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Review
by Kozo: |
The four stars of this movie are four longtime friends who
reunite when Maggie (Maggie Cheung) returns to Hong Kong after
overseas schooling. She finds that her boyfriend Michael (Michael
Wong) is avoiding friends Jacky (Jacky Cheung) and Crystal
(Crystal Kwok). Everyone has excuses as to why the estrangement
occurred, but it takes perseverance and righteousness from
Maggie to find out the truth: Jacky is now a cocaine addict
and Michael happens to be his supplier. Then things get worse.
Old-school actor David Chiang directed
this public service announcement that basically has one thing
to say: Don't do drugs. It also tries to tell us that having
friends become drug dealers also sucks, as does getting hit
in the stomach while pregnant. Basically, IT ALL GOES TO HELL
as Jacky's drug problems get compounded by debt, drug smuggling,
evil triads and plain-out lying to your best buddies.
As a PSA, Will of Iron succeeds
mightily, but that's mostly because it gets its message across
in big, bold letters. As a film, it goes the usual HK action-drama
route, which means a cookie-cutter plot featuring characters
with the same names as the actors playing them. You have to
wonder if anyone out there was confused by this. Given Hong
Kong's wacky media-addicted culture, it wouldn't surprise
me if someone out there walked away with the idea that Jacky
Cheung was actually a drug addict. Here's hoping they didn't.
As an official Hong Kong film, there's
a detour into action, too. It arrives near the end and is
as brutal as HK action gets, with moments that make you wince
for the characters. However, given the film's attempts at
serious subject matter, the over-the-top violence feels out
of place.
Furthermore, the excessive HK-style
over-emoting doesn't help the film much . Having Jacky Cheung
overact as a drug addict kills some of the subtlety. Hitting
us with a hammer gets the message across, but it also gives
us a headache. Maggie Cheung anchors the rest of the acting,
but her character is so fearless and righteous that it doesn't
ring true. For a one-time watch, Will of Iron can interest,
but repeated viewings will reveal the ultimate truth: there's
not much a movie here. (Kozo 2001) |
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