Burning Ambition (1989) Review

“Burning Ambition” Theatrical Poster

Director: Frankie Chan Fan Kei
Cast: Frankie Chan Fan Kei, Simon Yam, Yukari Oshima, O Chun Hung, Eddie Ko Hung, Michael Miu Kiu Wai, Seung Yee, Austin Wai Tin Chi, Lau Siu Ming, Kara Hui
Running Time: 104 min.

By Paul Bramhall

The final year of the 1980’s represented a peak when it came to the elements that had come to define Hong Kong action cinema during the latter half of the decade. Arguably kicked off by Jackie Chan’s Police Story in 1985, the high impact kickboxing style and brutal stunt work that made its action scenes so memorable soon became the go-to action aesthetic, and could be found in almost every corner of the genre. Determined to see out the 80’s with a bang, 1989 gave us triad potboilers like Bloody Brotherhood, Girls with Guns action with Devil Hunters, and even Phillip Ko Fei picked up his directorial game for Final Run. Featuring plentiful knocks and bumps, all of these productions looked to ensure that the stuntmen involved certainly earned their paycheque, and left a legacy of action that’s never been replicated before or since.

Another entry in the 1989 canon was Frankie Chan’s Burning Ambition. While Chan is most well known as being the composer for literally hundreds of Hong Kong movies dating back to the 70’s, he’s sat in the directors chair and appeared in front of camera in a respectable number of movies as well. For many fans of kung fu cinema it’s likely Chan will always be remembered as playing Yuen Biao’s nemesis in Sammo Hung’s seminal 1981 wing chun movie, The Prodigal Son. Despite only being his 2nd time onscreen after his acting debut the year prior in the comedy Read Lips, Chan’s performance in The Prodigal Son is one of the contributing factors why many fans consider it the greatest kung fu movie ever made. Not a bad achievement for a film composer!

A year after The Prodigal Son Chan also started directing, mainly sticking with romantic comedies, but in the latter half of the decade he also couldn’t avoid the action bug. After (somewhat unsuccessfully) attempting to combine romance and action in 1986’s Goodbye My Hero, by 1987 he fully embraced the action genre with The Good, The Bad & the Beauty. It was 1989’s Burning Ambition though that represents Chan’s most accomplished work of the decade, a dark and decidedly cynical triad flick that has no qualms about killing off characters left, right, and centre.

Like many Hong Kong movies of the era, the plot isn’t necessarily a strong point, with it initially looking like the tried and tested tale of the head of a family who passes away, and the power struggle that emerges between the 2 sons who both believe they should be the heir. Simon Yam (Tiger Cage, Killer’s Romance) plays the son who wants to make the family business go legit, while the power hungry Michael Mui (Men from the Gutter, Lucky Stars Go Places) has more nefarious plans. However the focus ends up being more on the family of the late father’s advisor, played by Ko Chun-Hsiung (Tragic Hero, The Dragon Family), who actually murdered the father to curry favour with Mui and assist him to take the top spot.

Legendary femme fatales Yukari Oshima (Iron Angels, Outlaw Brothers) and Kara Hui (My Young Auntie, The Inspector Wears Skirts) plays Chun-Hsiung’s daughters who are blind to their fathers villainous ways, and soon find themselves caught up in a vicious retaliation attempt. Out of the many stellar action sequences that populate 80’s HK action cinema, the frantic sequence that sees Oshima and Hui fending off literally dozens of attackers in the restaurant they’re ambushed in, before segueing into the basement carpark (that mainstay of so many Asian gangster movies, even today!), is right up there with the best of them. Breathlessly kinetic, full of hard hits, and the physical dexterity of Oshima and Hui front and centre, while their screen time is limited, the sequence alone is one that’s worth bringing up in any discussion around glorious HK action scenes.

With the ladies exiting stage right, Chun-Hsiung is left with no choice but to ask his exiled son to return from Holland to prevent an all-out war between the families. I don’t know what it is about 80’s HK cinema and it’s fascination with the Netherlands as being a place for triad activity, with Philip Ko Fei playing the titular A Man From Holland in the 1986 triad flick, and of course director Ronny Yu’s China White went one step further and was actually filmed in Amsterdam! As expected with most of Frankie Chan’s directorial efforts, he plays the son, essentially making himself the main character. Similar to Yukari Oshima and Kara Hui’s characters, Chan also doesn’t realise exactly how far Chun-Hsiung will go to achieve his Burning Ambition, and it’s the realisation of his fathers true character that becomes the plots driving force upon his arrival.

With Simon Yam and Michael Mui left to drift in and out of proceedings almost as if they’re barely considered important to the plot anymore, we’re left to spend time with Chan and his acquaintances who have joined him from the Netherlands. We’re introduced to them in a rather bizarre scene in which they arrive on a pier riding motorbikes, then proceed to rev the bikes so they go off the end and into the sea. When its asked why they did it, Chan replies that “They may hinder our affairs.” Ok then. The group notably features Robin Shou in an early role, who carries around a 3-section staff regardless of it being 1989, and an Amy Schumer lookalike who can bust out the moves. The rest of Burning Ambition becomes a relentlessly paced thriller that sees both families looking to retaliate against each other, and in the brief moments of quiet in-between Chan begins to learn the truth about why they’re really fighting.

Action choreography duties got to Fung Hak-On and Austin Wai. Hak-On had worked with Chan before as the choreographer on Read Lips, and their reunion here would mark the beginning of a partnership which would see Hak-On return as choreographer on Outlaw Brothers, Fun and Fury, A Warriors Tragedy, Oh! Yes Sir!!!, and The Legendary Amazons. Austin Wai was less prolific as a choreographer, being primarily known as a kung fu actor well regarded for his roles in classics like Five Superfighters and Magnificent Wonderman from Shaolin. He also plays one of Chan’s acquaintances, and most notably is the older brother of Kara Hui, with Burning Ambition being one of the few times the siblings would work together after the Shaw Brothers studio shut up shop.

The choreography throughout Burning Ambition is top shelf, with bodies thrown into all kind of immovable objects, windshields, and breakable furniture. One of the highlights sees a group of hired gweilo killers (apparently from New York) face off against Chan and his gang in an amusement park. The killers consist of 80’s gweilo mainstays like John Ladalski (City War, Death Cage) and Louis Roth (Undeclared War, Black Cat), and the sequence even throws in a fight in a water chute, which I’m sure is a first. The real reason for the setting though is that it provides a semi-legitimate excuse to have access to a bunch of traditional kung fu weapons, which allows for a fun face off between Frankie Chan and Jeff Falcon (Prince of the Sun, Six-String Samurai). Fans of The Prodigal Son will no doubt recognise Chan’s distinctive ‘shapes’ in the scene, and we even get the distinctive Wong Fei Hung theme thrown in.

While die-hard fans of kung fu cinema may be disappointed at the lack of a final fight, the final reel of Burning Ambition delivers a perfectly fitting end to proceedings which is just as intense as any of the earlier fight scenes. With Chan finally forced to accept the truth about the way his father goes about doing business, and the two brothers constantly at his heels to seek revenge, everything hurtles towards an inevitable ending that’s both satisfying and also ruthlessly downbeat. I wanted to close the review by saying Hong Kong doesn’t make them like this anymore, but of course the truth is it can’t. For a dose of hard hitting 80’s HK action backed up by an all over the place but ultimately enjoyable plot, Burning Ambition is one of the best.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 8/10