Yu ye tian mo

The place is in mainland China. A serial killer is on the loose, and it's up to detective played by Chingmy Yau to catch the killer.

The movie has a mainland China feel to it, and no wonder ! it's been produced by a company in Shentzen China. Ironically because of this, it looks very much like the HK cinema that's produced these days. In this sense, this movie was very much ahead of its time.

Chingmy Yau plays a detective in mainland China. This was her first role after her spectacular success in The Naked Killer, and I almost couldn't recognize her because she looks like she's aged 10 years since The Naked Killer. That success must have cost her a lot in terms of energy. Few years later she tells Minpo magazine that if she were to be reborn, she would like to be an immortal - in Chinese this means free from the life of humanity. Her status as a sex symbol must have been a tremendous burden for her. Even then, she looks great in this movie.

The movie holds together because of Chingmy Yau. If it was done by any other actor it would have been totally out of focus. That's the greatness of these HK super stars. Only few women reached that level even in HK cinema.

A great movie that's made like a Chinese version of the Silence of the Lambs. A movie that's got a very different look and feel from the usual HK movie because of it's origin.

Worth a watch.