Review | Limbo movie review: Hong Kong crime thriller starring Lam Ka-tung, Mason Lee and Cya Liu sees director Soi Cheang return to his nihilistic best
- Two policeman hunt a serial killer who murders and mutilates outcast women in this monochromatic noir set in a city rotten to the ground
- Chinese actress Cya Liu is the real star of this tale of salvation, with her display of desperation likely to stay with you long after the film has ended
4/5 stars
A monochromatic noir set in a city rotten to the ground, Limbo has distant echoes of Dog Bite Dog and Shamo, two of Cheang’s nihilistic early efforts that briefly earned him the label of cult director.
His new film, scripted for the screen by Au Kin-yee and Shum Kwan-sin, is officially an adaptation of Chinese author Lei Mi’s novel Wisdom Tooth. But this bleak murder thriller doesn’t hide its intent to symbolise the lawless state of Hong Kong in recent years – with subtle hints of reality, such as snippets of radio news faintly heard on top of the rumbling soundtrack.
The duo is on the hunt of a serial killer, but Lau’s attention is repeatedly distracted by his own traumatic past. It transpires that Lau’s wife was the victim of a car accident caused by a young woman, Wong To (Cya Liu Ya-se), a small-time criminal and drug addict who is fresh out of prison.
Barely able to contain his urge to see Wong dead, Lau cruelly makes her an enemy to all her contacts in the underworld. Yet things get out of control when the vulnerable Wong also becomes targeted by the psychopath on the loose.
One complaint that viewers could make against Limbo is the way it keeps the killer’s backstory opaque.
Portrayed as a wild animal by a Japanese actor familiar to fans of Hong Kong cinema, the character’s penchant for hunting down women who are outcasts, as well as cutting off their left hands with a blunt tool, demands more explanation than the scant psychological profile offered here.
While her visceral turn as the guilt-ridden Wong may be at the service of a misogynistic plot, the actress’s display of desperation stays with you like a living nightmare.
