Metade Fumaca (1999)

After 30 years in Brazil, Mountain Leopard (Tsang) returns to Hong Kong with some guns and a flight bag filled with cash. On his way to a hotel, he runs into a chainsmoking triad aptly named Smokey (Tse). Smokey's just chopped a hand off some guy who groped a prostitute, and Mountain Leopard's impressed by this. Soon, he's offering the strapping young triad a job as a hitman to help settle an old score.

Way back in the late-60s, Mountain Leopard had a bitter rival - Nine Dragons. The two just had it in for each other until breaking point, it seems. "You can't have two tigers on a mountain," laments Mountain Leopard as he tells of the situation, and he describes the bitter fight that had him exiled from Hong Kong. As soon as he was sent away, this Nine Dragons stole his woman and the sheer thought of that has festered ever since. Moved by the tale, Smokey agrees to help take down Nine Dragons. He sets about finding the adversary's whereabouts and takes in a lot more info along the way...

This story is one of Metade Fumaca's strongest points - it's so simple, easy to follow and involving. The other big thing is the terrific casting. Excepting Kelly Chen's too-short appearance, everyone from Cheung Tat-ming to Sam Lee adds some kind of charm or charisma to the screen. And this is given a hearty boost with fantasy elements peppered through the script; they strip the hard edge off this triad tale and keep it a gentle step from reality. The story hints at an unexplored theme of change in Hong Kong, through Mountain Leopard's reactions to the new HK and also through vivid flashback scenes. The impression of HK in those scenes is lovely, particularly in those shot behind the derelict Yau Ma Tei Theatre and adjacent wholesale fruit market (two landmarks that desperately need heritage listing). The direction is a good-looker - nothing too dramatic visually; it's just crisp, coloured and warm. The main visual distraction is the amount of smoking. The leads, diners, passers-by, people sitting at doorways and hawkers keep those ciggies and their packets clear in the frame. At one point, a scene in a van, the smoking reaches parody. Plenty of people smoke in Hong Kong but this looks laboured and heavy-handed. Outside that, Metade Fumaca is a polished affair that has left my box office dollars well-spent.

Credits:

Directed by Riley Ip Kam-hung
Starring Eric Tsang, Nicholas Tse, Terrence Yin, Jo Kuk, Anthony Wong, Stephen Fung, Sam Lee and Shu Kei
Cameos by Kelly Chen and Cheung Tat-ming