Oi Yue Shing [A War Named Desire] (2000)

(On TV, July 2001) Bless Hong Kong cinema. I was initially dismayed to see that our local multicultural station (CFMT) had decided to run this Chinese-language film without any English subtitles. The language of bullets is universal, though, and there isn’t much to understand once characters are killed and revenge must be taken. The last fifteen minutes are both touching then brutal to a degree seldom seen in American cinema. It helps that the film’s director uses a strong visual style, with evocative shots and some impressive camera moves. Can this be said to be a review when I didn’t understand more than the three lines of English dialogue? Probably not, but I might be tempted to see this one again if ever an English-subtitled DVD comes my way.