Simon Yam Movies

In this "cops and robbers" film, a raid on a jewelry store staged by a band of amateur hold-up artists goes horribly wrong, leading to a shoot-out. The elite Organized Crime Bureau team, headed by Captain Ching King Gen, is poised to go into action at a moment's notice. Working as a unit, they bring law and order to Hong Kong streets, where they must rely on their courage and skills to survive. Expect the Unexpected is a perfect genre film showing everyday life and reflecting the current situation in Hong Kong after the hand-over to China. "Unexpectedness" is the underlying theme, which also applies to misdirected affections and miscalculations between the cops and the robbers. The favorite line of the film is "You never pay attention to what I say." Expect the Unexpected was screened as part of the International Forum of New Cinema section of the 49th Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

The Asian crime drama Casino takes place during the sweltering Macau summer of 1991. Two rival gangs are engaged in a bloody battle over control of the region's gambling business. Winnie Fong, a reporter, gets an interview with Giant, one of the two local crime lords. As Fong grills Giant about his life, Giant surprisingly reveals much more than he intended to -- and the consequences may have a great impact on the gang war. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Hong Kong filmmaker Danny Ko continued in the vein of his popular thriller The Crucifixion with this serial-killer film about a maniacal motorcyclist in black leather murdering young women walking alone on Friday nights. The Friday Killer, as he becomes known, even murders an undercover officer as part of his bloody spree. The dead woman's policeman boyfriend Lau (Au Kam-tong) blames Ko (Simon Yam), the leader of the investigation, for mishandling the sting operation and causing his girlfriend's death. Lau attacks Ko and is suspended from the force for a month, but more pressing issues dog Ko as he receives threatening calls from the Friday Killer promising to kill Maggie (Loletta Lee), a prostitute who managed to escape from him, and several other girls during the next month. Structured like a 1970s Italian giallo thriller, Bloody Friday plays up its mystery elements at the expense of narrative cohesion, leading to a typically silly conclusion. Nonetheless, it boasts some engaging performances, notably by Lee as the ditzy hooker Maggie, and the scenes involving the black-clad psycho cyclist are effectively staged. Ada Choi co-stars with Elvis Tsui, Emily Kwan, and Bobby Yip. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Veronica Yip Yuk-hing stars in this romantic thriller about doctor Ivy Yip who one day is attacked and raped by an assailant whose face was obscured. The incident sends her reeling, sending her relationship into the dumpster and her job performance into the toilet. At work, she becomes seized with the case of patient Lee Yuen-lung (Simon Yam Tat-wah), a gangster whose gruesome head injury has left him with the mental capacity of a child. Since Ivy's own incompetence contributed in part to the gangster's reduced abilities, she resigns from her job. Later, she encounters the ex-mobster in Macau and Ivy vows to make amends by caring for him. As his faculties slowly return to normal, the two inevitably fall in love. Of course, the past of both Lee and Ivy soon come back to haunt them. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Following up the surprise hit Young and Dangerous only a couple months after the original's release, this sequel -- again directed by Andrew Lau Wai-keung -- centers around Jordan Chan Siu-chan's Chicken Chiu. At the end of the last film, Chicken left for Taiwan after he was lead to believe that his buddy, Chan Ho-nam (Dior Cheng Yee-kin), betrayed him. While Ho-nam and the Hung Hing gang open a bar on Causeway Bay in Hong Kong, Chicken joins the San Luen gang while trying to seduce his boss' girlfriend, Ting Siu-yiu (Chingmy Yau Suk-ching). In gratitude for killing a rival crime boss, Chicken is made boss of the Poisonous Snake Hall. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, Ho-nam is vying for leadership of Hung Hing with a bumptious oaf named Tai Fai (Anthony Wong Chau-sang). Later, the San Luen gang tries to enlist Hung Hing's support in a Macau casino. When the latter declines, violence ensues. Soon Chicken must decide which side he's on. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A bus driver with the ability to see ghosts agrees to reunite the spirit of a mournful specter with the lover she left behind in a romantic tale of love after death starring Simon Yam. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Lesbian assassins at war provide the focus for this outrageous Hong Kong martial arts film that is already becoming a cult classic. Tinam is the cop on the case searching for the person who keeps killing Hong Kong men and cutting off their genitals. Tinam is on the edge of a breakdown after he accidently shot his brother three months before. When nervous, the cop throws up. Tinam meets Kitty, an obsessive woman, in a unisex hair salon. Unfortunately for Tinam, Kitty takes a shine to him. Kitty, after shooting up a gangster's office to avenge her father's death, is taken to the home of hit-woman Sister Cindy, a charmer who uses rapists for martial arts practice dummies. Sister Cindy becomes Kitty's mentor. It is soon discovered the killer is the lesbian Princess, Cindy's former student. Princess is contracted to kill her teacher and she succeeds. The distraught Kitty, forgoes her pursuit of Tinam, and begins her revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This dramatic film compares and contrasts Chinese and American cultures. It is based upon real events which took place in New York during the mid-'80s when a deranged white male pushed a Hong Kong immigrant off a subway platform. The movie begins in modern Hong Kong and follows the life of Mo-yung, a middle class single woman. In order to get her out of Hong Kong before the Chinese take over the colony in 1997, her parents arrange for her to marry a Canadian man. But Mo-yung demurs and instead follows Benny, a hip, but shady photographer, to New York. Benny is doing more than taking pictures and frequently shuttles between Hong Kong and New York. Her involvement with Benny gets Mo-yung into real trouble. While in New York, Mo-yung meets Rubie, a half white woman who is being followed by a crazy Caucasian schoolteacher with an obsession for Asian women. