“A Better Tomorrow”, as well as spearheading the heroic bloodshed genre had the side effect of making the triad lifestyle appear more glamourous than it really was. In an industry where imitation is the (in)sincerest form of flattery, box office hits lead to copycats and director Taylor Wong teamed with Chow Yun-fat to make two of his better works in “Rich and Famous” and “Tragic Hero”. In 1989, their third collaboration was released in “Triads: The Inside Story”, which could not have been further removed from the other movies and purported to show a more realistic side to triad life.
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Uncle Kwan (Tien Feng) is ambushed and killed leading to his son Lee Man-ho (Chow Yun-fat) to reluctantly return from the United States to head the Hung Hing triad society. His inexperience and lack of understanding of triad ways becomes increasingly exposed, as other gangs seek to manipulate the situation for their own benefit. Hung Hing;s footsoldier Yeung Kong (Roy Cheung), frustrated with how events are transpiring, inadvertently sets in motion a series of events where the truth around Uncle Kwan's demise is revealed and the future of Hung Hing is at stake.
Chow Yun Fat gives a very impressive performance as the put upon Lee Man-ho. As the lead, he reacts to events rather than instigating them. Almost the polar opposite of his usual cool, laid back characters, he is a recognizably flawed human being trapped in a situation he wants no part of. His essential decency makes him a weak triad leader, easily manipulated by the more aggressive people that surround him and by the police. He becomes almost sidelined and an observer to the action rather than directly involved. It is Roy Cheung that in many ways has the more traditional role as the career climbing Yeung Kong.
What starts as a caricature thug gets elevated with a slowly emerging character arc. His lack of education means he cannot get a regular job or hope to have the potential life that Lee Man-ho has. In a powerful scene where he is chastised for recruiting school kids, he responds by saying that is how Lee Man-ho's father recruited him, showing how the disaffected youth are doomed to a fate of potential scapegoats and foot soldiers. It's an intense, aggressive performance that steals the picture.
Veteran heavies Shing Fui-on and Chan Wai-man have played so many of these roles that they could practically do them in their sleep. Shing Fui-on as hot headed Mad Keung has an essentially one-note role, being permanently short tempered. Chan Wai-man however, gets a more interesting part that gets to show a little more of the human side with his family.
It's these humanistic touches that elevate this movie above the norm. Gone are the stylised gun fights and instead replaced with frenetic scraps with knives and blades as bodies slash and flay desperately. The inherent contradiction of Triad life is shown clearly with only the top actually making money. The idea of righteousness, as shown in the massive sign in the gathering, is but an illusion. Loyalty is fleeting and the likelihood of death or imprisonment the only realistic outcome.
The finale too steers away from expectations. Revenge is not glamourous and again Lee Man-ho is seen to struggle and is basically the sidekick to Yeung Kong. It's the closest the film gets to a traditional action scene, but is soon over, leaving the survivors to their inevitable fates.
This is a well directed movie, more sober than what we would come to expect from a Hong Kong Triad movie. Given that we were still to be subjected to the “Young and Dangerous” series, the glamourization of triad life would continue for some time. So to see a movie like this is rather refreshing. Often the heroic bloodshed movies would portray the demise of the gangster hero but would make the world they inhabit look cool. To quote “Enter the Dragon”, they don't worry about death because they'll be “too busy looking good”. Death here isn't cool, they die horribly and to see this less stylised view makes it a movie worth catching.
