A Taste Of Killing And Romance

A Taste of Killing and Romance. Starring Andy Lau. Directed By Veronica Chan (1994).

   Shanghai, dark city of lavish nightclubs and neon sleaze where cold blooded assassins on motorbikes gun down the rich and toss a lighted match onto a car oozing fuel. Ko Sua (Andy Lau), "The Judge" the same gunman from a few minutes in the film confesses to his priest, who's aware of his criminal activities. They illustrate his character with a certain amount of sympathy, he hangs out with feral cats and claims to not value the money he obtains from his kills. 

let this spray of religious fire send you to Hell

   Meanwhile a stylish waif-like psycho named Yu-feng (Anita Yuen) systematically machine guns an entire bank office. She hops into the assassin's red corvette (which they highlight like a sleek car commercial) and holds him hostage for a short while. Both male and female killers work for the same company but are alien to one another, they also value catholicism and confide in priests. The action scenes are on the John Woo level, as the gunshots pulverize flesh and bone. This is a straight up action flick and it's rare to see one directed by such a capable female director, but sadly, later it all peters out like car with two flat tires. 

I can't believe I locked my keys in the car

   There's a vicious moment that bothered me almost as much as the family rape scene in Henry Portrait of A Serial Killer. Wong Cheong (the reptilian Mark Cheng), smothers a grandmother to death with saran wrap, poisons a child and kills a dog by putting it in the dryer (the dog screeches got under my skin)! 

   It's a brief and effective scene that makes you despise Chuck from Raped By An Angel all over again, he poses as a social worker in order to murder Ko's family. 

Toshiba kills dogs dead

    Ko hangs out in arcades, where all of the games are of the sit-down Flight simulator variety. He tricks officer Tung into chasing him off a bridge onto a moving tram and then has a nightmare with some of the worst Duran Duran video toaster effects I've seen in awhile. 

America is kicking our asses in video game systems

   All the gangsters wear their hair like Matthew Perry and dress in casual attire for some god awful reason, Hey it was the 90's!

   A really cheesy karaoke duet montage takes over a romantic mall trip between the two main protagonists. The action grinds to a halt for awhile as their relationship starts to progress. The two assassins get bored with killing for profit and instead bore us to death! 

Let me filet that fish for your McDonald's sandwich

   Wong Cheong ties a poor girl up to a shower head and stabs her in the belly, this pisses off officer Tung (Waise Lee) enough to hunt down all of the criminals involved in the syndicate. He starts questioning anyone who will talk. Cheong is a unrepentant killer who actually makes the film watchable. After strangling his female boss with an exercise machine, he chops off Yu's fingers while she clutches an inhaler to treat her asthma attack. 

   You get none of the pathos or character development seen in all the classic John Woo flicks, even though Chan makes a decent attempt. The style and camera shots are over the top, but there's something very hollow about it all. 

HK Baywatch gun squad assemble

   That's the most annoying aspect of Taste, it makes you want to watch something more coherent and more exciting like say Hardboiled! or The Killer. There's zero chemistry between love interests and the ultra gun violence is cut short too soon.
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Check it out if you are bored, it makes you want to watch something with more guts!

It's never a good sign, when your director signs the beginning credits, remember White Fire?