Stumbling upon the 1996 Hong Kong movie "Once Upon a Time in Triad Society" and seeing that it was a spin-off from the "Young & Dangerous" series, I must admit that I was interested to watch it. And given my fascination with the Hong Kong cinema, then I just had to watch it.
Oddly enough then I actually never have seen the movie before now in 2023, and I do like the movies of Francis Ng.
While the "Young & Dangerous" movies are quite enjoyable, then writer Kai-Cheung Chung didn't really managed to put together something outstanding here. Sure "Once Upon a Time in Triad Society" was watchable, but it was by no means an outstanding movie, nor was it a milestone notch for Francis Ng.
The storyline in "Once Upon a Time in Triad Society" felt a bit too cluttered and random, and there was a general lack of red thread throughout the course of the movie. It made it a somewhat monotonous movie to sit through. And while I did manage to sit through the entire movie, this is by no means a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time.
The movie does have a couple of familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Francis Ng and Michael Wai-Man Chan. And this movie was by no means a memorable movie for a talented actor such as Francis Ng.
Watchable for what it was, but nothing noteworthy or outstanding. This was hardly a gem in the Hong Kong cinema, so I hadn't really been missing out on something grand.
My rating of director Michael Wai-Man Chan's 1996 movie lands on a four out of ten stars.
