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6.7/10
1.3K
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A mysterious and highly skilled hit-woman in Hong Kong is paid to assassinate top-level crime bosses.A mysterious and highly skilled hit-woman in Hong Kong is paid to assassinate top-level crime bosses.A mysterious and highly skilled hit-woman in Hong Kong is paid to assassinate top-level crime bosses.
Ching-Wan Lau
- Long
- (as Ching Wan Lau)
Benny Shuan-Yan Li
- Mr. Fung
- (as Benny Li Shuan Yan)
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For a movie centered around some really well down action sequences, this movie has a good deal of emotional depth. It goes for that La Femme Nikita style of making an assassin both lethal and fascinating but trapped and vulnerable. It is fascinating to see this killer's growing attachment to a simple noodle shop owner, and the movie does a good job of balancing its blood with its heart, supplying both exciting and touching moments.
But the movie also feels like it cut corners and it relies to much on movie romance clichés. Noodle shop guy's actions towards the end make utterly no sense based on what has happened so far, making the final, fascinating scene feel contrived. Even the hypothermia concept feels like it is just sort of tossed in there because it's a cool idea but then never used for anything in particular. I would not be surprised if I learned the script had half an hour of plot and character development chopped for pacing, as that would explain a lot.
This is a very good movie, and I took a while to decide whether to give it a 7 or an 8, but it gets a 7 because it just feels like corners were cut and the movie was not what it might have been. But well worth seeing.
But the movie also feels like it cut corners and it relies to much on movie romance clichés. Noodle shop guy's actions towards the end make utterly no sense based on what has happened so far, making the final, fascinating scene feel contrived. Even the hypothermia concept feels like it is just sort of tossed in there because it's a cool idea but then never used for anything in particular. I would not be surprised if I learned the script had half an hour of plot and character development chopped for pacing, as that would explain a lot.
This is a very good movie, and I took a while to decide whether to give it a 7 or an 8, but it gets a 7 because it just feels like corners were cut and the movie was not what it might have been. But well worth seeing.
Hong Kong cinema veteran Johnnie To's Milky Way Image company has produced some of the best of the recent Hong Kong films that include the hyper dark one night set gangster drama The Longest Nite (dir. Patrick Yau, 1998) and the almost Kitano like in its finale Expect the Unexpected (Yau, 1998). Neither of these or some other Milkyway films are credited for Johhnie To as the director but he, like Tsui Hark or Johnny Mak, are very closely in the filming process involved too and so they can be considered as "co-directors" and their visions are always there in films they've produced. Johnnie himself has directed classics like The Big Heat (1988), Barefoot Kid (1993), Heroic Trio (1993) plus many others. Beyond Hypothermia (1996) is directed by Patrick Leung who has worked with John Woo for example as the co-writer in Woo's most harrowing masterpiece Bullet in the Head (1990). Hypothermia is written by Roy Szeto who has written films like Billy Chung Siu Hung's dark swordsplay tale The Assassin (1993) and Ching Siu Tung's East is Red aka Swordsman III (1993).
In Beyond Hypothermia, Wu Chien Lien plays a mysterious and silent assassin who gets her jobs done with great care and "talent" and never gets caught or has trouble with her conscience or feelings towards the victims and their relatives. She in fact hasn't got too much feelings as her past is a complete mystery and all she and her aunt, the one who has taken care of her, know is that she was adopted from Cambodja and then raised to become a killer. Her body temperature is also lower than that of a normal human being's and thus the film title. She can be located max. 3 months in one place for security and safety reasons and now she is in Hong Kong. Soon she meets an attractive albeit pretty simple-minded noodle store owner (Lau Ching Wan) she soon falls in love with and so starts to feel something, too. But in the violent reality based world the film is set in, it may already be too late to start a new, better and safer life with the loved one.
The film is extremely dark, at times pretty nihilistic and thoroughly impressive in its visuality for most of the time. It is not as magical as the blue smoke filled The Longest Nite nor as restrained as Expect the Unexpected but it is very realistic and bleak as a big city is or can be. The cinematography by talented Arthur Wong (Eastern Condors, the stunning Once Upon a Time in China II, Dragon Inn, The Moon Warriors plus many other modern HK classics) is really as bleak and effective as the urban visions in Japanese Takeshi Kitano's Violent Cop (1989) or in the darkest HK urban action dramas like Alfred Cheung's On the Run (1988) for example. There are many interesting techniques to create effective illusions like speedings, slow motions, sudden zooms and weird angles and fortunately they are used pretty wisely and don't become just eye candy and meaningless pseudo-stylish nonsense often found in certain HK films. For example the furious assassination scene from the roof and the chase sequence after that, set in the traffic time HK highway, has some very creepy moments in the camerawork department and they just desire the big screen to reach their full impact.
