Moh ying

This is an extremely obscure late HK genre flick. Growing up, a young kid gets beaten by his abusive mother, who won't let him read comic books. One day, he finds her dead in the apartment while the police are looking for a criminal. He blames this man for her death. All grown up, the guy has become a comic artist, and channels his memories into a new hit comic called "The Devil Shadow." It's around here that the film falls apart. He's engaged to one woman, but starts an affair with another at a comic shop, though this may or may not just be a part of the comic he is drawing. There's a creepy guy who occasionally messages him online, he's constantly fighting with his boss about money, etc.This film seems to have no idea where it wants to go. It starts like a serious domestic/crime drama, has long digressions into romance, a supernatural martial arts fight toward the end, and vaguely gestures toward being a horror movie in the last 20 minutes. It's a shame, because there's a lot of good raw material here. The film actually does an excellent job of painting the milieu of its artist characters, and I found them interesting and engaging, particularly the conflicted protagonist. It's a shame they're left adrift in this amorphous mass of a movie.

Year

2000

Duration

5220 min

Type

Movie