Red Panther Film Review

This is an obscure Hong Kong film filled mainly with obscure actors and an obscure director. Yet, it still manages to be quite an effective thriller at times. A Jack the Ripper in Hong Kong. But sadly it bounces back and forth between tension and some terrible crass comedy that lands like a jumper from the fifteenth floor. This had the potential to be a forerunner of the Cat III maniac films of the 1990s. Hints of films such as The Untold Story and Dr. Lamb are in this. If only they had played it straight all the way through. It also has a lovely Hong Kongish vibe to it as most of the scenes take place in the lower class milieu of the city. And everyone is very Hong Kong i.e. a dick. Either rude, insulting, uncaring or uncharitable. Nobody gives a damn about anyone else.

People are being murdered and organs removed in the city with enough precision for the cops to think the killer must have medical training. Enter a couple suspicious doctors and a wannabe doctor into the story. Investigating the murders is Lei (James Yi Lui) an idiot cop with hangdog looks, a porno mustache, a bleeding ass, an itch to screw a nurse (Margaret Lee Din-long) and a nagging mother (veteran actress Chan Lan-bap). When I write veteran, I mean 450 acting credits going back to 1949. The film only focuses on a few characters, so you can be pretty sure one of them is the killer, but it still comes as a surprise. No, not the mother. Though that would have been great.

All we see is a small black bag being carried letting us know that a murder is about to take place. One is in one of those bathroom toilet stalls with the hole in the ground and no toilet paper. I have been there. Another in a booth in a hostess bar. Not been there. The final section with the killer chasing a drugged Lei through the hospital and morgue is nicely done. But the film could easily have gone without the bleeding ass and the vomiting. Directed by Kong Lung who only has a few other credits and a couple names that one would recognize - Phillip Chan in a cameo as what else, a cop who beats up a suspect, Lawrence Cheng as the creepy wannabe doctor and Mama Hung (Sammo's mother) is at the birthday party.