Revenge is a terrible thing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t look cool doing it. Pop singer/splatter film fan Juno Mak wrote the original story for and also stars in Revenge: A Love Story, which he claims is an anti-revenge movie. The film is the second production from Josie Ho, Conroy Chan and Andrew Ooi’s 852 Films, which also gave us Pang Ho-Cheung’s social commentary slasher Dream Home.
This time, bombastic filmmaking and artistic pretensions (courtesy of co-writer/director Wong Ching-Po) replace social commentary and tongue-in-cheek dark humor.
The switch from socially-conscious slasher to pretentious grindhouse thriller could please western genre film fans who might have been confused by Dream Home’s look at a local Hong Kong issue. Despite the in-your-face direction,
Wong Ching-Po’s direction is more down-to-earth compared to his own Jiang Hu and Ah Sou, avoiding much of the showy MTV-style filmmaking that alienated and frustrated audiences. However, his script tries far too often for meaning, depriving the audience of a simple stylistic exercise in extreme violence.