Fatal Move written and directed by Dennis Law Sau Yin (2008)
7 July 2008This movie has some great fight scenes, and so much damn potential, with a fans wet dream of a cast, and a huge epic triad drama, but it suffers a bit from having too many characters, so you don’t get enough from any one, and from and ending that has typified many mainstream triad films in Hong Kong since the handover. It seems of late that most films have to have the Triads lose at the end, and I don’t know if that is a mandate from the government, or people are just following the lone, but it seems today that films like the Young and Dangerous films would never have been made today. As for the action, it is bad ass, and Wu Jing is always a pleasure to watch, and it is cool to see Triad knife fights where limbs come flying off, even if they do have to look a little digital to do that. And of course the inevitable Sammo and Wu Jing matchup is worth watching the film for. The film starts to show some character at points, but then never goes back to those things (like in Simon Yam Tat Wah’s story) making much of the most interesting character just fall flat, because it is never given a chance. I still enjoyed watching most of this film, but it had so much more potential than it actually pulled off. A bit of a disappointment.
This film is the story of a prominent and vicious triad society in Hong Kong led by Big Brother Lin Ho Lung (Sammo Hung Kam Bo). The film starts with a party being held for his newborn son with his mistress Tracy (Pinky Cheun Man Chi), though his wife (Tien Niu) seems perfectly happy with the arrangement. Things heat when a team of police show up led by Senior Inspector Liu Chi Chung (Danny Lee Sau-yin once again playing a cop). Lung’s gambling addicted brother Lin Ho Tung (Simon Yam Tat Wah) goes out with Tin Hung (Wu Jing) and another lieutenant Lau Kwok Wai (Ken Lo Wai Kwong), but things get worse until Lung comes out and stops things, but this has got the cops looking at their society. The society starts out on top, going out and using enforcer Tin Hung to literally chop off the limbs of other gang members, and work at getting huge amounts of drugs, but things start to fall apart.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
First Tung is gambling so much, and Lung keeps paying it off so other gang members are very jealous, though this story has one great scene for Simon Yam, then kind of dies off.
Then some drug deals with huge amounts go bad, and Tung barely gets away, and Inspector Liu gets Lau Kwok Wai. This isn’t a problem as he says everything is his, but when his wife comes in and says that he has some of the societies bank account numbers, which can basically bring the whole organization down, things start to go sower. First they take in the wife, and torture her until she admits she did it with her boyfriend and was cheating on her husband, but they can’t take a chance.
At the police station WOng Shu Chor (Lam Suet) is set to transfer to another division, so you know his time is up. Especially since it turns out that Inspector Janet Liu Mei Chun (Maggie Siu Mei Kei) is working with the triads and helps lead a team into the police station to kill Lau. A team goes in, and the kill Lau, but then all hell breaks loose, and only 2 out of 4 invaders survive or make it out (one is blown up with his own grenade when his hand is shot off, and another is shot in the leg).
Then Lung’s wife realizes she has the account numbers too, so she cooks up a plan with another leader in the gang to kidnap a older gang member (Hui Siu Hung). to get as much cash as they can. When things get harry they kill him though, and the body is found. Lung suspects a rival gang, and goes to war. BLowing up buildings and ruining businesses.
SO they have a sit down with an older boss (Wong Tin Lam now in a wheelchair, but looking the same as he did in Young and Dangerous), and Lung believes the rival leader that he didn’t do the kidnapping, especially when he admits to tipping the police on the drug busts.
Inspector Liu tips off the gang that it is Lung’s wife who did the kidnapping, and they go after her, and Liu is arrested for conspiring with the gangs. Their is a huge shoot out, and Lung’s wife’s partner is finally killed by Tung. And Lung goes after his wife in his car with Tin Hung following, and between the two of them they take out all of her body guards, but after a discussion of why, they let her go, and get arrested by the arriving police, and Lung and Yin Hung go into the building and have a martial arts battle to see who is best (ridiculous, but fun as hell) and it is a brutal battle, where Lung stabs Tin Hung in the neck with a pipe he is fighting with against Tin Hung’s sword, and then promises to meet him soon, and Lung goes out to great the cops with two machine guns and is killed. Then in prison the wife is killed, and the other arrested gang members, and so is Tung as he tries to lead Tracy and her son to safety, but they are all killed (though it never shows by whom).
••••
This film has it’s moments, which would be hard not to with this cast, but the ending really brings it down, as does the CG, which while bringing the gore to another level, just doesn’t match live on set effects. Worth seeing for fans, but non-fans won’t even want to be bothered.
Feedback
You must be logged in to post a comment.