An le zhan chang (1990)

An le zhan chang: Directed by Eric Tsang. With Eric Tsang, Irene Wan, Kwong Leung Wong, Chih-Hsi Li. A pleasant trip to the Phillipines is turned into tragedy when the tour bus is kidnapped by a group of rebels that want to exchange the prisoners for the Rebel Leader’s brother.

“When this narrowly distributed flick was made, Eric Tsang was playing soprano-voiced goofballs in piles of average Hong Kong forgettables. Now, heu0026#39;s matured beautifully and heu0026#39;s playing crime bosses in accomplished dramas like u0026quot;Infernal Affairsu0026quot;. In other words, heu0026#39;s come a long way, baby! u0026quot;Fatal Vacationu0026quot; is one of the few features Tsang has directed, and itu0026#39;s a keeper.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSimple set-up for maximum bloodshed: A bus load of holiday makers are taken hostage by brutal, unreasonable revolutionaries. They do what they can to survive and end up dead for their efforts. Most do, anyway.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBeing a child of late Eighties Hong Kong cinema, this is a graphic, unapologetic, mean-spirited exploitationer with close to a dozen jaw-dropping displays of vicious mayhem. It moves like a bullet train and is efficiently directed by Tsang. The rural setting is pictorially interesting and acts as a stark counterpoint to the deliciously gory violence, some of which is admirably shocking.”