A serial killer is on the loose, and the killer's victims are always found starved, dissected, all weighing 70 lbs at the moment of death. Sergeant Tak starts an investigation, and together with his wife Ling, who's an ex-detective herself, they soon find out that all the victims are somehow linked to a TV show which runs a beauty contest called 'Slim Queen'. The victim's have all appeared on it to be contestants, and now Tak must find the killer before all the contestants ends up dead.
Anthony Wong has appeared in a whole heap of movies, and I'm always interested in checking those movies out, since I think the guy's a great actor. Although, it seems like he made his most memorable performances in movies that were made long ago, because with most of the 'newer' flicks he has been in, he hasn't really been that great. Not saying that he's bad here at all, infact, he delivers a good performance as always, but it feels toned down and doesn't use half of the man's full potential.
Slim Till Dead is a HK thriller in the same vein as Seven, actually there's no way you can't help but to think of Seven when watching it, (that's except if you haven't seen Seven in the first place of course). It follows Sergeant Tak (Wong) who's chasing a serial killer who kills his victims and dumps them when they weigh 70 lbs. The victims are found starved and dissected, all to reach the exact weight of 70 lbs. I must admit that I found it to be a little suspensefull for a while, not nail biting-like, but still a bit suspensefull which was nice, since after all, I was watching a thriller movie.
 
Unfortunately, like when it comes to most thrillers, it was just too predictable. And like in tons of other movies out there, you have one mysterious suspect that you're supposed to believe is the killer (who ever does that?), and of course towards the end it proves to be someone else. Now, some movies do this in a clever way so it's surprises you, and that is of course always greatly appreciated. Slim Till Dead on the other hand didn't manage to do that, and it was a bit too easy to find out who the real killer really was.
One thing I sat and got really irritated about all through the movie was the awful score which kept bugging me from start till finish. Sometimes it had these hawaiian-like tunes in it which were just horrible to listen to. I mean, you think you're watching some dark suspense-thriller, and all of a sudden you hear these happy tunes which just ruins the whole feeling completely. Other than that it had some other crappy music to offer, but enough about that. The acting was all right, nothing terrific, but at least it was decent enough.
Slim Till Dead is also set in the fashion world, so there's some of that to be seen. Also the fashion industry and people in it deal a lot with weight issues, and of course it all has do to with that. Now, maybe you could find a deeper meaning and all when watching this movie, with weight issues in society itself etc, but I feel way too shallow today to get into that subject. Furthermore, I don't really care.
Slim Till Dead is a somewhat ok HK thriller. It offers a little suspense and some gross moments as well, but not too much gore. Unfortunately, it was a bit too easy to guess who the killer was, and the movie didn't feel half as clever as I would've wanted it to be. Still, it might be worth a look, just don't expect too much.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Marco Mak Chi-Sin
WRITING CREDITS: Wong Jing
GENRE: Thriller
CAST: Anthony Wong, Crystal Tin, Cherrie Ying Choi-Yi
COUNTRY: Hong Kong
RUNTIME: 92 min
RATING: 4/10
Slim Till Dead Website/IMDB Click here
Slim Till Dead Trailer Click here
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