It's been twelve years since Ringo Lam directed a full length film, but his new movie Wild City doesn't feel particularly special. It's a low budget thriller about a bunch of sad sacks who steal money from a corrupt lawyer and are harassed by gangsters.
Louis Koo plays T-Man, a disgraced former cop who owns a bar. One night a woman, Yun (Liya Tong), gets badly drunk at his bar, and T-Man, worried for her safety, takes her to the house of Mona, the woman who helped raise him. Together with Mona's taxi-driving son Chung (Shawn Yue), T-Man tries to help Yun get her car back the next day (she lost the key while drunk), but she's kidnapped off the street by a Taiwanese gang! After a car chase T-Man and Chung manage to stop the gang from escaping with her, but she disappears as soon as the police show up.
It develops that Yun stole a lot of money from her lawyer boyfriend, who was heavily involved in organized crime. She convinces T-Man and Chung to help her retrieve the money, which is in a briefcase in the back of her car, resulting in an escalating series of chases, fights, and double crosses.
Most of the movie lacks any distinctive style. The early action scenes would not be out of place in an American TV series. The big chase/shootout at the end of the movie includes moments that almost feel like they could be from golden age of Hong Kong action movies, but there aren't many of them. This is not the return to form fans of Ring Lam have been waiting for.
