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¦åÂq¬õ¿O°Ï (1993)
Bloodshed in Nightery


Reviewed by: Brian Thibodeau
Date: 04/11/2010
Summary: Good video programmer

Fleeing a raid, saucy nightclub hostess Yung Ngai mistakes the slacker sign maker (Eddie Kwan) who unwittingly enables her escape for a cop—a belief he encourages as it feeds his long-time dream to actually be a policeman—and uses her new connection to flip off neighborhood drug lord Billy Chow, to whom she owes a "body debt" on behalf of a friend (Wong Ching-yee). Soon, however, the villains get wise to the con and kill Yung's friend and Kwan's father (Teddy Yip), necessitating a grim showdown infused with melodrama pitched decidedly to the cheap seats. Shot on video and based on a story by the prolific Nam Yin, a frequent collaborator with Ringo Lam on mainstream fare like PRISON ON FIRE, SCHOOL ON FIRE and last year's blistering FULL CONTACT, not to mention a virtual surfeit of muscular crime pictures in recent years, this is a much more standard piece of work, with formulaic scripting (by newcomer Yeung Cheung-pak) and a pair of bland male leads offset by assured camerawork, nimble editing, aromatic Kowloon locations (with unwitting locals often doubling as extras!) and a surprisingly outré finale that actually unleashes a slobbering, bug-eyed brute into the festivities to molest our heroine. Lai Sing-gwai's small bursts of fight choreography are unspectacular but effective considering the medium. The show probably earned its Category III rating more for Billy Chow's splashy power drill attack on an underling early in the picture than for any other unsavory antics on display; violent sex scenes are present—at one point, Chow taunts the heroes by phone while buggering a woman bent over his desk—but the performers remain strategically covered or framed throughout.

Reviewer Score: 6