Census Bloodbath: Hot Pursuit

Year:
1985
Director:
Taylor Wong
Cast:
Lo Meng, Jason Pai Piao, Yin Cheung Joh
Run Time:
1 hour 26 minutes

Plot: The prologue of Pursuit of a Killer (Kong woo liu duen) follows a group of Mainlanders who are escaping to Hong Kong. One of them, Ya Zong (Chun-Chung Tong), gets his leg caught in a bear trap as the authorities are closing in, so the rest of the group is forced to abandon him. The four abandoners: the hunky, misogynistic Ye Hong (Lo Meng of the Ip Man movies); The Girl, Gao Mei (Yin Cheung Joh of Escape from Coral Cove); mustachioed Lu Bao (Ngai Tim-Choi and, when the character is older and more rotund, Hsiang Lin Yin of Hell Has No Boundary); and the characteristic-free He Min (Keung Hon of Pituitary Hunter).

Once they get to Hong Kong, life on the other side is not as peachy as they imagined, and they get caught up the criminal underground working for the triads. After a botched robbery, the three men are sent to prison. Five years later, a mysterious black-gloved killer is tracking down the men as they get released from prison one by one. Local cop Inspector Wang (Jason Pai Piao) and his hotheaded sidekick Lei Kung (Sun Chien) spring Ye Hong out of prison early to use him as bait, and while he is constantly trying to escape them, he is also hellbent on tracking down the killer.

Analysis: Made in the waning days of the Shaw Brothers Studio (shortly before they focused almost entirely on television production for several decades), the Hong Kong giallo movie Pursuit of a Killer does bear a certain sense of decadence and decay.

However, like a particularly stinky cheese, it's going to appeal to some people's palates considerably. I'm halfway there. The obligatory kung fu sequences are lively and frenetic, often featuring a dozen guys fighting one another at once while rushing down narrow hallways or flooding courtyards. Even the combat between two or three fighters tends to be dynamic, with one featuring a fighter tumbling all over a bed (and the naked woman on top of the bed) and another taking place in a film studio and making use of every inch of the lushly designed space.

This movie is also horny, and exuberantly so. It's the rare 1980s exploitation movie that shows male and female flesh more or less equally (and if the scales are imbalanced, it would be weighted toward the men, which almost never happens in a film of this vintage) and it luxuriates in a sleazy, offbeat, ambient eroticism that can sometimes be quite enjoyable. 

When the movie's characters actually have sex instead of just being naked, that's where things take a turn. Pursuit of a Killer is unfailingly misogynistic, or at least its main character is. Sex in this movie is about taking, and the callous, often violent way that women are treated is deeply unpleasant, even by the standards of a 1980s slasher movie. Actually, Ye Hong just kind of sucks top to bottom. 

It's mostly unpleasant to spend time with him, so it's a bummer that this is what we're forced to do for about an hour once the movie finally settles into its plot.

Speaking of... The unfocused first act makes it so unclear what the movie is actually about that I was thinking this might not turn out to be a slasher at all. However, once things got rolling and a black-gloved killer murdered a man in a shower, I knew I couldn't deny this movie entry into the Census Bloodbath roster. Hong Kong gialli always blend genres, so including such tried-and-true slasher elements in multiple scenes basically makes this the slasheriest of them all, even if it's not really that slashery at all. 

Its slasher elements aren't especially exciting, with very little blood and few true "body count" killings in the second and third acts. Even though there are plenty of dead bodies to go around, they fit more in the action-crime movie mold. Plus, even though this is ostensibly a whodunit, the killer reveal is the most obvious thing in the world, so it doesn't really pack a punch.

I suppose it's not half bad aesthetically, and I'm not solely referring to the shots of a half-naked Lo Meng. There is a latent visual and auditory vibrance here that rears its head sometimes. I'm especially partial to the dangling, jingling charms on the killer's boots, as well as a shot of a conversation that is staged near a mirrored wall so you can see the expressions of both participants. But all that being said, Pursuit of a Killer is a good-not-great Hong Kong giallo that I have no particular interest in rewatching, whereas I'd welcome a second visit with, say, Night Caller or He Lives by Night.

Killer: Ya Zong (Chun-Chung Tong)

Final Girl: Gao Mei (Yin Cheung Joh)

Best Kill: Ye Hong's criminal father figure Uncle Zhi is shot through the chest with a harpoon, which is always a fun one for a slasher movie if you can swing it.

Sign of the Times: The mall that the main characters rob in the first act is a gloriously 1980s structure. If I ever got a time machine, I'd definitely stop by on my way to curing the Black Plague or whatever.

Scariest Moment: The hanging barrels inside a seemingly empty room begin to sway around Ye Hong.

Weirdest Moment: A lizard crawls across the naked torso of a sleeping Ye Hong, which causes him to unconsciously flex his pecs.

Champion Dialogue: “Someone is having vengeance."

Body Count: 11; give or take some people that may have died during kung fu battles, but whose fates are ultimately unclear.

1. Brawler #1 is impaled with a sword.
2. Brawler #2 is impaled with a sword.
3. Old Man (Brawler) has his neck snapped.
4. Old Man (Driver) dies of a heart attack.
5. Lu Bao is slashed repeatedly with a box cutter.
6. He Min is shot to death.
7. Guard is killed offscreen.
8. Uncle Zhi is shot through the chest with a harpoon.
9. Xiao Hu is garroted with a chain.
10. Ye Hong is shot.
11. Ya Zong is shot repeatedly by the cops.

TL;DR: Pursuit of a Killer is a frenetic, wild Hong Kong giallo, which is to its benefit, but it's still a bit of a slog to spend time with its protagonist.

Rating: 6/10