Beyond Hypothermia (1996)
[director Patrick Leung Pak-Kin]
Cast: Wu Chien-Lien, Lau Ching-Wan, Hang Sang-Woo
The first (?) film in the Milkyway Images series (see Too Many Ways to Be No.1) is directed by Patrick Leung, John Woo’s longtime assistant director, and his effort is much like that of his mentor. It’s a study of an ice-cold hitwoman (Wu Chien Lien, playing it more stylishly but less convincingly than Patricia Ha in On the Run) who gets a crash course in how to emote when she is betrayed by her agent/mother figure and falls in love with an ex-con-turned-snack-cart-vendor, played with skill and heart by Milkyway’s patron performance saint, Lau Ching Wan. There’s also a Korean gunman after Wu, and the whole thing ends in a spectacularily bloody traffic jam massacre. It’s very stylish, with cool gunfights and some really nice love scenes between oft-paired Lau and Wu. It’s more in keeping with the Hong Kong New Wave films of the 80s and early 90s than Milkyway’s later, post-handover productions, and as such it is not as thematically sophisticated as Milkyway’s later work, but it’s pretty entertaining.
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