Die Harder
1995
Director: Lam Yee Hung
Stars: Lily Chung, Ben Ng, Linda Cheung, Cheung Gwok Leung, Wong Wan Choi
Judging from the cover art, I thought this might be a good HK ripoff/remake of the US movie. But this is just your average mid-90's cheap Triad action/drama with little to distinguish it besides a decent performance from ultra-cute Lily Chung and a really good A Better Tomorrow 2-style mansion shootout at the end. It suffers from similar problems like films of its ilk at the time -- a plodding script, generic characters that aren't developed well, too many cliches (it's the old "undercover cop who gets in too deep" thing again) and, most of all, next to no budget. The movie is so cheap that you can obviously tell some scenes were shot day-for-night (one case in particular: during a nighttime scene, daylight can clearly be seen through the blinds of a room). If you want to see a good HK ripoff of Die Hard, check out Wong Jing's High Risk instead. Save this movie for a day when don't have anything better to do and you've exhausted the supply at your local video store.
RATING: 5.5