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

Rating:

3

Year of release: 2004

Genre: drama

Director: Kenneth Lau

Producer: Kenneth Lau

Stars: Gabriel Harrison, David Do, Philip Keung, Halina Tam, Hoi Chun Kit, Candice Chan, Ng Kar Fei, Dexter Yeung, Felix Lok

Not rated; contains II-level violence, language and a brief rape scene

DVD Information

Company: Mega Base

Format: widescreen

Languages: Cantonese, Mandarin

Subtitles: Chinese/English (burned-in)

Extras: none

Notes: About what you'd expect for a shot-on-video production.

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Mansion Murder

In Mansion Murder, one of Hong Kong's top businessmen is having a wedding reception inside his home when he is found in a pool of blood. Everyone at the party is a suspect. Is it the ne'er-do-well son? The disgruntled employee? The mysterious daughter? It's up to a detective played by Gabriel Harrison to find out, as long as he can keep his bitchy girlfriend at bay long enough to do some actual police work.

The setup for this movie isn't that exciting, and the end result isn't that much better. Hong Kong movies seem to be a crap shoot nowadays, and Mansion Murder rolls a big fat snake eyes. Everything here is done by the book -- even the big "twist" at the end doesn't come as much of a surprise. Things aren't helped any by the ultra-cheap production. Not only do we have another appearance of the dreaded Pabst Blue Ribbon, it seems like the production had no wardrobe budget at all. Even though the film is supposed to take place over several months, the characters sport the same outfits throughout the movie.

There's a reason why Mansion Murder went straight to video; it's just another in the increasing line of cheap and dull exercises in futility that have been plopping out of Hong Kong as of late. Unless you have a masochistic streak, avoid this one. This movie's so boring, it's not even worth watching to make fun of. Whether it's the production values (or lack thereof) or inanely average story and execution, there is really nothing that Mansion Murder can offer even a halfway-serious Hong Kong film fan.