It is a very sleek, stylish film, with fast fixed up Subaru Imprezas' & Mistubishi Lancer Evolutions', & ultra fast fixed up Motorcycles. And besides the young cast, it also has a bunch of young beautiful girls which pretty makes "The Legend of Speed" a typical guy movie. However with Ekin Cheng being the star is enough reason for girls to see this movie as well. But let's not forget The Director; Andrew Lau's beautiful presentation of the film. It has a perfect balance of Character development, Interaction, Drama, Action, & of course Speed. The story revolves around a group of teenagers in the suburbs of Hong Kong. Involved in underground, illegal midnight races. They bet on each others Cars, each others Motorcyles, each others properties, or each others limbs. The main character is a spoiled brat, rich kid named Sky(Ekin Cheng). Quickly in the first minutes of the movie, you'll learn that he isn't a very nice guy. Besides being rich & spoiled, he is also cocky, & self-centered. However he does have a couple of loyal friends on his side. Tse, [the one who always make amends with Sky's enemies] Paddy(Patrick Tam) [Sky's trusted mechanic] Nancy(Cecilia Cheung) [Paddy's sister, & Sky's admirer]] Kelly(Kelly Lam) [Sky's girlfriend]. The movie begins when Maddie, a leader of a rival racing crew, sets up a motorcycle race against Sky. They both agreed that if Maddie wins he gets 1 million HK dollars from Sky, but if Sky wins, he gets to put Maddie's right leg out of commission so he can't race again. Sky wins the race, & breaks Maddie's right leg. When Maddie's older brother Tang Fung(Simon Yam) is released from prison, he sees Maddie's broken leg & quickly takes over as leader & sets up a race with Sky. Fung bets both of his own hands be broken by Sky if he loses, but if Fung wins he gets Sky's car tuning garage. Without giving much thought Sky tells Paddy to increase the HP=horse power output of his Lancer Evolution(Sky's Car) Paddy refuses & tells Sky that if too much HP is given to the car, that the car will end up controlling him. Without his own approval, Paddy being forced by Sky, increases the HP to Sky's car anyway. As both Sky & Fung prepare for the race, this time both drivers have companions, their girlfriends. The race begins and Sky with his girlriend Kelly, quickly takes the lead in front of Fung & his girlfriends's Subaru Impreza. As they race wildly on the crowded city streets, Sky pretty much takes the lead all the way until Fung decided to cheat by bumping Sky's car in the rear as they reach a sharp turn. Fung continued to rear end Sky, as they reach the sharp turn causing Sky to lose control of his car. With too much power & speed preventing Sky to break on time & instead causing his car to flip out as they reach the divider. The car landing upside down, with fuel leaking, Sky is able to crawl out safely, Kelly however isn't so lucky. Fung drives by at the side of wreck, & sees Kelly completely trapped inside the car. Sky begging Fung for some help so they can both get Kelly out of the wreck instead kept on driving , despite Sky's situation. Without any signs the car explodes instantly killing Kelly, and as the Fire Department extinguishes the fire, they discover a box of narcotics(somehow planted by Fung's crew) inside Sky's car sending him straight to jail. His parents bailing him out quickly learns that his own father was also a daredevil type racer named Black Tone. His stepfather telling him all of this also informs him that Black Tone is in Thailand, & that he should fly there to avoid the media, and to get to know Black Tone, after all he's his real dad. Sky flies to Thailand safely but is also followed by Maddie, & a small group from his racing crew. To basically put Sky out of commission by planning on stabbing him with an Aids-infected syringe. Maddie gets infected instead, and flies back to Hong Kong. Sky also received training from Black Tone, & changed as well for the better while staying in Thailand. Realizing his mistakes, and learning the value of true friends. When he learned from Nancy (she flew there to tell Sky of the bad news) that his buddy Paddy, is racing Fung for his honor, he & Nancy quickly flies back to Hong Kong. When they got there they find out that Paddy had died in a crash while racing Fung. After this, they set out to build a racing car according to the specifications that Paddy left behind in a book for Sky. Seems that Paddy knew he was going to die, therefore prepared for it. With Nancy by her side, Sky sets out to race against Fung. When they met, Sky tells Fung that besides Black Tone's regards, that this race is for Paddy. Fung then tells him that he's going to lose just like his dad Black Tone, when Fung & Black Tone raced years ago. As the race begins, it quickly becomes clear that because of the driving skills that Black Tone had taught him, & learning the value of life, not taking things for granted as he once did, learning the value of true friends, & following Paddy's instructions he won not just the race. But also of him being a much better person.
Reviewed by Dagon (copyright 2001)
DAGON'S ASIAN CINEMA DOMAIN |
|
|
Final Note:
"I enjoyed this movie typically because of its young cast. A movie dealing with underground racing, not an entirely original concept however more than makes up by having Ekin Cheng, Cecilia Cheung, Simon Yam, & Patrick Tam leading the cast. The story is a pretty straight forward action/drama & not hard to follow. Plus with some excellent visual special effects by my favorite digital extraordinaires: Centro Digital, coupled with cool fixed-up rides, nice scenic city scapes, & did I mention the beautiful & talented Cecilia Cheung???..."
From 1 - 10 DAGON, I give The Legend Of Speed, the rating of 8 DAGONS!!! |
|
