MY SCHOOLMATE, THE BARBARIAN is a Hong Kong high school action comedy featuring starring roles for Nicholas Tse and Stephen Fung. It's very much a movie of its era, part of the 'new wave' of youth cinema that pervaded Hong Kong in the late 1990s and early 200s when series like the GEN-X COPS films as well as YOUNG & DANGEROUS were all the rage. This one has a simplistic plot incorporating fighting champions, rivalry, bullying, heroism vs. geekiness, and the typical romantic sub-plot. Tse is shot in slow motion and looks cool, getting sprayed with water while his shirt tears a lot; Fung fails to convince as a supposed geek character. The frivolity of the whole thing is a bit off-putting, and some of the stylistics have dated, but the last fight scene is a scorcher and Samuel Pang is a good villain. It's very much along the lines of VOLCANO HIGH, albeit without the CGI.
Review of My Schoolmate the Barbarian
