True Colours

cover

AKA: True Colours

Year of release: 1986

Genre: crime action/drama

Director: Kirk Wong

Action directors: Kirk Wong, Joe Chu

Producer: Raymond Wong

Writer: Raymond Wong

Cinematography: Joe Chan

Editing: Chow Chi-Hap, Wong Ming-Gong

Music: Danny Chung

Stars: Ti Lung, Raymond Wong, Brigitte Lin, Gary Lam, Wang Hsieh, Chiang Tao, Cheng Kei-Ying

Rated IIB for violence

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After the runaway success of A Better Tomorrow in 1986, a wave of knock-off gangster action/drama clones hit the market. One of the first was Kirk Wong's True Colours. Though not a prolific director, Wong had already made a mark on the Hong Kong film scene, including nabbing a Hong Kong Film Award nomination for best picture with his 1983 effort, Health Warning, aka Flash Future Kung Fu. However, True Colours is such a by-the-numbers picture that it feels like Wong was just going through the motions in order to cash a paycheck.

True Colours's similarities to A Better Tomorrow come early and often, right down to the title, which is derivative of the literal translation of ABT's Chinese title, True Colours of a Hero. We also have one of ABT's stars, Ti Lung, appearing here, also essaying the same themes of revenge and redemption that were a cornerstone of ABT. Of course, there is some dual-fisted gunfighting action, and one character goes so far as to wear a trenchcoat at one point, an obvious nod to Chow Yun-Fat's iconic performance in ABT. Even the score sounds more than a little similar to Joseph Koo's signature soundtrack.

All of this wouldn't be necessarily so much of a problem it and of itself, since just knocking a movie for being derivative of A Better Tomorrow would probably disqualify dozens of films that have become known as classics (or at least good, if not great, entries) over the past twenty-five or so years.

But True Colours is just so pedestrian and by-the-book that it negates most of the star power involved, both in front of and behind the camera. Ti Lung practically sleepwalks through his performance, and Brigitte Lin falls into total "jade vase" mode, looking pretty, but really adding nothing much of value. The story follows most of the standards twists and turns of the genre, offering no surprises or anticipation to the viewer during its' running time, with nothing much, if anything, of note occurring, to the point that one could be forgiven for really not remembering anything specific about this film after watching it.

In True Colours' defense, things aren't terrible here, and, in fact, there are a few highlights to be found. In his debut performance, young Gary Lam displays a great amount of fire and passion that makes the scenes he's in very fun to watch, which makes the fact that he only did two more movies after this one all the more puzzling. Also, the ending shootout, as derivative and unoriginal as it is, is still exciting, because, let's face it, seeing Ti Lung blast people with a sawed-off shotgun is always a good time, at least if your tastes have been weaned by the (pardon the phrase) hard-boiled classic Hong Kong action pictures.

But, overall, these positives aren't enough to raise True Colours out of the realm of the average, making this more of a release to check out if you've exhausted the more well-known films in the genre out there, rather than any sort of mandatory viewing material.

RATING: 5