Synopsis
Chapman To and Herman Yau carry on their successful
collaboration from Sara with this dark comedy set in the seedy Hong Kong
underground world. Every three years, the five leading gangs elect a
representative to stand for election to be the mobfather of the underworld.
Each of the candidates has his strength and his weaknesses, and there is
understandably a decided lack of trust amongst the gangs. With each fighting
for his gang’s own vested interests, what will be the outcome?
After spending 5 years in prison, Chuck, the leader of Metal
Gang triad, is released but immediately gets caught in an assassination attempt
which he narrowly escapes. Chuck realizes that his sudden assassination attempt
is related to the three-yearly Dragon Head elections, where the five leading
gangs of the underworld would each elect a representative for the election to
be the next mobfather.
I really don't keep up that well with current Hong Kong cinema, but Herman Yau is a director who interests me.
ReplyDeleteSomething to bear in mind is that often in Hong Kong and other Asian cinema, violence is shown being inflicted on members of a main character's family to underscore a villain's nastiness and also because in traditional Asian society, one often has to bear in mind that the repercussions of one's actions often involve family members rather than just the individual him or herself.
ReplyDeleteThere is no mystery surrounding how The Mobfathers is going to play out, cleaving closely as it does to gangster tradition, but in this case getting there is half the fun.
ReplyDeleteAside from a fanatic third act that makes this film an allegory on Hong Kong’s stumbling pursuit of universal suffrage, Herman Yau Lai-to’s The Mobfathers has little new to say about power struggles in the criminal underworld.