Chang Cheh, the godfather of heroic martial bloodshed and Gwai Chi-hung, the purveyor of gritty, urban dramas and deviant exploitation were filmmaking forces of nature on their own, but when they joined forces for The Delinquent, the planets aligned and thus birthed a masterpiece of malevolence.
The film’s build-up to an explosive outburst of violent reaction is superbly structured and complete, a rarity in Hong Kong’s history of senseless actioners. Despite Chang Cheh’s involvement at the peek of his creative output, the person who deserves credit for the film’s success is co-director Gwai Chi-hung who most likely shouldered the bulk of the work given the film’s greater similarities to Gwai’s other character-driven urban dramas like The Tea House (1974) and Big Brother Cheng (1975).
Although not the most popular, Wong Chung is easily one of Hong Kong’s most enduring and solid martial arts actors. Here he gets his first leading role as John Tong, a sulking young man with a mean temper and quick fists to match. Less idyllic than Bruce Lee’s nationalistic venting in Fist of Fury, which was released the previous year, John’s vitriol is partly passed on from his despondent father (Lo Dik) and partly fueled by hatred for his mother who left the two for another man. Although wishing to help his underpaid father, John’s penchant for street brawling only causes his old man more grief. A vicious run-in with a local pimp (Fan Mei-sheng) and his thugs turns into an opportunity when a crime boss named Lam (Tung Lam) woos John with women and the good life. But it comes at a cost for Lam’s just after the key to a stash of goods that is protected by John’s father who is a night watchman at a warehouse. John tries to persuade his father to take off the night of the robbery, but fails and vainly races to stop Lam’s goons knowing full well that his father will fight to the end. The rest is excessive and stylish screen violence uninhibited as John, bloodied and with nothing left to lose, goes on a killing rampage leading up to Lam high in his penthouse suit surrounded by trained bodyguards.
The Delinquent is the near perfect marriage of Chang Cheh’s rebellious and stylized violence and Gwai’s urban realism. The brilliant opening credits cleverly foreshadow events to come and contain warped close-ups, two-tone colors, and wailing guitars drowned in garage-rock drumming as Wong Chung crashes through mock walls and thrusts fists and feet into the camera. Succeeding images beg comparisons to Fernando Meirelles’ Brazilian crime drama City of God. These include the opening scene of a butcher working in a bustling food stall, the squalor of tenement buildings and littered streets, and the sight of small and unattended children hungrily snatching up the cigarettes discarded by Wong who chooses to honor his father’s wishes in a subtle, unacknowledged moment. Wong and Lo Dik, who plays his father share a complex relationship of intense emotions, both love and anger that can never be reconciled. Even through moments of melodrama, the two manage to reign in the film’s more exploitive elements like gratuitous nipple shots, excessive zoom-ins and pinstripe-wearing bodyguards performing coordinated attacks. These moments act as reminder that the film is still a Shaw Brothers production featuring the same crew members collectively responsible for such questionable “classics” as The Brave Archer and Spirit of the Raped.
This is still a film that goes beyond the average urban kung fu movie while holding true to the genre. Expert choreographers Lau Kar-leung and Tong Gaai trade the period-style kung fu action of Chang Cheh’s wuxia films for wild and rough-edged brawling that shows the desperation of the fighters involved to survive. Lo Dik, who was generally typecast in fatherly roles breaks out into a surprisingly dynamic fight against the gang members. He uses every advantage at hand from a shotgun that turns into a handy short staff once discharged to a fire hose, and even a forklift. This scene is only outdone by Wong Chung’s two final bouts. The first takes place in the cramped and cluttered confines of a sawmill and once again the action directors take full advantage of their surroundings to create a creative fight that ends in an unforgettable near-death experience with a massive saw blade. The second Wong Chung fight of note is really a series of them that go uninterrupted and begin with his crashing of the brothel and ending in his crazed face off with Lam and his bodyguards. Its an amazing physical and emotionally tense performance from Wong Chung that at least equals Bruce Lee’s intensity.
If ever there was a Hong Kong film to kick the snot out of clueless, bubblegum romantic actioners starring preening pop stars aping mock kung fu, The Delinquent certainly sets a solid framework, if coming up short on perfection. It falls victim to the studio’s cookie cutter filmmaking, but still stands far enough apart with a great story that reinforces gritty, semi-real martial arts action to be considered a martial tour de force. And that’s a clichéd, but well deserved term you won’t be seeing from this reviewer again.
by Mark Pollard
