Reviewed by: j.crawford Date: 05/10/2005 Summary: a rather dismal effort. [1999 was a good year.] Promoted as a sequel to Full Throttle, this film, really a remake, is nothing like the Derek Yee original. Ekin Cheng is cast as Sky, the top champion in illegal street racing. Simon Yam is cast as his nemisis, a master race driver who defeated his father [Blackie Ko] years earlier. The film does have some interesting sequences. The racing stunt scenes by action director Bruce Law are up to his usual high standards, but they are too short. The movie also mixes in some CG effects with poor results. The film does feature 2 of the hottest race cars in the world. After Ekin crashes and kills his hot girlfriend [Kelly Lam], he goes off to Thailand in search of his long lost father. Blackie Ko steals the show with his performance as the disabled ex-racer living a life very different from the one he had in Hong Kong. Cheng is much more wooden here than usual. Newcomer Ceclia Chung is wasted in this movie, looking like a deer caught in some headlights. Look for martial arts superstar David Chiang in a senstive supporting role as Sky's stepfather. Performances by supporting cast members Patrick Tam and Moses Chan represent a couple of high points in a rather dismal effort. In the end, The Legend of Speed doesn't, can't live up to to the standard of the earlier film. Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 04/10/2004 Summary: Ummm........ I have been watching the recent released SB movies and the ending reminds of it. The ending almost just stops!! The movie is more about characters than racing itself. In fact the racing itself isn't that good, especially the last race. the cruelity you see at the beginning is unexpected. Moses Chan i must say must be playing comic relief!! It could of been so much better but it isn't!! 5.75/10

Reviewed by: Mikestar* Date: 01/06/2004 Summary: An Unlegendary Film In contrast to the Holywood style racing 'boys with toys' films that have been released within the last few years (i.e. Gone in 60 Seconds, Fast and Furious 1 & 2), "Legend of Speed" is noteworthy. As a product of the HK film industry it is a complete let down. Under the guidance of Andrew Lau Wai-keung and the BOB crew, a high paced/octane racing film could be predicted as an instant success. "Legend of Speed" however, despite its production pedigree is an uneven and distorted production. All the elemtns of a BOB film are there including; the predictable yet assured casting of Ekin Cheng as the brooding protagonist, breathtaking car chases filmed with kinetic effects, narrative themes of brotherhood & identity, and of course a latent love story. However, "Legend of Speed" is choppy and abrasive throughout. Despite the developing reform of the protgaonist Sky within the film, Cheng's performance is ultimately usurped by Simon Yam's scene stealing as the inevitabvly likeable villain. The 'exile' sequence set in Thailand is similarly ambiguous, where Sky's reunion with his father is remarkably unproblematic. Despite an honest performance from Blacky Ko in this respect, his previous typecasting within BOB films shades his endeavours to play a disabled ex-street racing champion. The mise-en-scene is what keeps Lau's films together and in "Legend of Speed" this is no expception. Attentiveness to costume and motif (including the cars themselves) empahsises a sense of style, as too does the use of CGI during the racing sequcnes (despite 'borrowing' from a range of postmodern forms including 'Akira' & Wachowski Brothers). Overall, "Legend Of Speed" despite its kinetic flavour and saturated style is an unsatisfying film. Sharing the fantasy and comic-book themes of other BOB films it failures in narrative and prodcuction prevent it form reaching the 'legendary' status which its title might suggest.

Reviewed by: Inner Strength Date: 06/12/2002 Summary: Poor The Legend of Speed is basically a movie going no where. Very youth orientated, surrounding a basis of a group of motorcycle enthusiast, racing against each other etc. A few sub plots and stories about several characters unfold throughout the film, but leaves the audience (well most of them) unsatisfied with the overall result. The film is nothing new overall, but for HK it’s refreshing to see a little chance I suppose. Still, this is really only for the fans of Ekin Cheng, Patrick Tam and director Andrew Lau. Pretty disappointing all round for me though. [2/5]

