REVIEW : "Beyond Hypothermia" (1996) - Movie by Patrick Leung

The so-called "Hong Kong cinema", is an avenue I rarely venture down. It is probably due to some prejudice but in my (limited) experience, and knowledge of the predominant exposers of this "area", does not make me more interested in taking that "trip".

But on the other hand, I do like some "exotic" injections now and then and from hype and reviews, try to piece together if there might be a jewel in the rough lying around. This is the case with "Beyond Hypothermia". It is highly unlikely that I would have picked it up, if it wasn´t issued in a danish "criterion" dvd release series that I collect, and for that alone, it should answer for some quality.

A young female hired killer, has started to feel tired of her line of work, and longs for a "normal" life. She has found a noodle shop owner across the street, with her binoculars, as she wants to stay away from the average street as much as possible.

He gives her the urge to have a close human relation and to her he seems like a good choice. But we do get a notion that she is rather selecting because of his expressed sensitivity and ability to have sympathy for others. She clearly states that she can only feel cold inside. Like the title says... hypothermia.

But, probably both because she does not know how ,and is a raving psychopath, is as clumsy and weird in her behaviour with her new "boyfriend" as she is effective and self assured in her killings. Several scenes with them together feels like a grown man trying to play childish games with an underage girl. And the metaphor is right, since she has social skills on that "level" (and that is not meant derogative towards children).

But she has also become slightly unfocused in her "work" and after a job in Korea, the targets bodyguard takes his job very seriously, and starts a girl-hunt down to Hong kong. So now we know that there will be a huge showdown between the main characters.

At first glance the cinematography had my attention. It seemed to be a sort of poetic version of "Leon". Not only because of its assassin parallels, but also in its will to try and couple it with some kind of coming of age, or maybe "coming back to reality" type theme and quite nice photography.

But quite soon I had a distinct feeling that this was more form, than story. The lead actor playing the hired killer, has a rather limited palette to serve you from. She can do the action sequences, of which there are many, quite well. She has the Nikita style expression, to some extend at least. Hot babe, who can shoot fast and furiously.

The "antagonist" bodyguard becomes some kind of terminator, who has no emotional scope at all and only want to kill her at any cost. This feels very thin and unbelievable and in many ways creates a chasm between the emotional story between her relation to the noodle guy and this terminator line.

Off course, I know the director want you to be on your edge, with a killer around that is even more cold and calculated than his female counterpart, so that we can feel good about taking her side, even if she has killed human beings of any kind left and right.

But it becomes a very stiff and unbelievable story that also have to engage her noodle guy in the rather bloody finale, but in a fashion that really spells "Hong Kong" all over, so in the end it became hard for me to take either of the story lines really seriously. And this is a bit of a shame, because I thought it had a lot of potential, that just did not flesh out due to this fetish with stupid bloody action and a lack of depth in the emotional story arc of the romantic line.

So overall, it becomes hard to recommend this one. technically it is sufficient i guess, but it leaves a lot behind to be wished had been there. I could probably see a "Hong Kong" fan liking this a lot and at times the cinematography is decently good. The end result though, is rather lacking in nutrition.

5/10