Lau Siu-Ming Movies
- 2008
Aaron Kwok stars as a seedy Thailand detective named Tan who becomes drawn into a deadly mystery after his best friend claims that he's being pursued by a murderous femme fatale. Trouble is, each new clue that Tan unearths leads him ever deeper into a deadly world of intrigue. As the body count begins to add up and Tan vows to discover the mystery woman's identity even if it costs him his life, it begins to appear that he, too, has been marked for death. Oxide Pang directs a script penned in collaboration with fellow scribe Thomas Pang. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Aaron Kwok, Liu Kai-chi, (more)
A homicide detective, a botanist with some unconventional theories, and his tabloid TV reporter girlfriend attempt to solve a gruesome murder in this high-concept thriller from The Eye and Bangkok Dangerous director Danny Pang. Botany student Steven is convinced that plants are sentient. He's recently written a doctorate paper on the theory, and spends much of his spare time attempting to prove that plants have a language all their own. Steven's girlfriend Mary works for a major television station, and thanks to a series of sensationalistic reports her career is on the upswing. When the Prime Minister's daughter is abducted, raped, and murdered, the police quickly arrest the prime suspect, a man named Eric. But is Eric really guilty of this heinous crime? In order to find out the truth, Steven conducts a series of tests in hopes that the forest itself may provide an eyewitness account of the brutal crime. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Shu Qi, Ekin Cheng, (more)
When a prominent young author working on her latest novel begins to experience a series of frightening visions, she soon becomes convinced that her latest work is attempting to draw her into an eerie parallel universe in a horrifying tale of fact meets fiction from The Eye directors Danny and Oxide Pang. Ting-yen has risen to much acclaim in the literary community, but in the process of penning her latest novel, the popular writer soon begins to receive visions of a deeply-disturbing alternate reality. As her mind attempts to process the strange visions and the draw of the book becomes ever more powerful, Ting-yen is compelled to tear the pages from her manuscript and discard them in the recycle bin. Unfortunately for Ting-yen, her efforts to purge herself of the strange story only seem to provide the catalyst needed for the malevolent characters to fully manifest themselves in the real world. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lee Sin-Je, Lau Siu-Ming, (more)
A top celebrity cop finds his ability to solve a series of kidnappings and white collar crimes sidelined by the grief he harbors for his long-missing girlfriend in this dramatic Hong Kong action entry from director Benny Chan. Ever since Suen Sui-yan (Aaron Kwok)'s girlfriend went missing without a trace ten years ago, everything just seemed to fall apart for the high profile policeman who could once do no wrong. These days Suen is investigating a lucrative money laundering scheme, but upon being assigned the task of escorting a crooked accountant named Hung (Patrick Chow) to the Hong Kong airport, his luck takes an even darker turn when an assassin's bullet kills his unfortunate charge. Suen's suspicions that something is amiss are soon confirmed when a barrister acting on behalf of powerful businessman Yiu (Lo Ka-leung) denies that his client played any part in the killing and Yiu's assets are freed-up since the potential police witness has been permanently silenced, and before long the suspicious suit is struggling to pay off a sizable debt to the triads. Soon after triad boss Jim (Lau Siu-ming) admits to a fondness for Yiu's pop-star son Yiu Ha (Tommy Yuen), the adolescent singing sensation is suddenly kidnapped. Now, as Suen struggles to make a connection between all the events and reveal the identity of the mysterious assassin, the resemblance between Barrister To (Ekin Chang)'s beautiful wife Amy (Angelica Lee) and Suen's own long-missing girlfriend fast begins to cloud the determined cop's head and complicate the case. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Aaron Kwok, Daniel Wu, (more)
- 1997
Though perhaps best appreciated by those familiar with Banana Yoshimoto's 1988 cult novel, this film version offers a quirky love story that will still please the uninitiated. The story is presented from the viewpoint of Louie, a young hairstylist who attends the funeral of the grandmother of his friend Aggie. The old woman had been one of Louie's customers. Aggie wants to be a chef, but following the loss of her grandmother, the only family she had left, the girl falls into a deep funk, finding comfort only in the aromas found in her refrigerator. Louie lives at home with his mother Emma, a nightclub owner. Hoping to lift Aggie's spirits, he invites her to spend the night. There she learns that Louie's mother was once his father. It seems that following the death of Louie's real mother, his father was so bereaved that he underwent a sex change operation following his wife's death in order to keep her memory alive. This intrigues Aggie and she and Emma become close friends. She then moves in with Louie and Emma. Louie and Aggie soon become best friends, something that angers Louie's girlfriend Jenny. Still the threesome are happy in their new friendship until one of Emma's beaus learns of her past and reacts violently. Thrown into an emotional tailspin, Louie runs off to the Sichuan province on the Mainland, leaving only Aggie to save him from ruination. