Ah Sou‘s Last Supper

Posters for the new Hong Kong triad movie Ah Sou (aka Mob Sister) are up in Beijing ahead of the film’s pan-Asian release on 4 August. Pity there are only eleven lead actors in the thing…

Ah Sou bears the distinction of being one of the few films dealing with the Hong Kong underworld to pass unscathed through the hands of the mainland censors. Last year’s Jiang Hu, from the same director, was ultimately rejected, so the producers of this film cultivated a communicative relationship with the censors. It paid off, since after the first script revision no other changes were made.

There’s a trailer here, in Cantonese with Mandarin and English subtitles. The movie tells the story of a young woman who inherits control of a criminal organization from her late adoptive father, who had rescued her when she was just 3 years old and her family was wiped out, and who to protect her had promised to marry her when she came of age. Sound complicated? One of the movie posters provides a helpful guide to the characters’ friendships, rivalries, and double-dealings.