Director Soi Cheang's dystopian crime noir didn't have the best start in life. Filmed in Hong Kong over 3 months from September 2017 it was canned when it didn't pass the Chinese censors, subdued by street protests in 2019 and mainland China's increasing belligerence towards the peninsula, and then to cap it all the Covid-19 pandemic! All this meant 'Limbo' didn't see the light of day until its premier at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival on 1st March 2021. Phew!
These setbacks don't seem to have blunted the film's impact and appeal. The claustrophobic thriller follows a police hunt for a fetishistic killer through the dark alleys and decaying apartments of Hong Kong's dark underbelly. Veteran bad cop Cham Lau played by Ka-Tung Lam constantly clashes with his 'by the book' rookie partner Will Yam (Mason Lee, actually Ang Lee's son would you believe?) as Cheang turns the cop buddy movie on its head. Lam carries a dark secret which flashes into view when the pair meet druggie gangstress Wong To (played by Yase Liu in what is probably the film's standout performance, although the intensity of Lam's character pushes her hard!) who offers them information to solve the crime. The film is tightly wound around the relationship between these three in their pursuit of the Japanese killer Yamada Akira (Hiroyuki Ikkeuchi) left cleverly faceless and a constant threat lurking somewhere off camera.
Cheang brought writers and creatives over from Milkyway Image, epic Hong Kong film maker Johnnie To's production company, to create a stunning movie that works on many levels. The film is perceptively shot in black and white which lengthens the night shadows (most of the action takes place at night!) and gives everything a creepy starlit quality. Set builders have constructed monstrous edifices of rubbish which gleam like jewels in the black midnight rain, and the protagonists often find themselves trawling through filth and trash so close up it crawls all over you like a rash, visceral! The elements of chase include martial arts and gruesome fight sequences which tie in with the killer's twisted lust for limbs and amputations in his victims, hence the title 'Limbo' ... but the film maker drags you back into reality with shots of metro carriages, passing traffic, a street vendor ... before soaring skywards with drone shots panning over the a Bladerunner rainstrewn city below ... what a visual feast!
The film's tortured history appears to make it 'Limbo' in name... and limbo by nature! Perhaps Cheang can take comfort in knowing many of the cinema greats were slow starters: Bladerunner, Donnie Darko, Labyrinth, Shawshank Redemption, Rocky Horror ... Post-pandemic, the world finally seems ready to wake from its slumber, and 'Limbo' and a great many of the other 'missing' films of Hong Kong may blossom yet!
A better informed review than mine: Review: 'Hong Kong Neo-noir "Limbo" Is Dark in More Ways Than One' by Justin Chor Yu Liu, 14th July 2022, Cinema Escapist.
These setbacks don't seem to have blunted the film's impact and appeal. The claustrophobic thriller follows a police hunt for a fetishistic killer through the dark alleys and decaying apartments of Hong Kong's dark underbelly. Veteran bad cop Cham Lau played by Ka-Tung Lam constantly clashes with his 'by the book' rookie partner Will Yam (Mason Lee, actually Ang Lee's son would you believe?) as Cheang turns the cop buddy movie on its head. Lam carries a dark secret which flashes into view when the pair meet druggie gangstress Wong To (played by Yase Liu in what is probably the film's standout performance, although the intensity of Lam's character pushes her hard!) who offers them information to solve the crime. The film is tightly wound around the relationship between these three in their pursuit of the Japanese killer Yamada Akira (Hiroyuki Ikkeuchi) left cleverly faceless and a constant threat lurking somewhere off camera.
Cheang brought writers and creatives over from Milkyway Image, epic Hong Kong film maker Johnnie To's production company, to create a stunning movie that works on many levels. The film is perceptively shot in black and white which lengthens the night shadows (most of the action takes place at night!) and gives everything a creepy starlit quality. Set builders have constructed monstrous edifices of rubbish which gleam like jewels in the black midnight rain, and the protagonists often find themselves trawling through filth and trash so close up it crawls all over you like a rash, visceral! The elements of chase include martial arts and gruesome fight sequences which tie in with the killer's twisted lust for limbs and amputations in his victims, hence the title 'Limbo' ... but the film maker drags you back into reality with shots of metro carriages, passing traffic, a street vendor ... before soaring skywards with drone shots panning over the a Bladerunner rainstrewn city below ... what a visual feast!
The film's tortured history appears to make it 'Limbo' in name... and limbo by nature! Perhaps Cheang can take comfort in knowing many of the cinema greats were slow starters: Bladerunner, Donnie Darko, Labyrinth, Shawshank Redemption, Rocky Horror ... Post-pandemic, the world finally seems ready to wake from its slumber, and 'Limbo' and a great many of the other 'missing' films of Hong Kong may blossom yet!
A better informed review than mine: Review: 'Hong Kong Neo-noir "Limbo" Is Dark in More Ways Than One' by Justin Chor Yu Liu, 14th July 2022, Cinema Escapist.