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Deadful Melody

AKA: Dreadful Melody, Deadly Melody

1993

Director: Ng Min Kan

Stars: Brigette Lin, Yuen Biao, Carina Lau, Wu Ma, Elvis Tsui

A more fitting title for this should be "Deadful Movie." The actors involved should be enough to push this into at least an average rating, but the total lack of a script and lame special effects push it down into to the depths of bad B-movie hell.

The plot deals with a deadly harp (ooooh, scary!) which is in the hands of a witch played by Brigette Lin. Apparently, when Lin plays the harp, a lot of pretty colors come out and people die. So, of course, every clan in the land wants it. And that's the main problem with Deadful Melody (besides a stupid title). There are just way too many characters in the mix -- there are really no heroes to root for or villains to boo. Even though Yuen Biao is the defacto hero of this movie, his status as that character is undermined by some really lame scriptwriting that depends way too much on plot twists rather than plot construction and/or exposition.

If there had been some decent action in this movie, I may have been able to forgive some of its' shortcomings. But the fights here consist mostly of people getting "hit" by badly animated lasers or whatever from the harp. There's next to no real action in here, and as such, there's next to no real excitement or any real reason to watch it unless you are a masochistic fan of Yuen Biao or Brigette Lin.

RATING: 3

A review of the DVD for this movie can be found here

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