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Review
by Kozo: |
Triad action drama from
Wong Jing features Andy Lau as Fei-Lung, an aging legendary
triad who’s been straight for years. Shadowing him is his
right-hand man, Sing (Louis Koo), who’s really an undercover
cop assigned to watch Fei-Lung. As is typical with this stuff, Sing
has developed a respect for Fei-Lung and doubts his current
involvement in anything shady. However, everything is brought
to a head when Hung Hing head Pao (Anthony Wong) is injured,
leaving a void in the group’s top spot. The men all went Fei-Lung
to lead them, but he doesn’t want back in.
Enter Man (Patrick Tam), Pao’s son,
who decides he wants Hung Hing to be his and proceeds to double-cross
everyone to achieve his goals. Simultaneously, Sing is hounded
by an embarrassingly evil new superior officer who proceeds
to act like a complete idiot and threaten his own men at every
turn. When certain terrible events take place, Fei-Lung must
decide whether to go the triad route and wreak revenge on
Man, and Sing must decide whether he can take down his own
boss.
This is an entertaining enough triad
movie that succeeds due to the presence of Louis Koo Tin-Lok,
who should forevermore be known as HK’s new triad leading
man. His intensity and charisma serve him well in this role
and he manages to overshadow Andy Lau, who turns in a relatively
unremarkable performance. Wong Jing does his usual work with
this genre, bringing us lousy police, evil bad guys, and affecting
though hackneyed plot twists. For those who like triad movies
this movie is a decent watch, but it doesn’t come close to
the heights of A True Mob Story, which was actually
directed by Wong Jing. Clarence Fok directed this one, and
it’s competently done. There are much better movies all over,
however. Century of the Dragon is mainly for genre
junkies. (Kozo 1999) |
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