Just perfect...

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

"Beyond Hypothermia" is an excellent movie. The plot: An assassin (Wu Chen-Lien) just keeps on killing until she meets a lonely noodle shop owner, Long (Lau Ching Wan). She wants to change her ways, but her employer won't let her. On top of that, another hit-man is after her.What's great about this movie is that the romance and action fit perfectly. All the gunfights are well-staged and bloody, but it also has a heart. Lien and Wan put in outstanding performances.The climax is very powerful and the only problem I had with the movie is the dubbing, but who cares. You'll be pulled in instantly.I highly recommend this action-packed gem.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

This is certainly one of the best made girl-assassin films that have formed a genre of their own in Asia over the past 30 years. Conforming to the conventions of the genre, we have an attractive young woman whose early experiences have led her to adopt the life of a cold-blooded killer for hire; we have her gradually grow aware of her own emotional emptiness; we have her meet a man she could really go for if she didn't always have to remain ready to kill just about anybody; we have the betrayal by one of her few trusted associates; and we see her develop a plan for resolving all the dilemmas these situations present her with. In short, very little new in the story.What's new is the manner in which it is all handled. The girl-assassin genre picture is typically handled in a rather over-the-top action film style, because the basic premise of the genre is really pure fantasy. I'm not saying there aren't female assassins in real-life; but they certainly don't share either the luxurious payoffs, the existential dread, or the romantic longings that we find in girl-assassin movies. In fact they're lives are probably little different from that of the male mob or government killer. We just want them to be different because they're women; and the girl-assassin film plays to this.The present film certainly starts off in this direction, but very gradually, but at last inevitably, turns our expectations on their head. The guy our girl-assassin falls in love with here isn't very smart, but he is certainly very ordinary. The big-pay-offs for her killing never seem to bring her any luxury. And her romantic longings are doomed about half-way through the picture when she has to shoot a five-year-old girl who has witnessed one of her hits - and does. From this point on, we know she's doomed; she may never be caught or killed, but she can never live with herself after this.Along with these twists undercutting genre convention and audience expectations, the film's visual style also gradually becomes increasingly realistic as it goes along. At the end, we're no longer in the same glitzy universe most girl-assassins inhabit, but a dead-end street looking very much like one we might ourselves wander down, but for the grace of whatever divinity watching out for us.But there's no divinity watching after this film's girl-assassin. And the ending is probably the most down-beat of any film in the genre. But it is perfectly true to the situation.Very dramatic, well-performed, nicely put-together - but, be warned: very depressing.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: professional assassin is tired of it all, finds true love and wants to "go straight" but can't, because in this line of work there are too many enemies and unsettled scores. The only twist is that this time the killer is a woman. Patrick Leung's over-stylized direction tries to make this trite old story seem new, but most of the time it seems like the work of a man who got carried away by his "arty" side. The often inappropriate score tries to sell parts of the movie as a romantic melodrama, but the final shootout slips into laughable operatic-action excess; I liked it better in the old times, when the 7th or 8th bullet usually killed a person for good. (**)

To paraphrase the great Sam Fuller, if an action film does not grab its audience in the first few minutes, forget it. Director Patrick Leung and screenwriter Roy Szeto certainly subscribe to that school of thought in "Sip si 32 doe," a surprisingly good action film that has some heart, too.Of course, the plot, like in many a Hong Kong actioner, is a bit of a stretch. A Cambodian assassin with an unusually chilly body temperature doesn't remember her past, wants to break free of her manipulative aunt and find herself a normal life.But "Sip si 32 doe" works because it's purely an action film and proves it in style. When it comes to choreographing action sequences, Hong Kong filmmakers are in a class of their own and their styles certainly have influenced Hollywood action films. It's a shame when these filmmakers are wooed by Hollywood, as John Woo, Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark were, the studios promptly rein them in and they wind up making clunkers. Either that, or these filmmakers seem to lose their edge. I'd like to believe it's the former.Leung fills "Sip si 32 doe" with visceral moments. There's a chase through a busy street that would never have been filmed with such ruthlessness in Hollywood. The denouement is a thing of beauty. Most American action films could be this entertainingly good if only producers and directors had some imagination and guts.Leung, a John Woo protégé, starts his film off nicely and then promptly sets the tone for his heroine as we see her go after her first mark. She's cold, calculated and, yet, charming, too. While Leung and Szeto show us details of her modus operandi - they way she quickly changes bullets to improvise or how she cautiously prepares to sleep every night, for instance - they also care deeply about this woman to let us into her life.As chillingly lethal as the assassin is, Wu Chien-lien brings a sweet innocence to the role. This child-woman's got heart and we wind up caring about her. Her hits are carried out with heartless precision - there's an especially unsettling moment during one hit - but there's still something extremely likable about this woman. There's a wonderful scene of unadulterated joy as she photographs herself. It's Wu Chien-lieu's tremendous charm that makes us completely forget what her character does for a living.Leung and Szeto try to offset their heroine's darker side by giving her a chance at normalcy with a noodle shop owner, Long Shek (Lau Cheng Wan). This makes for some cheesy moments in the film - Hong Kong actioners have never quite mastered the art of mixing real romance with the gunplay. The problem is that Long Shek isn't a finely defined character. He's there for just one reason and his character's not explored deeply. When Leung and Szeto try to inject some depth into Long Shek at the end, it seems thoroughly out of place. And Han Sang-Woo overplays his role as the vengeful Yichin. He's a handsome chap, but his character's way too wound up to be taken seriously.But its flaws notwithstanding, "Sip si 32 doe," under the skilled direction of Leung, is a grand addition to the genre and proof that Hong Kong action films can have substance. It's also a heckuva lot more fun than the similarly themed "La Femme Nikita" (1990) or its American knockoff "Point of No Return" (1993).