''The Adventurers'' is a 1995

Hong Kong action film Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese culture, Chinese and Culture of Hong Kong, Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling an ...

directed by

Ringo Lam Ringo Lam Ling-Tung (, Cantonese: Lam Ling-tung, 8 December 1955 – 29 December 2018) was a Hong Kong film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Hong Kong in 1955, Lam initially went to acting school. After finding he preferred making f ...

and starring

Andy Lau Andy Lau Tak-wah (; born 27 September 1961) is a Hong Kong actor, singer-songwriter and film producer. He has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the mid-1980s, performing in more than 160 films while maint ...

Rosamund Kwan Rosamund Kwan Chi Lam (born Kwan Kar Wai on 24 September 1962) is a Hong Kong former actress, best known for starring as the female lead "Thirteenth Aunt" in the 1990s ''Once Upon a Time in China'' film series. She had since retired from acti ...

and

Jacklyn Wu Jacklyn Wu Chien-lien (born 3 July 1968) is a Taiwanese actress and singer who began her career in Hong Kong. She graduated from Taipei National University of Arts. Career In 1990, Wu's acting career began. For her first acting role, Johnn ...

. It was Ringo Lam's last Hong Kong film before going to Hollywood in 1996. ''The Adventurers'' film was filmed on location in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, which shows Lam's ambition of going to the international routine.

Plot

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

in 1975, during the Khmer Rouge Era, the eight-year-old Wai Lok-yan witnessed the tragedy of his parents being killed by Ray Lui (

Paul Chun Paul Chun (; born 26 June 1945) is a Hong Kong actor. He has appeared in more than 130 films and television series since 1949. In 1966, he appeared in ''The Sand Pebbles'', an American film produced and directed by Robert Wise. Early life He wa ...

) while hiding in the closet with his younger sister. Back then, Yan's father Wah (

Philip Ko Phillip Ko-Fei (June 18, 1949 – March 30, 2017) was a Hong Kong film actor, filmmaker and stunt coordinator. He directed the movies ''Angel on Fire'', ''Magkasangga 2000'', ''Kakambal ko sa tapang'' and ''Romano Sagrado: Talim sa Dilim''. Fil ...

), Seung (

David Chiang use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinate ...

) and Ray were war comrades working for the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

in Cambodia. Ray went rogue and worked for the Khmer Rouge and in order to take the information gathered by Wah, he killed Yan's parents, while Yan's younger sister also died in a fire. After this incident, Seung took the orphaned Yan to Thailand, where he became a

Thai Air Force "Royal Thai Air Force March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 9 April 1937 (Royal Thai Air Force Day) , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles ...

Pilot. In 1995, Yan (

) learned from the newspaper that Ray, who has become a billionaire from dealing arms for many years, is attending an event in a hotel in Thailand. Yan was determined to take this opportunity to avenge his parents, but Ray was wearing a bulletproof vest and the assassination hit failed. However, Yan's friend Mark, who is also Seung's son, was caught and killed. Yan managed to leave the scene with the help of Ray's mistress Mona (

), whom Ray only treats her as a doll. In order to escape the mine on assassin searches form Ray since Ray has close ties with Thai Military officials, Seung arranges Yan to go to the United States. With help from the CIA, they decide to have Yan get close to Ray's daughter Crystal (

