Sang gong kei bing

In this first (and best) of a four-part film series a group of men from the mainland illegally enters Hong Kong and soon forms a 'Big Circle' triad gang. It doesn't take long till the police is hot on their trail which inevitably leads to a final shootout. This takes place in the infamous 'Walled City' which was razed to the ground a few months later in real life. So this film is the last chance to behold the labyrinthic chaos of people, goods, narrow alleys and illegality that was the 'Walled City'. If you, like me, prefer the coarse, mangy and dirty Hong Kong action-movies of the 80s over the high-gloss, elegant movies of the 90s, this one's for you.

When I came across this film on IMDb I found the comments here to be very positive, portraying the film as one of the milestones of Hong Kong action cinema. With these glowing reviews I decided to make a "blind buy" purchase and order it on DVD through an online retailer. It was only $8.00 and I figure it was worth the gamble, especially since I had such admiring reviews to back me up. This aura of positive reviews, however, made me ask the question, "If this film is so essential to Hong Kong cinema, why hasn't anyone seen it? Or better yet, why is it completely unknown?" After I received my DVD and watched it, I found out.

The film is rather dull in all accounts. The film tries to build back story for the characters in the beginning of the film, but it only spends approximately ten minutes here before thrusting the characters into a clichéd action story. Ten minutes isn't enough time to build characters, especially when there is about six characters to develop.

And the film doesn't spend time on their relationships or internal psyches throughout the rest of the film. Instead, it concentrates on a fumbled heist, a few murders, torture, and whorehouses, totally devoid of any human emotion.

And the acting doesn't doesn't help in any way either. Most of the characters seem to be assigned one emotion and each must play that emotion to the fullest. As a result we witness over-the-top and occasionally irritating performances (some of the characters seems to be be on the verge of tears every time they are in a mess, causing the audience to groan at their complaining and constant whining).

As for that narrative portion of the film, it is greatly unfocused. The film is more of a culmination of scenes rather than a solid plot thread and the audience becomes confused trying to figure out how these scenes are related.

Also, the film places focus on irrelevant and unimportant scenes that do not further the story nor the development of the characters, such as the time spent on scenes at the whorehouse. These scenes seem pointless since they merely show the sexual intercourse between the men and prostitutes and do not add any commentary on anything.

However, the film does contain one noteworthy merit and that is the final shoot out that takes place in the back alleys of Hong Kong.

The sequence lasts about ten minutes and is indeed well executed. Here, the fugitives are running away from what appears to be an unending force of police officers through a labyrinth of hallways. The narrow passages and maze-like structure reflects the claustrophobic nature the characters are feeling and as more and more officers propagate within this tight locations, the fugitives are squeezed into a smaller and smaller area until they must make a final stand.

However, this scene is only well made on a technical level. Since the characters and story are so underdeveloped, we don't really care what the results of the shootout will be. Instead, the viewer will take joy in the sequence on a purely visual level, making the scene an experience but not a satisfying dénouement.

I don't see how this could possibly be a cornerstone of Hong Kong cinema when it has been so sloppily made. Most likely the film has simply received a small cult following thanks in part to the well executed final sequence, and thus have been over-praised in some areas.

The film isn't a totally lost, but it really isn't worth seeing. I would recommend this to only those who are Hong Kong Action (Heroic Bloodshed, Gun-fu, Bullet Ballet) completests, and even then it would only be to see that final scene.

This is the film from which Tarantino copied the idea of mutilating someone's ear for a bit of a shocker effect. The film chronicles the career of the "O gang", a bunch of Mainland Chinese who hope to make some superfast bucks during a few days of illegal stay in the crown colony.

Things start to go in the wrong direction for them even before they can cross the border, however and the gang makes a conscious effort to defeat the odds through camaraderie and loyalty. They loudly profess their love of freedom and one wonders if these are in fact hardened criminals or clueless country potatoes. They definitely are clueless towards their impending downward spiral that continues with a double cross from a local mobster, while they have to wait for their targeted jewelery shop to re-open after someone else's robbery.

This film has it all, gratuitous violence that was all but impossible for western cinema back then. Very funny and absurd tales of country boys vs the HK redlight district. Now historic Hong Kong footage from the walled city ghetto, where the gang takes refuge in an underground clinic and is drawn into a superbly staged final shootout.

