The Criminals: Quick Takes

Long before the era of the early 90s where filmmakers were scouring the newspapers for grim, real life crimes to depicts and spicing it up tenfold due to the freedom of the Category III rating, Shaw Brother's started a long running series called The Criminals, containing 3 short stories in 1 feature. Reportedly shooting in and around the same locations of the actual crimes (might as well been a promotional gimmick), first out of the gate is "Hidden Torsos", directed by Ching Gong (also the helmer of another based on a true life crime feature at Shaw's called Kidnap). Shih Szu plays a woman on the run from an abusive relationship but is trapped in her apartment by that abuser, played by Antonio Ho (Ghost Eyes). Ching Gong's experimental and in your face cinematography is reminiscent of Kidnap but he still achieves tension and an engrossing, grim tone. A silly voice over conclusion leaning towards the supernatural could've been left out however.

But the narrator continues guiding us through dark facets of society, continuing with adultery in "Valley Of The Hanged". Hong (Chiang Yang - The Spiritual Boxer) is a lowly, mining worker whose wife (Lau Wai-Yue - The Bamboo House Of Dolls) finds what she needs in De (Tin Ching). Marriage bitterness turns to hatred and to murder. Cinematography continue to do well but Hua Shan's (The Super Inframan) narrative lacks flair and possesses predictability instead. Certainly the most risque of the pieces as Lau sheds her clothes on several occasions.

The final piece "The Stuntmen" chooses the setting of the Shaw Brother's studious, partly but in reality is a standard gangster tale crammed into 38 minutes. Director Ho Meng-Hua (The Mighty Peking Man) seems to feel this pressure as he quickly takes Lo Lieh's Zhong from down on his luck, through the gig as a stuntman, being a pimp for a Tanny Tien look alike (naturally played by the sexy Tanny Tien herself) and ending up as a higher ranked triad boss. Triangles is a recurring symbol throughout these short stories and therefore no element of surprise really exists anymore when we arrive at this story. The Shaw's connection within the narrative doesn't even matter either. Summing up The Criminals, Ching Gong wins this round. Appearing in the various stories are also Wong Yue, Chan Shen, Ku Feng, Yueh Hua and Ha Ping.