The BAREFOOTED KID, with Aaron Kwok Fu-Sing, Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk, Tik Lung and Ng Seen-lin. Directed by Johnny To Kei-fung. On Newport circuit. THE Hui brothers and Bruce Lee aside, the 1970s were hardly the most creative or illustrious years in the history of Hongkong cinema. But viewers who yearn for the decade of disco may feel at home watching The Barefooted Kid, as close an approximation of those old Shaw Brothers kung fu pictures as anything lensed since Donna Summer and KC & the Sunshine Band ruled the airwaves. Teen idol Aaron Kwok plays the title character, a Ching dynasty country bumpkin/martial arts whiz who is hoodwinked by evil city slickers but eventually makes good. And like their countless cinematic predecessors, The Barefooted Kid 's heroes and villains are 100 per cent good or 100 per cent evil, with nary an iota of Unforgiven -style ambiguity or realism. Maggie Cheung is wasted in the stereotypical role of a virtuous widow, who has to stop the bad guys from taking over her cloth-dyeing business. CHEUNG is romanced by a mysterious fugitive played by Tik Lung, a kung fu veteran from the Shaw Brothers days.Perhaps because of the similarity between this role and his previous strong, silent heroes, Tik acquits himself with a credibility the others lack. He is given a couple of exciting action scenes, such as one in an inn where he singlehandedly faces dozens of adversaries, that benefit from a nostalgic sense of deja vu. The same cannot be said for the barefooted kid. Kwok is a talented actor, but here he is directed in a way that makes him appear less like a naive youth than an idiotically grinning, brain-damaged moron. The most obnoxious characterisation belongs to Ng Seen-lin as the kid's love interest, a spoiled rich girl whose maidenly modesty comes across as shrewish screeching. Maybe it is the obtrusive musical score that breaks the romantic spell. Despite the Ching costumes and hairstyles, Wu Wai-lap's score is decidedly late 20th century European in character. The historic milieu is further dissipated by the inclusion of Canto-pop theme songs that chafe as much as a pair of new shoes shoved on to a barefooted kid.
