Black Cat

Well, I have to say that the 1991 Hong Kong action thriller "Hak Mau" (aka "Black Cat") is a unique experience.

When I sat down to watch "Hak Mau" here in 2022, it was for the very first time, and I do believe that I have never even ever heard about this movie from writers Bo Shun Chan, Tan-Ping Lam and Wai-Lun Lam. But of course, with it being a Hong Kong movie that I hadn't already seen, there was no doubt about sitting down to watch it.

Let me just clarify on the part of "Hak Mau" being a unique movie, as mentioned above. I mean that not in a positive manner. Because the storyline in "Hak Mau" is a scrambled mess of confusion and randomness. There is absolutely no coherent red thread throughout the course of the 96 minutes that the movie ran for. And director Stephen Shin didn't bring the boat safely to harbor.

"Hak Mau" felt like a movie that was concocted in the minds of high school students and then brought before one of their elder brothers who happened to have a video camera. Trust me, the storyline in "Hak Mau" is just utter rubbish.

Sure, there is a fair amount of action in the movie, but it feels shallow and pointless, because it is just random scenes of violence put into an equally random series of filmed scenes.

The movie stars Jade Leung and Simon Yam, so at least you have some familiar faces on the screen, provided you are somewhat well-familiar with the Hong Kong cinema.

Yet, I managed to sit through all 97 minutes of "Hak Mau", but it was quite an ordeal. I did so, hoping that the storyline would pick up and improve. That just never happened.

My rating of "Hak Mau" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.