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²áÂNÅåÆA (1991)
Affrighted Romance


Reviewed by: STSH
Date: 08/12/2002
Summary: Crap

This is a genre which I'm a sucker for. I've heard many HK movie fans complain about the high number of movies which copied the formula laid down by Tsui Hark's excellent Chinese Ghost Story series. I totally disagree. I think there haven't been nearly enough. Far as I'm concerned, Tsui could set up a studio and have a bunch of proteges produce one more episode in the series every year forever.

Among the copies, there are of course the bad, the ordinary and the terrible. One of the best was Liu Jai : Home of the Intimate Ghosts, which was also following the great success of the Erotic Ghost Story series. So, of course, any HK adult Cat III referring to Liu Jai will get my attention.

But this one isn't worth it. It has none of the flair of any of the above movies. The print I saw wasn't even Cat III, though it was probably the cut-down version. Veteran director Lam Yee Hung must have been asleep for most of the time on this one. The opening twenty minutes are deadly dull, consisting mainly of a bunch of soldiers wandering around a battleground knee-deep in corpses .... and most of the time, the camera is on the bodies ! Really exciting, eh ?

And the acting of those not dead isn't much more animated, either. Dennis Tang sleepwalks through the lead role, though this is standard for him. The young women who are supposed to be providing the Cat III content fail to generate any heat.

There are a few veterans who should have provided some good value. Guk Fung does a reasonable job in a limited role, Siu Yam Yam tries hard to look evil, and poor old Fong Min only manages to look like a pathetic old man.

Things really don't pick up after the first dull twenty minutes. This film would probably rate as the worst CGS clone I've seen. Even lower than the atrociously dull Golden Swallow (1987). Avoid this film.

Reviewer Score: 1