This movie is available for purchase at www.hkflix.com

Rating:

4

Year of release: 1996

Genre: drama

Director: Herman Yau

Action director: Joe Chu

Producer: Nam Yin

Stars: Irene Wan, Simon Yam, Alfred Cheung, Dayo Wong, Peter Ngor

Rated IIB for nudity, sexual content, violence and language

DVD Information

Company: Widesight

Format: widescreen

Languages: Cantonese, Mandarin

Subtitles: Chinese/English (burned in)

Extras: none

Notes: Another bare-bones DVD from Widesight. I've seen a lot worse, though.

Related links:

Simon Yam biography
Movie Review index
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All of a Sudden

For a movie directed by Herman Yau (who helmed the gore classic The Untold Story) and starring Cat III veteran Simon Yam, All of the Sudden is a fairly dull movie. It's not a horrible film, but considering the talent involved and the salacious cover artwork, I was expecting boobs and blood, rather than a suspense/drama. Maybe those expectations ruined the movie for me, but frankly, All of the Sudden is so by-the-book, one wonders if even die-hard fans of this kind of stuff would find it entertaining.

The film begins with a naked woman crashing onto the roof of a car -- pretty good so far. The focus then switches to married couple Alfred Cheung and Irene Wan. As they are leaving their house, they are attacked by a masked man, and Irene and her baby are kidnapped. The kidnapper is none other than our boy Simon Yam. It turns out his wife is the lady who took a header because Alfred was having an affair with her. Since Simon is such a nice guy (he even takes the sick baby to a hospital and protects Irene from his perverted partner -- awww, how sweet) Irene decides to team up with him to get revenge. However, as time goes on, all three people grow suspicious of each other, leading to a bloody confrontation.

This kind of stuff might normally be the fodder for a good Cat III flick. Unfortunately, though, All of the Sudden is Cat IIB, and that seems to inhibit things a bit. There's some sweaty naked bodies and spurting claret, but not nearly enough of each. Frankly, most Category III flicks aren't known for their great stories or acting, and when watered-down pseudo-expoitation stuff like this tries to capture that audience, it fails nine times out of ten -- and All of the Sudden is another sad example.

If the film-makers had a little bigger balls, this might have been a really good movie. There are times when All of the Sudden threatens to show some signs of brilliance (such as a joting scene where a small baby is hit by a car) but for the most part, the film just feels like it's on auto-pilot. Die-hard Simon Yam fans might want to check this one out, but most viewers are probably better off going with some of his better efforts in the exploitation genre like Naked Killer or Dr. Lamb.