Chik geuk siu ji

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.

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 ...

Aaron Kwok is great as the Barefooted Kid. He is a great martial artist, but doesn't know the rules of life. This he will learn from his uncle and a very kind woman who gives him shelter. This uncle is played by Ti Lung, who is even a greater martial artist and has some great scenes where he shows his talents. The story is very melodramatic, which doesn't have to be annoying. I personally like melodrama at some occassions. But if you don't like melodrama you can skip to the action sequences because that is why this movie is made in the first place. The action sequences are divine to watch. They are far superior to the scenes shown in the Matrix. Which prooves, that digital effects are not needed to create explosive wireworks! If there is one typical HK martial arts movie you have to watch then it's this one.

What I like about Johnnie To's movies is that there's always a cute little drama, or a drama, but it's always adorable, it's never just the action, or Kung Fu, like here, this was the least enjoyable of all four I watched, the other three arrested me happily, this one dispersed a lot... Regular...

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...