Wild Search
Lau Chung Pong/"Mew Mew": Chow Yun-Fat
Cher: Cherie Chung
Directed by: Ringo Lam
IMDb link: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0096885
other links:
Version reviewed: DVD
Ratings:
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DVD Audio: 5 of 10
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DVD Video: 5 of 10
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Subtitles: 2 of 10
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Story: 4 of 10
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Performances: 5 of 10
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CYF: 5 of 10
An interesting and, for director Ringo Lam at least, understated
tale of the human toll of violence. While the action/romance plot is formulaic,
the unusual use of long shots, lighting technique and some beautiful
footage of the countryside set this film apart from similarly-themed
films. While never abandoning his signature "life is dirty" look, this
is definitely the softer side of Ringo Lam.
Released in 1989, Wild Search was releaesd in the same year as
God of Gamblers and The Killer, both solid "A" pictures
with performances to match. While CYF's portrayal of the weary cop
who finds love in this film is fine, he doesn't have as much to work
with here as he does with the stronger scripts and thus this picture
simply can't be classed with them. Worth watching though, even if
there is nothing particularly outstanding about the film.
CYF plays "Mew Mew", a widowed cop. While investigating the murder
of a female arms dealer he meets Cher (played by his frequent castmate
Cherie Chung), a country divorcee and sister of the dead arms dealer.
It is love at first sight for Mew Mew, even though he feels twinges
of guilt before the memories of his dead wife and son. Cher and
Mew Mew are thrown together while Mew Mew investigates Cher's
sister's death, at first mainly by the existence of Ka Ka, the orphaned girl
and niece of Cher and then for other reasons.
There are some touching scenes between Mew Mew and Ka Ka; while it
is never touched upon in the script, it seems as if Mew Mew enjoys
taking care of the child as he might have done his own dead boy.
Unlike the other rough cops CYF has played in these weary-cop pictures, Mew
Mew seems fastidious and neat, knows how to cook and treats his girl
at least as well as his best friend. While in this film there are
really no romantic moments between Mew Mew and Cher after that first
fateful glance, there are some sweet scenes between them, but
unfortunately they are brief at the expense of some of the action
sequences - sequences which at times simply do not merit pulling
away from the storyline. We've seen all of this before, car chases and
such.
The slight story doesn't give CYF or Cherie Chung, both consummate
professionals, much to work with but they do their best. Miss Chung
is always at her most interesting when portraying less
sophisticated, more down-to-earth women and one really wishes she
had had more to work with in this role; the scenes of her cutting
bamboo and mixing traditional Chinese medicines for the new love in
her life are solid and seem very natural. This pairing of two
of Hong Kong's finest actors are given wooden characters and
while they manage to paint them in realistic colors, Mew Mew and
Cher never really come to life except for some very brief moments.
It could be argued that this is intentional on Lam's part, to show
how the life of the "regular guy" and his female counterpart are
somewhat empty and trite and they are only supposed to feel alive
for brief periods, but that doesn't exactly make for thrilling
romance or action and this is after all supposed to be an action/romance.
The subtitling is very bad on this film; it looks as if the
translation was done by machine, and not by a very sophisticated piece
of software at that. For those who have seen a lot of these HK
flicks subtitled in English you will be able to take the
Canto-English and translate it on the fly; those who are unused to
doing such may find the subtitling confusing at times and downright
frustrating at others. At least most of the words are spelled
correctly, even if misused, so that's why I did not give the
subtitles a rating of "1" instead of "2".
CYF looks good as usual, but a bit tired. 1989 saw the release of
"A Better Tomorrow 3", "God of Gamblers", "The Killer", "Triads -
The Inside Story" and this film. Two classic pictures, one very
good one and two not-so-good ones in one short year is a remarkable
achievement. Rent this one if you just want to see CYF and Cherie
Chung together again, but only buy it if you are a CYFanatic looking
to complete your collection.
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