Customer Reviews

Zodiac Killers

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Passable effort by Ann Hui, the result is neither mystery nor thriller, but a rather drab effort heading for nowhere in particular. Andy Lau (how many movies of his have I seen in the weeks past?) plays a foreign student in Japan who spends more time careening the streets than in studies. Cherie Cheung has her Jap boyfriend killed by a triad leader and approaches the former for help. It takes half the movie for the premise to be revealed, but this even when done, it can't salvage a dreary movie. By the end, all the fine cinematography seems to make for little value. On the up side, Fortune Star's print for this DVD is very clean and sharp for a HK movie.

I saw this last night at an Ann Hui retrospective, and after seeing several excellent films anticipated that I would be able to get in a fight with Luke's .. er, lukewarm .. review. But he's right. Hui, and stars Andy Lau and Cherie Chung, have all done better, much better. I give it three *'s only because Cherie Chung is so pleasant to look at even in a bad role like this. Plus, there are moments of droll humor such as Ben (Andy Lau)'s non-relationship with his mother (he listens to her determinedly cheerful phone messages but never picks up), both sad and humorous.

To summarize: Ben (Lau) is a Chinese student sort-of-studying in Tokyo, but mostly hustling, e.g. as a guide for Chinese tourists in the red light district. Tieh-lan (Chung) is also a student, works as a bar girl, and is hassled by her landlord / immigration sponsor. We follow their separate threads, and a few side-threads, as they first meet briefly (and Ben falls irredeemably in love with Tieh-lan), part, and much later meet again and go on the lam from the yakuza. But the plot is convoluted and disjoint and never fully gels, and there are big lacunae such as Tieh-lan's meeting with and loyalty to her new gangster sponsor/boyfriend (covered briefly in a flashback near the end). I doubt there's enough action (I think only three fight scenes) to satisfy the martial arts crowd, and there's not really enough of anything else to satisfy the rest of us. It's really a shame that with so little of Ann Hui's catalog available on video, especially dvd, that this very minor effort is one of the two or three readily available.