Synopsis

Leaving his girlfriend Helen(Karen Mok) behind in Hong Kong, Dragon (Ekin Cheng) travels to Thailand on a triad assignment. When things go terribly wrong, Dragon finds himself injured and captured by the authorities.

After spending six years incarcerated in a Thai Prison, Dragon finally returns to Hong Kong. There he looks up his old friend (Lam Suet) who is the proprietor of the Kowloon Cafe.

Dragon wants to leave the triad life behind and so his friend insists that he live and work at the Kowloon Cafe. Unfortunately, it seems that everyone has been waiting for the return of the legendary Dragon.

Dragon makes his position clear that he wants nothing more to do with Triad society. Helen during his absence has become a ranking triad official. She has also been waiting for Dragon's return, dreaming of the excitement and passion of being his girlfriend.

After a child is abandoned in the cafe, Dragon is confronted with the possibility that he has a six year old son. Remembering his relationship with Helen, and intrigued by the prospect of being a father, Dragon throws himself wholeheartedly into the role.

After his son gets into trouble at school, Dragon comes into contact with his teacher, Miss Mung. (Rain Li) Miss Mung together with her friends is a regular at the cafe. She is enamoured of Dragon and looks to have more than a teacher parent relationship.

Due to the stupidity of her friends Dragon's son inadvertantly drinks a drug laced drink and needs to go to the hospital. At that moment a large groups of and opposing triad faction turn up to challenge Dragon. Sending his son to the hospital with Miss Mung, Dragon faces the gang, to his surprise many triads turn up to stand with him.


At the hospital Dragon and Miss Mung start to become better aquainted, until Helen turns up to see Dragon, not her son. Dragon is angry that she seems to have so little regard for her son. Helen cannot deal with the fact that Dragon still doesn't want to join her in the triad world and she leaves without seeing her son.

Hearing about the way everyone supported Dragon, Helen is convinced that he will come back. She makes a drug deal with another triad leader telling him that Dragon is her partner. She is unconcerned when she is held hostage as collateral for the money, as she belives Dragon will rescue her. She sends her second in command to find Dragon and bring him to rescue her. Unfortunately, Dragon goes instead to her current boyfriend, Prince, and persuades him to go and get her.

Back at the Kowloon Cafe they are about to eat when Helen arrives. She cannot believe that Dragon didn't come for her and in rage she starts to destroy the drugs. Dragon is incensed and hits her, at which point she breaks down sobbing out how she waited for him. All Dragon can say is "sorry" knowing that she is the mother of his child.

Helen stays at the Cafe to spend the night with her child and the next morning they celebrate his birthday. Prince however, is incensed that she didn't return to him and be believes that Dragon is stealing his woman. He snatches Helen as she collects her son from school. He orders the cafe destroyed and then challenges Dragon to a fight. Dragon is famous for his fighting ability and so despite his injury he defeats Prince. Reunited with Helen and his son they are about to leave, when the brother of one of Dragon's victims takes revenge by stabbing Dragon through the heart. Dying, Dragon apologizes that he has broken his promise to be a good father. Helen begs him to hold on, but by the time the police and the paramedics arrive Dragon is dead.

In the final scenes we skip back through his life and he calls to his father that he is finally home.

Review

This is undoubtedly Ekin Cheng's best movie. There is great depth to the character of Dragon. and Ekin plays the emotional range with credibility. The struggles with his own father and the regret at the lost years, make Dragon even more determined to be a good father when he finds he has a son of his own. Ekin's portrayal of a father is believable and extremely touching, as he deals with the inevitable frustrations of rearing a child.

The Kowloon Cafe is the vehicle for Dragon to reclaim his life and the appearance of his son allows him the opportunity to also make ammends for the difficulties he put his own father through. Although he was forgiven he was never able to see him again.

Karen Mok also gives a star performance as Helen. There is a chemistry between Helen and Dragon so that even as they are denying it, clearly they still care very much for each other. She is unable to cope with his desire to be ordinary and lead a tranquil life, wanting desperately to know the dangerous and exciting Dragon of the past. Jail changes a person and Dragon realizes that the triad life has nothing to offer and so rejects it, and Helen along with it.

In her desperation to regain the lost passion Helen messes things up so badly that Dragon is forced to take responsibility for her, leading finally to the challenge by Prince and the tragic ending. Lam Suet as Kong lends support to the whole film being the presence of stability in the face of the turmoil that Dragon finds waiting at his return. The interaction between Ekin Cheng and Lam Suet is also full of emotion.

Rain Li is refreshing as the young and irresponsible elementary school teacher who admires and is infatuateed with Dragon. This is a relationship that is going nowhere although she fails to realize it.

The tragic ending to the film is unexpected but a typical triad genre movie situation. Tam Wai Ho brings tears to the audience's eyes as his shakes his dying father. That such a small child could give such a powerful performance attests to his potential as an actor and also to the support of the adult actors around him.

If there is anything wrong with this film it is not the fault of the actors who all were excellent in their roles, that the director felt the need to explain the drama instead of letting the emotion show through. Jingle Ma could have made this movie so much more powerful.

The movie is available on both VCD and DVD. The DVD is a DVD-10 which means that it has to be flipped half way through the movie. However the picture quality is excellent. The dvd has a Mandarin and Cantonese soundtrack and removeable English and Chinese subtitles.