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Review
by Kozo: |
Jacky Cheung and Rosamund Kwan return for this prequel to
the 1992 flick With or Without You. Cheung is Prince,
the son of crime boss Mr. Pak and a superstar hitman in
the underworld. He kills flamboyantly with the help of partner
Ching Ching (Carina Lau), who was a gift from Mr. Pak many
years ago. Still, despite Ching's constant companionship,
Prince longs for a woman he's seen in his dreams since youth.
He also longs to kill Dragon (Chan Wai-Man), who was supposedly
responsible for taking his mother away. Dragon actually
has his own vendetta against Pak, as Pak kidnapped his son
many years ago. Not surprisingly, the missing son turns
up, and he's now a hitman who goes by the name of Prince.
Even more, Prince's dream woman shows up in the form of
dancer Tweedy (Rosamund Kwan). Much gunplay and over-the-top
emoting follows.
Herman Yau and Taylor Wong
brought us this cheesy 1993 gangland affair which is so
romantically silly that taking it seriously risks brain
damage. Nothing really makes sense in the world of No
More Love, No More Death. The cops (led by Hacken Lee)
stakeout Tweedy's apartment in case Prince shows up, but
neglect to follow her on their many dates. Tweedy dismisses
her attraction to a hitman by saying that "those who
kill with violence are not as bad as those who kill with
words." And the production design is remarkably cheesy,
with costumes that look swiped from Warren Beatty's Dick
Tracy movie. Primary colors and polka-dot ties abound,
and the cops drive around in standard-issue multicolored
Volkswagon beetles. This most definitley isn't the Hong
Kong you're used to.
At the same time, some fun
can be had in this deliriously over-the-top nineties flick.
The production design and cinematography are overblown to
entertaining distraction, and the stars are welcome ones
nowadays. Jacky Cheung overacts mercilessly as the too-intense
Prince, while Carina Lau and Rosamund Kwan up the eye candy
quotient. This can never be considered a good film, as it's
too relentlessly silly to be anything other than forgettable.
However, as disposable HK cinematic cheese, the movie can
prove diverting. Just watch out for the Winson DVD, which
looks like it was mastered in Taylor Wong's garage. (Kozo
2002)
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