General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Young and Dangerous 3 (古惑仔3之只手遮天)

Young and Dangerous 3 (古惑仔3之只手遮天) is a 1996 Hong Kong triad film directed and photographed by Andrew Lau Wai-keung, and the third installment of the Young and Dangerous series adapted from Cowman's comic Teddy Boy. It stars Ekin Cheng as Chan Ho-nam, Jordan Chan as Chicken, Gigi Lai, and Karen Mok, and it was the first film in the series produced by Golden Harvest.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Chinese title	古惑仔3之只手遮天 (traditional: 古惑仔3之隻手遮天); also listed as 古惑仔III：只手遮天²
Release	Hong Kong, 29 June 1996; later screened at the Berlin International Film Festival (February 1997) and released in Japan (October 1997)³
Director / cinematographer	Andrew Lau Wai-keung¹
Production	Golden Harvest; screenplay Manfred Wong and Chau Ting; original story Cowman (Man Kai-ming) and Dickey Yau¹
Principal cast	Ekin Cheng, Jordan Chan, Gigi Lai, Karen Mok; Simon Yam as Hung Hing leader Chiang Tin-sung, Roy Cheung as Crow¹^•⁴
Box office	HK$19,495,558 in Hong Kong (Cinemasie records 19,513,168 in a 1996 ranking), tenth highest-grossing Hong Kong film of 1996⁵
Awards	Two nominations for Best Supporting Actor at the 16th Hong Kong Film Awards (1997)²

Spoilers

Plot

The story resumes after the second film: Chicken rejoins the Hung Hing society, and Smartie (Gigi Lai) reawakens from her coma but is left amnesiac.⁷ The rival Tung Sing society, rebuilt under its leader Camel, grows in strength while maintaining an outward peace with Hung Hing.²

The Tung Sing enforcer Crow (Roy Cheung), described in the 1905.com synopsis as a man of great ambition, shoots and kills the Hung Hing leader Chiang Tin-sung (Simon Yam) in Amsterdam and frames Chan Ho-nam for the murder. Hung Hing believes Chan conspired with outsiders, sends the member Tai Fai (Anthony Wong) after him, and Chan escapes by luck. When Camel falls gravely ill, Crow kills him, takes over Tung Sing, and stages a grand funeral; on the day of the ceremony, gang figures from across the underworld gather, including Chan and Chicken.²

A new character enters through religion: Karen Mok plays Shuk-fan, the daughter of Pastor Lam (Spencer Lam), a former drug addict, who falls in love with Chicken.¹

Production background

Andrew Lau co-founded the production company BoB and Partners with Wong Jing and Manfred Wong, and the company released three adaptations of Cowman's comic within a single year. The Hong Kong Film Archive describes the Young and Dangerous films as the first major peak of Lau's directing career, blending the youth genre with triad-film conventions around the character Chan Ho-nam, the role for which Ekin Cheng is best remembered in Hong Kong cinema.¹

The series expanded its setting film by film: the first was set in Hong Kong, the second reached Macau and Taiwan, and the third reaches the Netherlands, a geographical expansion the Archive reads as reflecting the growing ambitions of BoB and Partners.¹ Starting with this film, distribution moved to Golden Harvest.⁶

Themes and style

While the main plot remains one of gang rivalries and loyalties, the Hong Kong Film Archive notes that the film affirms the codes governing the underworld, including respect for senior figures and the importance of brotherhood, and deliberately links religion and moral instruction through the pastor and his daughter. The Archive reads the passing of the torch to the younger generation as a conclusion to the first trilogy and a reflection of BoB and Partners' own early success.¹

Lau's filmmaking across the three films relied on efficient scheduling, handheld single-take cinematography, and the neon-lit street texture of Hong Kong while handling large ensemble scenes; the Archive cites this as evidence of his matured command of the craft.¹ The International Film Festival Rotterdam program, which gave the film its international premiere in 1997, described the series as bringing "a fierce, new energy" to the Hong Kong gangster genre and called this installment the stand-out part so far.⁸

Reception

The film opened in Hong Kong on 29 June 1996 and ran until 2 August 1996, earning HK$19,495,558 according to Cinemasie; a 1996 ranking lists HK$19,513,168 and places it tenth among Hong Kong films that year, behind Young and Dangerous 2 (HK$22,494,497) and the first film (HK$21,141,877).⁵ At the 16th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1997 it received two Best Supporting Actor nominations.²

Contemporary and later reviews were favorable. The lovehkfilm reviewer Kozo wrote that the film seems plotless and slow at first but "eventually rounds into the best one yet," crediting Karen Mok's addition to the cast and exposition about the realities of triad life.⁷ The hkfilm.net series review calls it probably the most realistic and serious film of the series, noting a starker style, less reliance on steadicams, and a violent final half hour with a more serious tone than the first two films.⁹ A Film Comment retrospective on Andrew Lau notes that by the end of 1996 a third Young and Dangerous film was in theaters and was considered the best of the three.¹⁰

Versions and availability

Sources differ on the running time: the Hong Kong Film Archive lists 97 minutes, 1905.com and the University of Kent catalog list 98 minutes, and the Rotterdam festival listed 96 minutes.¹^•²^•⁴^•⁸ The film was released on Hong Kong DVD (Region 0 NTSC, Cantonese and Mandarin tracks, removable English and Chinese subtitles) and later on Blu-ray.⁷ The Hong Kong Film Archive screened a 35mm print in September 2026 with a post-screening talk by Andrew Lau.¹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Action, thriller, and crime series film entries › Entries released in the 1990s

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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