Prostitute May Lin (Julia Cheng - Daughter Of Darkness II) finds her friend Nana brutally beaten and tortured. All done by a masked client with a huge streak of sadism. Although the crime is caught on tape and Nana dies, May is accused of her murder and she finds herself on the run from assassins. Getting help from a prosecutor (Kwan Hoi-San), he sends cop Nancy Cheng (Michiko Nishiwaki) to track her down and protect her as they try and turn the case around. Rated Category III for essentially the opening and torture and a non-graphic but disturbing gang rape scene, Wong Gwok-Chue is after telling the story straight and with competence, something that is achieved without it being more than a solid recommendation. Mixing Julia Cheng's grating but energetic performance with Michiko's action skills, Whore And Policewoman is unusually focused stuff from the major year of Category III movies. Michiko Nishiwaki is strangely absent from the finale, possibly due to injury on set. Also with Charlie Cho.

Possibly the quickest start to any stupid horror flick, Wu Kuo-Ren (The Super Ninja) gets our class of archeology students, their teacher (Joyce Ngai) onto a remote island of crackpots (and Shing Fui-On), poor housing and in comes an axe wielding maniac to boot! The youths are obviously too sexual for their own good and too annoying to be alive, something director Wu is quickly and correctly acknowledges as this is a pretty fast paced slaughter-fest. Only slow when forced to be expository, otherwise the standard beheadings, body splits etc are going to be fun for anyone with a weakness for the slasher movie. I'm one and to boot, the story strand of Joyce Ngai returning to her home island comes with a wonderful dream sequence with phallic symbols galore and extensive weirdness. The twist can therefore be spotted a mile away but Who's Killer is not sleep inducing. That's important for a genre entry such as this. Leung Po-Chi's The Island it is similar to in many ways but there actual dread was accomplished. Wu's intentions are different and it's as valid of a movie therefore.

Re-uniting the cast and themes of Peter Chan's critically successful box office smash He's A Woman, She's A Man from 1994, story picks up as Wing (Anita Yuen) and Sam (Leslie Cheung) embark on their journey as lovers. Chaos is soon in Sam's lives as Wing brings with her friends and an energy he's not able to cope with. Auntie (Eric Tsang) suggests keeping her busy by re-igniting Wing's career as a male pop star and through the re-appearance of retired superstar Fan Fan (Anita Mui), a complicated love triangle starts. While the energy is there in the performers and the script isn't the laziest, the makers are not able to catch the magic once again despite going for a quite wacky and emotional core. By no means a waste and despite a hefty running time, there's enough pleasure watching superstar performers be comfortable and likeable. Jordan Chan and Teresa Lee co-stars in their own romantic comedy section of the movie where Chan tries to win her over by appearing more and more feminine as the movie runs along.

Conjures up intentions and goals but strikes out quite distinctly, Andy Chin's twentysomething drama about friends Gigi (Ellen Chan), Bobo (Ivy Leung) and Jane (Rachel Lee) contains the professional touch via the use of synch sound but little overall that resonates. Basically a simple tale of girls (and supporting character gallery containing men) in need to grow up, embark on career attempts as secretary or actresses but they are girls (and men) that are stuck in development. So they favour their loose side, playing and immoral acts such as spying on their neigbours (object of desire being the character of Mike, played by Ekin Cheng). Moral of the story is that life hurts, especially when you reap the consequences of your actions and then the movie stops for an end credits dance number! No, it's not director Chin using an open end for almost all characters, disguised as a brave filmmaking choice. Why Wild Girls simply seems to run out of film or competence (or it's in fact cut on Ocean Shores dvd). On the positive side of things, Rachel Lee is wonderful, in both bubbly mode and during the emotional detours her character takes. Chan Kwok-Bong, Kenneth Chan, Fan Yik-Man, Jamie Luk and Kingdom Yuen also appear.

It's hard initially to differentiate Johnny Wang's gangster actioner from many others of the time but when it starts to live up to its title and the girls take center stage, Wang injects sparks into the film. Featuring a well-choreographed gym fight involving Kara Hui and Michiko Nishiwaki and several instances of brutal violence (not an uncommon trait in Wang's films), Widow Warriors becomes an entertaining time with the genre. The gunplay comes off as less refined while film speeds are not utilized well during one fight, definite negatives in Wang's frame. Tien Niu is watchable as one of the feisty widows who takes the greatest responsibility after the males of the crime family are wiped out. Also starring Elizabeth Lee, Michael Chan, Phillip Chan, Ha Chia Ling, Liu Fan, Ken Lo and Sek Kin.

