Writer Maggie (Maggie Cheung) takes her sister (Bonnie Law) to On Lok village for inspiration. Tagging along is Weeny Eyes (Liu Fong), a general pest and since long one that is head over heels in love with Maggie's sister. Their miserable stay at one of the village houses (number 13...subtle) gets disrupted one night as Maggie witnesses retarded neighbor, nick named Pink Panther (Wong Ching), being brutally murdered. Next day however, everything is all right with him and his uncle (Woo Fung)...

Co-directed by Kent Cheng (who also appears in a cameo), Heartbeat 100 succeeds more when not mixing suspense and brutal deaths with broad comedy (mostly coming from the annoying Liu Fong). The premise of a village of shady and bizarre individuals echo feelings of the Jamie Luk helmed The Case Of The Cold Fish, only directed more straight with more nods to horror. Cheng and co-director Lo Kin proves to be fairly adept at this but Heartbeat 100 doesn't become anything more than that as the mystery isn't all that original. However, it's a rare Hong Kong cinema genre attempt and the film proves to be an entertaining watch. Chiao Chiao, Lam Chung, Shing Fui On and Mark Cheng also appear.

Andrew Kam (Red And Black) bid farewell to Hong Kong cinema with this recognizable action-drama, dealing with themes of brotherhood, sacrifice etc etc...yawn. But as luck would have it, long after John Woo made the themes an institution in modern day action cinema, Heart Of Killer still surprises.

Kam does log a work of varying quality as the pretentious factor can be pretty extreme and cause confusion at times. As can Max Mok's comedic presence do for your frustration vein. Kam holds surprises up his sleeve though in his possible ode to John Woo as he envelops Heart Of Killer in a hard boiled atmosphere, transformed strikingly by cinematographer Jim Pak Hung. Frankly, you wouldn't expect something as well shot from this initially nor that certain heroic bloodshed clichés actually possesses some genuine interest here. Action directing does suffer from all too tight and quick cut camerawork but one shootout in daylight is a nice reminder of the type of action that both John Woo and his gazzillion of imitators did well.

A winner but with emphasis on minor, Heart Of Killer possesses a interesting narrative and cool images that manages to overpower most of its flaws. Also starring Yu Rong Guang and Elaine Tung.

Alex Lui's (George Lam) model girlfriend Peggy (Rosamund Kwan) leaves him and takes his beloved toilet seat with her. Working in advertising himself and feeling distressed, Alex accepts a part time gig as a choir leader. There he meets the not so talented Vivian (Vivian Chow) but things go as far as him casting her voice for a commercial. Then the overprotective, out of touch mother of Vivian, the character of Chu Lai Ngor (Carol Cheng) enters as she fears her daughter is having an affair with Alex. Being fooled by his friends that he's gay initially, the two do start to bond and eventually love is in the air. But Alex not being able to speak his mind during the right time and a clingy ex-girlfriend are two aspects that bring trouble to the relationship...

Shot in synch sound, creating a pleasant atmosphere and getting more than workable chemistry between his leads, Stephen Shin's romantic comedy doesn't break new ground, nor attempts to. It does make Heart To Hearts pretty slight though and Shin's attempts at consciously letting the movie conclude with a few loose ends isn't a fully developed thought. It tracks back to Alex's inability to say the right things at the right time and while admirable to not end the movie predictably, Shin has not stayed very true to his characters come ending time. Elaine Kam is great in a supporting role as Chu Lai Ngor's mouthy friend while Carina Lau, Lowell Lo, Chan Ging, Teddy Yip, Yuen Woo-Ping, Amy Yip, Lawrence Cheng, Michael Chow, Manfred Wong and Dennis Chan also appear.

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Kwong Sun (Joey Wong) enters Hong Kong illegally from China and in order to buy herself time to get an ID, she fakes amnesia. Cop Bon (Chow Yun-Fat) has to look after her, actual truths are revealed and naturally, they fall for each other.

Time to bring in that immortal Anthony Wong quote once again; "We put everything into Hong Kong films except knowledge". Director Norman Law not so gently greets us with immigrants on the run, sadistic torture followed by buddy cop comedy shtick and the eventual romance between Chow Yun-Fat and Joey Wong's characters. Considering the fact that we have a few small plot strands instead of one coherent one makes A Hearty Response a prime suspect for one of those made up as they went along productions. When the running time also offers up a scene of Chow asking a kid to urinate into a man's mouth to see if he's faking unconsciousness, you know you're in typical Hong Kong cinema 80s fare. It's not a charming mix, it's not fun and when Norman Law goes all out for the uncomfortable and violent finale, almost all notions of acceptance goes out the window. Despite, A Hearty Response is a decent watch for fans of either stars as they look great together and the various stunts amidst the action choreography is terrific. Kent Cheng briefly appears as a dim-witted cop.

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All round bad luck plagues Mak Don Hugh's (Eric Tsang) life and he of course ends up dying horribly. Meeting demons in the afterlife (with horsemasks), they send him back as he's apparently not supposed to die until three others specifically have. So Mak sets out to try and change his destiny and steps into a murder plot with vicious killers...

