Hong Kong Movie Reviews »
Suburb Murder (1992) Movie Review
Category III films are often dismissed by mainstream movie lovers as being mindless, tacky and distasteful, existing solely for dubious titillation. Although there is a fair bit of truth to this statement, the genre...
Read More »The Eternal Evil of Asia (1995) Movie Review
It’s kind of hard not to love a film with a title as lurid as this, or which starts off with an unconnected prologue detailing a series of black magic practices that are apparently...
Read More »Love Battlefield (2004) Movie Review
“Love Battlefield” is one of those movies, along with Johnnie To’s crime thrillers, that you wish Hong Kong would do more of instead of indulging in 500 moronic slapstick comedies a year starring the...
Read More »Human Pork Chop (2001) Movie Review
“Human Pork Chop” is a certain type of film, for a certain type of viewer. Seriously, given the title and the Category III rating so proudly displayed on the box, I’m quite sure that...
Read More »A Lamb in Despair (1989) Movie Review
At first glance, “A Lamb in Despair” appears to be every bit the typical Category III release. It certainly has a number of the genre’s expected elements: a suggestive title, a lurid cover, and...
Read More »The Twins Effect 2 (2004) Movie Review
“The Twins Effect 2″ comes to us a year after the box office success of the “The Twins Effect”, a movie about vampires; the sequel, set in ancient China, is a sequel in name...
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The Peeping Tom (1997) Movie Review
“The Peeping Tom” arrived quite late in the 1990s Hong Kong boom of Category III psycho killer films. With most niches of depravity such as cannibalism, necrophilia, and so on having already been covered...
Read More »Moving Targets (2004) Movie Review
At one point in time, after the disgraceful “High Risk”, writer/ producer/ director/ seamstress Wong Jing was at the very top of my Hit List. But after the successful “Colour of the Truth”, a...
Read More »One Nite in Mongkok (2004) Movie Review
After the celebrated triumph of “Lost in Time”, Hong Kong filmmaker Derek Yee returns with a story that is grittier and a whole lot messier than his previous award-winning film. The location this time...
Read More »Horrible High Heels (1996) Movie Review
The Category III rating of Hong Kong cinema is as much a genre as it is a certificate. Coming to prominence in the 1990s, the rating was created to classify those films containing extreme...
Read More »Jiang Hu (2004) Movie Review
Running at a breezy 80 minutes (that is, if you don’t count the extensive John Woo-ish slow motion that makes up about half the film), Ching-po Wong’s “Jiang Hu” is nothing you haven’t seen...
Read More »Throwdown (2004) Movie Review
I haven’t made any secrets of my admiration when it comes to the works of one Johnnie To. The man behind such excellent cinematic fare as “The Mission”, “PTU”, and just recently “Breaking News”,...
Read More »Heat Team (2004) Movie Review
You certainly wouldn’t mistake Dante Lam’s “Heat Team” to be anything of substance. It’s basically too much style-over-everything, with a number of choice scenes just screaming, “Pay attention, this is a real cool camera...
Read More »Koma (2003) Movie Review
With just 3 films in his oeuvre (“Double Tap” and “Inner Senses” being the other two), director Chi-Leung Law is quickly proving to be one of the more talented filmmakers currently working out of...
Read More »The Eye 2 (2004) Movie Review
Here’s the thing about these “I see dead people” movies: if I woke up one day and realized I was seeing ghosts, I would be scared; at least, for the first couple of days,...
Read More »Sex and the Beauties (2004) Movie Review
The thing about characters in movies having uni-brows — that is, one long eyebrow instead of two — is that it only works if it’s not overplayed. Say, a cameo appearance by someone with...
Read More »Lost in Time (2003) Movie Review
Derek Yee’s “Lost in Time” is like a gust of fresh air washing over the Hong Kong movie industry, cleansing it of the foul stench of Popstar-itis that has been plaguing it for the...
Read More »Silver Hawk (2004) Movie Review
If you picked up Michelle Yeoh’s “Silver Hawk” expecting something serious, then you’re out of luck. The movie, directed by Jingle Ma (“Tokyo Raiders”), is all camp. After the average “The Touch”, one should...
Read More »Beyond Hypothermia (1993) Movie Review
One of the traits of Hong Kong action films that set them apart from their Hollywood counterparts is an attempt to imbue a sense of deep emotional conviction to the main characters, some sort...
Read More »Anna in Kung Fu Land (2003) Movie Review
“Anna in Kung Fu Land” is the second 2003 film from Hong Kong that sports an asinine love story wrapped around a martial arts tournament. The other was “Star Runner”, which looks like a...
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