Bloody Secret (2000)

Rating: D-

Dir: Alan Chui
Starring: Ray Lui, Karel Wong, Lisa Lu, Anthony Wong

It’s never a good sign when the sleeve and the titles on a movie can’t agree what it’s called. Blood Secret or Bloody Secret? You decide… Either way, it isn’t really worth your time, not least because, despite Anthony Wong’s prominent cover pic, he dies before the first 20 minutes are up. Your interest will probably do likewise. He is a student in Japan, who stumbles across evidence proving the Japanese invasion of Manchuria was an act of aggression – still a big thing over there, largely because extreme right-wing groups in Japan still deny it, the Nanking Massacre, etc. One such group becomes aware of the evidence, but before they get Wong, he passes the disc onto a friend (Lui). The chase is then on, back from Japan to mainland China – who can he trust?

Does nobody know how to copy a floppy? Hey, this is the year 2000 – why not post the evidence on the Internet? Such logical steps escape the hero here. Instead, he heads back home for a particularly tiresome subplot involving his girlfriend, who has become a sleazy nightclub singer, in order to pay the medical bills of the hero’s father. Of course, her boss has ties to the rightists. Some of the action isn’t bad – unfortunately, just about everything else is deeply lacking in interest. On the plus side, I did get the bedroom tidied up while the movie was on.