Zodiac Killers
Director: Ann Hui
Year: 1991
Rating: 5.0
What a relentlessly downbeat film this Ann Hui
film was to the very last frame. I should have read the summary
in the HK Database first because then I would not have been expecting this
film to be a serial killer movie. Finally, after some forty minutes had passed
and no one yet killed, I read it and it told me what I was beginning to dread
– a totally misleading title. No serial killers. No Zodiac anything.
Instead, the story revolves around a few Chinese students who have
come to Tokyo to study. Life is not pleasant for them. One of them is Andy
Lau who spends most of his time earning money by touting for sex bars. One
night another Chinese ex-pat takes him to a hostess bar where he meets Cherie
Chung, another Chinese student, who hates working in the bar, but needs to
earn money. He immediately falls for her, but she is in love with a Yakuza
on the outs with his boss. She gets dragged into the Yakazu affairs and Andy
gets involved as well. None of it comes out very well for them or the viewer.
There are a couple excellent action scenes and if the film had more of
an emotional connection or was a little more upbeat, it could have been an
interesting story. But it is difficult to care about the fate of any of the
characters. One has to wonder whether the Japanese produced this to frighten
Chinese from ever coming to Japan to study or live! Much of the film is in
Japanese.
