This is one of those HK films which will have you shaking your head in disbelief, as it rampages from near-slapstick through to harrowing nastiness. Wong plays a mild-mannered trucker - anyone familiar with Wong's career should immediately know he won't stay mild-mannered forever. And so it proves, though it takes his wife being forced into prostitution and his son horribly injured, before this worm turns, with the aid of the "reformed" serial-killer next door. There's obviously an element of parody here: the killer (Ng) is aping Simon Yam's performance in Dr Lamb, while when Wong starts shouting about BBQ pork buns, it's clearly a reference to his role in
The Untold Story. But for every subtle reference, there's a joke about knobs, or a comedy loan-shark routine. Ng is great, though, and the psycho-next-door is an idea worthy of better development. Wong is watchable as ever, yet only gets to run amok right at the end, a waste of his talents in this area. It would have been better off going for the pure horror Lam is clearly capable of, rather than diluting the effect with poor attempts at humour.
C-
