Movie Name: The Mobfathers (2016)
Director: Herman Yau
Producer: Chapman To
Screenplay: Erica Li
Star Cast: Chapman To, Gregory Wong, Philip Keung, Anthony Wong
Music: Brother Hung
Genre: Crime
Release date: 31 March 2016 (Hong Kong)
Country: Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese
Story: The Mobfathers is an upcoming Hong Kong crime film directed by Herman Yau, and also produced by and starring Chapman To. The film co-stars Gregory Wong and Philip Keung, with a guest appearance by Anthony Wong. The Mobfathers will make its world premier at the 40th Hong Kong International Film Festival on 23 March 2016 and will be theatrically released in Hong Kong on 31 March.
The first trailer was released by Golden Scene HK's YouTube channel on 3 March 2016.
Every three years, the five leading gangs elect a representative to stand for election to be The Mobfather of the underworld. Each of the candidates has his strength and his weaknesses, and there is understandably a decided lack of trust amongst the gangs. With each fighting for his gang's own vested interests, what will be the outcome?
The Mobfathers – power-hungry gangsters in universal suffrage fable.
Chapman To, Gregory Wong and Anthony Wong star in Herman Yau’s snappy satire, which hasn’t much new to say about underworld power struggles but is nonetheless a fine addition to the Hong Kong gangster thriller genre.
Aside from a fanatic third act that makes this film an allegory on Hong Kong’s stumbling pursuit of universal suffrage, Herman Yau Lai-to’s The Mobfathers has little new to say about power struggles in the criminal underworld, a subject depicted vividly in Andrew Lau Wai-keung’s Young and Dangerous films and Johnnie To Kei-fung’s two-part Election (both of which are referenced here).
However, its colourful characters, uninhibited display of gangland violence, and cheeky adaptation of political statements taken from the city’s increasingly farcical reality are enough to make this gangland fantasy an eloquent footnote in Hong Kong pop culture – if not close to an essential addition to the gangster thriller genre. Faint-hearted viewers and blue-ribbon factions should turn away.
Actor-producer Chapman To Man-chat plays Chuck, a senior gangster who spent five years in jail for brawling, leaving his wife and infant son in the care of loyal sidekick Luke (Philip Keung Ho-man). Once he decides to join the triennial election for the triad society’s top post, however, the ex-con is thrown into a fierce battle with a wealthier rival, the flamboyantly gay Wulf (Gregory Wong Chung-yiu).
Candidates are killed off one after another and rampant collusion with the police is shown to exist across the hierarchy – including the very top, embodied by the cancer-stricken Godfather (Anthony Wong Chau-sang) – in this snappy political satire, which takes a cynical, if always entertaining, look at Chuck’s desperate attempt to upstage the system. Little did he realize that some things never change.
The Mobfathers opens on March 31.
The Mobfathers – power-hungry gangsters in universal suffrage fable.
Chapman To, Gregory Wong and Anthony Wong star in Herman Yau’s snappy satire, which hasn’t much new to say about underworld power struggles but is nonetheless a fine addition to the Hong Kong gangster thriller genre.
Aside from a fanatic third act that makes this film an allegory on Hong Kong’s stumbling pursuit of universal suffrage, Herman Yau Lai-to’s The Mobfathers has little new to say about power struggles in the criminal underworld, a subject depicted vividly in Andrew Lau Wai-keung’s Young and Dangerous films and Johnnie To Kei-fung’s two-part Election (both of which are referenced here).
However, its colourful characters, uninhibited display of gangland violence, and cheeky adaptation of political statements taken from the city’s increasingly farcical reality are enough to make this gangland fantasy an eloquent footnote in Hong Kong pop culture – if not close to an essential addition to the gangster thriller genre. Faint-hearted viewers and blue-ribbon factions should turn away.
Actor-producer Chapman To Man-chat plays Chuck, a senior gangster who spent five years in jail for brawling, leaving his wife and infant son in the care of loyal sidekick Luke (Philip Keung Ho-man). Once he decides to join the triennial election for the triad society’s top post, however, the ex-con is thrown into a fierce battle with a wealthier rival, the flamboyantly gay Wulf (Gregory Wong Chung-yiu).
Candidates are killed off one after another and rampant collusion with the police is shown to exist across the hierarchy – including the very top, embodied by the cancer-stricken Godfather (Anthony Wong Chau-sang) – in this snappy political satire, which takes a cynical, if always entertaining, look at Chuck’s desperate attempt to upstage the system. Little did he realize that some things never change.
The Mobfathers opens on March 31.
