Rating: **
Review Date: 12/26/20
Director: Dick Wei
Cast: Dick Wei, Wai Lam, Chin Siu Ho, cameos by Wei Ying Hung, Wai Shum
"No one forced you to be an American!"
When notorious criminal Black Panther (Dick Wei) kills a cop's family, Inspector Jiu Mou (Wai Lam) seeks revenge. After being cornered by the police at a construction site, Black Panther escapes justice by committing suicide, and Jiu Mou seeks out a Taoist priest to aid him in going to Hell so that he can personally kill him again. You know, for justice. In Hell, Jiu Mou meets an attractive young woman named Shenting who isn't quite dead yet, and decides to help her out. He also befriends a security guard named Simon (Chin Siu Ho), who also has a score to settle with Black Panther. After a confusing battle with Ghost King in Ghost City, Jiu Mou manages to escape back to the real world, where they're able to find Shenting's body and revive her.
This is one of the very few films that Dick Wei directed himself, and it's pretty awful. The only thing that makes it watchable are a handful of nicely staged fights, and it's always a treat to see Dick Wei in action. Chin Siu Ho also provides some excellent stunt work, and Wei Ying Hung has a nice fight in a very brief cameo. It's a low budget affair and the presentation reminds me a lot of "Transmigration Romance" (1991) in its depiction of Hell and its goofy humor. I'm clearly missing a lot of context and background when it comes to the Chinese afterlife, because I couldn't make any sense of what was going on. But maybe Hell is supposed to be a confusing place? Regardless, it's not very interesting or engaging. This is one of those films that no one seems particularly proud of, but it provided work for a bunch of veteran action actors whose popularity was fading, and you can't fault anyone for that.