Du shi sha xing (Point of No Return, 1990)

Guy Lai

Hong Kong

94 min, color, Cantonese (English subtitles)

It's really simple. But it's complicated to explain. So you wouldn't understand.

Actually, it's really simple to explain and I think you will understand. Let me put it bluntly: This flick stinks. It stunk when I first saw it and it stunk when I saw it again (the complicated part of the explanation would be where I explain why I saw it again). Point of No Return (actually, it appears that the title is Point of Return, although it does not matter because neither makes sense) is a deservedly unknown entry in the ever popular genre of assassin melodrama.

Dee (Jacky Cheung) and K.K. (Patrick Tam) are killers for hire and their agent is K.K.'s dad Min (Kenneth Tsang). On his orders, they off another killer because the guy has violated the killer code (or something) by killing the guy who had hired him to kill someone else (an honest mistake, I say). Anyway, the CODE is important, so they have to kill him. They do. But the killer has a brother (Ken Lo), also a killer, who goes by the decidedly unimaginative name of Puma and who spends his time sweating (perhaps of the really inane clothes he wears most of the time), pumping muscle, and preparing to kill his killer bro's killer. He is in cahoots with another muscular killer who is also his insider in the killer organization. They try to kill our killers but kill several non-killers instead. Finally, they decide to trap the killers and get the organization to kill them for violating the killer CODE.

There is one person who does not start as a killer but she also ends up one. This is Julie (Joey Wang) who is killer Dee's romantic interest. Inconveniently, she has a ex-cop dad who is targeted by a disgruntled ex-con, and who is soon made ex-dad by K.K., who dutifully carries out the killing without realizing that he is offing his best friend's future father-in-law. When he finds out, he has scruples. When Julie finds out, she has a 1 second fit, but then gets persuaded by the unassailable killer logic of killing: "Yes, K.K. killed your dad. But he is not the killer. He's just a tool." This line of argument reminds me of "People don't kill people; bullets kill people."

In the end, the trap springs, Dee, K.K., and Julie find themselves in the clutches of the guy who runs the entire killer interest group. Min is made to shoot Eagle (this is the codename of the killer who has violated the CODE but whose identity is unknown to the others). Then there's a big shootout, in which none of our killers are killed but a lot of secondary killers fail to evade their own killing. Then Dee and Min stay to be captured by the police while K.K. and Julie escape. Julie tells Dee, "I will wait for you." Given the light sentences for killing in Hong Kong films, this probably means no more than a month.

The film is as stupid as it sounds. It is atrociously acted. Even Joey did not do a good job, but then who would? A DJ and a part-time insurance saleswoman? Give me a break! Tam and Cheung are so badly miscast, it's as if they signed up for roles in a romantic comedy but ended up on the wrong set or something. The only believable character was Lo's but that's because the character was exceedingly dumb. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.

The Mei Ah DVD won't endear the film to you either. The subtitles were killing me.

February 28, 2003