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in an alleyway and slimmed down to the astounding weight of 70lbs (32kgs in metric for those of us who don't work on outdated measuring standards!)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...