A classic tale of male and criminal self-destruction, told in an early superlow-budget HK film from a bygone era.

i see that there is only one mediocre review and the rest were all good, so most people understood the story and what it was trying to say. the mediocre review came from an American who read only positive reviews for it, got hyped, went out and bought the DVD and then felt the only good thing about the movie was the final shoot-out. well...,he's partially right as the final shoot-out is awesome and serious fans of international gangster movies know about the shoot-out. the guy obviously has not watched a lot of movies or he would have also mentioned the helicopter scene that was ripped off in " the godfather 3 ".

if the movie were to be made here in America even at that time it would have costed between 10-15 million to make probably and johnny mak was able to make a great movie that stands the test of time for under one million. we in America get the best in every department and the most budget to make movies with. we make mediorce movies with no original ideas and then our citizens mock other countries motion picture gems!huh...go figure that out!

all-right...i'm done ranting, more about the movie. this movie was actually the first new wave gangster movie to come out of hong kong, a couple of years before john woo's " a better tomorrow ". it is based loosely on fact because during the 80's in hong kong the most ruthless gangsters were in fact the ones that snuck over the border from mainland china, did their crime and if they were smart got the hell out of there pronto. the movie is very bleak because its trying to show the mindset of the ruthless mainland criminals. life was pretty hard back then in mainland china, if you made 200 dollars us a month you had it pretty good. in the opening shots of the film showing guangchow city...well it really was like that. i've been to china multiple times in the 2000's and a lot of china still looks like that. the common people are very poor, there is no middle class. the reason the mainlanders went to hong kong to commit crimes was that it was easier, there were more targets and there was no death penalty, where-as in china they put you in front of a firing squad right away.

i don't condone robbing and killing if necessary as a way for your family to improve its lot in life but i can picture somebody doing it out of desperation. people get sick of being poor with no way out, how would you feel if a loved one was dying and you can't afford the medicine, or not being able to put enough food on the table?

so, the mainlanders go to hong kong and usually rob jewelry stores and banks. they were better criminals then the natives because they were ex- military and they were desperate. many of them wound up getting used by the local criminal elements.

they were so sick of being poor that they would put up their lives as collateral to the devil.

well...the crew make it to hong kong minus one member and something goes wrong right away. they were suppose to be on a planned timetable and nothing seems to work out. they get set up by the local criminal element that they are involved with and mayhem just follows and erupts.

i know that there were not any famous actors in the movie except for Lin Wei and none of the production was top notch and there wasn't enough character development as it was a short film, but the movie is an oh so compelling watch. the final 20 minutes was such a compelling watch and you could actually feel the grit and the desperation and it was filmed in the walled city which is like a ghetto times 10.

BTW...everything happens in the midst of two days, new years eve 1983 and then the next day which is new years 1984. that it happen then also played a part in the movie cause you could see how it didn't really mean anything to the mainlanders, but in the upscale whorehouse where they spent their last night there were no clients as everybody was home with their families.

this is must watch hong kong cinema and if your a gangster movie fan then that is a double bonus. this movie ranks very high in the best movies of the 80's from hong kong. i think it is in the top 5 and it is certainly in my top 5. enjoy it if you get the chance...and i have to say again it is very bleak, not a happy film.

No pun intended - the movie is based (loosely I suppose) on a true story or rather incident(s). Make of this what you will of course. I have watched my fair share of Hong Kong movies, this or the rest of the "series" was not amongst them, until the other day. And I have mixed feelings about this to say the least.

We get a few unlikely "heroes" (more like villains, which makes the whole things weird with no one really to root for) ... and their quest after crossing the border (Hong Kong was not really a part of China back then - it belonged to Great Britain - I don't have the specifics, but you can read up on it, if you are interested) ... and they have to earn money ... first a prison break, then a border break ... then a robbery and hit job ... so many things ... and so many crazy stunts. There is a scene (to name one) where one character runs into a car ... and I am certain they did not have permissions to shoot that scene on the road ... or that the car was a stunt driver ... the days of rebellion ... must have been nice (or not).

Actually one of the makers admitted (on the release by 88 Films), that they did not have any permission or that people actually thought what was happening was real ... and that if police was near them (the real one), they may have shot at them ... again this is insane to a degree - well you have to watch it to believe it.

Some amazing stunts, characters that are over the top ... and a few jokes here and there. With quite the excessive ending ... like it or not ... or maybe you don't even care. Still has to be believed and seen.