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Although Andy Lau was indeed one of the stars of the 1989 hit Casino Raiders, his participation in this unrelated sequel was more of an attempt by Hong Kong filmmaker Johnny To to capitalize on Lau's successful pairing with Jacqueline Wu in the previous year's A Moment of Romance. Lau stars as Chicken Feet, a skilled card player who works cons for crippled gambling legend Fan (Lau Siu-ming). Fan was confined to a wheelchair while attempting to escape the villainous James (Kelvin Wong), a turncoat employee whom he had once trusted. James and Fan are each looking for a pair of jade stones, which channel the power of the god of gamblers when united. With a big gambling tournament coming up, James finally kills Fan and kidnaps the daughter of Fan's former pupil Kit (Wang Chieh) to keep him out of the tournament. Kit had given up gambling anyway, but cuts off his hand in order to prove his seriousness and get back his daughter. Chicken Feet still thirsts for revenge on James, and his girlfriend Lin (Jacqueline Wu) discovers one of the jade stones. James has been watching, however, and sends his men after her. Lin is killed, Chicken Feet loses his sight, and all of this sets up one of those bizarre events so typical of Asian crime films in which the blind Chicken Feet and the one-handed Fan take on James in the gambling tournament for a 15,000,000-dollar prize, revenge, and the reclamation of their honor. Needless to say, such a contest of honor cannot rely on deus ex machina, and Chicken Feet discards one of the jade stones in order to whip James by himself. Monica Chan, Tien Feng, and a young Anthony Wong co-star. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
Popular Hong Kong actor Simon Yam, who had previously portrayed serial killer Lam Guo-wen in a television miniseries, plays his fictionalized counterpart in this gore-soaked exploitation film from producer-director Danny Lee. Starting with Lam's difficult childhood, the story then moves forward to the police capture of Lam after he submits film containing images of a naked woman who appears to be dead to a photo developing lab. The police tactics are quite brutal, but despite beating Lam repeatedly, they are unable to extract a confession until they show his family some explicit photographs he took of his young niece. His confessions are then graphically played out for the remaining hour, with all the sex, blood, and violence which Lee (who also plays Police Inspector Lee here) could fit in, as the catalog of Lam's atrocities is exhibited with an enthusiasm bordering on the voyeuristic. He was working nights as a taxi driver, and used his position to farm female victims from the city's streets on rainy nights, indulging in a penchant for necrophilia, cannibalism, and the photography of the women's dismembered bodies as a souvenir of his activities. The film's success led to a number of so-called "True Crime" films in Hong Kong, mostly following the conventions laid out in Dr. Lamb, although few approach its visceral and graphic violence. Kent Cheng co-stars with Lau Siu-ming and Emily Kwan. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- 1990
In this antic comedy, Michael Hui stars as the editor of a struggling Hong Kong tabloid, the "Truth Weekly." In his never-ending quest to ensure readership, he sometimes has to contrive facts to fit his stories. In this movie, he has assigned one of his reporters (Samuel Hui, Michael's brother in real life) to be the "secret boyfriend" of a popular starlet. In that role, Samuel hides out in bushes only to pop out of them long enough to be photographed with the starlet, and otherwise behaves like a consummate pest - all on the instructions of his conniving boss. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Hui, Ricky Hui, (more)
- 1983
In this typical horror/thriller from Hong Kong, a policeman shoots an assailant and then strange events plague his partner and himself -- though it is the women in their lives who are the victims. After seeing a fortune teller, the mystery of the odd happenings begins to unravel -- but that does not mean that everything will be solved in the end. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lau Siu-Ming
- 1979
Within the walls of Shum Castle, a flock of butterflies seems to have acquired a taste for blood. In this complex tale, a classic of Hong Kong cinema, writer Fong, who knows nothing of martial arts, unravels the mystery with the help of his fearless female companion, the lovely Green Shadow. Together they face robots from the future, the aforementioned butterflies, and martial artists from their present. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lau Siu-Ming
