Michael Neumann The romantic (and likely mistranslated) title says a lot about this busy but empty underworld drama, in which the false glamour of crime and punishment is dressed up with plenty of teenage angst and no shortage of cosmetic style. The lack of any larger then life heroics (so common in Hong Kong action epics) is refreshing at first, but after a while the mean street poses and back alley beatings all begin to look alike, although the physical violence is, apparently, more punishing to watch than to receive, since nobody is disabled for longer than a scene or two. Never mind the mechanics of the actual plot, following a self-reliant young hood forced to risk his small empire to protect a reckless, troublemaking 'brother'; the general thrust of the narrative is slanted more toward the martyrdom so dear to an alienated, lovelorn teenage rebel's heart. Legible subtitles (and a better Cantonese-English dictionary) might have made an improvement.

LouE15 If you can see through the sheer eighties-ness of this film, you'll find hidden gold. I checked it out recently, being a big fan of Wong Kar-Wai's riotous "Chungking Express" and masterful "In the Mood for Love", and having been impressed by Andy Lau's performance in the excellent "Infernal Affairs".Wah (Andy Lau), seething with energy and anger, is trying to juggle life as a small-time gangster 'soldier', with keeping his wayward 'little brother' Fly (Jacky Cheung) under control, plus holding onto his relationship with a girl who's looking for a security he can't give her. Into this messy world, Ngor (Maggie Cheung), a sick cousin from a quiet holiday island across the water, is unexpectedly thrust on him for a few days' stay. He's a moody night owl, asleep through the day while she perches on the periphery of his clouded vision. But despite his brusqueness, in her quiet attentions to him she wins his notice – and their bond is confirmed when she silently assists him after he crashes back into his apartment one night, badly injured from another scrape caused by the troublesome Fly. With his life starting to crash around him, Wah finally realises that what he wants and needs is right there, if he will only take it. But his lifestyle is incompatible with the simple happiness he finds just within his reach, and something has to give.What might otherwise be a pretty run-of-the-mill Hong Kong gangster flick is elevated by the quality of its director and its stars. Lau was a huge star and pin-up even then, and co-star Maggie Cheung's simplicity and underplaying nicely offset Lau's electric energy. Stars and director are alike much improved with age. Wong Kar-Wai's romantic sensibility is irrepressible even in the midst of what can be quite violent fare. But I guess it's really his fundamental approach to film-making – his deconstructed storytelling and camera-work and his mastery of mood – that has earned him attention and accolades worldwide. Sorry if I frankly prefer the former. His style isn't quite fully fledged here, and isn't fully successful, but it has stirring moments. Recommended mostly as a glance back into time with the benefit of hindsight; a bit like looking at "The Duel" to see the germs of Spielberg's ascendancy.

Jason Forestein What an utterly strange film this is. I cannot begin to describe how wonderful this movie made me feel. I can equate it, on a visceral level, with listening to Daft Punk's Discovery. You know, that moment in "Harder Better Faster Stronger" when you get to the real break down replete with amazing vocoderized chanting? I had this stupid grin on my face the first time I heard that and immediately stopped dancing at this club in Cork, Ireland. It was jaw dropping. So is As Tears Go By. It travels paths upon which many a film has journeyed (Mean Streets, most notably), but it contains such vibrancy and life that a rather bittersweet quasi-gangster movie is transformed into something more. It transcends the dour catholicism of Scorsese's breakthrough film and achieves a sense of joy and rapture that rivals some of the greatest, most buoyant films of all time (such as Wizard of Oz and Singin' in the Rain). The other reason to admire this film derives from its fight scenes. Compare the fisticuffs here to the work of more highly-regarded Asian action directors. Look at Crouching Tiger, Hero, or Hard Boiled and tell me that the fight scenes in those films are more brutal than the ones here. They're not. I will not go so far as to say that As Tears Go By contains better fight scenes, but I will say that I found that they hurt to watch; you could actually feel the blows. That's more than I can say for the fight scenes in those other films. The only thing that this film resembles, as far as eliciting a visceral reaction from a fight scene, is the fight in the trailer in Kill Bill 2 (or really the Uma/Vivica fight in Kill Bill 1). As Tears Goes By achieves a brutality that most directors try to avoid. And yes, that's admirable (insert rant about the desensitizing power of violence in media...).This is a great movie, but not quite as great as Happy Together or Chungking Express (it is an improvement upon In the Mood for Love). This was one of Wong Kar Wai's earliest feature films and there is an immaturity to the direction at times that almost always accompanies the work of a young director. Wong Kar Wai is one of the greatest living directors (as good a filmmaker as Herzog, Jarmusch, Spielberg, or Leigh) and should be more highly regarded. As Tears Go By is a great place to start, as it is a tad more accessible than some of his later work and offers viewers a nice portal into this filmmaker's world.

rogierr Michael Mann meets John Woo in this pre-The Killer action movie, but WKW clearly was already on his way up to where he is now. Ripped-off music ('Slave to love' - Bryan Ferry and 'Take my breath away' - Berlin), fine and unconventional cinematography and a brotherhood theme can't make this an above mediocre action movie though. The action scenes aren't really satisfying, because the characters aren't properly build up for injustice/revenge, but the dynamic cinematography (Wai Keung Lau) heralds things to come in the career of WKW. I found it nice to watch the typical eighties-style look of this: but then I also liked L.A. Takedown (Mann, 1989) as much as Heat (Mann, 1995). I guess WKW didn't have much artistic freedom in this production, but in his forthcoming film (Days of being wild, 1991, my favourite) everything falls into place and shows his brilliance.7/10