Reviewed by: zarrsadus Date: 05/27/2002 Summary: A thrill ride with a good story Wow, this movie kept me excited and rocking along the whole way. After reading a few movie reviews, notably Ryan's, things make a little more sense too. The entire plot seemed really similar to "Full Throttle" and forgive me for not being able to read Chinese, that's apparently what the subtitle of this movie was, Full Throttle 2. I'm also happy to say that I enjoyed this movie about a million times more than Full Throttle too, nothing really dragged, everything was nonstop action. I think the movie accurately portrayed the whole idea of "Speed", the dangers of it as well as the thrills. The car races were insanely awesome, loved every minute of it, and the bike races just as good. My favorite part had to be the section in Thailand where Sky races on the bike and learns the true meaning of speed, very well done. Overall this movie was excellent, great story, great acting, and great visuals. I don't know why people hate Ekin as the brooding character when he plays it so well. Sky is a spoiled rich kid in this film, and I think he really plays his role well as he interacts with the street life in HK as well as in Pattaya. Overall score: 9.5/10. Reviewer Score: 9

Reviewed by: MrBooth Date: 11/18/2001 LEGEND OF SPEED (1999) - I had been avoiding this one for a long time (since it came out in fact) due to all the negative reviews I heard (and the high price tag). Finally decided to rent it, and enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. A lot of people who like to hate on Andrew Lau and the BoB crew, and I can see why, but I don't think it's entirely reasonable. The script for LOS is what you'd expect from Manfred Wong (i.e. absolutely no subtlety or depth, and a minimum of logic, but lots of melodrama), and Andrew Lau doesn't exactly strive to bring out a deeper side to the story either. This is expected. However, the movie does have lots of dramatic stuff going on, and all presented with very striking visuals. Andrew Lau has a good eye for style, and editor Marco Mak knows how to use his shots well. CG team Centro don't have a lot to do here, but they do some good work to enhance the visuals in places, particularly the finale. The plot is all about racing, and honour, and revenge and such stuff. Ekin Cheng plays a spoilt rich kid who likes to race, but isn't prepared for the stakes that are involved when he takes on race supremo Simon Yam. Beaten and disgraced, he heads to Thailand to find his natural father (taking rather well the discovery that he is Blacky Ko), somehow learns something important from him and heads back to HK for revenge. Cecilia Cheung plays jailbait, and Patrick Tam her somehow disabled brother (never adequately explained exactly what's wrong with him). Simon Yam steals the show as the cool and ruthless rival racer though. Don't look for deep characters or powerful messages here, but do enjoy the ride.

