image courtesy of www.sensasian.com
Rating:
4
AKA: The New Dr. Lamb, Trust Me You Die
Year of release: 1999
Company: Team Dream Production
Genre: horror
Running time: 94 min.
Director: Billy Chung
Script: Law Kam Fai
Action director: Wong Yat Lung
Producer: Charles Tang
Cinematography: Daniel Chan
Editor: Chiang Kwok Kuen
Music: Chow Kam Cheung
Stars: Simon Yam, Mark Cheng, Sam Lee, Joey Tan
Rated IIB for violence and sexual situations
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This DVD is available for purchase at www.sensasian.com
Trust Me U Die
Simon Yam. Image courtesy of Universe.
There was a time where you could depend on any horror/exploitation movie featuring Simon Yam to be good stuff. But sadly, as the Hong Kong movie industry has fallen a bit over the past few years, so has Yam's track record, mostly due to below-par films like Trust Me U Die. It's nowhere near as good as its' spiritual predecessors such as Dr. Lamb (the alternate title of The New Dr. Lamb is merely a shameless attempt to cash in on that movie's good name), and even die-hard Simon Yam fans would be hard-pressed to find the choice bits in here.
What makes matters worse is that Trust Me U Die initially shows a lot of promise. The film begins with a strange dream sequence, and then we come to Simon, who plays a doctor living in England and developing a "super steroid" that will cure most any disease. Simon's boss (the mandatory nasty gweilo in the movie) wants to steal his work, so of course Simon kills the guy. Heading back to Hong Kong, Simon (along with his girlfriend/assistant, Joey Tan) meets up with his old college buddy Mark Cheng, who seems to be a nice enough guy besides the fact that he sells organs on the black market, and then later drugs Joey so he can have his way with her. Eventually, Mark and Joey start having an affair -- once Simon finds out, he starts to use Mark and other paitents at a clinic to test out his steroid, with predictably bad results.
This could have been a good movie -- the plot could have formed the base of a great gross-out flick -- but Billy Chung's direction is so lackluster, it's damn near pathetic. The actors look to be sleepwalking through their roles; we never get a sense of who they really are or why they act the way they do. Even Simon Yam, normally one of the most powerful actors in Hong Kong, seems to be in a stupor, lost as to whether to make his character sympathetic or a psycho.
Joey Tan. Image courtesy of Universe.
Trust Me U Die's script is also abysmal. The movie suffers from "swiss cheese syndrome" -- there are plot holes that you could drive a truck through (not the least of which is how Simon could just up and leave to HK after killing his boss), and the pacing is just horrible. There is a character played by Sam Lee that a lot of time is spent on, but really adds nothing to the movie. By the time the rotting flesh and dead bodies come around, I really wasn't all that interested, and the gore effects weren't all that great as to get any real excitement and shock; I've seen better stuff on those medical shows on cable.
Maybe you think the T&A might save Trust Me U Die. Well, then, I have two words for you: Sam Lee. If I never see Sam Lee in another sex scene, I can die a happier man. I had to wash out my eyes after seeing him doing the horizontal bop, and seeing him wanking off and ejaculating was almost too disgusting for words. On the female side, Joey Tan is hot, but she doesn't even show as much as an ass crack, so why bother? Supposedly, she was a bit inhibited because she was a beauty pageant winner -- but even Chingmy Yau managed to display a bit of skin from time to time. Why bother putting a female lead not willing to do nudity into a role like this? I guess the IIB rating might have inhibited things a bit, but quite honestly, I've seen steamier sex scenes on episodes of "NYPD Blue".
Anyhow, there are a few good things about Trust Me U Die. I thought the film had a nice visual style that you normally don't find in genre movies like this, and the musical score (which is heavy on English-language rock) was quite well-done. And from time to time, Trust Me U Die does show glimmers of hope. There are a few scenes which do manage to generate some thrills, but as a whole it doesn't manage to keep that rush going. There are just too many ups and downs, too many plot holes, too much bad dialogue, too much time wasted to make Trust Me U Die anything other than (very mildly) recommended viewing for Simon Yam completists.
