While Hong Kong pioneered a new generation of gangster films in the 1990s with the Young and Dangerous series, Monga and Gatao proved that Taiwan filmmakers can pull off the gangster genre with as much style and power as their counterparts across the strait. Riding on the surprise success of Gatao in 2015, former child star and Gatao cast member Yen Cheng-kuo made his feature film directorial debut with Gatao 2: Rise of the King.
Don’t worry if you haven’t seen the first Gatao; the sequel is a completely new story with a new cast, aside from brief cameos by a few characters who survived the original film. Television actor and singer Wang Shih-hsien stars as Ren, an ambitious mid-level boss in the North Fort gang. When his old friend, Jian (Collin Chou), is released from prison and sets an ambitious plan in motion, Ren and his men are dragged into an all-out gang war that will incur a serious body count.
Anyone familiar with the gangster genre won’t find anything new in Gatao 2. All the well-worn gangster tropes are here: conversations about loyalty, bloody brawls and lots of men screaming at each other with expletives. However, Yen delivers them with the bold confidence of an experienced commercial director. Assisted by South Korea’s Hong Eui-jung as martial arts director, Yen stages several audacious action sequences with flair, including a large-scale street brawl on the streets of Taipei that even exceeds those in most Hong Kong gangster films in scale and ambition.
Yen is also assisted by a strong cast of tough guys. Wang makes a solid anchor as the moral centre of the film, and Cheng Jen-shuo – playing Ren’s right-hand man – truly delivers in several dramatic moments in the second half of the film. However, the true MVP here is Taiwan-born martial arts actor Collin Chou. After spending nearly his entire acting career abroad in Hong Kong and mainland China, Chou makes a triumphant return to his homeland with a chilling performance that steals the show. Hong Kong film buffs who are used to watching Chou play the action villain in films like My Father Is a Hero, Hail the Judge and Flash Point will be pleasantly surprised to see Chou chewing up the scenery in a dramatic performance entirely free of action. Unfortunately, the film is so overflowing with testosterone that its female characters – particularly Peggy Tseng as Ren’s wife – are virtually relegated to cameos with no bearing on the plot.
Form matters far more than content when it comes to an age-old genre like the gangster drama. It’s no longer the story that sets each film apart, but rather how each director tells the story. Slick, wholly entertaining and unabashedly violent, Gatao 2 is a solid gangland epic that should have no problem pleasing fans of the genre. It’s hard not to feel a sense of familiarity when watching Gatao 2, but it’s the same sense of familiarity that you’ll get when you see old friends.
Yen Cheng-kuo
Yen Cheng-kuo began his acting career at the age of six with Lee Hsing’s My Native Land and Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Lovable You, A Summer at Grandpa’s and The Boys from Fengkui. He became a household name with Kevin Chu’s Kung-Fu Kids series. In 2002, Yen was convicted for his part in the kidnapping of a drug dealer in Changhua County and spent 11 years in prison. After his release, he returned to the entertainment industry, directing short films and acting in films and television series. In 2013, he published a memoir about his days as a child actor, his life of crime and his subsequent rehabilitation. Gatao 2: Rise of the King is his first feature film as director.
FILMOGRAPHY
2018 – Gatao 2: Rise of the King
Kevin Ma