Available now from Eureka Entertainment
A man seeking payback for his family’s murder goes undercover and falls for the daughter of his target.
Written by Ringo Lam, Sandy Shaw, and Kwong-Yam Yip, and directed by Ringo Lam, The Adventurers (the 1995 one, not the 2017 one) is a fun action film with betrayal, vengeance, and love. The writing here is action-oriented and full of fun scenes created to both advance the story and make his entertaining as can be. Of course, this is one of those films with a lot of violence, marketed as “Gun Fu” so that folks know what they are getting into. There is a whole bunch of action, yes, but there is also a whole lot more such as a love story, something often added to attract the ladies to the films but here it feels almost organic to the story, in a sort of Romeo and Juliet way. The writing here works decently well with a few dated aspects but that is to be expected in a film from 3 decades ago, overall creating an entertaining story. The direction works well with this story, showing the Lam can do action well (or showing it again as it’s his thing) and that he knows how to entertain.
The cast here is led by Andy Lau who is great as usual, giving a solid performance that may have been able to use a bit more nuance, but given the material at hand, this was not meant to be a massively emotionally diverse film. He does get his moments for emotions, but as most people watch this for the action, he is definitely in it for the action as well. He’s the main attraction in the cast and he does well as leading man. Joining him as the woman he must save and falls for, Crystal, is Chien-Lien Wu who is charming and can hold her own in action scenes when needed. She’s not given quite as much to do as Lau, but she does make the most of it. The supporting cast here works decently as well, giving good performances and showing that they want to be the best they can, clearly putting in the effort even when their parts are bit on the small side.
The film cinematography comes from two people which is a risky move as it can really show between scenes that the same person did not do both. Here, solid management of creativity leads to the work of both Ardy Lam and Arthur Wong seemlessly merging with each other’s. The cinematography is good here, having some specific moments of awe and being more of an observer when the story needs it. There is no real distinction between the two cinematographers’ work which makes for a solid look for the film and one that is connected throughout.
Overall, The Adventurers is an entertaining piece of Gun Fu cinema that makes the most of its lead and its locations. Director Ringo Lam is mostly known in the US for his stateside productions, so this film may be a bit lesser known, but it should be checked out. The quality of the work on all levels in this film is great and makes for a solid, entertaining, action almost-epic. Fans of Andy Lau should love watching this one as well as he’s given plenty room to play (and the final credit song it if memory serves well).
This new release of The Adventurers from Radiance Films looks great in its new 2k restorations with good sound quality as well. The film being from the 1990s helps in that respect as the source material for the restorations was likely in better state than a lot of other films, we’ve seen getting restorations recently from Eureka Entertainment. In terms of extras, this new release has a few with the best of the bunch being the new artwork by Time Tomorrow, the newly translated subtitles, an archival interview with Sandy Shaw that had not yet been seen, an interview with Gary Bettinson about Two Adventurers, all come at the top of the class here. The other extras are interesting enough, but these stood out.
