Low-budget director Aman Cheng, a former protege of Wong Jing, crafts his own take on the popular racing drama genre with Roaring Wheels, a picture that doesn't actually feature that much racing, instead choosing to spew out a miasma of melodrama towards the audience, which quickly makes them lose any interest they might have had in the proceedings.

Pop songsmith Dave Wong stars as Fred, the motorcycle "Racing God" of Hong Kong, who retires after an accident leaves him with a limp. Fred tries to start his life over by working at a resort bar, but his old rival, Fung (Moses Chan), won't let him off that easily, going so far as to kidnap Fred's son to try and convince him to participate in a final race. Seeing as how the little moppet spends the entire movie either in the hospital because he ate a spoonful of ice cream or crapping his pants ("dumping shit" according to the subtitles) maybe Fred should just let the kid go.

At any rate, Roaring Wheels starts out promisingly enough via a decent race scene that was helmed by the under-rated action director Bruce Law. But for the next eighty minutes, there's no racing to be found, with the audience treated to a clumsy love triangle between Fred, the owner of the bar (Maggie Siu), and a woman from his past (Karen Mok). It's all trite and incredibly boring, with the actors looking glazed and wooden, either because they're totally bored by the script (Maggie and Karen) or just plain untalented (Dave Wong).

Though Aman Chang spent several years under the wing of Wong Jing, he seemed to have gleaned very little of Wong's blitzkrieg style and outright chutpah. Chang's directorial career ended in 2003, leaving behind a series of unremarkable pictures such as this one that are only worth throwing on if you need some white noise playing in the background to put you to sleep.

RATING: 3.5