After watching and reviewing his superb debut recently,I decided to continue exploring the credits of auteur film maker Ringo Lam. When taking a real look at Lam's credits for the first time last year, one which I kept seeing pop up on various sites was his loose "remake" of Witness (1985),which led to me witnessing a wild search.

View on the film:

The first film that directing auteur Ringo Lam had made since Cupid One (1985) which was either not a sequel, (Mad Mission 4: You Never Die Twice (1986)) or part of his "on Fire" trilogy, Lam closely works with cinematographer Wai-Keung Lau in continuing to build upon his recurring visual motifs in the Heroic Bloodshed genre. Shot down the real northern rural streets of Hong Kong, Lam welds the rapid-fire Action set-pieces with a documentary stylisation, reeling from the shoot-outs being short and brittle, where stray bullets in cramped locations cause he screen to be covered in wonderful piles of broken wood and glass. Setting out the mood from the opening whisper of Lowell Lo's score, Lam takes the documentary-style appearance of the action set-pieces and crafts an exquisite, earthy atmosphere of delicate wide-shots and stylishly held motifs of flowers for a subtle counter to the bloodshed,and tight corner shots round doors sipping up the rural surroundings and stepping into 'Mew-Mew' attempting to dance to the meditating, countryside way of life.

Joining his brother Ringo in the movie business by writing Prison on Fire as his debut, the screenplay by Yin Nam brilliantly continues to build on Lam's major theme of a loner finding themselves the only shield against the underworld, with Mew-Mew having to face barrels of gun fire in order to try and save the little girl and her family. Setting up Mew-Mew as a tough cop happy to hand out rough justice, Nam peels away Mew's hard-nosed image to open the humanity just underneath the skin, lit by the gradual, restrained romance between Mew and Cher. Reuniting with Lam and Nam after Prison on Fire, Chow Yun-Fat gives a blazing turn as Mew-Mew,whose harshness in the Heroic Bloodshed set-pieces is balanced by Yun-Fat with a quiet thoughtfulness when around Cher and her family, who Mew-Mew fights to save from the wild search.

Ringo Lam's Wild Search is one of his overlooked masterpieces. The film stars Yun-Fat Chow as a police officer trying to break up a gun smuggling ring. While doing so, he crosses paths with the beautiful Cherie

Cheung and her "cute as a button" daughter. As with all of Ringo Lam's hardboiled docudramas, one can expect the bone crunching one on one fights, action packed set pieces and great acting from the cast. People always bring this movie up whenever someone compares Reservoir Dogs to City on Fire. Critics call this a Witness clone. I'm sad to say but this movie is a lot better than said film. Ringo lam is one of the best directors out their today and it's a shame that he doesn't receive the respect that he truly deserves.

B++

Recommended

Wild Search is an excellent entry in the Honk Kong film genre. As usual with the Hong Kong cinema there is plenty of action. The thing that sets this film apart from others is the subtle romance between the leads. Chow Yun-Fat, as usual, is superb. The balance between action and drama is expertly handled by Ringo Lam.