Young and Dangerous: The series

When Young and Dangerous first came out in 1996, the creators could have had no idea how successful the series was going to be, though with Wong Jing (rumoured to have triad involvements of his own) on production credits, and Andrew Lau Wai-Keung (who went on to direct the Infernal Affairs trilogy) directing, you've got a pretty solid basis for any expectations.

Based on a Manga-style comic titled Teddy Boy, Young and Dangerous is the story of a group of friends who band together and join the local Hung Hing society, under the tutelage of Frankie Ng Chi Hung as older Brother Bee. Originally condemned in Hong Kong for its glamorization of Triad life, the original film was so popular, it led to a series of nine films in total, what with spin offs and prequels and sequels.

Most of the stars had a background in Cantopop, and although they're clearly involved in organized crime in the film, they aren't *that* disreputable. They'll fist fight rather than stab or shoot, are involved in gambling rather than drug running, and only ever kill their enemies when their lives depend upon it, or when they need to avenge the death of their true love, a parent or a fellow gang member.

Although Ekin Chang's character, Chan Ho Nam is the romantic leading man, the real star of the series is his right hand man, Brother Chicken, played by Jordan Chan. Ostensibly a committed womanizer, he falls for the daughter of the kung-fu fighting Catholic Priest who ministers to the government project where the gang grew up.

Besides the teen stars who play the leads, over the course of the season, some of Hong Kong's most reliable working film actors start to show up in the movies, and although they're only given smallish parts in the main series, they actually provide leading characters for some of the spin-off movies that came out of the series.

I'm thinking here in particular of the remarkable Portland Street Blues, featuring my favourite H/K actress, Sandra Ng. Sandra plays Sister 13, a lesbian member of the Hung Hing, who runs a stable of prostitutes out of Portland Street. Whether a woman could ever actually become a 'made man' in the Hung Hing Society is something else, but in the movies, she's sufficiently senior to be invited to all of their important meetings.

The other big H/K star who shows up in the series a lot is the wonderfully prolific Anthony Wong, whose compulsive nose-picking character, Tai Fai, also gets his own spin-off movie, The Legendary Tai Fai.

The Young and Dangerous films aren't the kind of art house fare that you get by directors like Johnnie To. They're melodramatic, populist pot boilers, made on the cheap with little attention to story. But they're none the worse for all that -- in fact, they might even be the better for it.

Thumbnail reviews of each movie here.
Who's who in Hung Hing?
About triads