Zodiac Killers
1992
Director: Ann Hui
Stars: Andy Lau, Cherie Chung
This dark and depressing movie can't seem to decide whether it's a Wong Kar-Wai character study or John Woo actioner. The basic plot revolves around some Chinese students studying in Tokyo. The first half (the WKW part) deals with the characters' feelings of loss in being so close, yet so far from home, and then when Chung starts dating a Yakuza, the movie develops into your typical action/crime movie. The two genres really don't mesh together well, especially when the whole movie moves at a snail's pace. It really didn't help matters any that I didn't care about the characters at all; they aren't even interesting to watch. This is an interesting experiment and a noble effort that ultimately fails in its' execution.
RATING: 4
A review of the VCD for this movie can be found here