Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #183984 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-08-14
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese
• Subtitled in: English, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Georgian, Thai

Amazon.com
This is the first picture directed by Johnny To, who went on to become a major director and producer of flashy urban action films. It's a lackluster 1989 weepy, equal parts Kramer vs. Kramer and A Man and a Woman, and it was one of superstar Chow Yun-Fat's biggest hometown hits. Chow's certainly in his element as a motor-mouthed truck driver with a shoulder-length mop of hair who lives in affectionate squalor with his smart-mouthed 9-year-old son. Dad's also a former motorbike champion who had to retire after a crash; he walks with a limp and the doctor warns that even one more serious injury could be his last. (Talk about telegraphing a finale!) Sylvia Chang is the boy's long-lost mom, a yuppie expatriate who returns to Hong Kong and tries to pry her son away from his dad. Most of the movie is jaunty romantic-insult comedy, with Chow and Chang as uncommonly charming sparring partners. But the wrap-up takes an unearned swerve into melodrama, as Chang and the kid watch Ah-Long's comeback race. And you can guess the rest. Kleenex, anyone? --David Chute

Customer Reviews

An exceptional award-winning performance.
This film is about as far from being an insult comedy as onecan get, unless one considers the tragedies of others as comedy. ChowYun-Fat gives a daring performance in this gritty, realistic film about a former motorcycle racer and wastrel turned single dad, set in 1980's Hong Kong. Despite crushing poverty and little chance of ever bettering his life, Ah Long seeks to wring out the last dregs of what life has left for him in order to give his son a bright future. A chance encounter with someone from Ah Long's past changes his destiny, and that of his son. A moving bittersweet story.

CYF's portrayal of Ah Long is a long way from the suave and sophisticated killers of John Woo's heroic bloodshed dramas. He gambled on this one and won.

Chow Yun-Fat won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor for Ah Long. There is a reason that this film was also nominated for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Theme Song (the haunting "A Long Luen Kuk"), and Best New Performer.

10 out of 10 rating. A must-see for anyone who is interested in seeing the kind of filmmaking that Hollywood no longer produces.

MUST-SEE!
Try to not compare Chow Yun Fat with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Bruce Wills! Try to compare Yun Fat with Robert DeNiro.

He gives his best performance as single dad who has ups and downs relationship with his son, Porky. He tries his best to be good father to his son, but Yun Fat's former girlfriend who is mother to Porky becomes involve with the relationship between Yun Fat and his son.

Strongly recommend you to watch it and promise you that you will watch it again and again!

All About Ah-Long - A Story that Begs for Tears
I watched "All About Ah-Long" years ago when I was still 12. Now 10 years have passed, I finally purchased the DVD and watched it again. I admit that I cried like baby when I watched it the first time. Now I am 22, I still cried like a baby. The story is just amazingly touching. I especially have to point out the little boy's acting in the movie was excellent. You would want to cry just seeing him cry. Chow Yun-Fat's acting was also very good. This was one of his early movies. I strongly recommend this movie!