The film is rather pessimistic from the very beginning and the film is as honest and gritty about depicting human nature and violence as only non-commercial cinema can and dares. The ending is an extremely violent and harrowing long sequence in the tradition of Expect the Unexpected and has the kind of infernal carnage that hits mercilessly straight to the face. Man is a beast willing and able to kill and destroy each other and itself and finales like this show it almost as powerfully and mercilessly as possible. The violence in the film is never "beautifully stylized" or the usual bullet ballet heroic bloodshed style found in for example films of John Woo, but it is only brutal and ugly in the tradition of Ringo Lam, the Mak Brothers and Kirk Wong to name just a few of the various HK masters all of which are great with their own styles and themes. Beyond Hypothermia is simply the most harrowing film I've seen for some time and it is so satisfying to see HK cinema not too long time ago could deliver interesting and uncompromising films like this. Hopefully it will go on.
The negative points however are little too plenty in Beyond Hypothermia. Lau Ching Wan's character is the most irritating one as it is so badly written and feels very unnecessary too. There are no motivations or explanations for his simple-mindedness and why he at one points even admits being "too stupid" and why his character develops during the end scene so fast and unbelievably, screaming and running without any explanations in the script to make it look believable. Also the love affair between the two should have been written more carefully and her feelings handled like in similarly themed French film La Femme Nikita (Luc Besson, 1990) for example. Also the body temperature thing seems to be there just to give the film a great title BUT it can also be seen as a pretty clever metaphor for the girl's lack of feelings and emotions because of her inhuman cold past and violent world she's lived in.
The music during the action scenes is also somewhat unfitting as it makes the otherwise very serious and brutal scenery look a little too light and distantly entertaining. Those scenes could have been done more effectively without music at all. Also some of the plot turns feel a little too easy and incredible as how can things like those happen so fast in a big city and everyone can be found always so easily? The finale, no matter how effective after all is still little too traditional as the guys just seem to meet in the streets as if they had planned it earlier.
One extremely positive thing to finish this review is about the beginning of the piece that belongs to the most effective, interesting and nailing beginnings I've ever seen. That is the kind of beginning to hook the viewer from the very first seconds! Also the circle-like structure of the film makes it all the more impressive and, as the conclusion and film's themes have become clear, shocking, harrowing and breathtaking.
Beyond Hypothermia is one extremely interesting and noteworthy piece even with its flaws and it could have been a bright (or dark, that is) masterpiece if the mentioned things would have been corrected. This is still on the same level with the more flawless Milky Way films and will strike fiercely everytime it is experienced. 6/10
In Beyond Hypothermia, Wu Chien Lien plays a mysterious and silent assassin who gets her jobs done with great care and "talent" and never gets caught or has trouble with her conscience or feelings towards the victims and their relatives. She in fact hasn't got too much feelings as her past is a complete mystery and all she and her aunt, the one who has taken care of her, know is that she was adopted from Cambodja and then raised to become a killer. Her body temperature is also lower than that of a normal human being's and thus the film title. She can be located max. 3 months in one place for security and safety reasons and now she is in Hong Kong. Soon she meets an attractive albeit pretty simple-minded noodle store owner (Lau Ching Wan) she soon falls in love with and so starts to feel something, too. But in the violent reality based world the film is set in, it may already be too late to start a new, better and safer life with the loved one.
The film is extremely dark, at times pretty nihilistic and thoroughly impressive in its visuality for most of the time. It is not as magical as the blue smoke filled The Longest Nite nor as restrained as Expect the Unexpected but it is very realistic and bleak as a big city is or can be. The cinematography by talented Arthur Wong (Eastern Condors, the stunning Once Upon a Time in China II, Dragon Inn, The Moon Warriors plus many other modern HK classics) is really as bleak and effective as the urban visions in Japanese Takeshi Kitano's Violent Cop (1989) or in the darkest HK urban action dramas like Alfred Cheung's On the Run (1988) for example. There are many interesting techniques to create effective illusions like speedings, slow motions, sudden zooms and weird angles and fortunately they are used pretty wisely and don't become just eye candy and meaningless pseudo-stylish nonsense often found in certain HK films. For example the furious assassination scene from the roof and the chase sequence after that, set in the traffic time HK highway, has some very creepy moments in the camerawork department and they just desire the big screen to reach their full impact.
