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Review
by Kozo: |
The team behind Nightmares in Precinct 7 returns for
more! Herman Yau directs from a script written by he, Simon
Lui and Yu Wing-Man, and the result is a remarkably decent
drama/thriller. Andy Hui is Dik, a righteous policeman who
appears to be the odd one out in his precinct. The majority
of his co-workers are in the pocket of triad kingpin Master
Fai, son So Wai-Fai (Michael Tse) and lieutenant Naja (Ng
Ting-Yip). Dik is determined to bust Fai, but is beset on
all sides. Things take a turn for the worse when So Wai-Fai
extracts debt money from Dik's partner Lung (Simon Lui). Dik
accidentally kills So, and even though the court pardons him,
Master Fai is not so forgiving. Meanwhile, Dik forms a relationship
with the emotionally unstable June (Loletta Lee), who he meets
when she vandalizes So Wai-Fai's car.
The rather standard plot can
easily be seen as average and even perfunctory, but the gang
of writers and director Yau wring more than a few surprises
out of it. Dik's predicament is slowly revealed to be an inexorable
spiral of events which can only have one outcome. As much
as he'd like to escape things, he's weighed down by the people
he cares about - and his own righteousness. Director Yau keeps
things moving with an uncommon attention to character and
plot, and leads Andy Hui and Loletta Lee bring an inordinate
amount of gravity to their performances. Killing End
is really nothing more than a standard noir thriller, and
eschews the style or flamboyance that Hong Kong thrillers
usually employ to jazz up things. However, the plot and actors
are involving, and the detours into darkness can prove compelling
and even a little disturbing. Though his name is more associated
with freaky exploitation (The Untold Story, Ebola
Syndrome), director Herman Yau has long been one of Hong
Kong's more competent and underrated filmmakers. (Kozo 2001/2002) |
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