Initially grandstanding as another generic rendition of the triad genre, Wong Kar-wai's directorial debut breaks out of its mould after a labored head start. Intersecting now-trademark aesthetics – the fragmented slow-motion visuals, for instance – with melodrama and hard-boiled violence (unusually, for a Wong film), As Tears Go By gradually transcends into pseudo-avant-gardism, taking a stock Hong Kong genre and reinvigorating both content and form.