 | My School Mate, the Barbarian |
Rating: |  out of  |
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Directed by: | Billy Chung |
| Wong Jing |
Cast: | Nicholas Tse | Stone |
| Stephen Fung | Edward |
| Joey Yung | Phoenix |
| Samuel Pang | Mantis |
Writing Credits: | Wong Jing |
Action Director: | Tony Ching Siu-Tung |
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DVD: | From Poker Industries |
Zone: | All |
Video Signal: | NTSC |
| Another bit of commercial entertainment from Wong Jing. No redeeming social value but good fun. |
| Edward is a smart kid from a rich family who goes to a "good" school. He is framed for assaulting his ex-girlfriend (actually, the boot is on the other foot) and expelled. It really doesn't matter whether he goes to a good school or not as he is already well prepared for the upcoming HKCEE (Hong Kong Competitive Entrance Exams?) which is just as well as he ends up in a "bad" school, TBS. TBS has a tradition of dueling and the toughness of the kids has heretofore kept the triads out. |
| Stone is the former dueling champ of TBS. After disappearing from school for a year he has returned. He has vowed never to fight again but this is not generally known as nobody dares challenge him except Mantis. |
| Mantis transferred to TBS just to challenge Stone and has been pretty put out that Stone won't fight him. |
| Edward ends up in a duel on his first day, of course, with a bully named Big Mouth. The duels have a ritual location and procedure. They take place in an abandoned classroom on an array of desks. The overhead fans are switched on. There are several shots of the blood spattered fans. The desks aren't very stable so there is some strategy involved in knocking down desks as the first duellist to touch the floor is the loser. Edward thinks fighting is not a good way to solve problems but shows up. He gets knocked down in nothing flat. His new friends, 7-11, Stone, and Phoenix convince him that to fight against the dueling system he first has to become the champion. This sort of makes sense. Stone promises to teach him to fight. Meanwhile, Edward observes that Stone could use some help with his schoolwork and tutors him. |
| If you guessed that Edward eventually defeats Big Mouth and Stone fights Mantis you've seen this sort of movie before. However, the fight scenes are well done and make good use of the dueling arena. Wong Jing has a way with villains and while the villain here doesn't rank as his creepiest he's pretty scary. Also, the Wong fascination with video games is in evidence. I found the film an amusing way to spend the afternoon, definitely worth a rent but I don't know if I would have bought it if I had already seen it. |
| The DVD is of acceptable quality with no discernible extras. It is a zoom job, not . The sound was good. The subtitles are removable and in sync with the dialog. |
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