Gangs ‘92 - Friends In High Places

Jun

5

Gangs ‘92 - Friends In High Places

≡ Category: Action, Drama, Hong Kong, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Drama/ Action
Director: Dick Cho
Year: 1992

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE

I can usually tell if a movie is going to be good or not within the first five minutes. Gangs ‘92 is an exception to that rule. The first 20 minutes of Gangs ‘92 are quite tedious. We follow a low-level street gang — Crazy Chicken (Winnie Lau), Pig Kidney (Tse Wai-Kit), Tung (Ricky Ho), Lone (Leung Sap-Yat) — as they hang out in amusement arcades and engage in petty grift. These are not appealing characters; dumb as a Britney Spears video, greedy, aggressive, loud-mouthed, and pig ignorant.

I was just about ready to give up on Gangs ‘92 when the gang pickpockets Sam (Aaron Kwok) and promptly gets pinched by the cops. To their surprise and ours, Sam covers for them and gets them out of hot water. Soon he’s hanging out with them.

Why on earth would Sam want to help out these losers, much less spend time with them?

It turns out that Sam’s parents are rich. More to the point, Sam’s mother is a controlling bitch who has planned out most of his life, from college in the United States to marriage and beyond. Poor Sam just wants to have a taste of real life.

Oddly enough, the longer we know the kids in the gang, the more we feel sorry for them. Society has failed them. They can’t go to school because their parents can’t afford to pay (yes, tuition for elementary school is not publicly funded), and their parents are too busy scraping for a living to raise them. No wonder they’re so ignorant and maladroit. The only ones looking out for these kids are each other.

Still, screenwriters Law Gam-Fai and Lee Man-Choi are careful not to sentimentalize these youngsters. Even after Sam has saved their bacon a number of times, one of them still steals his watch and pawns it in order to gamble. Sam is not much better. After he humiliates Lone with a practical joke that relies on his ignorance for it’s effect, he gives the gang expensive presents to make up for it. Sam is clueless about how condescending that is.

Eventually, the gang runs afoul of some triad creeps and Sam is sucked into their troubles. Will Sam, when faced with real danger, run home to mommy? Will the gang stop taking advantage of Sam and start treating him like a friend?

Director Dick Cho, after those first interminable 20 minutes, steadily builds interest and tension until he releases it in a wild and woolly climax. Action director Johnny Cheung does a fine job with the fights and gunplay. All the action is logical and imbued with great energy.

There are several standouts in the cast. Aaron Kwok is perfectly cast as Sam. His natural blankness is appropriate for a character who has never known hardship or deprivation. Karel Wong, as always, makes a splendid badass. Jimmy Lung makes the most of his limited screen time as a corrupt cop. Maria Cordero is sympathetic as a humanistic policewoman who harbors motherly feelings for the members of the gang.

Gangs ‘92 takes you by surprise. It’s effective as drama and doesn’t stint on action or excitement, either.

If I have a criticism, other than the slow start, it’s that the ending is probably a little too optimistic. I was skeptical that villain Fu Tin Han (Karel Wong) would confess to his crimes on tape so easily. There was also a shotgun unaccounted for that could have spelled disaster for our heroes.

But never mind. Gangs ‘92 is an unexpected find, another rousing B picture from the Golden Age of Hong Kong.