Run and Kill
1993
Director: Billy Tang
Stars: Kent Cheng, Simon Yam, Melvin Wong, Danny Lee
A businessman (Kent Cheng) catches his wife boffing the neighbor, so he heads to the local watering hole. In a drunken state, he orders a "hit" on his wife. When he is unable to pay the hitmen, they begin to put the squeeze on him by blowing up his store. Cheng enlists the aid of one of his friends (Melvin Wong), but the gang proves too powerful and kills Wong, which makes his brother (Simon Yam) come for revenge against Cheng.
I've seen quite a number of Category III movies, but very few of them come close to matching the intensity and brutality of this film. While it starts off slowly (unlike most Cat III movies, there's no breasts or blood for the first fifteen minutes or so), Run and Kill builds up to a powerful climax as Cheng turns the tables on his attackers. One sequence has Yam lighting Cheng's daughter on fire (all the while imitating her) and then later Cheng carries around the burnt body. This is definitely not stuff for the squeamish -- I won't even get into how some of the characters are tortured.
Putting the violence aside, what sets Run and Kill apart from many other Cat III movies are the performances of the actors. Of course, Simon Yam -- as always -- gives a great turn as a psychotic killer (and still looks suave even though he is a sleazeball), but it is Kent Cheng's performance that provides the movie's solid anchor. It's some really impressive work that turns something which could easily have turned into comedy or schlock horror into one of Hong Kong's most shocking Cat III movies to date.
RATING: 8.5
A review of the VCD for this movie can be found here