Revenge: A Love Story

Starring: Juno Mak Chun-lung, Sora Aoi, Lau Wing, Chin Siu-ho, Tony Ho Wah-chiu Director: Wong Ching-po Category: III (Cantonese)

There's little to love in this tawdry story, so devoid of credible characters and plot that a viewer is more likely to shudder with disbelief than horror. It's a case of diminishing returns for director-writer Wong Ching-po, as each successive feature reveals less evidence of the promise of his indie days and debut commercial feature, Jiang Hu (2004).

Revenge: A Love Story does have style but it serves little purpose in a superficial, pseudo-philosophical scenario that rarely comes to life and, despite an abundance of spilled plasma, fails as an edge-of-your-seat experience.

We never get to know the young couple at the movie's centre, Chan Kit (Juno Mak, right, under Chin Siu-ho) and Cheung Wing (Sora Aoi), except that they live in a remote village where he works in a shop and is infatuated with the mildly retarded high-school nymphet.

Nor do we learn much about the five cops who intrude on the lovebirds' lives apart from their one-dimensional moral corruption. The film makes use of some off-the-beaten-track Hong Kong locales, but the effect is neutered by the clich?d nature of inhabitants and situations.

The script gives Kit plenty of justification for his rampage without providing plausibility for his becoming a killing machine. At one point, the seemingly unskilled lad somehow manages to overcome an armed guard and single-handedly transport a hospital patient - life support system intact - to an ambulance for a daring getaway.