After the dismal 'Young and Dangerous 5', director Andrew Lau and script writer Manfred Wong teamed up to introduce young talent such as Nicholas Tse and Sam Lee to reprise the Hung Hing boys in their early days of Triad life.

Chan Ho-Nam (Tse) and his school/bandmates Chicken (Lee), Pou Pan and Chou Pan (what happened to Yee?) are kicked out of school for singing a rock song representing anti-school culture in a music contest and are labelled 'bad apples' of the neighbourhood by teachers. After being beaten down by Piggy - the protege of Hung Hing gangster Kwan (Francis Ng), the boys are locked up and accused of anti-social behaviour and known as 'Gu Wak Jai's'. After being bailed out by Uncle Bee (Ng Chi Hung) Ho-Nam and his crew decide to follow Bee. While becoming a part of Hung Hing, Ho-Nam is attracted to Fei (Shu Qui) the girlfriend of Bee's older protege Big Head (Daniel Wu). We see the Causeway Boys rise through the ranks of Hung Hing as they deal with death, beatings, love and rivalry.

This film is much more enjoyable than the first 2 installments in the 'Y&D' series, as it delivers very good performances by Nicholas Tse and Sam Lee (was just as good as he was in 'Beast Cops')- brilliant as Chicken. We also see cameos by Sandra Ng as the infamous Sister 13 and Kirsty Yung as Yung (short but funny). Fancis Ng and Ng Chi Hung are good as ever as they play thier characters in the original. Shu Qui is a bit out of place as I think she was casted mainly because of her sex appeal, but a great storyline and lots of action provides a good enough background for bloody violence and strong performances (Daniel Wu was also good). Out of all of the series, this installment is probably the most violent and brutal out of the lot as we do get the occaisional quick humour to provide a sense of entertainment.

Not as good as 'Young and Dangerous 3', 'Yound and Danger ous: The Prequel' provides a heap load of triad action with a cool soundtrack featuring Nicholas Tse (as some members hate him - probably out of jealousy) which makes it a must for fans of the series.

****.5/*****