But I personally like Leslie Cheung’s soulful turn the most as Hui Man-Keung. Still, putting their lacklustre characterisations aside, at least Andy Lau looks the part as the charismatic gangster Ding Lik. This, in turn, wasted the otherwise inspired pairing of Andy Lau and Leslie Cheung, where both of which clearly deserved better. The shorter 96-minute length doesn’t help either to tell a supposedly epic storyline, which covers everything from the brotherhood and rivalry between Ding Lik and Hui Man-Keung to the love triangle and each of the character’s respective personal agendas. The plot is the biggest problem, with the movie’s tendency of leaping from one disjointed narrative to another in a hasty manner. Except for the awkwardly out-of-place moment involving Almen Wong’s femme fatale role as Yiu’s sadistic assassin trying to kill Ding Lik by unleashing her pet python.Īnd yet, it wasn’t enough to overcome most of the flaws. Poon Hang-Sang’s atmospheric cinematography deserves equal mention as well and so does some of Stephen Tung Wai-choreographed action set-pieces, notably the earlier violent scene where Ding Lik and Hui Man-Keung takes down a local gangster. The movie may have blessed with a top-notch production design that successfully recreated the 1930s era in Shanghai. Given the calibre of Poon Man-Kit and Tsui Hark behind the cameras, Shanghai Grand is curiously hollow while lacking both dramatic and emotional weight desperately needed to elevate the movie from mediocrity. Leslie Cheung and Ning Jing in “Shanghai Grand” (1996) As the two join forces to become well-known gangsters in Shanghai, things get complicated when Ding Lik and Hui Man-Keung happen to fall in love with Fung Ching-Ching. After some initial misunderstandings, both of them become sworn brothers after Hui Man-Keung saved his mother from a fire. Then, there’s Hui Man-Keung (Leslie Cheung), an agent from Taiwan People’s League-turned-fugitive who ends up in Shanghai and met Ding Lik. The movie also introduced Fung Ching-Ching (Ning Jing), the beautiful daughter of a highly influential tycoon and crime lord, Fung King Yiu played by Wu Hsing-Guo. Each chapter is dedicated to the three main characters, beginning with Andy Lau’s Ding Lik who started out as a small-time city dweller before he gradually rises to the ranks. Poon Man-Kit, who also served as one of the movie’s co-writers chose to tell the story in three different chapters. The movie also had Tsui Hark serving as a producer while Poon Man-Kit as the director, with the latter famously known for helming the 1991’s award-winning Crippled Ho gangster epic To Be Number One. On paper, it boasts two of among most famous Hong Kong superstars include Andy Lau and Leslie Cheung playing Ding Lik and Hui Man-Keung (both roles were respectively played by Ray Lui and Chow Yun-Fat in the aforementioned TVB series). Having revisited Shanghai Grand on Netflix a few weeks ago, the movie is frankly, a missed opportunity that could have been a better effort. Just so you know, the Top 3 movies during that year were dominated by Jackie Chan in Police Story 4: First Strike (HK$57.5 million) and Stephen Chow in The God Of Cookery (HK$40.8 million) and Forbidden City Cop (HK$36.0 million). The movie was one of the Top 10 highest-grossing local movies in the Hong Kong box office at the time, earning HK$20.8 million. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Shanghai Grand, a big-budget adaptation of the classic 1980s TVB series The Bund which was released back in 1996. The Brotherhood of Rebel 紥職2 (2023) Review.Like Our Facebook Page! Follow us on Twitter! My Tweets Recent Posts
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |