Reviewed by: ryan Date: 11/21/1999 Summary: Shrike (1999) Do you remember the 'Spike Drink Gang' back in the mid-90s? The gang committed crimes by spiking girls' drinks and blackmailing their families. In 1995, LAM Hing-lung directed 'Spike Drink Gang,' which was based on these cases. Four years after 'Spike Drink Gang,' Winners took the idea and filmed 'Shrike,' with their usual crew. The movie is directed by CHAN Siu-hung and HO Kam-chan, and stars AU-YUENG Yiu-lun and CHOW Yan-yan. 'Shrike' is another story about a case handled by Manic (AU-YEUNG Yiu-lun) and Mei-heung (CHOW Yan-yan). They receive a new case involving a shopping centre. The shopping centre has been a site where a rapist has been hanging around the restrooms. It is reported that the rapist has a box of Sun-shine Milk with him. They investigate the case, knowing that Sun-shine Milk can only be purchased in two convenient stores. Yee (TSANG Yin), Mei-heung's friend, is one of the girls who loves to drink Sun-shine Milk. She is considered as the rapist's next target. He put some shrike medicine into the Sun-shine Milk. Yee ends up buying the tainted shrike milk. She loses consciousness after drinking the milk. The rapist rapes her and takes a photo of her naked for blackmail purposes. After Yee reports the case, Manic and Mei-heung decide to catch the rapist. The plot for 'Shrike' is very questionable. First of all, Sun-shine Milk should be a kind of drink that is popular, or Mei-heung and Yee won't drink it. Why are there only two places in Hong Kong for people to purchase the milk? This is absurd. In addition, when the rapist attempts to rape on several occassions, why are there no other rape sub-plots in the rest of film? For a Category III movie, the filmmakers make no use of these opportunities for erotic scenes. For the love scenes and the nude scenes, like other Winners' productions, the editing is sudden and weird. For example, they can put up 10 minutes of TSANG Yin showering with her own drag off. Her drag (I don't have a clue as to what you want to say) off means nothing to their target audience, which probably prefers a more erotic love scene. Unfortunately, 'Shike' failed to give provide much enjoyment. Some of the scene are done unprofessionally. For example, when filming the discussion of the case in the shopping centre, the lightning for the room is too dark. I understand that they make their movies with limited resources, but it's no excuse for them to make the settings seem so fake. In addition, they miss out on many of the necessary scenes. Since they mention that the rapist will appear in the toilets, there should be a scene demonstrating of the use of toilets in a shopping centre. I am sure that they could have had more sensible and reasonable scenes if they did a bit of research before filming. The intention of the rapist is also weird. He should be experienced in rape, but he looks like he is only interested in TSANG Yin. This is something that I really cannot understand. The nonsense of the plot makes the whole movie hard to accept. They also don't make good use of the plot or try to make the movie more entertaining.