Century of the Dragon (1999)
Reviewed by: dandan on 2007-09-08
Summary: tight-necked...
sing (louis koo) was plucked from the police academy and placed into an undercover role in the triads. he is the right-hand man of fai-lone (andy lau), the former boss of hung hing, who has been a legitimate business man for the last five years. when pau (anthony wong), the current head of hung hing, is hospitalised, his son, chun (patrick tam), steps into the spotlight and begins to create problems which seem to be drawing fai-lone back into the underworld.

clarence fok directs a script from wong jing; perhaps one of wong's best scripts. combining two, fairly, standard hong kong narratives; undercover cop begins to question where his loyalties lie and ambitious youngster creates internal chaos in order to gain control of the triads, but doing it very well, wong provides the basis for a solid triad drama. on top of this foundation, fok does a good job; knowing when to hold back and when to go all out, building a gritty drama that relies more on character than spectacle.

louis koo, who i seem to really like, does a good job, but it is andy lau, who i must compliment here. he does a good job of playing the charming, successful, business man, which is something that i imagine doesn't take much effort but, when he has to show the side of him that used to be a triad boss, he really pulls it out of the bag. the look he gives a cop, when his friendly, and reasonable, request (to allow a son to see his hospitalised father) is refused, probably ranks with the best acting that he's ever done.

patrick tam and a whole host of triad movie favourites (frankie ng, anthony wong and lee siu-kei) provide excellent support and there's also good roles for the ladies. shooky kwan, who plays fai-lone's wife is much more than a trophy on his arm and proves she's pretty badass with a knife in her hand, whilst joey mandoes well as sing's girlfriend cunning and sassy girlfriend.

a good, solid, entertaining production.