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Revenge

1990

Director: Kam Chu Pak

Stars: Muk Tak Lo, Cheung Ying Jan, Cheung Shun Kam

This movie is so cheesy and low-budget that you might either love or hate it. The plot has the daughter of a dai lo playing off two members of the gang. This disgraces daddy and gives him a heart attack, after which there is a power struggle. The daughter attempts to take leadership, but none of the boys will respect her unless she has some muscle to back her up. So she goes back to one of the men she played, who tells her to go to hell just as some assassins show up. Luckily, a Shaolin boxing coach shows up and saves the day, so the daughter shacks up with the coach and his own daughter. After a long while of domestic "bliss", the coach's daughter is killed, setting up the revenge of the title.

As I said before, this movie is extremely low-budget -- so much so that the sound effects when people are hit sound like a wiffle ball bat rather than hard contact. They obviously had no budget for sets -- most of the movie takes place in open fields, beaches, a house or an apartment (the same ones are repeated throughout the film). The actors are generally horrible. Revenge sports the worst kid actor I have ever seen -- yes, even more annoying than the little twerp from Rumble in the Bronx. Also, the plot doesn't make much sense, since the dai lo's daughter ends up hooking up with one of her original two boyfriends anyway. Couldn't they have just done that at the beginning and saved us from having to watch an hour of bad melodrama? The action scenes are strange as well. Probably due to the low budget, the fights consists of swords and sais rather than guns. This is probably a good thing, judging by how lousy of shots these guys are when they finally get guns (they manage to miss a stationery car with a shotgun).

Revenge is a huge mess of a movie. If you want a serious Triad action/drama, look elsewhere. But if you're in the mood for something that you can quaff a few brews with your buddies and make fun of, this should fit the bill nicely.

RATING: 5

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