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Beyond Hypothermia
Year: 1996
Wu Chien-Lien
Director: Patrick Leung Pak-Kin
Producer: Johnnie To Kei-Fung
Cast: Wu Chien-Lien (Ng Sin-Lin), Lau Ching-Wan, Han Sang-Woo, Shirley Wong
The Skinny: Bloody, stylish and incredibly violent. This ridiculous action thriller manages to conquer its implausibilites to deliver a satisfying genre experience.
Review
by Kozo:
     In the strangest career move since Geena Davis and Cutthroat Island, Wu Chien-Lien gets tough and plays a cold-blooded (literally) assassin who’s tired of the life and longs to be human. Despite being locked into a destructive relationship with her Cambodian foster aunt (Shirley Wong), she finds some small attraction to a simple noodle-maker (Lau Ching Wan) and starts to make a connection. 
     But evil Koreans are after her. Led by a vicious Han Sang-Woo (who possesses that dangerous prettyboy look), they seek revenge for the murder of their boss. Typically enough, IT ALL GOES TO HELL. 
     This film treads on territory previously mined by Michelle Reis in The Other Side of the Sea and Anita Yuen in Taste of Killing and Romance. Needless to say, it’s hard to believe any of these women are cold-blooded killers, especially the petite and fragile-looking Wu Chien-Lien. Still, she handles the role with dignity, and Lau Ching-Wan provides the requisite humanity as her noodle-maker suitor. 
     Director Patrick Leung does some fine work and if it weren’t for the sheer ludicrousness of the plot, he’d have made an absolutely killer flick. As it is, it’s stylish, blood-soaked, and a worthy watch. Despite an abrupt and rather dark ending, the film delivers with HK panache not seen since the days of John Woo. (Kozo 1996)
 

image courtesy of Mei Ah Laser Disc Co., Ltd.

   
 
 
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