Review of Young and Dangerous 3

Introduction

Young and Dangerous 1 was a huge success in Hong Kong in 1996, catapulting all of its young stars into huge fame. The storyline revolved around the Hung Hing triads and their battles against their enemies – a kind of Goodfellas meets A Better Tomorrow. The original has since spawned 4 sequels (numbers two and three fast-tracked into being made in the same year!) and a prequel.

This third installment sees the entire original cast back as their rival Tung Sing triads try to force a split inside the Hung Hing group, framing their charismatic hero Ho-Nam as a betrayer.

Video

The picture is fairly clear, but suffers from muted colours and the occasional softness. Whilst good for Hong Kong movie standards, the picture could have been a lot better - Young and Dangerous 3 was made in 1996 and the print should be in perfect condition. The big disappointment is that this is not anamorphic.

Audio

The 2.0 DD track has clear dialogue, should you be fluent in Cantonese. It would have been nice to see a fully blown 5.1 track, considering this movie is only 5 years old.

Features

The extras on this disc is a huge disappointment, especially for a DVD touted as a “Special Collector’s Edition” on the front. What is included are the trailers for the first three Young and Dangerous movies, a few still photos, biographies and animated menus. No commentary, featurette, deleted scenes or interviews – surely this is false advertising?

Conclusion

This is the first on the Young and Dangerous series that I have seen, and it does stand on its own as a film if you have the patience to get into the characters. From what I understand, this is one of the best in the series. However, I found the villain quite camp, and his ‘psychotic’ screams very irritating (you’ll see). A good film to watch, but if you can start watching from no.1 then I’m sure you’ll find the third installment even more enjoyable.