As Tears Go By

The Age

Thursday August 25, 2005

PHILIPPA HAWKER

DVD & VIDEO REVIEW: As Tears Go By Hopscotch, 94 mins, Rthriller, 1988 ***?

Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's first feature doesn't, on the surface, display the distinctive stylistic elements and themes of his future films (from Days of Being Wild to Happy Together to 2046), but it's still an accomplished, self-consciously raw genre work - and admirers of his later films will spot traces of his concerns with loss, and the beginnings of a distinctive visual style. This is the tale of a small-time gangster (Andy Lau) who is committed, almost beyond sense, to the demands of being a mentor to his erratic protege (Jacky Cheung). A young Maggie Cheung plays Lau's fragile cousin, to whom he is drawn, but their relationship is overshadowed by the price Lau pays for standing by his protege.

DVD extras include: 2046 preview.