This Shaw film is as sappy as it gets. Much to my surprise I ended up watching
it all the way through with my finger on the fast-forward button that I never
used. It is predictable, it is corny, it is slightly boring and yet I kept
going. I actually got involved with the characters and almost feel embarrassed
to say so. Predictable because it is basically a remake of To Sir with Love
with Shaw heartthrob Guan Shan as the Sidney Poitier character and Margaret
Hsing-hui in the Judy Geeson part. Other students were Dean Shek, Chuan Yuan,
Irene Chen and Violet Pan - a good group of young actors. Throw in a bunch
of familiar character actors - even Sammo's mother makes an appearance.
This is as close to fantasy as you can get without calling it fantasy. A class
of rowdy no-good-niks who are all in suits and proper dresses by the end
singing to Ching-kang (Shan). Not that these kids were on the level of the
Japanese films Crows or Terrifying Girls High School - the Japanese always
take it a step further, but they were not Dobie Gillis either (does that age
me?).
Ching-kang shows up for his first teaching assignment - he is an unemployed
engineer - same as Sidney. There is no racial aspects to the film but
the school is in a poor section of Hong Kong and the kids reflect that. Future?
What future. It is up to Ching-kang to change that. The students are small
time dirt bags - basically a school for future Triad members and hostess bar
girls. The other teachers have given up. There is a group of punk boys led
by Sheng (Chuan Yuan) who even tries to knife the teacher. But being the
idealistic teacher he is, he only blames himself for their failings. I would
have booted them all out. Except the three main girls. They are kind of adorably
tough on the outside, soft like tissue paper on the inside. Unfortunately,
my dvd died with about one minute to go! So I don't know if Chng-kang stays
or goes. Didn't To Sir with Love leave after the year was out? Hong
Kong took another swing at To Sir with Love years later with True Hero in
1993 - with a slight twist - Simon Yam is an ex-hitman for the triad who
wants to go straight and begins teaching a class of unruly kids and the triads
show up.
