Yeh sang woo lui wong: Ha je chuen kei

Granted, I had never even heard about this 1991 Hong Kong movie from writer Jing Wong and director Sherman Wong before now in 2020 when I was given the chance to sit down and watch it. Needless to say that with my fascination and love of the Hong Kong cinema, of course I found the time to watch it.

Well, "Queen of the Underworld" (aka "Yeh sang woo lui wong: Ha je chuen kei(") turned out to be a very generic and mediocre movie in terms of triad and crime movies from the early 1990s out of the Hong Kong cinema turned out to be. For better or worse, then this was as generic as they come.

The movie was definitely watchable, for sure, but it was by no means an outstanding or particularly memorable movie experience. Especially because the movie was just the type of movie where it was bordering on becoming a spoof because everything was so cliché and caricatured. It resulted in the movie losing a lot of realism to it and it was just one step away from sinking into becoming a parody on itself.

The movie did, however, have some nice enough acting performances by the cast, which included familiar faces such as Amy Yip, Paul Chun and Fui-On Shing. Just a shame that the script and storyline they had to work with was so bland.

I managed to sit through the entire movie, but I was only mildly entertained. As such, I am rating "Queen of the Underworld" a very mediocre five out of ten stars. If you have an interest in the seedy underbelly of the neon sprawl that is Hong Kong, there are far better Triad-based movies out there.

As of this writing all the reviews here say this movie is mediocre or worse and they couldn't be more wrong. Just because this film is not as over the top as Ebola Syndrome or Red To Kill does not make it any less of a wild movie by western standards. It absolutely deserves its place alongside all the other insane hong kong Category III films. I thought Amy Yip was incredible in this film, showing off talents I did not know she had. Helena's story was also fantastic and full of misery and grief. Some reviewers said this was generic but only in the way it is a mob/revenge movie and must play with those archetypes but I assure any curious observers that this movie has many scenes that set it apart and absolutely make it unique and worth watching.