Quite gloomy as shot but at the same time broad, David Chiang clearly sets out to mix the two heavily in order for it to meet somewhere in the middle as a darkly comical tale of destiny. While making little sense, the style set is infectious when especially mixing in heavy duty violence vs. Richard Ng as a pipe smoking detective with his own methods. Eric Tsang is therefore not the reason for acknowledging Heaven Can Help but it clearly belongs to the group of 80s new wave efforts with fresh, creative juice and that wasn't afraid of doom and gloom. Especially not comedic doom and gloom. Cherie Chung, Paul Chun and Charlie Chin co-stars.

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UFO produces yet another polished, well-performed vehicle with its stable of stars such as Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and if anything there lies a comfort knowing their movies won't be bottom of the barrel efforts. This one though is a bit too big for its boots but earns fair kudos as satire. Leung plays Fung, a con artist who finds his cash cow in the form of a creation he decides to call Master Da Da. The rather slow Chun (Jordan Chan) gets the honor of being the faith healer in question and is brought in to manipulate the media for the sake of a pop star and even big business out there in the world (including the stock market) is what Da Da is said to be able to predict. He becomes a sensation naturally and the satire of course involves media manipulation, followers believing in anything because of said manipulation but also actual self help not being executed gets a kick in the nads from the creators at UFO. Director Lee Chi-Ngai keeps it all rather slight, light and fun for most of the film and is not aiming for pretentious intelligence. A good stance that scores him points for awareness but the latter, BIG sections of the film are way too cartoony and the grip of satire slips out of the grips of UFO. It's downright impenetrable the final sections of the film. Also starring Bowie Lam, Karen Mok and Jerry Lamb.

Some convoluted nonsense about the girl Fang whose sister dies that then connects to a river goddess that then leads to a war between wizard masters and jewels... the mere curiosity about this low budget black magic movie is the fact that it's a composite of footage the sparse Hong Kong cast & crew shot and an old Thai movie on the same subject. Featuring C-talent from the likes of Witchcraft Vs Curse and Body Lover full on or barely interacting with the original movie (that has significantly lower quality source material, making the cutting back and forth very easy to spot), little fun energy is present aside from footage from the Thai production where the hero Master Linghuan wrestles with the river goddess that comes in the form of an inanimate mini Loch Ness monster with red bulbs in its eyes. Ed Wood would've been proud.

Small time hoodlum Stallone (Nick Cheung) is the witness to a massacre on other small time hoodlums and is also in the possession of money the killer wants. Sgt. Bruce Lee or Y2K (Danny Lee) is assigned the case and is to drag Stallone with him wherever he goes, including home to marriage trouble...

A forced style and poor synch sound recording dominates early but on his own, Nick Cheung scores a little every now and again by tuning his performance to the situation rather than acting outside of it. The fact that he says he watches over all McDonalds restaurants and is the poor victim of a guess the song-game is a testament to slight amusement that comes out of Aman Chang's direction. When paired up 48 Hours-style with Danny Lee, both characters with silly names will get their respective "I learned something today"-moments but duo also produces workable chemistry. It's done on shoestring but far less annoying than it should've been. Helena Law Lan co-stars as Stallone's very socially active and deceptive mom.

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KENNETH'S REVIEW: The veteran cinematographer turned director Lam Gwok-Cheung once more misfires under Golden Harvest (another dud being Mr. BIG). Although lead Ma Man-Ngai presents an unusual strong female heroine, this gangster actioner with some twists, turns, deception and way too many uninteresting characters is a fully forgettable entry in the Golden Harvest catalogue. It seems to be simple enough yet is complex beyond human logic and although the pole vaulting scene out of the ring of fire spices things up briefly, it's indeed briefly.

A trilogy of short stories, containing farce-takes on love and sex, all starring a mostly unbearable Lo Yuen. In "Till We Meet Again", he's a playboy who makes a bet with his friends (one played by Karl Maka) that he will score with a particular beauty within 24 hours. The poor man's Michael Hui in the form of lead Lo goes to work by assaulting and trying to drug the victim of his bet. Some bad taste rears its head indeed and not an ounce of humour, much of which can be applied to the second 30 minute skit "Heart On Her Undies" as well. Here Lo is a race horse broadcaster with women lining up to bed him and his heart-undies. One scene sees Lo basically raping one of the women as someone off-screen is instead describing how to deal with a pig. This bad taste coupled with penis jokes and a Benny Hill emulated score, doesn't fly. Reportedly John Woo handled the last segment called "Little Men's Big Hopes" and here things start to finally get good and bearable. Lo Yuen plays a husband under strict control of his wife and he decides to hire an assassin to kill her. Lo chooses to set the traps himself and of course this backfires. Many surreal tangents and Lee Hoi-Sang as the deranged, very braindead assassin gets this often black and exaggerated short deserved laughs. Lo Yuen is now a bearable poor man's Hui and echoes of what was to come in Woo's filmography can be picked up upon if you will. Such as guns being hidden in pots and the general dark tone to the comedy that become a huge tangent of From Riches To Rags.