The Wild Ones
Director: Francis Sung/David Lam
Year: 1989
Rating: 6.0
Tough teenage girls
gone bad is occasionally a subject that HK films delves into – Sexy and Dangerous,
Now or Never, Girls Gang – and this one are a few. This 1989 film has Loletta
Lee, Fenny Yuen, Irene Wan and Chan Ka-ling as four troubled teenaged girls
looking for fun in all the wrong places. Don’t let the title mislead you
though, the Wild Bunch these girls are not and it becomes clear fairly early
that behind those snarls is a kitty cat waiting to come out. The film makes
a stab at being socially relevant, but that is really neither here nor there
– the main pleasure of this film comes from watching Loletta and Fennie play
tough behind chewing gum and cigarettes. When the foulest insult is Fennie
telling someone “Go eat banannas!” you know these girls won't be robbing
banks any time soon!
Olivia Cheng is a counselor in Canada where one day the cops tell her to
go back to HK where she can do some good and oddly enough she does – leaving
behind her hunky boyfriend Simon Yam to deal with those Canadian winters
In HK she gets a job as a guidance counselor in a Girls Home where underage
girls get sent for committing minor criminal acts. Loletta is here for smashing
her wealthy father’s girlfriend’s face through a car window, Fennie for pimping
her best friend – Chan Ka-ling – and Irene Wan for not being able to pay for
a meal. Just girls having a little fun.
The film follows that basic To Sir with Love premise as Olivia tries to
break through the tough façade to the real girl underneath. Part of
that is investigating the girl’s lives and families to see what the underlying
cause is for their behavior. During her investigations, she realizes that
one of the girls is her half sister – now what are the chances of that. None
of this is very original.
What’s kind of fun again is just the girls. There are plenty of fights among
them – Loletta and Fenny take some pretty good whacks at one another and eventually
a couple of the girls get in trouble with a triad gang – but thankfully it
turns out that Olivia is also a kung-fu expert! Always a plus on the resume.
She breaks into a brothel and takes on the triad gang - now thats a girl's
counselor for you.
Not a riveting film by any means – but if
any of these actresses are favorites of yours it is an easy way to pass 90
minutes.