''Zodiac Killers'' is a 1991

Hong Kong action Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese culture, Chinese and Culture of Hong Kong, Hong Kong cultures, including Chinese opera, storytelling a ...

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Ann Hui Ann Hui On-wah, (; born 23 May 1947) is a film director, producer, screenwriter and actress from Hong Kong who is one of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers of the Hong Kong New Wave. She is known for her films about social issues in ...

and starring

Andy Lau Andy Lau Tak-wah ( zh, order=t,j, t=劉德華, j=Lau4 Dak1 Waa4; born Lau Fook-wing; 27 September 1961), is a Hong Kong actor, singer-songwriter and film producer. He was named the "Fourth Tiger" among the Five Tiger Generals of TVB in the 1 ...

Cherie Chung Cherie Chung Chor-hung (; born 16 February 1960) is a retired Hong Kong film actress. Of Hakka ancestry, she was one of the top actresses in Hong Kong film during the 1980s. Background Chung participated in the 1979 Miss Hong Kong competition ...

and

Junichi Ishida is a Japanese actor and television personality from Tokyo. He is married to professional golfer Riko Higashio. Biography Junichi Ishida was born in Tokyo. His father was a foreign correspondent for NHK, and he lived in the U.S. from the ages o ...

. The inspiration of ''Zodiac Killers'' came from the case of a mainland Chinese female student studying abroad in Japan who died when she fell onto the tracks. ''Zodiac Killers'' is

Hong Kong New Wave The Hong Kong New Wave is a film movement in Chinese-language Hong Kong cinema that emerged in the late 1970s and lasted through the early 2000s until the present time. Origins of the movement The Hong Kong New Wave started in 1979 with the rele ...

's representative Ann Hui's first attempt at making a commercial film, which, however, did not perform very well at the local box office.

Plot

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

student Ben Lee becomes friends with his mainland Chinese classmate Chang Chih while studying abroad in Japan. Ben is unmotivated to study and only cares about money and on the other hand, whenever Chih encounters a Chinese person, he would ask whereabouts of his childhood sweetheart. Ben and Chih's friend, Ming, is also from Hong Kong and in order to elevate his social status, he becomes involved with a bar hostess and owner Yuriko, hoping to become Yakuza leader Yamada Ishikawa's brother in-law. In Yuriko's bar, Ben encounters Chinese student Mang Tit-lan, who is there to earn some extra money, and falls in love with her at first sight but is not favored. Tit-lan and her friend Mei-mei live with their guarantor and suffers a lot of humiliation. Tit-lan is in love with Hideyuki Asano, who works as Yamada's top assassin, who went to South America to kill Yamada's enemy, but eventually came back to reunite with Tit-lan. However, Yamada send his men to have Asano silenced and right before he dies, he asks Tit-lan to expose Yamada to the police but Tit-lan faces the underworld's pursue to kill her. Since Tit-lan's passport was detained by her guarantor, Ben had to help her sneak out of Japan on a boat, but the thugs arrive right after hearing the news. Ben and Tit-lan attempt to leave the oppressing country.

Cast

as Ben Lee *

as Mang Tit-lan *

as Hideyuki Asano *

Kyoko Kishida is a very common feminine Japanese given name. Not to be confused with Kiyoko. Written forms The final syllable "ko" is typically written with the kanji character for child, 子. It is a common suffix to female names in Japan. The first syll ...

Old geisha Miyako (cameo) * Takazawa Zunko as Yuriko *

Yasuaki Kurata Yasuaki Kurata (born March 20, 1946) is a Japanese martial artist and actor, best known for his work in Hong Kong action films. He holds dan ranks in kenpo karate (7th degree), judo (3rd degree), and aikido (2nd degree). Biography Kurata was b ...

as Yamada Ishikawa (cameo) *

Tou Chung-hua Tuo Tsung-hua (; born 10 October 1962) is a Taiwanese actor. He won the 2005 Golden Bell Award for Best Actor. Flight incident On 1 February 2019, during a China Airlines flight from Taipei to Singapore, Tuo Tsung-hua became intoxicated an ...

as Chang Chih * Suen Pang as Ming * Law Fei-yu as Harada * Tsang Wai-fai as Mei-mei

Theme song

* ''Red Dream'' (紅塵夢) ** Composer: Wong Sze-yuen ** Lyricist: Thomas Chow ** Singer:

Release

Considering its large budget for this commercial film compared to

's other art films, ''Zodiac Killers'' grossed a disappointing HK$9,081,083 during its theatrical run from 20 July to 8 August 1991 in

Reception

Ben Sachs of the ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The ''Reader'' has been ...

'' wrote, "As an action movie, this is just fine .But as a portrait of cultural displacement, this is evocative and sometimes very moving."

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* *
Zodiac Killers
' at

Hong Kong Cinemagic Hong Kong Cinemagic, sometimes referred to as HKCinemagic, was a bilingual ( French and English) website providing a repository for information about Chinese language films from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, and the people who created them. The we ...

*
''Zodiac Killers'' film review
at LoveHKFilm.com {{Ann Hui 1991 films 1991 action thriller films 1991 drama films 1991 martial arts films 1990s action drama films 1990s Cantonese-language films Hong Kong action thriller films Hong Kong drama films Hong Kong gangster films Hong Kong martial arts films Gun fu films Yakuza films Golden Harvest films Films directed by Ann Hui Films set in Tokyo Films shot in Tokyo Films with screenplays by Wu Nien-jen 1990s Japanese films 1990s Hong Kong films