Where a Good Man Goes

(Joi gin a long, Johnnie To, Hong Kong 1999, 90 min., 35mm, Cantonese w/subtitles)

Symmetry of Violence: Seven Films by Johnnie To. In the wake of a long prison sentence, former triad boss Michael (Lau Ching-wan) befriends a struggling hotelier Judy (Ruby Wong) and her son. Caught like so many of To’s characters in a state of limbo, Michael struggles to reconcile his identity as a gangster with the tender sentiments he develops for his new friends. Even as he is pursued by a vindictive policeman from the past, Michael impulsively takes to the streets once again, determined to solve his and Judy’s financial troubles with the only means he knows: coercion and violence. As we watch Michael’s story unfold, we are treated to a visual feast of Macau’s seedy underground. Though Where a Good Man Goes is a relatively restrained work, it is also quintessentially To, dwelling as it does in the space between the ordinary and the savage.

Print courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive.