The Kingdom of Mob (1999)

Some government officials convince HKSAR Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa to annex Shenzhen in China in 2000. Expanding Hong Kong's territory is for our own good, they tell him - think of all that extra land to house us Hongkongers, and all that. It's too good to be true - those officials are in cahoots with gangsters. Incorporating Shenzhen is the first step in a masterplan to create a pan-Asian, or even global, "dark empire" and triads are snapping up land in the remote New Territories region of HK in readiness. The region will become the new centre of Hong Kong and when land prices skyrocket, they'll make a killing. But what about prime real estate on The Peak? Or the existing central business district? It'll all be completely worthless.

Triad chief Kuen needs to take over as head of an earmarked New Territories district. To do that, he uses his fellow goons and slinky hitwomen to gain election votes that would otherwise go to nice guy Uncle Five. Corruption in this small democracy is clear and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (the ICAC) is called in. They prove useless in catching Kuen and his triad boys, so in comes sharpshooting, generation X cop and priest Bond - AKA Wong Fai-hong - to save the day...

The Kingdom of Mob contains enough ingredients for a good a triad flick - dumb cops and posturing goons, corruption, plenty of vehicle demolition and a perky topless tattooed lady asskicker. Some of the filmmakers even hide their names! And what's more The Kingdom of Mob delivers lashings of gormless cops, priests n' thuggery fun. Great stuff! And that's despite Anthony Wong's limited screen time as Bond and Pang Dan's limited acting ability in general.

DVD information: This disc is put out by Wide Sight and is of their usual low quality. The picture is quite harsh and smeary, and the colours are too dark for my liking. The print is generally clean with some exceptions, like the temple scene where a couple of lines jump across the screen. The subtitles are the originals on the print - you can't switch them off - and are printed big. Mandarin and Putongua soundtracks are provided and there are six chapters. There is no trailer included and the sole extra feature is a two "page" introduction to the film.

Credits:

Directed by The King
Story by Mr Fifteen
Sceenplay by Peter Cheung and Green Face
Starring Anthony Wong Chau-sang, Michael Chan Wai-man, Diana Pang Dan and Wu Ma