A Taste of Killing and Romance (1994)

Rating: C+

Dir: Veronica Chan
Star: Andy Lau, Anita Yuen, Mark Cheng, Waise Lee

[22] Perhaps oddly, given its female director, the killing works better than the romance in this film about two assassins, Andy Lau and Anita Yuen, who meet and fall in love, until one of them is ordered to take out the other. Meanwhile the cops are closing in, and there’s also a Very Bad assassin – in the film’s most memorable scene, he suffocates a pensioner in clingfilm, pours Dettol down her granddaughter’s throat, and chucks her dog in the washing machine.

This cheerful exuberance enlivens most of the action, even if The Killer is an obvious inspiration – in some ways, this is a remake with extra added lurve. However, that angle falls some way short of being convincing, and too often you find yourself waiting for the next piece of imaginative mayhem.