Another one of the formulaic action/romance films made by CYF from 1989. This was the same year as "God of Gamblers" and "The Killer" were released, both A pictures. This is definitely one of the B pictures, really only worth watching for the more completist CYF fans.

CYF plays "Mew Mew", a widowed cop. While investigating the murder of an 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, mainly by the existence of Ka Ka, the orphaned girl and niece of Cher.

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 B 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 really aren't good enough to warrant pulling away from what little there is to the story.

A slight story doesn't give CYF or Cherie Chung, both consummate professionals, much to work with but they try. 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 pair 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.

The subtitling is very bad on this film (the Mei-Ah DVD version); 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; I would give the effort a 2 of 10 rating just for that (and that's being generous).

The direction, even though by Ringo Lam, is unexciting and unoriginal. It may be that he, apparently like CYF and Miss Chung, was simply uninspired by the whole idea of this film.

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.

(1990) Wild Search (In Chinese with English subtitles)

This is the Hong Kong version of Peter Weir's "Witness" that starred Harrison Ford, but this time it stars Chow Yun Fat as the hero on the run with actress Cherie Chung as the love interest. When upon watching this film without seeing the original source, still can hold up quite well, because the setting is different whereas in Witness, Harrison Ford hides out amongst Amish people protecting a young kid. In "Wild Search" Chow Yun Fat hides out amongst the countryside protecting a little girl who witnesses her mothers murder. Because it was made in Hong Kong, this film has more tension and more action than "Witness" where the people that're chasing them serves as sort of a backdrop for the rapport between Harrison Ford and the Amish. This is the third of five movies director Ringo Lam collaborated with Chow Yun Fat.

After watching and reviewing his superb debut recently,I decided to continue exploring the credits of auteur film maker Ringo Lam. When taking a real look at Lam's credits for the first time last year, one which I kept seeing pop up on various sites was his loose "remake" of Witness (1985), which led to me witnessing a wild search.

View on the film:

The first film that directing auteur Ringo Lam had made since Cupid One (1985) which was either not a sequel, (Mad Mission 4: You Never Die Twice (1986)) or part of his "on Fire" trilogy, Lam closely works with cinematographer Wai-Keung Lau in continuing to build upon his recurring visual motifs in the Heroic Bloodshed genre. Shot down the real northern rural streets of Hong Kong, Lam welds the rapid-fire Action set-pieces with a documentary stylisation, reeling from the shoot-outs being short and brittle, where stray bullets in cramped locations cause he screen to be covered in wonderful piles of broken wood and glass. Setting out the mood from the opening whisper of Lowell Lo's score, Lam takes the documentary-style appearance of the action set-pieces and crafts an exquisite, earthy atmosphere of delicate wide-shots and stylishly held motifs of flowers for a subtle counter to the bloodshed,and tight corner shots round doors sipping up the rural surroundings and stepping into 'Mew-Mew' attempting to dance to the meditating, countryside way of life.

Joining his brother Ringo in the movie business by writing Prison on Fire as his debut, the screenplay by Yin Nam brilliantly continues to build on Lam's major theme of a loner finding themselves the only shield against the underworld, with Mew-Mew having to face barrels of gun fire in order to try and save the little girl and her family. Setting up Mew-Mew as a tough cop happy to hand out rough justice, Nam peels away Mew's hard-nosed image to open the humanity just underneath the skin, lit by the gradual, restrained romance between Mew and Cher. Reuniting with Lam and Nam after Prison on Fire, Chow Yun-Fat gives a blazing turn as Mew-Mew,whose harshness in the Heroic Bloodshed set-pieces is balanced by Yun-Fat with a quiet thoughtfulness when around Cher and her family, who Mew-Mew fights to save from the wild search.