The film is rather pessimistic from the very beginning and the film is as honest and gritty about depicting human nature and violence as only non-commercial cinema can and dares. The ending is an extremely violent and harrowing long sequence in the tradition of Expect the Unexpected and has the kind of infernal carnage that hits mercilessly straight to the face. Man is a beast willing and able to kill and destroy each other and itself and finales like this show it almost as powerfully and mercilessly as possible. The violence in the film is never "beautifully stylized" or the usual bullet ballet heroic bloodshed style found in for example films of John Woo, but it is only brutal and ugly in the tradition of Ringo Lam, the Mak Brothers and Kirk Wong to name just a few of the various HK masters all of which are great with their own styles and themes. Beyond Hypothermia is simply the most harrowing film I've seen for some time and it is so satisfying to see HK cinema not too long time ago could deliver interesting and uncompromising films like this. Hopefully it will go on.
The negative points however are little too plenty in Beyond Hypothermia. Lau Ching Wan's character is the most irritating one as it is so badly written and feels very unnecessary too. There are no motivations or explanations for his simple-mindedness and why he at one points even admits being "too stupid" and why his character develops during the end scene so fast and unbelievably, screaming and running without any explanations in the script to make it look believable. Also the love affair between the two should have been written more carefully and her feelings handled like in similarly themed French film La Femme Nikita (Luc Besson, 1990) for example. Also the body temperature thing seems to be there just to give the film a great title BUT it can also be seen as a pretty clever metaphor for the girl's lack of feelings and emotions because of her inhuman cold past and violent world she's lived in.
The music during the action scenes is also somewhat unfitting as it makes the otherwise very serious and brutal scenery look a little too light and distantly entertaining. Those scenes could have been done more effectively without music at all. Also some of the plot turns feel a little too easy and incredible as how can things like those happen so fast in a big city and everyone can be found always so easily? The finale, no matter how effective after all is still little too traditional as the guys just seem to meet in the streets as if they had planned it earlier.
One extremely positive thing to finish this review is about the beginning of the piece that belongs to the most effective, interesting and nailing beginnings I've ever seen. That is the kind of beginning to hook the viewer from the very first seconds! Also the circle-like structure of the film makes it all the more impressive and, as the conclusion and film's themes have become clear, shocking, harrowing and breathtaking.
Beyond Hypothermia is one extremely interesting and noteworthy piece even with its flaws and it could have been a bright (or dark, that is) masterpiece if the mentioned things would have been corrected. This is still on the same level with the more flawless Milky Way films and will strike fiercely everytime it is experienced. 6/10
To paraphrase the great Sam Fuller, if an action film does not grab its audience in the first few minutes, forget it. Director Patrick Leung and screenwriter Roy Szeto certainly subscribe to that school of thought in "Sip si 32 doe," a surprisingly good action film that has some heart, too.
Of course, the plot, like in many a Hong Kong actioner, is a bit of a stretch. A Cambodian assassin with an unusually chilly body temperature doesn't remember her past, wants to break free of her manipulative aunt and find herself a normal life.
But "Sip si 32 doe" works because it's purely an action film and proves it in style. When it comes to choreographing action sequences, Hong Kong filmmakers are in a class of their own and their styles certainly have influenced Hollywood action films. It's a shame when these filmmakers are wooed by Hollywood, as John Woo, Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark were, the studios promptly rein them in and they wind up making clunkers. Either that, or these filmmakers seem to lose their edge. I'd like to believe it's the former.
Leung fills "Sip si 32 doe" with visceral moments. There's a chase through a busy street that would never have been filmed with such ruthlessness in Hollywood. The denouement is a thing of beauty. Most American action films could be this entertainingly good if only producers and directors had some imagination and guts.
Leung, a John Woo protégé, starts his film off nicely and then promptly sets the tone for his heroine as we see her go after her first mark. She's cold, calculated and, yet, charming, too. While Leung and Szeto show us details of her modus operandi - they way she quickly changes bullets to improvise or how she cautiously prepares to sleep every night, for instance - they also care deeply about this woman to let us into her life.
As chillingly lethal as the assassin is, Wu Chien-lien brings a sweet innocence to the role. This child-woman's got heart and we wind up caring about her. Her hits are carried out with heartless precision - there's an especially unsettling moment during one hit - but there's still something extremely likable about this woman. There's a wonderful scene of unadulterated joy as she photographs herself. It's Wu Chien-lieu's tremendous charm that makes us completely forget what her character does for a living.
Leung and Szeto try to offset their heroine's darker side by giving her a chance at normalcy with a noodle shop owner, Long Shek (Lau Cheng Wan). This makes for some cheesy moments in the film - Hong Kong actioners have never quite mastered the art of mixing real romance with the gunplay. The problem is that Long Shek isn't a finely defined character. He's there for just one reason and his character's not explored deeply. When Leung and Szeto try to inject some depth into Long Shek at the end, it seems thoroughly out of place. And Han Sang-Woo overplays his role as the vengeful Yichin. He's a handsome chap, but his character's way too wound up to be taken seriously.