Reviewed by: Spidaman Date: 08/09/2001 Summary: Spoiler Free After reading lang_mui's review, I just had to write to say something to voice my opinion. Her reviews are as dumb as can be, and not to diss her or anything she's a total moron when it comes to reviewing movies. Well, since alot of people have already gave this movie a summary, I'll try to keep this short. There are a lot people out there thinks this movie sucks because it has no realism to it. But, for me I think this movie is excellent, because the way the characters and cars are presented, although nothing spectacular. This movie talks about a guy name Sky who was brought up by his mom and step dad and he loves racing. The movie starts out with Sky racing with Tung Fungs brother and Tung Fungs brother looses and Ekin side bets his legs and makes him cripple. Tung Fungs laters come back out of prison and challenge Sky to a race. During the race Sky's girlfriend Kelly dies because of an accident that occured. Surpisingly Sky escape from death (Hahah as if this wasn't predictable) and then he gets framed for having cocain in his car. He later gets bailed out of prison and tries to find his real father in Thailand. During his visit in Thailand Nancy goes to Thailand and breaks Sky the bad news about his brother Paddy. Ekin and Nancy leaves Thailand and goes back to Hong Kong to meet up with Paddy and something bad happens. So fastfoward just a little bit and the ending is a grand finale between Tung Fung and Sky racing. All in all, I thought this movie was pretty good, consider it's a movie based on cars. Hell it's alot better than Gone in 60 seconds and the most recent Fast and the Furious. If your fan of cars this is the movie to watch. Rating 3.5/5 Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: Fatty Date: 05/26/2001 Summary: Mindless fun Everytime I talk with my buds about cars, I have no idea what the hell they are talking about, I only know about Mustangs and that's it (Pathetic eh?) anyways I was able to catch this flick on X-Mas eve, which was awhile ago and I think it's time for me to do a review on this Beeyatch!!!!! Sky (Ekin Cheng) is the so-called Dare Devil Drag Racer in HK, he's got the money, the body, the cars, and even a chick. But the guy has somewhat a big ego ( I guess ) but when Maddie's good'ol Brother gets out of Jail(Simon Yam) he goes after Sky right away and kick his ass in a race. Then some shit happens in Thailand and race again... IMO, this film to me is just Mindless fun. it had some aiight car races(Motorcycle one was the best) but you can tell they sped it up when they were racing, but I didn't care, I was happy when I finished watching this film, plus it made me a fan of Cecilia Cheung aswell, heh definetly nothing wrong with that :). But the one part that was somewhat boring was the visit to Thailand. I liked it, but it wasn't incredible. The race in Thai was pretty cool tho (Big crowd too) The acting was pretty ok, I liked Kelly Lam as..Kelly, Ekin did ok with Sky(someone could've done a better job picking a good cast member) Cecilia was the best choice for her part and Patrick was sweet as Paddy, the mr, know it all Car guy. But the one that stands out to me is Tang Fung(Simon Yam) I thought this guy was sweet and Simon played him perfectly, Stephanie Che was good as his sidekick aswell. But seeing Yam driving with one hand while sitting back and chewing on gum (Beef Jerky, Tobacco) well whatever it was, it was cool (I was playing Crazy Taxi like that, only got 5,000 bucks in the game (Not bad at all) The Races as I said before were good, I wanted to see Paddy and Tang Fung race, but nope, we were left to see the aftermath of it(Paddy looked like a Zombie messed on Crack when he was at the Morgue, lol) The ending race was second best but the beginning stood out. But the one thing that bugs me is, how come Maddie ain't in the Hospital after Sky took him out at the finish line? Weird, but anyways it was good. The music was cool (They need to pump up the bass in the cars) aswell. one more thing, the arcade part was pretty cool, what's with that Dancing machine?? I've seen it in like 4 movies now *Sigh* plus the God of Car guy looked funny, plus he kicked Sky's ass in that too. After the part where Jerry Lam splashes the guy with the tea, if you look behind him. You can see a guy playing Silent Scope brushing the tea off, he should've kicked some ass, he has the muscle's to do it too. In all, a good film with some mindless fun, good car racing and some ok acting from Ekin. To me Simon and Patrick stood out and Cecilia still kicks major ass. I hope a Legend of Speed 2 happend so we can see a cool race in Tokyo or something, suits very well to me :) This review is brought to you by Fatty Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: ICU Date: 02/02/2001 Summary: Race of the year Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution -VS- Subaru Impreza WRX. That all I have to say.

Reviewed by: Fuck You Date: 02/02/2001 Summary: Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution -VS- Subaru Impreza WRX This movies is amazing, the racing is excellent, the story is OK, even the music {Theme tune} is good, this is an overall great movie. It also has two of the best cars in the world {that what I think anyway}, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and the Subaru Impreza WRX. And YES I do think it better, much better that a Ferrari or any other sport cars in the world. Any racing fan wouldn't want to miss this, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution -vs- Subaru Impreza WRX. Hell Yeah.

Reviewed by: runo_jp Date: 12/04/2000 Summary: Dumb Ouch ! It has been a long time since I saw such a bad Hong Kong movie. Although I won't trash the actors in this one, I have to complain about the story, if you can call this a story : there is no character development (especially Dior Cheng), a lot of subplots remain unexplained, and the end is far from satisfying. Unfortunately, as I am living in Tokyo, I do not have the opportunity to see many HK movies at the cinema, therefore I have to see the few that are played, and be happy with it. Good points : Simon Yam (as always) Bad points : story ending Results : 2/10 Reviewer Score: 2

