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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
MORE THAN JUST A SPLATTER, March 1, 2007
This review is from: Dr. Lamb (DVD)
The next year after Dr. Lamb Danny Lee as a director shot The Untold Story which came out to be a bit better than Dr. Lamb and became somewhat classic in the circles of gorehounds and category III movie lovers. But in Dr. Lamb some elements can be found that later made The Untold Story so popular.
In the beginning of Dr. Lamb police arrest a taxi driver accusing him in a number of girl murders throughout Hong Kong. Young man doesn't want to confess at first, but finally starts telling his story, and we see the rest of the film as a flashback. Dr. Lamb is pretty gory, with notorious episodes for example of woman's breast being cut off or chunks of human meat floating in a fish tank, although with nothing overly-disturbing which can shock those who's seen plenty of such movies. And altogether Dr. Lamb could become totally senseless and stupid exploitation schlock like, say Ebola Syndrome, but it didn't.
Danny Lee turned this gorefest into a pretty serious film. I wouldn't call it a drama, but it definately is much more than your ordinary splatter movie. As The Untold Story makes a sudden turn after the cannibal is seized, Dr. Lamb keeps it realistic from the very beginning. We see the taxi driver's family which doesn't want to believe that their relative is guilty, but as soon as he confesses they all turn their backs on him. We see this guy being interrogated in a police precinct and how cops - calling a spade a spade - torture him to get a confession. At this moment you don't even know whom to feel for - cops or a murderer. Dr. Lamb at many points turns out to be pretty ambiguous and thoughtful albeit it doesn't necessarily have to. It strongly reminded me of William Lustig's Maniac. This is the case when an exploitation film happens to be something more, and that's always a nice surprise for a viewer.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Infamous Dr. Lamb (Caution Before Viewing), April 25, 2002
This review is from: Dr. Lamb (DVD)
Simon Yam Tat-Wah portrays the title character (not a doctor), an insane maniac who does things to women (living and dead) that are better left undescribed. This early 1990s movie is an "infamous" Category III title from Hong Kong. Danny Lee (the prototypical "cop" from tons of HK cop and triad flicks) plays the inspector in charge of solving the case and getting a confession (i.e., beating the suspect up until he confesses). I don't like the idea of labeling anything as "sick" or "twisted," but if I were to, this would be the movie about which to use those terms (and I've seen and can easily stomach a lot of these Category III flicks). What can one say about this movie? I'd put this one in the "has to be seen to be believed" category, but then that might be seen as a recommendation, and I can't recommend this one. If you dislike violence and nudity thrown together, avoid this at all costs. If you think jokes about severed bodily parts are in poor taste, feel free to pass. However, if you are a fan of HK Category III movies, don't mind gore, extreme violence toward women, have enjoyed HK police procedurals/confession beating stories, and like Simon Yam and/or Danny Lee, well, how can I stop you? Up there with "The Untold Story" for least-likely HK movie that I would re-visit.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Hey, wait a minute, October 12, 2006
This review is from: Dr. Lamb (DVD)
I have the version distributed by Tai Seng and is from Winsor Entertainment. This version is fully uncut as far as I could tell and there is some really sick stuff going on. We are talking about this guy cutting a woman's breast off and dropping it into a jar. He gets an electric saw and cuts her entire body apart with blood being sprayed in his face and guts flying everywhere in the room, even landing in places like the fish tank. So if anybody else sees this movie and it still seems to be cut, than post what version who have of this. The version I have has a mandarin and cantonese track, picture quality is widescreened and the movie comes in at 89 minutes.
Simon Yam plays a serial killer in this movie. While he did a pretty good acting job, the cops were all horrible I thought, especially Kent Cheng and some things really didn't make any sense.
When a photo shop calls the cops because of some disturbing photos, they bring in Simon Yam to see just how someone could do these things. Finally, after a family member finds out that Yam had molested her child, Yam has to confess. It takes a little while but the movie does start moving along. He confesses to all of the murders and tells how he did it. The finale is definitely ultra disturbing.
So this DVD from Winsor Entertainment distributed by Tai Seng seemed to be uncut. If it is cut, then I guess I am glad it was. I have always loved scary movies and movies that gross you out, but this just didn't do it for me and I thought it went too far. If anyone can explain why he suddenly goes crazy whenever it thunders(even though it is always thundering and raining) and becomes a pyscho howling at the moon complete with a wolf like crouching pose, please let me know.
I want to note that I bought this movie because the cover looked so cool. Sadly that shot of Yam with a chainsaw on the cover was not in the film. Then again the gore was way more than I ever could have imagined. Too bad the movie was so incredibly boring.
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