While we thought that "The Young Ones" would be the BIG-Mandarin circuit's last movie for its first year of operation, suddenly "Never Compromise" arrives at the end of the year. The movie stars performers who have been in a lot of movies during 1999 like Francis NG Chun-yu and Simon LOUI Yu-yeung. For Simon LOUI, "Never Comromise" is important to his career since he has landed a starring role alongside Francis NG. Director Bosco LAM is well accustomed to this sort of assignment, directing a movie based on a serial murder.

"Never Compromise" is a movie about the murders of seven people at Kei Fook Estate on mainland China. Nearing retirement, Officer LEE (Joe CHEUNG Tung-cho) is assigned to investigate the case. The seven victims come from a single family, and evidence suggests that the killing was done in a very professional manner. In fact, the crime was committed by two men, Brother Bill (Francis NG Chun-yu) and Shing (Simon LOUI Yu-yeung). Twelve years before Bill and Shing illegally immigrated to Hong Kong in hopes of making money. They decided to attempt a robbery, but they were eventually caught by the police and sent to prison for 12 years. After being released, the two consider another robbery. However, as the Hong Kong police are closely monitoring them, they go back to the mainland for their "projects" . . .

The plot of the film is ambitious as it uses flashbacks to present the character of Brother Bill as well as to describe the friendship between Bill and Shing. This approach of using flashbacks is common in these types of crime stories. For the part showing the friendship between Bill and Shing, however, the movie does not have anything impressive for audience to remember. Nonetheless it is still able to describe the change in their friendship. The filmmakers and Francis Ng are most successful in presenting the nuances of Brother Bill's character.

In addition to the portrayal of the murderers, the investigation of the case is also a vital element for the film. Unfortunately, here the movie falls short. The filmmakers use conflict between Officer LEE's subordinate and an Interpol representative to set up a partnership as well as be a source of comic relief. However, with pointless and artificial dialogue, the relationship between these two characters is very annoying. Perhaps Officer LEE's character could have been used better as a good source to compare how difficult the Kei Fook case was compared with others, but the his role is wasted.

Francis NG Chung-yu and Simon LOUI Yu-yeung do a good job in the movie. Since the two actors are familiar with portraying these crazy sorts of roles from time to time, they know what they are doing and how to present their characters. However, the downside is that they don't have the opportunity to surprise the audience with anything new. One may wonder if audiences will be satisfied with seeing them repeat previous performances.

In short, "Never Compromise" is a crime drama concerning the murder of seven individuals from the mainland. The movie is able to describe adequately the characters of the criminals, but it is unable to present successfully the investigation process.

Written by Ryan Law from Hong Kong Movie DataBase on 3 January 2000.