Chik geuk siu ji

Although the central themes of the Barefoot Kid are hardly original by kung-fu cinema standards - doomed love, coming of age and redemption - they are delicately and effectively handled to produce a result which is by turns charming, exciting and funny. Similarly, although the structure of the action sequences is rarely ground-breaking, superb choreography, clever camera work and a standout performance from Aaron Kwok elevate them well above the ordinary.

To a veteran of Kung Fu films, The Barefoot Kid would appear rather pedestrian and certainly nothing exceptional, but for a beginner, its simple but strong themes, crisp cinematography and whipcrack action performances make it a uniquely accessible and hugely enjoyable ride.

Highly Recommended!

Johnny To has recently become the critic's HK director to tout. He certainly has a stylistic flair for gangster movies but I am not familiar with his martial art films so this was a treat.

In terms of story, the movie is certainly a throwback to the HK films of the seventies. An illiterate young man travels to a town to find the best friend of his recently deceased father. He wants to retrieve a prized possession of his father's that the friend is holding on to. He finds the man (Ti Lung) working at a cloth factory that's being harassed by the local crime boss. We meet the owner of the factory, a beautiful widow. The young man also meets a beautiful young woman who's a teacher so he decides to have her teach him how to spell his name. Of course the young man is thrust into the middle of a conflict.

The story is played with a comic touch that carries the film for most of the way until the end which is quite serious. For me, what didn't work is how the exaggerated, wide angle, cartoony film technique was really unsuited for the end of the film. The action is very sped up during some tragic scenes. I started watching HK kung fu films during the end of the Shaw era and I've never warmed up to the kung fu film style of the 1990's. Too many cuts (move, move, cut, move, cut, punch, punch, cut) and too many sloppily composed action scenes. It seems every film had to have a scene with the hero running on the heads and shoulders of a crowd. IN Johnny To's defense, he seems to do an average of 4 films a year and that's not enough time to really make a great fight scene.

If you like 90's style HK action, this is a good film. For aficionado's of classic Shaw, this might not be that exciting.

I wonder why so many people mention only Chow Yun-fat among the actors in [A Better Tomorrow] in talking about the film. I love him, too, but the focus of ABT is Sung Tse-ho played wonderfully by Ti Lung. ABT was my first Ti Lung experience, and since then I wish I had a chance to see the martial art films of 70's in which he had starred. I haven't had such a luck yet, but I found [Barefooted Kid] a good treat. Though Lung plays a supporting role, you can fully taste of his noble warrior appeal in this. Great. And Maggie Cheung is even greater. She portrays a warm-hearted (treats the barefooted kid very kindly), beautiful (yes, Maggie is beautiful), brave (neither surrenders to the greedy local strong man, nor fears loving Lung's character being a widow in those old days), and wise (disperses a bunch of beggars troubling a bride, by scattering the coins) character brilliantly.

Lung and Maggie work beautifully together in the most impressive scenes -- meeting up on a full moon night, collecting the stone dust in rain, walking on a street in the rainy evening. Above all, it's a love story (for me, at least). Aaron Kwok and Wu Chien-lien form a charming couple also. And it is nice surprise to see Kenneth Tsang (who played Danny Lee's sidekick cop in [The Killer] and the taxi company owner in ABT) play a pure villain. Plus, it has good action sequences -- nothing new, but neat, enjoyable movie.

This remindes me of the Shaw Brothers classics or generally the movies from the 80s. There's a lot of characters a lot of deception, a lot of development ... and a lot of fighting too. Some may seem ridiculous but overall this is just good fun, if you let it to be that is.

I'm surprised by the level of violence or rather the display of blood we see. While there is lightness and fun, there also always consequences. You might find that weird and you may not enjoy that balance act, but overall I would argue it works. And having someone like Johnnie To at the helm helps a lot. He may have turned his back on these Martial Arts movies and gone for movies set in recent times but you can see he knew what he was doing in this one too. Characters may seem to have issues with decision finding (or finding their moral compass/radar) but how would it work otherwise ... also really melodramatic .. but that doesn't have to be a bad thing ...

A faithful, if a somewhat unusual tribute to the Shaw Brothers' golden age, The Bare-Footed Kid offers up a simple yet bittersweet narrative of redemption, a coming-of-age drama through a world of capitalism's corrupting influence, injected with a mixture of fresh faces and veteran Hong Kong performers. Johnnie To mixes in his patterned use of energetic camera movement and skilful with a slice of the 90s new-wave kung fu movement. There's a beautiful chemistry between Ti Lung and Maggie Cheung which adds an extra amount of sentimentality and depth to the film and a gorgeous use of colour sprinkled throughout. The action set pieces choreographed by the legendary Lau Kar-Leung more than deliver, it's ultimately the weak script and miscast lead where the film fails to connect with its punches, yet The Bare-Footed Kid sits within the realm of superb entertainment keeping the door open for more innovative Hong Kong action cinema and Johnnie To's eventual move to what he knows best...