Director Johnnie To is primarily known for his highly stylised actioners and challenging thrillers that he has been making for his Milkyway production company. The HK based DVD label Joy Sales honour one of To's earlier dramas starring Chow Yun-fat with a digitally remastered DVD release. Is it worth an upgrade?

Director: Johnnie To
Main Stars: Chow Yun-fat, Sylvia Chang, Ng Man-tat
Production Year: 1989
Studio: Joy Sales (HK)
Packaging: Amaray (in a slipcase)
Extras: New Interview with Producer Raymond Wong, Original and New Edited Trailer, Photo Gallery, 6 Postcards
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio Tracks: Original Cantonese 2.0, Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1, Cantonese DTS, Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, simplified and traditional Chinese
Regional Coding: Region 0 NTSC
Running Time: 99 minutes
Rating / Certificate: Category I
Release Date: August 10th 2006

The Film

Chow Yun-fat won the Asian Best Actor award for this film, but the movie tends to be a Hong Kong version of Kramer vs. Kramer, as a successful career woman (Silvia Chang) attempts to reclaim custody of her son from her former lover. It is however still very different from the mentioned Hollywood-film. It doesn't have any court scenes for example. What stands out the most though are the performances of our lead actors.



Chow Yun-fat plays Ah-long, single father of a 10-years-old boy whose nickname is Porky. One day Porky's mother and Ah-long's ex-lover, Por Por (Sylvia Chang) comes back to Hong Kong from the United States after she had left Ah-long and the newborn alone 10 years ago. As the successful commercial director she has become, she is in Hong Kong to shoot a commercial and Porky is supposed to star in it. This is when she starts spending more time with her son who enjoys the wealthy life and the tons of gifts he receives from her. His father, Ah-long, could never offer him such a lifestyle as he is a simple construction worker. He really has nothing but his son and now Por Por claims her son in order to take him to live with her in the USA.



The viewer will hate Por Por at this moment and this is when occasional flashbacks show us that she also had understandable reasons to leave and that Ah-long was not always the loving father as we have known him until now. He was a street thug, who amongst beating women, was involved in illegal motorcycle races and he has a past of a few years in prison.

I'd be lying if I wrote that the film didn't make a few tears run down my face. Johnnie To succeeds in waking our emotions without being too manipulative by for example using an over-dramatised musical score (although a great synthesiser-one nonetheless) or constantly crying actors ala Cecilia Cheung. The ending is particularly noteworthy for its unexpected downbeat twist.

Oh, and one important thing I always make sure to check whenever I watch a film with a child in one of the leading roles: Does the kid annoy the viewer? Not Porky. He gives a serious performance for such a young boy.



Action
Suspense
Story
Humor
Romance
Drama Level
Eroticism
Music
Cinematograhy
Total

This film could appeal to you if you liked:

Lost in Time or Till Death Do Us Part

The DVD

All about Ah-long is one of Joy Sales' re-mastered DVD titles. Their new DVD releases are mostly of supreme quality for their comparatively low prices. The only negative aspect I can think of is that their re-mastered titles do not feature re-translated English subtitles. Instead they use the new translations provided to them by Fortune Star. Although they are far superior to the subtitles present on the Universe disc, they are still not perfect in terms of spelling or grammar. However, the subs are of very decent quality compared to a lot of other new HK DVD releases. It's just a pity that the re-mastered Joy Sales titles won't enjoy the same re-translations that are being worked on for the non-re-mastered titles.

The re-mastering job of the image quality is top-notch, though with the occasional presence of the usual good old HK grain on the image. It is kept to a minimum, though.
I have watched the film with the original Cantonese 2.0 soundtrack. It is a bit dull of course and for those who can't stand this dullness, can either switch to the provided 5.1 or DTS tracks for a clearer sound.

Apart from the six provided postcards, the disc features an English subtitled interview with producer Raymond Wong which runs for 9m 43s. He talks about how he got the idea for the film and how the whole project developed, beginning with how he wanted Kent Cheng for the film and how he got Chow Yun-fat after he had turned down Aces go Places. Some interesting HK cinema trivia is revealed.

A quality disc with a quality interview. Unfortunately, it is the only feature the disc has to offer (apart from the usual trailers and the photo gallery).



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