The Adventurers was the late Ringo Lam's final Hong Kong movie before heading over to Hollywood for a brief stint. Starring the wonderful Andy Lau and lovely Rosamund Kwan, the film is an action packed revenge flick with Lau having witnessed his parents murder when he was a boy. Having been saved by his fathers best friend (the fantastic David Chaing), Andy goes on to be a trained pilot for the Thai Air Force, eventually planning a hit on the killer, Ray Lui (played by Paul Chun - not actually Ray Lui) during a hotel event in Thailand. Obviously, things don't go so smoothly and soon, Lau is on the defence, aided by Lui's mistress (Rosamund Kwan).
Andy Lau gives one of his finest performances as the vengeful orphan who will do nothing to kill his parents murderer, and leaves his usual cheesiness at the door to portray Yan wonderfully...
I like The Adventurers. While it hasn't been cited as Lam's finest work, it still has enough going on to keep things interesting and most definitely action-packed! Of course, no Ringo Lam movie would be complete without its violence, and The Adventurers is no exception as its story spans across three countries. From the murder of his parents (with Philip Ko as his dad), to the kidnap of Lui's daughter, things just get bigger and darker as the film rolls on!
Lui's daughter is played brilliantly by Wu Chien Lien, who started her film career with Andy Lau in the fantastic film, A Moment Of Romance. While much feistier in this compared to the latter, I really enjoyed her performance and often thought she reminded me of Anita Mui at times. As her and Lau's relationship grows, there are a few moments of humour although nothing silly that detracts from the seriousness of the film.
Lam's direction, with that of the beautiful cinematography, is just fantastic offering some stunning moments of action and drama with plenty of camera movement, dutch-angles and great lighting. While I can understand some critics finding its running time a little too long (with more going on in the first hour than most films offer), as well as a few other minor gripes, I found The Adventurers to be a fast paced, highly exciting action thriller and a hugely accomplished piece of film-making for Ringo. The film actually takes a breath on the one-hour-mark for about 30 minutes for some drama that thickens the plot, before going into its explosive and emotional finale!
Overall: Perhaps Ringo Lam's most underrated movie, The Adventurers is well worth the watch...
