Goh yeung yee sang

Dr. Lamb is directed by Danny Lee (co-star of The Killer and the cop in The Untold Story) and Billy Tang (director of Red to Kill and Run & Kill) and this film is one of the earlier Category 3 movies with Sentenced to Hang and Story of Ricky. After these films, brutally violent and sexually explicit horror thrillers began to be made and that highest age limit was invented.

Dr. Lamb is not as superb as The Untold Story or Run & Kill but it is still very chilling and stylish true crime film but I don't know how close this is to truth. Anyway, a disturbed young man drives a taxi in Hong Kong and he has very bad traumas from his childhood. Murdered and mutilated women start to appear and the police investigation begins..The horrific truth is about to be discovered..

Simon Yam is among the greatest psycho actors in Hong Kong (and world!) and only equivalent for him is Anthony Wong. The acting in Lamb is once again very professional and unforgettable, and when he "freaks out" it sure is scary and horrific to watch. At times, it makes me wonder how these gentlemen can act like that, no matter how professionals they are! Yam's motif for these killings is that he is on a mission from God and he has to kill all the bad women. Prostitutes and addicts are for instance "bad" women and due to his traumas and awful childhood he thinks that he has to purify and clean the streets out of this scum. But the main point and theme in Dr. Lamb is exactly the same as in The Untold Story: the power and behaviour of police. How far can police go in order to get info and answers? The police no longer is the "good" guy and they are no better than the victims. The message is not as powerful as in Untold Story which is at times almost unbearably hard to watch due to the acts police commits. But the same problems are discussed in Dr. Lamb and this can be described very important issue and no-nonsense film.

The film is also pretty stylish and professional, as we can expect from these film makers. The use of blue and dark colours and light is gorgeous and the film looks fantastic. The rain is always there and so is depressing atmosphere. This looks as wonderful as the finale in Billy Tang's Red to Kill. Dr. Lamb is almost hypnotic at times, so this is once again unforgettable cinema from the great Hong Kong and has no equivalents in Western cinema. The music is also important element here and I can't point out many technical flaws in the film. There are couple of "funny" scenes which should have been left out, but fortunately they are only very few.

The violence and sex is always the thing which alienates people from this kind of cinema and Dr. Lamb is not easier to watch than any other of its kind. The violence and gore is not as extreme as in Untold Story but it is still too much for mainstream audiences. Dead bodies are abused and body parts are cut off. The imagery is occasionally off-putting, but then we have to remember, what actually led the protagonist to commit these horrific acts. The difference between Western and Orient (horror) cinema is as clear as crystal: subject matters and imagery which is definitely a no-no in West (necrophilia, brutality towards women/children etc.) are by no means taboos in Orient. I am not too familiar with the Chinese culture, but watching Chinese films definitely shows that there are many cultures in the world and our Western is just one of them. And when the Chinese/Orient film makers show in their films such a horrific acts mentioned above, it definitely means NOT that they accept these things and don't think they're bad. They are bad and the Orient films say they're bad, so only thing the viewer has to be able to do is to INTERPRET these difficult films and see though them and analyze them. This is too much and too hard for most of the people and that's why the films are considered just sick, disgusting, pointless and so on. Orient films as seen through Western eyes are difficult and require a lot from the viewer, and I like difficult cinema which require brains.

Dr. Lamb is one of the greatest achievements in this field and absolutely worth seeking out for Hong Kong fanatics. Too bad that the newly released DVD from Hong Kong is cut for violence and reportedly the uncut print doesn't even exist anymore, or at least is not likely to be released anywhere. The Spanish VHS tape is the only uncut version I know but it is dubbed into Spanish. Some old HK versions may be uncut too but I don't know about them. But the new DVD is still OK because the cuts are not as bad as possible and there are no any substitutes, especially for English speaking people.

8/10 and recommended for the lovers of Eastern cinema.

In August,1983 a photo lab technician complained to his manager about disturbing photos of a mutilated female body on a customer's roll of film.This was the second time the manager had noticed this particular customer's unusual photos and this time he called the police.The photo was of a severed human breast.This was approximately the 700th such photo his store had processed for this customer.The cops took the customer,Lam Go-wan into custody and after sweating him for two days he confessed to murdering the woman in the photographs.Then he kept on confessing...In 1992,Danny Lee and Kent Cheng Jat-si teamed up to film the true crime biopic of Lam Go-wan,Hong Kong's first and maybe only serial killer."Dr.Lamb" is an excellent III Cat. shocker that offers some gruesome imagery including cold-blooded murder,necrophilia,dismemberment and breast mutilation.I own uncut DVD-R composite with English subtitles that has all the scenes of sexual violence intact,so if you want to see this uncensored try to find ultra-rare Spanish Manga Video release.Simon Yam's performance as the Taxi Cab Killer is truly haunting and out-of-control.One thing that I found pretty impressive were the actresses that played the murder victims,they had to lay around as corpses while the serial killer mutilated them.So if you want to see a chillingly horrific piece of horror give "Dr.Lamb" a look.9 out of 10.

I have had the pleasure of seeing Simon Yam in more than a few films: My Left Eye Sees Ghosts, Election, Triad Election, Exiled, and more. Seeing him as the psycho serial killer in a Chinese true crime adventure was a real pleasure.

I have also seen many film's with Danny Lee: John Woo's The Killer, with Simon Yam and Kent Cheng in Run and Kill, and with Chow Yun-Fat in Code of Honor. As the detective in charge of this case, he puts forth another very good performance.

Lee also produced and directed this film along with "Billy" Tang.

This is a Cat III film, so the violence is extreme. There is a lot of blood and gore as he dismembers his victims. There is also nudity and necrophilia.

Based upon a real story, this taxi driver, who was excited from the rain and thunder, was a real psycho. Yam was perfect in the role.

Billy Tang, Danny Lee, Simon Yam, Kent Cheng. But this movie is not as good as its successors. It takes time for art! The story is based on a real case, which is definitely shocking. Even with this, this film is not as good as Run and Kill, which was released a year later, with these four people. Not to mention The Untold Story of Danny Lee's company.

What is the reason? This film reveals the truth of the story at the beginning, so we are left to appreciate the crime scenes. However, Simon Yam's acting was not quite attractive then. I was only impressed by his round eyes.

Also, I should mention there are comedy elements in this film.

The 'crime confessional' story device used here was much imitated over the next few years but this was the one that started the cycle. A taxi driving serial killer is caught and then, as he details his litany of crimes, the bulk of the movie plays out in flashback.

Most of the crimes take place at night and in the rain, and the reflected glare of wet windows lends everything an eerie Vaseline sheen of ickiness which accentuates the horror. The killer revels in the gory details of his crimes and the movie wallows right along with him, making a spectacle of every flying blood spatter. This is a gruesome exploitation movie and not for the timid, but quite compelling for its type.

Watch at your own risk.