Street Kids Violence (1999)

With some healthy namedropping of it's Young and Dangerous predecessors, Street Kids Violence marks an intriguing return of the triad kids genre. And there's a moral to this unsympathetic tale of adolescent thuggery.

Lead protagonist in the film's bunch of impressionable boys and girls is Emperor (played by the emperor from Sex and the Emperor). He's a posturing and sadistic teenage roughie who turns into a whimpering mess in front of real triads. With the help of his mate Beep (the spiky-haired punk from King of Comedy), he gets a fledgling little gang together to rough things up on the housing estate and dominate the ball court at will. Also on the local upstart is a gang of teens of Thai descent, led by the bumbling, and aptly-named, Dumbass. Adding to these teenage terrors is a third group of triad kids, led by a guy named Blackie. With this scene set, the various gang members fight a bit, shout a bit and eventually blur their allegiances a bit too. Coming together in a single teen triad society - quality in numbers under the name Dynasty - the kids do their best to overtly imitate their Young and Dangerous movie and comic heroes. When a "traitor" is found in their midst, they beat him to death and burn him twice.

The credits feature the kids caught and sentenced for their crime - the prison terms and ghastly verdicts are listed one by one for Emperor, Dumbass and Blackie (as well as their fellow toughies Shit-face, Rock and Dicky) who all receive seven years to life each. The litanies read (and the subtitling is excellent), the on-screen text then tells the audience that good parenting and education will keep Hong Kong's youth on the right path. The producers also reveal that Street Kids Violence was produced to tell Hong Kong youth that even if they're under-18, the legal system is unflinching. This supposed moral is all good and well. But this film is rated Cat-III - this teenage target audience isn't legally allowed to watch it...

Credits:

Directed by Wellson Chin