle-racing subplot seems to come out of nowhere simply to provide a dramatic finish to the film. Sure it’s affecting and emotional, but given the previous ninety minutes it’s also totally gratuitous. In the end, it’s not unlikely that you’ll feel jerked around. Director Johnnie To apparently never met a montage he didn’t like, as can be exhibited by this movie and the montage-fest called Executioners. (Kozo 1995)
	Theme song:	"Ah Long's Love Song" by Sam Hui Request this song on HKVP Radio \| Vote for Sam Hui
	Awards:	9th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards • Winner - Best Actor (Chow Yun-Fat) • Nomination - Best Picture • Nomination - Best Director (Johnnie To Kei-Fung) • Nomination - Best Actress (Sylvia Chang) • Nomination - Best Supporting Actor (Wong Kwan-Yuen) • Nomination - Best Screenplay (Ng Man-Fai, Philip Cheng Chung-Tai) • Nomination - Best New Artist (Wong Kwan-Yuen) • Nomination - Best Original Score (Law Tai-Yau, Lo Sai-Kit) • Nomination - Best Song ("Ah Long's Love Song", performed by Sam Hui Koon-Kit)
	Availability:	DVD (Hong Kong) Region 0 NTSC Joy Sales 16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen Cantonese and Mandarin Language Tracks Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1 Removable English and Chinese Subtitles Various Extras

		image courtesy of Universe Laser & Video Co., Ltd.
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