Reviewed by: magic-8 Date: 07/06/2000 Summary: Dull and Slow The more movies that Andrew Lau directs, the more we see how his strength has become his weakness. Maybe Lau is possibly burnt out. The characters didn't live in the world, they were wall flowers and comic book stereotypes. The actors were wasted in this effort, especially Simon Yam. I was totally surprised to see that Manfred Wong wrote this piece of tripe. You really didn't care about any of the characters in this story about a spoiled, rich kid who finds a heart. Derek Yee's superior "Full Throttle" is miles ahead of "The Legend of Speed." Once again Ekin Cheng gets to strut around with the same demeanor demonstrated in his other films. It may take some time before he learns the craft of acting, but for now we will have to content ourselves with his cardboard cutout performances. When he's sad, he looks down and then stares away. The actor Ekin would make a good poker player. The highlight of the film was Blackie Ko as Ekin's father. The big disappointment is in the racing. No tension. No sense of speed. Too many poor and cheap looking computer graphic effects. My playstation games have a better sense of speed. The worse offense was the static camera work. No car mounted cameras or varying car chasis shots, only shot - reverse shot views of the cars and the drivers. Computer generated light trails to indicate speed were added. The use of a CG appeared too clinical as in a car commercial. I guess Lau hasn't seen movies like "Thunderbolt" or "Bullitt" or even the previous "Full Throttle" for examples of excitement in car/motorcycle races and chases. This was surprising in light of the opening title sequence, which had more feel of movement than the racing. This was a film where there was no need to use CG at all. Lau's use of CG only makes the film less credible and further cheapens the film.

Reviewed by: MilesC Date: 03/27/2000 Summary: Trash, but amusing. If not for a few decent productions, I would strongly suspect that BOB and Andrew Lau had made a pact with the devil. First they brought us the trashy and socially irresponsible (but fairly enjoyable) Young and Dangerous series, the the irredeemably awful Storm Riders and A Man Called Hero; The Legend of Speed is the studio's latest terror starring the reliably bland Ekin Cheng. Thankfully, the film, while undeniably bad, is not as mind-numbingly dull as BOB's period entries. Ekin's detestable character suffers a few beatings, which are quite enjoyable; in fact, I was rooting for Simon Yam's villain the whole time. Cecilia Cheung gives her worst performance to date, and is good for a few laughs. Moses Chan and Patrick Tam present hilariously simplistic caricatures of AIDS victims and the mentally impaired, respectively. Andrew Lau shoots everything for maximum camp value; Ekin's brooding and the ludicrously sped-up racing scenes are good for laughs. I'm a little uneasy about Lau's attitudes towards sex; he always presents it in the sleaziest and most unappealing manner possible, and TLOS's early sex scene is probably his most uncomfortable to date. In sum, this is a flashy movie that glorifies irresponsibility, arrogance, and an extremely dangerous and illegal sport. I hope the makers of "Full Throttle" were paid a fortune for the use of the Chinese title, because this movie is a horrible perversion of Derek Yee's earlier film. Still, this one might be worth watching with a few friends if you enjoy camp.

Reviewed by: shelly Date: 12/29/1999 Notes to Dior: 1. please cut the hair 2. keep your shirt on at all times 3. no more self-parodying stoic-brooding-hero-in-profile closeups. What to say about this nasty commercial Christmas movie? From the bottom drawer of BoB team Andrew Lau and Manfred Wong. In yet again underestimating (no, make that insulting) their audience, they dish out rancid sexual politics, cheesy racing effects, garish photography and lighting, and self-mocking dialogue (as if the movie were even half-witty enough to be self-aware). Legend pretends to critique people who take money as the highest value (which leaves the film’s producers precisely where?), but what it offers instead is a cheap, mica-thin version of manliness as loyalty-at-all-costs (which costs seem easily to include loved ones, if they’re female). Cecilia Cheung is completely miscast, Blacky Ko and Simon Yam, professionals always, go through the motions; only Patrick Tam seems to be acting here, and manages to escape without embarassment.

