You are currently displaying Big5
½G¨­ (2005)
Slim Till Dead


Reviewed by: Hyomil
Date: 04/07/2011


Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: dandan
Date: 03/08/2006
Summary: it's quite annoying...

this film is almost okay, but it never quite manages to achieve mediocrity...

it's a hong kong psycho-thriller, with a ridiculous plot, but it never quite goes off the rails enough to be anything other than a bit lame...

it looks pretty good, anthony wong does a good job as the main cop and there's a couple of funny moments, but overall, it's just not very good. then, there's the 'dumplings' scene...

not really woth seeing, unless you're a huge anthony wong fan. even then, it's debatable.


Reviewed by: j.crawford
Date: 02/25/2006
Summary: a satisfactory viewing experience

As the total number of films produced by the Hong Kong film industry continues to fall lower with each passing year, it is comforting to know that any project Wong Jing puts his name on will guarantee a satisfactory viewing experience.

On this film, executive producer Wong handles the writing chores and crafts a multilayered screenplay that mixes some finely drawn interpersonal relationships with a sleek, strangely inventive murder mystery. He casts himself in a comedic supporting role and hands off the directing chores to his long time protege, editor turned director Marco Mak Chi-Sin.

Looking painfully thin, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang gives another strong, yet subtle performance as a troubled police detective. His relationship with his wife, played wonderfully by Sheren Tang Shui Man, is the real high point of the scenario. The murder mystery features lots of eye candy with the buxom models but relatively little gore, compared to what you may have seen if this was made in 1995.

Reviewer Score: 9

Reviewed by: White Dragon
Date: 11/18/2005
Summary: Thoroughly entertaining B-movie thriller

Marco Mak & Wong Jing's SLIM TILL DEAD comes on like a Hong Kong giallo (if there ever could be such a thing), focussing its attentions on the Asian slimming/dieting craze and centering around a modelling agency that promotes slimming pills and products...and the gruesome grief that befalls a handful of its models.

When the film opens, waif Ivy (Cindy Li) is found dead in an alleyway and slimmed down to the astounding weight of 70lbs (32kgs in metric for those of us who don't work on outdated measuring standards!) and troubled cop Tak Wong (Anthony Wong) and partner Bull (Raymond Wong) end up with the case of solving her murder. Meanwhile, catty infighting between modelling diva Queenie (Zuki Lee) and her entourage bubbles up, Tak nags his wife Ling (former TVB star Sheren Tang) for sex and she ain't giving up the goods, and prime Mainland miscreant Ken (Jing Gang Shan) purports to be suspect number one. Throw in a Mainland gossip reporter, Tin Fuk (Wu Qingzhe), who's on Ken's tail and Tak's passing over for promotion in favour of goofball criminal psychology major Willam Hung (producer Wong Jing) and you've got all the makings of the usual Wong Jing pop-culture thriller.

Though neither as gory or as sexy as it would have been maybe ten years ago, SLIM TILL DEAD is surprisingly engaging even if it does play out akin to a TV-movie-of-the-week level thriller padded out with more of Wong's prerequisite lowbrow humour. It looks good, thanks to some fine cinematography and editing, and benefits from a pounding score by Marco Wan as well as another moderately impressive star turn by young actress on the rise, Cherrie Ying. There is a hint of grue, an attractive female cast (inclusive of the eye-catching newcomer Vonnie Lui) for male viewers and a twist ending I somehow didn't see coming. Not a strong recommendation, but not a bad step towards redemption after a lacklustre kick off to the year either; fairly middle of the road, but enjoyable nonetheless. However, a painfully dumb cameo by Kristal Tin takes it down a notch, as does screenwriter Wong recycling the "cop with a gun phobia" motif that he's been using (and re-using) since NAKED KILLER...

Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: mrblue
Date: 05/20/2005

Like their counterparts in the west, a great many Hong Kong women are obsessed with being thin. HK tabloids are rife with stories of actresses "ballooning" to 115 pounds, and that attitude unfortunately passes on to the general populace. Plenty of Hong Kong women resort to desperate tactics (such as "slimming centers" and dangerous diet pills) to attain the "ideal" weight. This kind of idea would probably be good fodder for a social commentary. However, in the case of Slim Till Dead, with Wong Jing guiding the ship, the results here are a thriller that is somewhat dopey in parts, but still manages to compel the viewer to keep watching it until the end.

In the movie, Anthony Wong plays a shell-shocked cop named Tin who can't even get laid by his wife (Sharon Tang). Despite his sad-sack life, he still has high hopes that he will be promoted, if simply for the fact that he is the oldest member of his squad. However, his dreams are shattered when a newcomer named William Hung (yes, Wong Jing plays a character named William Hung -- that should give you an idea of how stupid some of the jokes in this movie are) takes over the squad. Things go from bad to worse when a serial killer starts attacking models, forcing them to starve (or lose weight by simply cutting off parts of their bodies) until they are seventy pounds. After a few models get killed, Tin's superiors take him off the case, but he continues on in order to save face and gain redemption for the incident which caused his problems in the first place.

Like most films involving Wong Jing, Slim Till Dead veers all over the map. Director Marco Mak tries to keep things on the straight-and-narrow, but with a script that goes from broad comedy in one scene to gory horror in another, it's like trying to steer a plane that only has one wing. Case in point: one scene has Tin and his cop buddies looking at a creepy emaciated corpse and the next is a parody of Three Extremes: Dumplings (perhaps a dig at Miriam Yeung?). Wong Jing has long been known for this kind of style and can usually pull it off, but the problem with Slim Till Dead is that it never goes for the jugular. It always seems to try and play it safe, which only serves to emphasize how idiotic the attempts at comedy are.

Still, don't get the idea that Slim Till Dead is a bad movie. Despite its' problems (which include yet another "just for the paycheck" performance by Anthony Wong) Slim Till Dead is a pretty solid thriller that should please most fans of the genre. And -- as you might expect from a Wong Jing project -- there's lots of nice eye candy from the pretty actresses, so at least the guys out there will have something to hold their interest. Those viewers out there looking for serious or thought-provoking fare will most likely be disappointed with Slim Till Dead, but, then again, you probably shouldn't be expecting that from a Wong Jing film anyway.

[review from www.hkfilm.net]