A True Mob Story (1998)

A TRUE MOB STORY (1998) - A much grimmer film than we're used to getting from Wong Jing, but still bearing his trademark 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach to film making. A TRUE MOB STORY doesn't hold much back. Andy Lau plays a Triad boss who finds a distate for Triad activities after a gang fight leaves his wife in a pool of blood. But he's in deep with the Triad, who are definitely not a nice bunch of people in this movie. Suki Kwan gets an incredibly rough deal as the long suffering secretly in love friend, whilst Gigi Leung looks absolutely stunning as the lawyer who ends up fighting Andy's side. Alex Fong shines as her boyfriend, who is coincidentally the cop investigating Andy.

Subtlety is not a word in Wong Jing's vocabulary, though surprisingly enough we do get quite a few subtleties in the performances, if not the script. Forgiving the melodrama and the implausabilities presented, I found the movie extremely enjoyable... in fact I'd say it's one of the best Triad movies I've come across.

Recommended, though the ladies in the audience might find aspects of the movie quite distasteful.