Young and Dangerous (古或仔)
Young and Dangerous singlehandedly reinvented the Triad genre, and thus should be
viewed as a cinematic masterpiece of Hong Kong cultural history. Before, in the
hands of John Woo and his imitators, the honorable Triad members were the old
Triad members, and such old-fashioned ideas as honor among thieves and the
culture of jiang hu were on their way out. The young Triad boys had no
care for such foolishness, and wanted nothing more than money and power. The
young triad members were like carrion picking at the decaying flesh of Hong
Kong, a dying city. Usually things were brought to a head in a rain of bullets
and lots of explosions as the old guard went out in style. Young and
Dangerous reverses this trend.
The term “Triad” was given by the Hong Kong government to
Chinese secret societies based on the triangular symbol which once represented
such societies. The symbol is the Chinese character 'Hung,' encased in a triangle,
representing the union of heaven, earth, and man. So Triads even today are
sometimes referred to as the 'Hung Society' or the 'Heaven and Earth Society.'
The purpose of these societies, it is said, was the overthrow of the Qing
empire and the restoration of the Ming. The character 'Hung,' in addition to
meaning the most auspicious and lucky color 'red,' also alludes to the founder
of the Ming Dynasty, Hung Wu. Because of the treasonous nature of their
enterprise they developed secret forms of communication and elaborate
initiation ceremonies to impress upon new members the need for absolute loyalty
and secrecy.
Triads have a rather elaborate history which is partly based on
reality, partly myth. It involves not only a struggle against the Qing dynasty,
but a retreat to the Shaolin monastery and the eventual famous burning of the
monastery are an integral part. Only five survived the fire, and these are said
to be the 'Five Ancestors' of modern triads. They go on to have a number of
adventures which are still remembered by triad officials and sometimes
represented in initiation rituals.
Indeed, the triad origin mythology holds that when they recruited
thousands of people to their cause, including Sun Yat-Sen, the Qing Dynasty was
finally defeated. Whatever the cause of the collapse of the Qing, and whatever
the triad's involvement, when it at last fell, triad societies no longer had a
dedicated cause and so realigned their purposes. Some became (and in fact had
been already) devoted strictly to criminal activities.
Young and Dangerous is the
first film in a series. A very long series. One which has, in just a few short
years, inspired sequels, spin-offs, parodies, and rip-offs. Like the comic
books it is based on, the film emphasizes stlye over substance, though it is
certainly no slouch when it comes to the script department, building a
complicated tale featuring dozens of characters which just becomes more and
more involved as the series progresses. The Young and Dangerous series
is the story of a group of boys as they live, love, grow up and die as triad
members. These boys are heroes in the traditional sense of the word --
especially their leader, Ho Nam (Ekin Cheng), who demonstrates at every turn
that he upholds the tradition of Jiang Hu (江湖), the honorable outlaw, like those whose exploits are celebrated
in the classic Chinese novel The Water Margin.