God.com


Director: Ivan Lai
1998
Rating: 5.5
Duration: 87 minutes

It is always good to see an “end of the world is coming right around the corner” film some eleven years afterwards when you don’t have to worry they may be right. Now of course we have the film 2012 coming up which foretells the end of earth based on the Mayans of all people. Geez, now I have to start storing food supplies again. Anyway, the oddest thing about God.com is that it has absolutely nothing to do with the Internet but it does have a solid cast and is a mishmash of guilt, sex, religion, death and the supernatural that should have been much sleazier than it was. Based slightly it seems on a true mass death incident in Kowloon, it begins with the discovery of a small group of dead people found in an apartment. They were members of a weird Christian cult and were going through a mystical ritual to extend their lives. It clearly did not go quite as planned as it appears they were poisoned and the money being used for the ceremony was stolen (try dieting and exercise next time). One woman named Ching (Zuki Lee) is still alive and Officer Chan (Louis Koo) hopes he can get some answers from her.

 

Chan brings Ching’s roommate Ying (the delectable Grace Lam who has issues keeping her clothes on in most films) to the hospital to look after her and in the best scene of the movie Ching starts having visions of snakes and goes into a violent frenzy until all her blood arteries pop and she dies. Ying says that her friend was a disciple of the Church of True God headed by the charismatic Pope (Andrew Lin Hoi) and that she will pretend to join them and spy on them. Sure – you are cute, you are hot – so why not, says Chan in his usual clear-headed manner. He goes to another officer for advice – of the supernatural kind. Every morning Officer Chiu (Anthony Wong) has fellow officers lined up outside his office seeking his fortune telling skills – such as one guy who shows Chiu a picture of the girl he wants to marry and Chiu tells him that because “she has an ass like a duck, she will kill him with constant sex” and by the way, what’s her telephone number. An ass like a duck. I have to remember that one just in case.
 

The film swishes back and forth from present to past as Chan wrestles with demons from his childhood, Chiu wrestles with guilt for not having stopped another cult like madman (Mark Cheng) before he killed years ago and Pope is predicting the end of the world on 01/01/99 and telling his followers that all will be forgiven so they may as well have an orgy now. Cult leaders have all the fun. Emily Kwan also shows up at his disciple who has to hook to make enough money to pay membership fees and takes out her frustration on her husband and son when clients complain about her proselytizing during intercourse.
 

Koo goes through much of the film with a blank stare but I expect this was intentional to show his character’s traumatized soul – or maybe he just wasn’t getting enough sleep. Kind of by the numbers but with just enough jolts of violence and nudity to keep you mildly interested; it was a film that came and went in the blink of an eye.

My rating for this film: 5.5