The late 1990's was overall a low point financially for the Hong Kong film world. Before Shaolin Soccer brought local audiences back into the cinemas and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon resuscitated foreign markets and their investors, many stars who enjoyed successful careers during Hong Kong film's "golden age" a decade before found themselves struggling for work in order to pay the bills.

Such is the case with Yuen Wah, a veteran martial arts actor and Peking Opera school classmate of Jackie Chan's that starred in numerous box office hits during the 80's and 90's, including being the lead villain in Chan's Police Story 3: Supercop. 2000's The Devil Shadow marks the sort of movie work Yuen was participating in at this point in his career, a cheaply made and boring affair really only notable as being one of the few times that he has been seen onscreen clean-shaven.

Even though this production was shat out with the quickness to make a few bucks, not surprisingly, no one actually profited from their association with this endeavor. According to the Hong Kong Movie Database, The Devil Shadow took in HK$890, which equates to about 114 US dollars. Ouch. Shockingly, this is not the lowest box office total for a movie released cinematically in Hong Kong.

That particular honor (or, more appropriately, dishonor) goes to Psychedelic Cop, a 2002 Danny Lee cop thriller that eked out HK$330, or US$42 during its' one day run. In its' defense, although it is a very flawed movie, Psychedelic Cop at least delivers some entertainment. On the other hand, The Devil Shadow alternates being dull and confusing, coming off like the film-makers were making things up as they went along, which may not be that far off from the truth, as this is just sloppy film-making from beginning to end.

Ostensibly, The Devil Shadow is a horror/suspense story about a comic book artist (Edmond So) who starts to learn the circumstances around his mother's death, which was seemingly committed by Yuen Wah. The stress of finding out who the real killer is leads to the artist committing strange and violent acts. The Devil Shadow's main problem is that it takes so long to get to that point.

Most of the running time is dominated by banal and clumsy drama that is punctuated by really awful music, such as a terrible Cantopop version of Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now". The lone highlights are Shing Fui-On delightfully hamming things up as the artist's over-enthusiastic boss, and a fun (but extremely short and out of place) wuxia-inspired showdown during the finale. Otherwise, The Devil Shadow is an exercise in tedium that will test the mettle of even the most battle hardened B-movie viewer.

RATING: 3