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Billy Tang directs the extremely dark and sadistic thriller Run and Kill. Hong Kong businessman Fatty Cheung (Kent Cheng) walks in on his wife and another man. He immediately gets drunk at a bar, and before he realizes it, he has made a deal with some gangsters to kill her. When he sobers up, he learns that the gangsters have fullfilled their end of the bargain and are demanding their money. Unable to pay them, Cheung flees to the mainland and meets the Vietnam veteran Ching (Simon Yam), who turns out to be a brutal psychopath that terrorizes Cheung and his remaining family members. Also stars Danny Lee. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Clarence Fok Yiu-leung spins this slick action-comedy crime flick featuring an all-star cast. The film centers on Black Cougar (Alan Tang Kwong-wing), a crack thief who gets the job of a lifetime -- a shadowy client is paying him an obscene amount of money to swipe a photograph from a police station. Alan enlists the help of cabal of master criminals including a sexpot weapons specialist named Ching-ching (Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia), a gambling maven (Tony Leung Kar-fai) and an infantile computer geek (Dicky Cheung Wai-kin) who goes berserk if he doesn't have a pacifier to suck on. The group quickly learns that the whole thing is a set up by Black Cougar's evil brother Bloody Wolf (Wah Yuen). While Black Cougar gets captured by a band of villains, the rest of the team is forced to fend off the baddies. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Though generally unknown to Western audiences, Tsui Hark is considered a giant among Asian filmmakers and this exceptional epic, combining hard-hitting martial-arts action with romance, comedy, history, genuine poignance, and sharp insight into the effects of the century-long encroachment of Western civilization in Asia more than amply demonstrates why. The story centers on the exploits of Master Wong Fei-hung (a familiar figure in Hong Kong cinema) a 19th-century doctor, Confucian, and exceptional martial artist. As the film begins, he has just opened a new clinic in Canton Province. To help him with patients, he hires a few apprentices including Porky Lang (the comic relief) and Buck Teeth Sol, who was raised outside China and barely can speak the language. Wong is platonically involved with the lovely, worldly Aunt Yee, who has been abroad most of her life. Wong soon gets in trouble when he begins using his skills to protect and assist the poor and helpless in his community. As a result, someone torches his clinic, forcing Wong and his compadres to set off and get spectacularly staged revenge. They also try vainly to stop Western culture from changing traditional Chinese ways, but they soon find that they may as well be shoveling sand against a rising tide. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Following up on his 1989 masterpiece The Killer, superstar action director John Woo directs this emotionally wrenching look at three friends waylaid in war-torn Vietnam. Set in 1967, when clashes between leftists protesting British rule and the police were tearing the colony apart, the film opens with Frank (Jacky Cheung Hok-yau) offering the deed to his parents' home as collateral to a loan shark, so that he can pay for his buddy Ben's (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) wedding party. Unfortunately, Frank is ambushed by a thug named Ringo and his associates who make off with the money. Ben and Frank vow revenge and end up accidentally killing the guy. Wanted by both the law and the triads, Frank, Ben, and their pal Paul (Waise Lee Chi-hung) head for Vietnam with a case of fake Rolexes and dreams of making a quick buck. Immediately upon arrival, those dreams are dashed -- their wares are blown up in a tin-can military coup, they are almost shot by the South Vietnamese army, and their passports are seized. Though tempted to throw in the towel, Frank and Ben are convinced by Paul into joining forces with shady hit man named Luke (Simon Yam Tat-wah) to shake down club owner Leong (Lam Chung). The scheme goes horribly wrong, ending with the death of a beautiful drug-addled singer named Sally (Yolinda Yan Chi-sin) and our three heroes accused of being CIA agents in a North Vietnamese POW camp. Later, though, Frank saves Paul's live and get injured in the process, Paul can only think of financial gain and saving his own neck. He shoots Frank in the head when he fears his friend's cries of agony will tip off the Vietcong. Unfortunately, the bullet doesn't kill Frank, leaving him brain damaged, drug-addled, and in chronic pain. After Ben learns of Frank's condition, he confronts Paul who has since returned to Hong Kong to become a prominent businessman. John Woo was originally planning to make this film under the name A Better Tomorrow 3 until Tsui Hark took the franchise away from him, fashioning his own version. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide