In Born Wild, Daniel Wu and Louis Koo play Tide and Tan, twins who have been estranged for many years due to a rocky childhood together. After Tan is found dead in the aftermath of an underground boxing match gone wrong, Tide develops relationships with his brother's best friend, Mann (Patrick Tam), and girlfriend, Sandy (Jo Kuk). Eventually, Tide postmotermly mends the tears in his family's fabric and becomes intent on getting revenge by defeating the man that killed his brother, the vicious ex-pro Arion (Wrath White).

This is a fairly standard story in the martial arts movie world. But from the beginnings of his directorial career with 1996's Beyond Hypothermia, Patrick Leung has become known as someone that takes what would often be one-note riffs on tried-and-true genres and stories and injects them with drama and style, and Born Wild is no exception. What might otherwise be a straight-forward Hong Kong action film takes a different focus than what the viewer is probably expecting, and, rather than become art-house wannabe twaddle, the picture actually becomes more successful overall because of it.

Though it should be pointed out that if you're looking to watch Born Wild specifically for the action, you're most likely going to be disappointed. What is contained here is good stuff (though probably too overly edited for most die-hard old-school martial arts fans) but there's really not all that much delivered in the way of fists of fury. Even with three action directors (including the legendary Mars) the emphasis here is on the dramatics, not the fisticuffs. I don't want to spoil the ending, but this is a case where it's not who wins the fight, but rather why they are fighting in the first place.

If that sounds like pseudo-intellectual babbling -- which it very well might be -- then Born Wild might not be the movie for you. But, honestly, there are plenty of Hong Kong movies, as well as those from other regions, out there that will deliver more than their fair share of violent and exciting action. It was just nice for this reviewer, at this particular point in time, to watch a movie that didn't assume the audience has a negative IQ and actually gives them something to think about after the DVD is ejected from their player.

RATING: 6