You are currently displaying English
火遮眼 (2000)
Guilty or Not


Reviewed by: j.crawford
Date: 05/10/2005
Summary: compelling for the first hour.

This was pretty compelling for the first hour or so, but in the end, it didn't deliver. I thought Mark Cheng looked silly with blond hair! A lot of references to John Woo's work in the end was just too much.

Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: trenty
Date: 04/08/2001
Summary: Guilty of everything.

"Guilty or not"? Yes. This movie absolutely pleaded guilty. Let's have a look.

What we have got here is a dull plot, there is nothing much to tell nor did the director was trying to convince the viewers with anything. Rather, I found the script-writer/director were so bad that they should not put out this movie at the first place. Let's have a bite of the meat in this movie. Donald (Mark Cheng) was being invited by his so called "Buddy" from Malaysia. When he arrived, he was welcomed by Marc (Eric Mo) to lived at his house full of girls. Later, Donald was being treated as a tourist to places, and more, Marc offered him money and girls. Days after, Marc went to Thailand for a few days and left Donald being the master of his house. During those days Donald met Eva (Alice Chan) whose from one of those girls in the house and both fell in love. Everything was fine until Donald found out that Eva is Marc's fiancee (or being forced by Marc to become one). Eventually, Marc noticed and punished Eva like a slave. Due to the fact that Donald and Eva were in love, Donald is trying to save Eva being tortured and punishes Marc of what he did to Eva.

From what I mentioned above could just basicly summed up the whole movie, the rest of it are just garbage. The movie took too long to introduce the characters. Later, when Donald was being invited to Marc's place, the director just fell asleep. Nothing at all important related to the plot itself. Moreover, there is no characters development, only characters being put in places where they supposed to be. The relationship between Donald and Marc was totally unbalanced, for example, they were just like real brothers and all of a sudden, they turned into enemies with no mercy from each other. It is just absurd. And yes, the ending was also a mess.

As for the performances, due to the fact that the plot was a mess, actors/actress were limited to act. This movie was probably Mark Cheng's first lead starring but he cannot do more than he thinks he could have done. In other words, his role could be replaced by any other movie stars, however, that will not save the movie either. Also, Eric Mo as a supporting actor is also weird, he may looks like a gangster but never could act like one. Overall, the performances by the cast was a disappointment.

To conclude, unless someone in the cast you may want to see, this low budget production can just be a skip from your eyes. The movie, "Guilty or not", pleaded guilty of underdeveloping characters, bad performances, bad directing, and mainly, bad plot/story. I here by www.hkmdb.com, sentence the movie life in garbages, no parole allowed. Court dismiss.