COLD BLOODED MURDER is an eventful Hong Kong indie that's much more than your standard kung fu picture. It's a contemporary thriller which sees Bruce Le and Carter Wong teaming up as the cop heroes of the piece, tackling both drug runners and a sadistic serial killer with a penchant for killing innocent young women. It's a real mash-up of genres that works surprisingly well despite the low budget origins; it helps that the running time is packed out with involving incident.
On the downside, this picture is occasionally confusing and disjointed; the two sub-plots never really gel and at times this feels like a cut-and-paste movie. Still, the predominance of action sees it through, as do the assembled cast members. Le and Wong have little to do as the solid hero types, but it's Chan Wai-Man who really shines in the social drama stakes as he plays a street hawker struggling to support his wife and baby. Wai-Man was always one of the more interesting - not to mention imposing - action stars of the era and he certainly trades on that presence here.
Elsewhere, the film is chock full of Bruce Le doing what he does best, namely kicking backside. The opening sequence has him brawling on the docks with none other than Shaw Brothers veteran Chiang Tao; the latter teams up with the great Bolo Yeung to supply plenty of presence and fights. Bolo looks bad ass in his natty red tracksuit and the fight scene in which he lifts the car is a real highlight. Elsewhere, scenes of the unknown killer in white gloves and sunglasses have a real giallo feel to them, making this a movie with a bit of everything.
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