Guns & Roses
Director: Phillip Ko
Year: 1993
Rating: 2.0
This Hong Kong film should not be confused with
the Hong Kong film named Gun N' Rose or pretty much any other film that isn't
completely wretched. Though this was released in 1993 I have to suspect that
it may have been shot at the same time as Killer's Romance in 1990 as they
both star Simon Yam, Phillip Ko and Luk Cheun, both were directed by Phillip
Ko and both take place in London. But Killer's Romance was decent enough
while this one feels like it was shot during bathroom breaks. And was probably
released three years later when no one was looking. The least you might expect
from a film with this title and starring the three already mentioned plus
Wilson Lam and Robin Shou is a fistful of action but there is basically none
until the final fifteen minutes and that is poorly done. It is more of a
turgid melodrama about people I am not even mildly interested in and never
will be. And you get the feeling that they just sort of added things as the
filming went on - oh Wilson Lam is in town - let's get him for a few days
and build a plot around him.
To be brief because to be otherwise would be cruel and unusual punishment
on any reader. Simon is living in London without any particular job but manages
to gamble at a high class club nightly. He has an assortment of guns and
shoots one outside his window in the suburbs explaining to his friend that
in London everyone has a gun and this is no big deal. He has a sort of girlfriend
played by Sakakibara Yoshie, who I can't find anything about on the Internet.
Maybe she decided acting wasn't for her after this and became a nun. She
is a manager of projects and while trying to get one in Paris she is stuck
in the rain till a friendly man hands her his umbrella and disappears like
the Lone Ranger - but a song breaks out as she wistfully gazes at her umbrella
and you know they are fated to meet again. And they are - he is Robin Shou
an illegal immigrant who wants to bring his mother and sister over before
1997.
He gets in trouble and goes to London to see his long time friend - who of
course turns out to be Simon. Wilson shows up about half way through and
is the long lost brother of Yoshie. And they all hang out. Another song plays
as they run around London having fun. One of them comes down with the dreaded
leucocythemia and given three months to live and I think to myself - lucky
you will get out of this film. At the end there is a big fight and that is
about it.
