Crafted, period specific and localized horror with nicely stylistic elements of homage to Psycho and fairly strong cat. III edge and humor. After some semi-derivative vertical montage shots to make the visual metaphors explicit, we go into an initial kill with some similar shots driving the point home. Time is then spent developing Josie Ho's character well enough for her to convince pretty well in the more strenuous, later knock down drag outs. There's a shot referring to Love in a Puff here, just one of many little in-jokes throughout for the fans.
Her background and psychological setup for present circumstances are explored effectively in some sequences that jump around a bit. Tsui is great here, and it feels much better than one monolithic block of back-story or a single expository character might. Eason Chan is also quite good as her jackass cad of a boyfriend, not playing his cretinism up too hard but also not going for fan sympathy in any way.
The Michelle Ye kill has some slightly unfortunate prosthetics and CGI, but they are not dwelt upon and are perfectly acceptable for the budget and time involved. Had it been featured or repeated, this might have detracted from the overall use of practical fx and realistic fight choreography, but that is largely not the case.
The drug den fight brings back this strong violence, but with a lot of humorous sexuality reminiscent of AV and weaponized paraphenalia. This goes quite OTT, with jokes for 24Herbs enthusiasts and some creative violence that fans of Her Vengeance might enjoy.
In all, this is ambitious and smart in ways that I would certainly like to see more of. It harks back to cat. III classics while referencing the director's previous work and some of the less often considered aspects of Psycho. The humor is largely integrated with the horror rather than as dismissive punchlines, and it utilizes the urban environment excellently. By not pandering to international audiences, I would hope for a change this film might garner more notice and perhaps be seen firsthand rather than as an English language remake.
Her background and psychological setup for present circumstances are explored effectively in some sequences that jump around a bit. Tsui is great here, and it feels much better than one monolithic block of back-story or a single expository character might. Eason Chan is also quite good as her jackass cad of a boyfriend, not playing his cretinism up too hard but also not going for fan sympathy in any way.
The Michelle Ye kill has some slightly unfortunate prosthetics and CGI, but they are not dwelt upon and are perfectly acceptable for the budget and time involved. Had it been featured or repeated, this might have detracted from the overall use of practical fx and realistic fight choreography, but that is largely not the case.
The drug den fight brings back this strong violence, but with a lot of humorous sexuality reminiscent of AV and weaponized paraphenalia. This goes quite OTT, with jokes for 24Herbs enthusiasts and some creative violence that fans of Her Vengeance might enjoy.
In all, this is ambitious and smart in ways that I would certainly like to see more of. It harks back to cat. III classics while referencing the director's previous work and some of the less often considered aspects of Psycho. The humor is largely integrated with the horror rather than as dismissive punchlines, and it utilizes the urban environment excellently. By not pandering to international audiences, I would hope for a change this film might garner more notice and perhaps be seen firsthand rather than as an English language remake.