Starring Ekin Cheng Yee-kin and Jordan Chan Siu-chun as glamorous and trendy triad members navigating the Hong Kong criminal underworld, the Young and Dangerous series of films were smash hits between 1996 and 2000.
Directed by Andrew Lau Wai-keung and based on Cow Man’s popular comic book Rascals (also known as Teddy Boy), the mainline series spanned six instalments alongside numerous spin-offs and rip-offs. As the first three films mark their 30th anniversary in 2026, the franchise remains a cultural touchstone.
The films were “the most sustained series to emerge in Hong Kong cinema since the industry spiralled into a depression in the mid-1990s”, South China Morning Post critic Paul Fonoroff wrote in 2000.
Here, we revisit the original film and its five “official” sequels.
Young and Dangerous (1996)
3.5/5 stars
The series began with a simple premise: make the triad members sexy. Lau described them as “five handsome boys, young and beautiful and smart”, a sharp contrast to the manly, weather-beaten gangsters depicted in earlier films.