Starring: Ethan Ruan Ching-tien, Mark Chao Yu-ting, Rhydian Vaughan, Ma Ju-lung Directed by: Doze Niu Chen-zer Category: IIB (Taiwanese and Mandarin)
While there have been plenty of Taiwanese gangster pictures over the years, this nostalgia-tinged saga of wayward youth is the first to seriously rival Hong Kong's ability to combine technical gloss and pretty faces into a riveting commercial package. Director Doze Niu has given such an epic feel to this 140-minute feature that, although the script (by Niu and Tseng Li-ting) rarely achieves the emotional depth warranted by its grandiose treatment, the overall effect is an engrossing film whose energy and scope are the very definition of a blockbuster.
Set in Taipei's once notorious Monga (known officially as Wanhua) neighbourhood in 1986-87, the narrative is part history lesson and part mob tale, but primarily an exploration of the ties that bind a group of sworn brothers.
The 20-minute, pre-title sequence dexterously introduces the principals and displays the technical prowess of Niu and cinematographer Jake Pollock, culminating in an impressive crane shot wherein scores of colourfully dressed punks clash like rival colonies of variegated ants.
Thus is the milieu of the newest generation of Temple Front gang members, high school students destined to an underworld tradition dating back to the Qing dynasty. Monk (Ethan Ruan, above) is the tough guy of the bunch, a teen whose mission is to protect classmate Dragon (Rhydian Vaughan), the princeling son of head mobster Geta (Ma Ju-lung). The soul of the clique is transfer student Mosquito (Mark Chao Yu-ting), a kid with a conscience who struggles to reconcile personal ethics with his yearning to belong.
Their lives become increasingly complicated as they leave school for 'real' life. Although never approaching Godfather-type profundity, the proceedings attain a degree of nuance and texture with the inclusion of gang lore; for example, the ageing leadership's disdain for guns as evil Western imports.