Monday, July 8, 2019

A True Mob Story (1998)

Andy Lau plays a somewhat unusual character in HK triad films: the loser triad member. As a minor boss he's more like the whipping boy for the smug elder bosses who basically treat him like a gopher and ration his pay. His wife was killed several years before by a vile thug Andy half blinded but his son is looked after by mamasan Suki Kwan.

As Andy gets dragged further and further into trouble he meets barrister Gigi Leung... who just happens to be the girlfriend of Alex Fong, the cop who's out to bust Andy! (HK movies are always full of such amazing coincidences). Gigi falls in love with the lovable Triad boss putting her career at risk, naturally, but is it two-way?

The thug who killed Andy's wife makes a comeback and puts Andy in peril, but the bosses won't help and he finds himself the fall guy for a drugs operation. Now what...

Its a Wong Jing film so you know what to expect: violence, lots of it, especially against women. Blood, gore, death, sexual violence and torture. He delivers though with this film, one of his best films. All in all this is an excellent HK triad film, very well played by Andy Lau.