An le zhan chang (1989)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Eric Tsang

Writer:

Eric Tsang (writer)

Genre:

Action | Horror

Plot:

A pleasent trip to the Phillipines is turned into tragedy when the tour bus is kidnapped by a group...

Cast

Bernardo Bernardo	...	Rebel Leader
Emily Kwan	...	Television Crew Director
Spanky Manikan	...	Rebel Leader's brother
Pen Medina	...	Leader of Military
Pik-Wan Tang	...	Grandma
Eric Tsang	...	Bob
Irene Wan	...	Candy
Kwong Leung Wong	...	Big Eyes
Victor Wong	...	Grandpa

Also Known As:

Fatal Vacation (Hong Kong: English title)
Fatal Vocation
On lok jin cheung (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)

Runtime:

Hong Kong:92 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese | Tagalog | English | Filipino

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | South Korea:15 | Australia:R | Hong Kong:IIB

Filming Locations:

Philippines

Welcome to Philippines!

Eric Tsang directed and starred in this vacationer's worst nightmare of a movie, Fatal Vacation. This Hong Kong film tells the story of group of Chinese people that are on vacation in the Philippines and their tour guide is funny and optimistic Bob, played by director Tsang. Soon the group is kidnapped and taken hostage by some local revolutionaries who have their member in prison. They will free the tourists if their member is freed by the Philippines government. After many killings and rapes by the kidnappers, our group gets a chance to fight back and so they do.

This is a routine Hong Kong heroic bloodshed action with plenty of humor elements, but not too much, fortunately. As an action film, this is only mediocre and offers nothing special when compared to the real masterpieces made in Hong Kong. Photography is nothing special this time, but at least the action scenes are fairly interesting and explosive. There is one harrowing scene that reminds me of similar scene in John Woo's Bullet in the Head and its savage war camp segment, that is still far more disturbing than the scene in Fatal Vacation. The scene in Fatal Vacation ends in one of the more memorable "heroic death" scenes in Hong Kong cinema, and that is a must see for fans of the genre. Otherwise, as mentioned, this is pretty mediocre Eastern actioner, pretty violent but never as powerful and masterful as the real classics made in Hong Kong. Still, this is worth checking out for fans of Hong Kong cinema.

There are many scenes that depict the fears of future and what will happen to Hong Kong in 1997. That was a topic in many Hong Kong films made before 1997 so Fatal Vacation is among many others to criticize and depict these fears. The humor is sometimes too stupid as Eric Tsang tries to be funny (he succeeds also) but still this is not any slapstick Stephen Chow film, fortunately.

I give Fatal Vacation 6/10 and recommend it for fans of the genre only. If one has seen masterpieces of Ringo Lam, John Woo and Mak brothers among others, then this feels pretty tame, but still watchable film.