Web of Deception
Apparently this film received some sort of “worst
movie of the year” award in 1997, but perhaps I was in a forgiving mood
while watching it because I am sure I have seen much worse! Actually I
think I would prefer watching this again to the big budget film - A Man
Called Hero.
Admittedly very little in the film makes a
lot of sense or is at all realistic or in anyway logical – but if you don’t
worry about those sort of trivial matters – each scene taken by itself
is not too bad. Just don’t try and tie it all together.
Francoise Yip is a hard driving successful
fund manager in HK and has her fund heavily invested in Japanese equities.
After the Kobe earthquake the Nikkei plunges like Pang Dan’s neckline and
she frantically tries to come up with an investment with quick high returns.
She is invited to a meeting with the head of a large Indonesian corporation
who offers her the opportunity to invest in their take over bid of another
company. After checking to make sure that his picture is on the company’s
webpage and five minutes of research, she wires $100 million dollars to
him!
Not a real thorough vetting process and sure enough
it is a scam as the man she met turns out not to be head of the company
and the $100 million is long gone. She learns this when she goes to the
company and the head turns out to be Michael Chow and he soon finds out
that he too is the victim of a scam.
Diana Pang Dan plays his very cool efficient
secretary who turns out to be something of a femme fatale. Her role is
not very robust, but she does thankfully have one totally gratuitous scene
where she does a little dance and strip in front of a window for no particular
reason. It was highly appreciated, but unfortunately the lights went out
at the crucial time. Don’t you hate that!
Anyway, both Michael and Francoise are soon also
framed for murder and are on the run from the cops. Much of the filming
took place in Indonesia so that was interesting. Though initially they
can’t stand each other, you know it is just a matter of time until they
slap the monkey and sure enough one moonlit night on the beach they get
down and play house in the sand. At one point during the proceedings Wong
exclaims “Stop, don’t move!” Is there danger lurking? In a sense yes –
as he is just about to lose control – and I don’t think he brought a condom
with him! Francoise though smiles wickedly and makes one little thrust
and it is all over – game, set and match.
There is also a fair amount of action – primarily
from Wong – but Francoise delivers a few good kicks as well. None of what
happens is particularly surprising or really all that interesting – but
I would not say that it was one of the worst films out of HK. It is sort
of on the level of many low budget cable made suspense films, but with
much better action sequences and two very sexy women.
My rating for this film: 5.5