Asian Movie Review: Young and Dangerous: Reloaded (古惑仔：江湖新秩序, 2013)

Last night I was lucky enough to get an invite from Phil to the HK premiere of the new Young and Dangerous 'reboot' film in Mongkok.  The Chinese title is "古惑仔:江湖新秩序" aka "Young and Dangerous: Reloaded".  I'll share a few pics from the premiere separately, but in the meanwhile, here's an early review (the film comes out in HK and Singapore on Thursday the 10th of January btw). 

Like many in Hong Kong and many HK film fans overseas,  I watched all the original "Young and Dangerous" films somewhat religiously.  I even watched many of the spin offs, and add-ons including "Young and Dangerous: The Prequel" (新古惑仔之少年激鬥篇) which was one of Daniel Wu's first films, and was Nicholas Tse's big breakthrough film (for which he won 'Best New Actor').

It's been 14 years since that prequel, with what can best be described as a reboot.  The characters and basic premise is the same as the originals (or at least the comics on which they're also based),  but the story is unique and updated.    Also a crop of new talent is brought in to fill the big shoes that made Ekin Cheng and Jordan Chan into the stars that they are now.   

Like many fans of the originals, I had trepidation about this film.  Can you tread on hallowed ground? 

Can you replace 'perfect hair' Ekin with some skinny young punk named Him Law?   The film's poster somewhat scared me too…. looking more like an ad for Japanese host club gigolos than street gangsters,  I did NOT have high hopes for this low budget gangster gay p0rno flick…. but there's reason for hope --   a) it features a lot of familiar faces, including our good friend Philip Ng, and b) its directed by Daniel Chan,  who recently did "Triad" another low budget street gangster genre film that was relatively well received.  

Going into a movie with low expectations is the best thing you can ever do…. everything is up from the bottom.   The rough cuts,  cheesy dialogue and confusing script don't bother you when you're expecting them. You just enjoy it for the genre and situations:  the stylized gangster etiquette, foul language and crude humor at their fullest.   I also enjoyed it for show cases HK in all its local urban color.  

As you may have seen in the papers when the movie was being shot, some of the action was shot live on Sai Yueng Choi St in MK,  but also it has rooftop scenes in Causeway Bay and other famous sections of Hong Kong (before I ever visited Hong Kong I already knew about Causeway Bay from the Hung Hing Boys!)

Also I enjoyed the fact that there were so many familiar faces from AnD in there too.  Including Philip,  Winnie Leung (in her first HK film role in a few years),  Paul Wong,  Denise Ho.  And also Rodney Wong, Hardpack and Lo Jim from LMF.    I also appreciate that this film gave me a chance to become more familiar with a new crop of HK stars.  Looking forward to seeing more of them soon.  Him Law did a pretty decent job as Ho-nam and I thought Sammy Sum was pretty good as the freaky rival boss Ugly Kwan. (say no to drugs kids!)

Be forewarned that the film is pretty violent

...and includes some nudity... Long story short,  I can't wait for the second one to come out (cause you know it will).  Good job to everyone involved. 

For me,  I give it a solid 7/10 for the genre and because its a reboot of a popular story line.  (if you don't like the genre or you don't know the originals, your mileage may vary significantly!)  :-P update:  apparently the reviewers on Yahoo movies HK do not concur with my judgement on this!  Currently getting 45 thumbs up and 92 thumbs down.  (I guess that means its about 33%)  http://hk.movies.yahoo.net/movie/details/19604