), who resides in San Francisco, and slowly get close to Ray and ultimately killing him. At that time, Crystal was kidnapped by the Vietnamese Black Tiger Gang and the gang demanded Ray to return money that he owed. The CIA had close ties with another gang, Wah Fuk, and arranges Yan to be the temporary leader of the gang under the name Mandy Chan. Yan leads the Wah Fuk Gang to terrorize the Black Tiger Gang and rescues Crystal. Later, the Black Tiger gang leader is killed off-screen possibly by the Wak Fuk gang and Yan successfully develops a marital relationship with Crystal and Yan becomes his enemy Ray's son in-law. In Yan and Crystal's wedding, a shootout occurs and General Buboei's ( William Ho) son Major Bodar (John Ching) was shot and killed by the Hong Kong police. Ray decides to take Yan to Cambodia to see Buboei and use Yan as the scapegoat of Budar's death. During a pregnancy test at the hospital with Crystal, Yan gets a call from Mona telling him to meet in a hotel room. There, Mona informs Yan of Ray using him as a scapegoat. As Yan and Mona still love each other, they briefly make out in the room before being interrupted by Crystal's entrance. Mona pushes Crystal on a glass table and attempts to kill her until Yan stops her form doing so. When Crystal is sent to the hospital, Yan explains to Ray of the incident by saying that Crystal caught him with a prostitute. Yan also sees Seung in the hospital who gives him a tracking device for him to take to Cambodia. Later, Yan reveals to the unconscious Crystal about his true identity and his intention to kill her father and stating either himself or his father will only return from Cambodia. Crystal awakes and asks him to promise her not to kill her father. In Cambodia, Ray meets up with Bubeoi who show him pictures of Yan as a pilot and a photo of Ray with the CIA and he suspects Ray to be a traitor. Yan trigger the tracking device and the Thai Military arrive. Ray, who knew along that Mona injured her daughter, shoots and kills Mona while also attempts to kill Yan to prove he is not a traitor. A big action scene occurs where later Ray and his henchman Dog (Ben Ng) takes Bubeoi hostage and Yan chases them on a helicopter. Dog kills Bubeoi in the process, before he was killed by Yan with a firebomb. In the end, Yan finally confronts Ray at gunpoint, but he finally decides to not kill him and let him be taken by the military force instead. In the end, Yan receives pictures of Crystal and their son from Seung. Seung also brings his son from Hong Kong and a letter written by Crystal to Yan. She states that Mandy is the past and she is not so familiar with the name Wai Lok-yan and wants to have some time to familiarize it, hinting that she might get together with Yan again in the future.

Cast

as Wai Lok-yan / Mandy Chan *

as Mona *

as Crystal Lui *

as Ray Lui *Ben Ng as Dog *

as Uncle Seung *

as Wah * Victor Wong as Uncle Nine the Dragon Head of the San Francisco based Wah Fuk Tong. *

Ron Yuan Ronald Winston Yuan is an American actor, martial artist, director, and stunt choreographer. He is best known for his roles on '' Sons of Anarchy'', '' Prison Break'', '' Golden Boy'', and '' CSI: NY''. He has acted in numerous films, including a ...

as Paul, a Chinese-American gang member of the Wah Fuk Tong *

George Cheung George Kee Cheung is a Hong Kong actor and stuntman with an extensive career in American television and film dating back to 1975, often playing Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Mongolian parts. His career has focused primarily on televis ...

as Uncle Tung *Van Darkholme (credited as Nam Yin) as Blackie, leader of the San Francisco based Vietnamese Black Tiger gang. * William Ho as General Buboei *John Ching as Major Bodar AKA Lam Chung *Ng Kwok-cheung *Parkman Wong as Officer Cheng *Four Tse as Ray's bodyguard *Wong Kam-kong as Military officer *Hogan Vindo *Chris Wong *Wang Lung *Steve Hung *Caleb Mandate *Ken Chu *Ming Vu *Dale Chung *Tony Gee *Rick Heffner *Robert McCutchen *Paula Eliso as Beaten Girl *John Randa *Chu Siu-kei *Edward Corbett as CIA *Maggie Wong as Yan's sister *So Wai-nam as Ray's bodyguard * Lee Siu-kei as gambler

Theme song

*''The Romantic Flame Never Burns Out'' (愛火燒不盡) **Composer: Tsui Ka-leung **Lyricist/Singer:

Reception

Critical reception

Derek Elley Derek Elley (born c. 1955) is an American film and music critic and author, best known as the resident film critic for ''Variety'' until his departure in March 2010. With over 1200 reviews to his credit as of December 2014 on ''Rotten Tomatoes'', h ...

of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' praised director

's handling of action sequences and character development in between and also singling out the performances of

and

. Joey O'Bryan of ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...

'' gave the film a score of 2/5 stars, noting its "slightly schizophrenic tone" and pales in comparison to Lam's best works and describes it as "a less-than-perfect, but adequately entertaining action/melodrama."

Box office

The film grossed HK$14,839,584 at the Hong Kong box office during its theatrical run from 2 to 30 August 1995 in

References

External links

* *
The Adventures
' at the

Hong Kong Cinemagic Hong Kong Cinemagic, sometimes referred to as HKCinemagic, is a bilingual ( French and English) website providing a repository for information about Chinese language films from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, and the people who created them. The websi ...

*
''The Adventurers'' Review
at LoveHKFilm.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Adventurers 1995 films 1995 action films 1995 martial arts films Hong Kong action films Hong Kong martial arts films Gun fu films 1990s Cantonese-language films Films directed by Ringo Lam China Star Entertainment Group films Films set in Hong Kong Films shot in Hong Kong Films set in San Francisco Films shot in San Francisco Films set in Cambodia Films set in Thailand Films shot in the Philippines 1990s Hong Kong films