Partially inspired by the bizarre group suicide of five women in their Telford Gardens, Kowloon, apartment in July of '98 -- with a dash of resurgent reference to Japan's Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, and pre-Millennial antichrist/end of days religious twaddle. Officer Chan (Louis Koo) investigates an apparent group suicide, in Kowloon, and uncovers a cult that goes by the name of The Church of the True God, led by a chap who calls himself Pope (Andrew Lin). The flatmate of one of the cult's victims, Blonde Ying (Grace Lam), sneaks into the cult on police suggestion to dig up the truth; spiritualist copper Chiu (Anthony Wong) helps solve the case.
Post Cat III die-down, Ivan Lai largely made forgettable films, and this was one of them; it grabs a handful of headlines and proceeds to squander them on a routine police procedural thriller. Looks to have been shot on the cheap, as there's maybe a handful of shooting locations with the rest of the film confined to three or four basic sets. Pretty banal on most counts, and the post-climactic coda is just nonsensical beyond belief (with all the talk of the Apocalypse, it seems Lai forgot his narrative in the editing and opted for a cheap punchline to trick out the end credits). However, fans of Grace Lam's later Cat III work will undoubtedly find small merit hidden amongst this strictly pedestrian opus. ;P
Reviewer Score: 5
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