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As Tears Go By

Wong gok ka moon

Hong Kong

1988

102 Min

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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CAST Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Jacky Cheung, William Chang

Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai makes his feature film debut with this gritty romantic crime-drama inspired by Scorsese’s Mean Streets. The film opens with young gangster Wah (Andy Lau) getting a visit for the day from his beautiful cousin Ah-Ngor (Maggie Cheung), who is coming into Kowloon from the remote outlying Lantau island to receive medical treatment for a lung condition. At first, the short-fused gangster and the quiet country girl have little in common, but gradually the two start to form a bond of sorts. Meanwhile, Wah’s buddy Fly (Jacky Cheung), who has an absolutely volcanic temper, is always getting Wah into hot water. Even though Wah knows that Fly is bound to end up dead soon, he stands by his foolhardy friend. After some hesitation, Wah — who has fallen for Ah-Ngor — visits his cousin on Lantau, hoping to make their relationship more than family. Fly later infuriates a psychopathic mob boss, Tony (Alex Man Chi-leung who, along with his henchmen, beats and degrades Fly and Wah. This induces Fly make amends with Tony by undertaking the outrageously difficult task of rubbing out an informant who is in the custody of the cops, before the man has the opportunity to testify in a court hearing.

(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:160001)

Director

Wong Kar-wai

Born in Shanghai, he moved to Hong Kong with his parents at the age of five. Coming from the Mainland and speaking only Mandarin and Shanghainese, he had a difficult period of adjustment to Cantonese speaking Hong Kong, spending hours in movie theatres with his mother. He made his directing debut in 1988 with As Tears Go By, produced by Alan Tang. It was a crime melodrama of the kind then hugely popular, and with heavy borrowings from Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1974), but already displayed one of his principal trademarks in its atmospheric and sometimes expressionistic color palette. It is his only box office hit to date. Wong went on to direct several more feature films in the 1990s, among these were Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), Ashes of Time (1994). His first major international recognition was at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival where he won the Best Director prize for Happy Together (1997). The filming of In the Mood for Love (2000) had to be shifted from Beijing… read more

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Lokman Tsui

2Feb10

So underrated.

dBainy

22Jan10

thought andy lau did an outstanding job in this film. He portrayed the nuances of obstinate gangster searching for sentimental connections exceptionally well.

Mister Dob

8Jan10

Might have worked better without the painful soundtrack and overdubbed sound.

Tag Simler

17Dec09

I really wanted to give this film four stars, but to be honest, I probably wouldn't have given it much thought if I hadn't known it was from Wong Kar-Wai. Still, As Tears Go By has a lot going for it. Nothing extraordinary, but a solid first effort from a true master of cinema.