Wild was Billy Tang's first film after a lengthy break from an acclaimed string of Category III movies and while he's working with a Cat IIb rating here, much is not sacrificed. Wild is just less explicit but the erotica is still steamy enough. No nudity for Francoise Yip though boys but the slick style of Tang's is given a decent vehicle. Yip plays a girl on the run from her Mainland village and hooks up with a gang of thieves (led by Bowie Lam with one of the henchmen played by Simon Loui who also did the score). What follows is a desperate run from police but more importantly, the characters are running from their past in hope for a better future. That's pretty much all that's told in Wild, enveiled in a subdued but more than often fairly appealing visual palette that sustains interest. Even though Tang is not working with regular cinematographer Tony Miu, Cheung Man Po more than adequately collaborates with Tang to bring his ideas to the screen.

Wild undoubtedly is pretty uninteresting since the characters are really in no way sympathetic or appealing but the combination of erotica, visuals and a slight thematic works fine for the fans of Billy Tang even though it's not excess akin to Red To Kill and Run And Kill.

In Ringo's first solo directing venture since 2003's Looking For Mister Perfect, there are moments of in particular his eye for the violent and the simple story template could reveal enough engaging character drama but he can’t claw himself back into that engaging mode. Not so much because of the China co-production aspect or that he was too old to apply his action on the streets of Hong Kong. This one simply doesn’t come to life despite the assets being there. As he kicks off his chase scenario by a Taiwanese gang of a girl, a bag of money and the two brothers that get involved (ex-cop and ex-crmininal played by Louis Koo and Shawn Yue) there are good signs of Ringo still not messing around as evident by an early stabbing. A few beats in a car chase involving a tow truck are very sharp and realistic as well but then not much is increased and built upon in terms of tension and action. Lam wants to rely on the characters and despite their dynamic being very coherent and approachable, his touch for this has been way sharper in the past. Which makes Louis Koo and Shawn Yue quite anonymous as performers. There is escalation of the grim towards the back end of the film, especially in how Lam shows innocents perishing in the midst of primal need for revenge but way too sparse instances of this and a self important stance on how psychologically this scenario affects the characters sinks Wild City into a basic but mediocre time. Co-starring Tong Li-Ya, Michael Tse, Joseph Chiang, Jack Kao, Yuen Qiu and Simon Yam.

Inappropriately overstuffed, somehow The Wild Girls comes out as a minor winner with skills shown within a very low budget frame in how to move all of the crowd populating its world along swiftly. Centering mainly around Stuart Ong's gambling habit and excessive debts with triads, he abuses his wife and through some ill plotting with one of his assistant she is left dead. Before her death she signed her life insurance away from her desperate husband and now more join the hunt for money. All while Lee Chung-Ling is sort of involved with the wife's death but acting on a minor plot point of his own, Charlie Cho runs a phone sex service with his wife and we get unwarranted sex scenes after ending reel tragedy. Within this very plain frame, director Cheung Sek-Lung disturbs more when pushing the degrading and harsh buttons but at the same time the direction is static almost all throughout. But by continually adding elements (even Michael Chan turns up and hence the movie has a fight scene), it's entertaining to watch The Wild Girls fill up so much while never being boring.

Justifiable cheating is the agenda of the characters played by James Wong, Tommy Wong and Lam Lei. Being businessmen on a trip to Korea, the latter two follow the advice of their Godfather of sexual practices but when feelings towards the women enter the frey, they break away from the words of "wisdom". Very offensive if you want it to be but a tiny little, naughty heart resides in the film. Basically Wong's pupils want care and love, not necessarily an urban, sexy time with prostitutes and with the master having an answer or a piece of wisdom to anything they might encounter, the name of the game is for a long time paying for casual sex. The sight of a sexually frustrated Tommy Wong is gold but when director Simon Yip does take the flick into something akin to serious, the consequences of the trio isn't portrayed in any felt fashion. It tries with some sappy romance but is more fun when the consequences are about the possibility of sexually transmitted diseases. Know the agenda you're clearly better at, Mr. Director. Also with Elsie Chan, Kathy Chow and Wong Yat-Fei as the VD Doctor. The duo of James Wong and Tommy Wong would go on to roam in a similar manner in Stooges In Hong Kong and Stooges In Japan.

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