Rating: C+
Dir: Ngai Kam Lam
Star: Maggie Cheung, Chow Yun-Fat, Chor Yuen, Elvis Tsui
First the good news: Cheung, Chow and a lot of gore combine in the HK horror pic about a guy who returns to the Thai jungle to break a curse placed on him by an evil sorceror. Now, the bad news: Maggie is in the “Dr.Who assistant” role (run around, scream, get captured, get rescued, run around, scream…), while Chow’s role is minor and he smokes a pipe, which looks silly. However, the worst thing is that the special effects here are mainly ludicrously bad puppets, totally laughable rather than scary. It takes a LOT of disbelief to get over these, but I did just about manage it, helped by berserk pacing and a total disregard for continuity when any plot threatened to interfere. Late on a Friday night, after the pub, this might just be the best movie you’ve ever seen; under less friendly circumstances, it won’t stand up anywhere near as well.