Triads: The Inside Story

Plot

Lee Man-ho (Chow Yun-fat) is the son of Uncle Kwan (Tien Feng), the leader of the Hung Hing Gang. Ho was sent to the United States during his childhood to live a stable life there and has now established a family there. One time during a gang fight, Kwan was ambushed and killed and Ho returns to Hong Kong for his father's funeral and there, he was also elected to be his father's successor as the leader of the Hung Hing Gang. Ho knew little to the culture of the underworld, and Yeung Kong (Roy Cheung), often criticized Ho about this. Also, Kong did not get along with Tse Shing (Michael Chan), and they got into a fight during the banquet. Because of Ho, they chose to maintain the harmony of the gang. And then, all members of Hung Hing Gang were glad and loyal to Ho, because Ho was always kind to them.

Later during a fight, the members of the Hung Hing gang captured Coffin Rope (Lung Ming-yan), the head of rival triad. Ho originally wanted to kill him, but due to his lenient personality, he only shaved off his eyebrows. This gave the chance for Coffin to counterattack. First, he colludes with Boss Chow (Pau Hon-lam) and then using Kong and Shing's rivalry, he first killed Shing's family and frames Kong, worsening the relationship within the Hung Hing gang and finally, he put cocaine in Kong's car and informs the police. Ho decided to save Kong, and finally solved the rival triad. However, the police came, and arrested Kong. Kong commented to Ho, "You are a kind leader, but not a good triad member."

Finally, Hung Hing Gang was destroyed accidentally by Ho......

Cast

Theme song

Critical

Mike Fury of Hong Kong Cinemagic gave the film a positive review praising the story being "far more dramatic and character driven rather than being reliant on overuse of action" and containing "a large number of references and cultural and historical traditions of the society, which was in fact quite rare for a film at this time" which stands out among other films in the same genre. Fury also praised the performances of Chow Yun-fat, Shing Fui-On, Michael Chan and Roy Cheung and praises director Taylor Wong for using "a very simplistic and disconnected method of direction, which, at times, gives the film an almost documentary feel in which the camera simply rolls while men are talking in a room and the audience is virtually eavesdropping."

Box office

The film grossed HK$14,038,799 at the Hong Kong box office during its theatrical run from 4 to 18 August 1989 in Hong Kong.