Portland Street Blues (1998) ½
literal translation: Wise Guys Love Loyalty Chapter: Hung Hing 13th Sister
cast: Sandra Ng, Kristy Yeung, Alex Fong, Vincent Wong, Shu Qi (Hsu Chi), and Ng Man-tat

It always seems like everything comes with a penalty. Everything has its price. This is true of the characters in "Portland Street Blues"--a sub-prequel to the popular "Young and Dangerous" films--this is also true of the film itself.

If Gordon Chan treats us to the excellent "Beast Cops," the same year we are served by "Portland Street Blues," which makes a futile stand at bringing a new spin to the triad genre.

Sandra Ng stars as the Hobbit-looking Teenie, a mischievous and giddy high school graduate that hangs out with best friend Yun (Yeung) on Portland Street, Hong Kong, which is supposedly known for its high level of male triad activity. I say male, because the film centers on the rise of a female triad sister. We already know that most triad films concern males and few take the time to underline their female companions.

This is what "Portland Street Blues" exploits into the inner circle of pretentious theatrics, predictability, and countless scenes that are hard to watch: not for their violent content, rather their lack of finding anything important to say.

You'll look at the floor, you'll look at your watch, and you'll stare at the ceiling, but until the film is over you can't help but be put off by it.

Teenie's problems are kept mostly under the wraps of young adult bliss until her simpleton father (Ng Man-tat), who is a gambling addict and is murdered by triads. A failed attempt at getting back at the men who murdered her father puts her on the run with Yun and their mutual love interest, triad boxer "Coke" (Fong).

If you called a subplot occurring between Teenie, Yun, and Coke--pat yourself on the back. Eventually landing in Mainland China, the three live the good life until Coke takes a more active interest in Yun and the two best friends separate after Teenie believes Yun and Coke have slept together.

The film threatens to get better every step of the way, but never commits. Teenie returns to Portland Street to confront her father's murders and gradually steps up on the triad latter of the opposing gang, becoming known as Sister 13...who is now, for no apparent reason a proclaimed lesbian. Why, I have no idea. More than once the film completely proclaims something to the audience that we are supposed to be interested in, but alas, we cannot when things get this underdeveloped. Some characters literally come out of the woodwork, say their lines and disappear again.

Even Ken Lo has a cameo in the film.

Things get even hairier for Sister 13 when Yun and Coke return to Hong Kong.

For all of the talk and audience praise concerning "Portland Street Blues" it is impossible for me to relate to any of it. Fans of the film over look the fact that director Raymond Yip has absolutely nothing new to edge on the triad genre other than lazily switching the gender of the protagonist. What follows is a boring throw back to so many more prominent triad films: ones in which we're soaked with interesting and colorful characters and spared the audience from stock script laced with one pretentious moment after another.

During the creative process for Hong Kong's most noticeable triad film ever made, "A Better Tomorrow," producer Tsui Hark had considered making the film with female leads. Director John Woo terminated the idea. Thank God. Who's not to say that there shouldn't be a film about female triads? It would be an interesting concept, if done in an honest manner, but merely putting females in rehashed male roles is not worth my time.

It would be to your advantage to skip "Portland Street Blues" and watch "Beast Cops" one more time. If interested in female empowerment, consider "Peking Opera Blues" which is the excellent film Tsui Hark made off his original ideas with Woo's film, but has nothing to do with organized crime.