Bloody Money
Bullet Chen: Chow Yun-Fat (as Aman Chow)
Chen Wai Lung: Lam Gaau
Hsiao Ching: Chan Man Ngai
directed by: Wong Shu-Tong
IMDb link: IMDb link: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0086611
other links:
Version reviewed: VCD
Ratings:
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VCD Audio: 7 of 10
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VCD Video: 7 of 10
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Subtitles: 6 of 10
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Story: 4 of 10
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Performances: 5 of 10
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CYF: 6 of 10
Though a somewhat low-budget melodrama, this movie has its merits and most of them
are courtesy of Chow Yun-Fat. CYF plays Bullet, the youngest member of a family of
stuntmen. His father, Chen Wai Lung, is a renowned stuntman but is aging rapidly and
seems reluctant to admit that fact. Bullet's brother, Chin, is also in the profession
but does not have the talent or agility of his brother. The three of them barely get
by making kung-fu movies, living in a tiny apartment filled with the tools of their trade.
Also in the family business is Bullet's uncle Hsiao Pao and Pao's son Chi. Hsiao Pao has long
been retired but after Chi is killed in an accident during a fire stunt he is too proud to live
on his brother Lung's charity and goes back into the business. Another freak accident occurs and
Pao is also killed, this time while trying to perform a stunt involving breaking a spear with his neck.
Unknown to Lung's family, Pao had two other children on the mainland, a daughter Ching and son Nam, who
were set to arrive in Hong Kong in just a matter of days. Taking on the responsibility, Lung and
his sons buy their freedom from the man who smuggled them into HK and take them home. Within a matter
of days Bullet and Ching fall in love and when Bullet is offered a movie contract with a Taiwanese
studio, Ching agrees to accompany him as his wife.
Not quite as happy about all of this is Bullet's dad. In an interesting mixture of jealousy and
sadness at his son moving to Taiwan, Lung berates Bullet as a traitor to the family but seems to
secretly long for the days of his own life when he was in as high demand as Bullet. Kung-fu movies
are on the wane, it's explained by Bullet, and he has to look toward the future; he promises to take
care not only of his new wife but of his father - thereby making the older man feel even more aged than
before. In a fit of pique, Lung stops speaking to Bullet and makes him feel as rotten as possible until
the very last moment. Parenting techniques are universal, it seems.
So Bullet goes off to Taiwan with Ching and becomes a big star; he makes dozens of movies and has his picture
in the HK papers. Lung reconciles himself to the fact that Bullet is now the star of the family and begins to
enjoy his status as a movie star's dad... until he is given the chance to once again prove his own mettle as a
stuntman. Chin objects, saying the stunt is too dangerous, but Lung goes ahead with it anyway and suffers a horrible
fall which endangers his life.
From this point we have a lot of murky plot-twists which lead Chin and Nam to turn to a life of crime in order to
pay Lung's hospital bills; apparently they are too proud to ask the Mercedes-driving Bullet for the money but that's
never really adequately explained. At any rate, during a foiled robbery they end up taking hostages, Lung dies during
a botched operation ordered by the HK police, Bullet and Ching arrive from Taiwan dressed to the teeth just a split
second too late and everybody ends up miserable, incarcerated or dead. The end.
There is some good acting in this film, even if that wasn't planned by the producer, especially by Chow Yun-Fat. He was
no longer just a handsome kid with talent by the time Bloody Money was made, but a maturing actor. Released in 1983,
CYF had a huge number of television episodes and a fair number of films under his belt and the experience shows. The scene of
Bullet alone, dealing with his conflict over the move to Taiwan, are an indication of just how seriously CYF took his role even
if it was in a B-movie. Some of his body language, facial expressions and mannerisms which would crop up in his performances in
later years are evident in this film. To me, this is the first film in which CYF actually shows the depth of his talent; not
having the focus solely on his looks, as so often happened in his early films with Goldig, we get to see what this man can do when
given a chance to draw upon his inner strengths as an artist.
Lam Gaau, who plays Bullet's father Lung, is a veteran of 187 movies in a career which spanned 1950 to 1992. He also appeared with
CYF in Triads, The Inside Story in 1989 (not a high point in either career, I must say!).
For some reason or another this film is often listed as "a brief appearance" for Chow Yun-Fat, but in fact he is the star of the film,
listed first in the cast (and this was before his name was a guarantor of success) and appears in three quarters of the film.
Bad multi-gen copies of this film have been around for a while, but luckily Pearl City has re-released this title on VCD. The picture
quality is excellent. Pearl City's re-releases are excellent all around (such as their re-issue of The Last Affair). The subtitles
are white but still easy to read when the background is other than bright white. If you have an interest in CYF's early career but not
quite enough curiosity about it to slog through his very early works, this is a good place to start. Good audio and video quality, acceptable subtitles,
a minimum of gore (really the only truly violent scene is the death of Chi in a fire) and a solid performance by CYF make this an interesting
and enjoyable B-movie.
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