Reviewed by: ryan Date: 12/23/1999 Summary: Fantastic Racing, But Nothing Else Andrew LAU Wai-keung is considered to be one of the most effective directors in Hong Kong and is known for his fast productions. While he is directing a movie for the up-coming Chinese New Year, his "The Legend of Speed" is being released this Christmas with the sub-title "Full Throttle 2" and stars Ekin CHENG Yi-kin and Cecilia CHEUNG Pak-chi. Will this be the stand-out performer at the box office this Christmas? Let's take a look. The "legend" starts with Sky (Ekin CHENG Yi-kin), the son of a rich woman (HON Ma-ley) and his step-father Tony (KEUNG Tai-wei). He races cars but has a very big mouth. He has a good partner in Maddie (Patrick TAM Yiu-man). He defeats the brother of TANG Fung (Simon YAM Tat-wah), who is in prison. The brother's leg is broken also, so when Fung is released, Fung competes with Sky. Sky is hurt in a crash while his girlfriend Kelly (Kelly LAM Hey-lui) dies in the accident. In addition, Sky is also framed for storing drugs and flees to Thailand. In Thailand, he finally locates his father Black Tone (OR Sau-leung), who used to be famous among racers but was also brought down by Fung. Black Tone decides to train Sky. In the meantime, Fung tries to induce Maddie to race. Maddie's daughter Nancy (Cecilia CHEUNG Pak-chi), who loves Sky but doesn't have the chance to show her feelings toward him, decides to go to Thailand to find Sky for help . . . By using "Full Throttle 2" in its title, "The Legend of Speed" gives audiences an impression that the main selling point for the movie is speed and car racing. In fact, the car racing at the beginning of the movie is fascinating! Starting from the trailer, the digital surround sound of the engines and racing is really cool and gives the audience a true feel of speed. Then this is followed by a car race between Sky and his brother. That race is also incredible. The visual effects to show the extreme speeds are okay. Though they are not perfect - they don't reflect the real situation for the breaks from other cars - the scenes are fascinating nonetheless. However, the racing scenes in the last third of the movie are not enough to satisfy audience's expectations. In addition, the interaction between partners and competitors was lacking. During the race scenes, there isn't much eye contact between participants, and that would have strengthened the realism in the movie. For the plot of the movie, the structure is very similar to "Full Throttle" -- starting with Sky who seems to be invincible. Then he is beaten by a competitor and loses his initiative to fight. Like "Full Throttle" this is followed in turn by encouragement and the main character waking up to redeem himself. "The Legend of Speed" not only duplicates the structure of "Full Throttle" but also references some of that film's characters. Characters like Maddie and Mrs. YU look very similar to that of CHIN Ka-lok and CHUN Pui, respectively, in "Full Throttle". The story is smooth, though it is not very impressive. However, there is one thing that negatively affects entire movie. I understand that this movie has a sponsorship from the company that produces Green Tea. However, a bottle of that beverage appears twice in the movie in a very odd manner. The first time occurs when Sky talks with Black Tone in Thailand. The appearance of the drink is blatant. The second time the product is shown happens right before the final car race. This placement is more subtle but still results in laughs in the theatre. As for the actors, Patrick TAM Yiu-man stands out. He plays as Maddie, a mentally disabled man who has talent in tuning cars. I almost could not recognize him in the movie. His acting is very good. The interaction between him and Cecilia CHEUG Pak-chi is quite natural. Though Patrick has been in a lot of movies lately, acting such as this keeps him from wearing out his welcome with audiences. Cecilia CHEUNG Pak-chi plays Nacky, a woman who starts out as a bad girl but turns good after gaining Sky's love. The role and the character's arc are much like that she portrayed in her first movie, "The King of Comedy," but she is good. It would be more satisfying if she can find other roles that allow her to interact with others, though. Compared with Patrick and Cecilia, the role played by Kelly LAM Hey-lui is relatively simple. She is the girlfriend of Ekin CHENG, and audience only sees her as a sex object (there is a love scene in the film between her and Ekin). As for Ekin CHENG, the leading character of the movie, I regret to say that audiences do not need to expect much of him. The problem is that his character isn't clearly different from his previous roles. In short, the plot for "The Legend of Speed" is a lot like Derek YEE Tung-sing's "Full Throttle" in both basic structure and character type. The first part of the car racing is really fantastic with good surround sound effects. Patrick TAM Yiu-man stands out as a disabled man while Cecilia CHEUNG and Ekin CHENG pretty much do what they have done before in their previous movies. Written by Ryan Law, from Hong Kong Movie DataBase, on 18 December 1999.