But its flaws notwithstanding, "Sip si 32 doe," under the skilled direction of Leung, is a grand addition to the genre and proof that Hong Kong action films can have substance. It's also a heckuva lot more fun than the similarly themed "La Femme Nikita" (1990) or its American knockoff "Point of No Return" (1993).
Of course, the plot, like in many a Hong Kong actioner, is a bit of a stretch. A Cambodian assassin with an unusually chilly body temperature doesn't remember her past, wants to break free of her manipulative aunt and find herself a normal life.
But "Sip si 32 doe" works because it's purely an action film and proves it in style. When it comes to choreographing action sequences, Hong Kong filmmakers are in a class of their own and their styles certainly have influenced Hollywood action films. It's a shame when these filmmakers are wooed by Hollywood, as John Woo, Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark were, the studios promptly rein them in and they wind up making clunkers. Either that, or these filmmakers seem to lose their edge. I'd like to believe it's the former.
Leung fills "Sip si 32 doe" with visceral moments. There's a chase through a busy street that would never have been filmed with such ruthlessness in Hollywood. The denouement is a thing of beauty. Most American action films could be this entertainingly good if only producers and directors had some imagination and guts.
Leung, a John Woo protégé, starts his film off nicely and then promptly sets the tone for his heroine as we see her go after her first mark. She's cold, calculated and, yet, charming, too. While Leung and Szeto show us details of her modus operandi - they way she quickly changes bullets to improvise or how she cautiously prepares to sleep every night, for instance - they also care deeply about this woman to let us into her life.
As chillingly lethal as the assassin is, Wu Chien-lien brings a sweet innocence to the role. This child-woman's got heart and we wind up caring about her. Her hits are carried out with heartless precision - there's an especially unsettling moment during one hit - but there's still something extremely likable about this woman. There's a wonderful scene of unadulterated joy as she photographs herself. It's Wu Chien-lieu's tremendous charm that makes us completely forget what her character does for a living.
Leung and Szeto try to offset their heroine's darker side by giving her a chance at normalcy with a noodle shop owner, Long Shek (Lau Cheng Wan). This makes for some cheesy moments in the film - Hong Kong actioners have never quite mastered the art of mixing real romance with the gunplay. The problem is that Long Shek isn't a finely defined character. He's there for just one reason and his character's not explored deeply. When Leung and Szeto try to inject some depth into Long Shek at the end, it seems thoroughly out of place. And Han Sang-Woo overplays his role as the vengeful Yichin. He's a handsome chap, but his character's way too wound up to be taken seriously.
But its flaws notwithstanding, "Sip si 32 doe," under the skilled direction of Leung, is a grand addition to the genre and proof that Hong Kong action films can have substance. It's also a heckuva lot more fun than the similarly themed "La Femme Nikita" (1990) or its American knockoff "Point of No Return" (1993).
"Beyond Hypothermia" is an excellent movie. The plot: An assassin (Wu Chen-Lien) just keeps on killing until she meets a lonely noodle shop owner, Long (Lau Ching Wan). She wants to change her ways, but her employer won't let her. On top of that, another hit-man is after her.
What's great about this movie is that the romance and action fit perfectly. All the gunfights are well-staged and bloody, but it also has a heart. Lien and Wan put in outstanding performances.
The climax is very powerful and the only problem I had with the movie is the dubbing, but who cares. You'll be pulled in instantly.
I highly recommend this action-packed gem.
For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
What's great about this movie is that the romance and action fit perfectly. All the gunfights are well-staged and bloody, but it also has a heart. Lien and Wan put in outstanding performances.
The climax is very powerful and the only problem I had with the movie is the dubbing, but who cares. You'll be pulled in instantly.
I highly recommend this action-packed gem.
For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
Another in a recent trend of artsy girl-with-gun movies that tries to play to the male audience with hardcore girls 'n' guns action while attempting to attract the female audience with a love story framework and complex feminine psychology issues. As such, both genres are compromised, but the result is a fine looking and well crafted dramatic thriller.
A decidedly different role for the frail and tragically pretty Wu Chien Lien, as she plays a ruthless and dispassionate assassin desperately searching for her humanity. Surprisingly, she does a remarkable job with the material and presents herself as a complex combination of harsh conviction and fragile vulnerability. Unfortunately, her character is so cold and soulless that you never really connect with her or care what happens to her, which ultimately threatens the emotional impact of the film.
A decidedly different role for the frail and tragically pretty Wu Chien Lien, as she plays a ruthless and dispassionate assassin desperately searching for her humanity. Surprisingly, she does a remarkable job with the material and presents herself as a complex combination of harsh conviction and fragile vulnerability. Unfortunately, her character is so cold and soulless that you never really connect with her or care what happens to her, which ultimately threatens the emotional impact of the film.
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