The two elders of Dong Ying, Crow & Tiger are both totally ruthless and have no regard for the code of honor revered in the underworld.

Hong Hing has just made Chen Ho Nam the ,keeper' of Causeway Bay. His girlfried Mini has recently come out of a coma but has suffered a total loss of memory.

Tiger opens a Karaoke club opposite Chen's and invites a member of Hong Hing to be the manager. Dong Ying's sticking a foot into his territory is an open challenge to Chen. Chang also has enough of Crow's constant provocation, so a meeting is arranged and Tiger and Crow are reprimanded.

Chang takes a film starlet with him on a business trip to Europe with Chen. While in Holland, Crow and Tiger succeed in having Chang assassinated and frame Chen for his death. This stuns everyone in Hong Hing. As the stralet points her finger at Chen for the murder, they decide to ,execute' Chen. A draw is organized, and Fred who is close to Chen gets the assignment to carry out the excecution.

When Chen arrives back in Hong Kong, he's attacked but manages to escape and goes into hiding. Chen's man Skin falls for a girl and leaks his whereabouts. A large group of armed men from Dong Ying raid Chen's hiding place. They've got Mini but with Fred's help Chen escapes again...

The plot is comparatively simple, but houses an abundance of ,digressions'. The two-handler between Jordan Chan and Karen Mok, Gigi Lai losing her memory, and several scenes about the gang returning to their homes in the housing estate, are quite dynamic and compelling. They give the actors more creative space, and are testimony of an understanding in the art of story-telling: to emphasize continuity in mood and emotions over technicalities in plot development. As a result the film not only avoids a slackening in the tempo and exposing its shortcomings, but is also on course with the ways and byways of modern filmmaking.

As an auteur, Lau Wai-keung may be wanting in vision and weltanschauung. But his status as a stylist has received solid confirmation in Young and Dangerous 3. With a story that has everything, with Lau's technical expertise, and sparkles aplenty, the film stands head and shoulders above its predecessors. What's lacking is critical reflection on the world of triads. Once bad elements are eradicated, everything will be okay. Look at the physical and spiritual wreck that Al Pacino becomes in Godfather II and you'll get my drift.

Gigi Lai's amnesia is just one of the tools used to express the necessity of getting a grip on memory. On top of that, the film keeps repeating and replaying scenes from Part 1 and 2. It is a reflection on the obsession with memory and nostalgia in ante-1997 Hong Kong, and once more, proof of the compression that a movie trend must suffer in the course of its development. Note that in less than a year's time, the Triad Youths movies have gone through enough changes to have a history of their own. Jordan Chan attains new heights in every film, as if to demonstrate the unending potential of an acting style that has broken free from the confines of technique.

This is a movie about looking for life in memory. The tragedy of Chan Ho-nam (Dior Cheng) and Sai Sai Lup (Gigi Lai) is to find material proof of their love in short time. In the end they find out amnesia is preferable to memory. The experience of Pheasant (Jordan Chan) and Hot Shot (Michael Tse) on the soccer pitch makes them nostalgic about their days of growing up, and sends them looking for old laws. For ,progressive' people like Chiang Tin-san (Simon Yam) and Eight Fingers (an Ajax fan), they are to lose their lives to Crow (Roy Cheung) and Laughing Tiger, who are ,without memories'. In the end, even when the burden of memory is unbearably heavy, it remains a pointer in life. This is the most satisfactory film in the Young and Dangerous series. - Bryan Chang

Andrew Lau (Wai-keung) was born in Hong Kong on April 4th, 1960. He began his career as a cinematographer for Mr. Vampire (1985). Between 1985 and 1996, he has been the cinematographer for over twenty films including Ringo Lam's City on Fire (1987) and Wild Search (1989), Wong Kar Wai's As tears go by (1987) and Chunking Express (1994), Tsui Hark's Wicked City (1992) and Stephen Chiau's Sixty Million Dollar Man (1995). His directorial debut was Against all (1990). With ten films to his directorial credit, he never gave up cinematography for his own films or for other peoples projects. In January 1996, he co-founded Bob & Partners Co. Ltd. Bob's first project was Young and Dangerous I which was directed by Andrew Lau and written by Manfred Wong. The film, released in January, became an instant box office success and two sequels were made within five months.

1990: Against All. 1991: Ultimate Vampire. 1992: Rhythm of Destiny. 1993: Raped by an Angel; Ghost Lantern. 1994: Modern Romance; To Live and Die in Tsimshatsui. 1995: Lover of the Last Empress; The Mean Street Story; I'm Your Birthday Cake. 1996: Young and Dangerous I; Young and Dangerous II; YOUNG AND DANGEROUS III; The Best of the Best.