A TRUE MOB STORY (1998) Produced and Directed By Wong Jing Starring: Andy Lau Tak-wah, Gigi Leung Wing-kei, Suki Kwan Sau-mei, Alex Fong Chung-sun, Mark Cheng Ho-nam, Ben Ng Ngai-cheung, Sam Lee Chan-sam, Frankie Ng Chi-hung, Teddy Chan Tak-sum, Michael Chan Wai-man

Reviewed by Ron Murillo

A better title for A True Mob Story would have been The Patsy (with apologies to Jerry Lewis), said individual being Cheung Dai-wei (Andy Lau Tak-wah). Five years earlier, he was a smalltime triad soldier with a wife and son, who, out of courage or foolhardiness, attempted to rescue the son of his boss from a gangster named Crazyball (Ben Ng Ngai-cheung). In the resulting melee, Cheung's wife is killed by Crazyball. Five years later, Cheung holds a seat on the triad's council, but no real power. His son is in constant fights defending his father's honor. The man he rescued, Prince (Mark Cheng Ho-nam), is his partner in an illegal VCD factory, but Prince is merely using Cheung as a fall guy for his own drug operation headquartered in the factory. Prince also desires Ruby (Suki Kwan Sau-mei), once the best friend of Cheung's wife, now the woman who cares for his son when she isn't working in Cheung's nightclub as a hostess. At one point, Prince nearly rapes Ruby in front of Cheung and it is only a desperate act on his part that saves her.

Charged with assault in an unrelated case, Cheung becomes involved with his lawyer, Sandy Leung (Gigi Leung Wing-kei), whom he later learns is engaged to Stanley (Alex Fong Chung-sun), a OCTB cop who has targeted Cheung as the man behind Prince's drug ring. When Cheung learns that Crazyball has been released from prison on a technicality, Cheung pleads with Prince's father, Uncle Mei (Michael Chan Wai-man), to help him, but is refused. When Ruby and his son are captured by Crazyball, Cheung desperately tries to reach them in time, only to be waylaid and arrested by Stanley. Crazyball, assuming that Cheung has fled, blinds the man's son and has Ruby gang-raped.

Cheung Dai-wei is a pathetic character. Charged early on by Uncle Mei to kill a rival named the Lion King, Cheung's lieutenant (Ng Chi-hung -- "Brother Bee" of Young and Dangerous fame) and his men arrive late, forcing Cheung in a lone confrontation with his target and his followers. He reacts by hiding under a truck, while his men arrive and dispatch the Lion King. Later, when Cheung is boasting about it to his triad "comrades," one of them points out that he witnessed Cheung's so-called act of "bravery." The cheers turn to laughter and disdain. It becomes hard to feel sympathy for the character because he makes no real effort to be anything more than what he is...a loser, commanding no respect from anyone around him. Only Ruby has any real feeling for him and, eventually, Cheung will betray even that.

The film's biggest problem, then, is that the protagonist is, through his own lack of will, completely unsympathetic. Exploited by his comrades, held in disdain by almost everyone he knows, including his own men, Cheung Dai-wei deserves every bad thing that happens to him. And with the odds stacked against him, from being used as a front for Prince's drug ring to being pursued by a psycho killer and a vindictive cop, you wonder why he just doesn't grab Ruby and his son and flee. Instead, the audience is subjected to his constant attempts at self-justification or rationalizing why things aren't better than they are. And, when he finally has his revenge, you still don't find him any better or stronger for what he has accomplished. For what he does to Sandy and Ruby to achieve his goal, even the audience comes to hold Cheung in the same disdain his triad comrades once did.

One of the weakest points of the film is Cheung's romance with Sandy. Why would a successful lawyer throw away her engagement to a responsible police officer that cares about her to pursue a relationship with such a pathetic individual as Cheung Dai-wei? Pity might be the answer, but the risk of the involvement and the outcome it engendered seemed too high price to pay. To make the romance look even more silly, in an obvious homage to their roles in Full Throttle, Cheung and Sandy escape an attack from Crazyball's men by hopping on a glitzy racing bike. Holding herself close to him during the ride, it becomes somewhat apparent that Sandy is realizing her feelings for Cheung, much the same way her previous alter-ego felt in Full Throttle. Unfortunately, unlike in that film, Gigi Leung's performance as Sandy is wooden. She never seems to be able to conjure up more of an expression than a mannequin-like smile or glance. Suki Kwan Sau-mei garners more sympathy as the suffering Ruby and turns in the only credible performance in the film. Sam Lee Chan-sam and Alex Fong Chung-sun are wasted in their relatively minor roles as Cheung's friend and Stanley, respectively, while Mark Cheng Ho-nam and Michael Chan Wai-man waltz through the same type of triad villain roles that they have played many times before.

It's upon Andy Lau's shoulders that True Mob Story rests, but the melodramatic script leaves him little to do but whine and posture throughout. There are moments when Lau shines, to be sure, such as visiting his blinded son in the hospital or realizing the extent of Ruby's feelings for him, but these moments are too brief and too few. True Mob Story, while being noteworthy as a totally unsympathetic portrayal of the triads (as opposed to the Young and Dangerous series) reduces its characters to such cartoonish dimensions that it becomes another triad cliche in and of itself.