MAGAZINE GAP ROAD (Hong Kong, 2007)
Directed by: Nick Chin
Starring: Jessey Meng, Qu Ying, Elvis Tsui, Richard Ng, Carl Ng

You know you’re in good hands when a slimy pimp wearing eyeliner looks into the camera and sneers, “She’ll come back. They always do. A beauty, long pampered by men is entitled to everything, but when the looks fade, what’s she left with?” And so starts the neon noir, MAGAZINE GAP ROAD, an independently produced Hong Kong movie set in the lush, glittering high class enclave of the Peak, but dripping with enough poison to drop a man before he can take two steps. Jessey Meng plays Samantha, a high priced call girl who slipped her pimp, Hans, years ago and disappeared to Hong Kong where she started her life over as an antiques curator. Suddenly her old trick-turning colleague, Kate, shows up with her veins full of junk and her brain full of fear that Hans is coming for her. She begs Samantha for help and before you can say, “Very Bad Idea,” Samantha has been pulled off her high class perch and dropped back into the hell she thought she’d left behind. 

First time director Nick Chin turns in an ode to Hong Kong’s pimps and players that makes the city look like gorgeous. In his hands, the Hong Kong nightscape glows like a handful of jewels scattered over black velvet and the screen is thick with high end labels like Fendi, Furstenberg and Lanvin. In the middle of all this opulence the actors deliver locked-down performances that feel like muttered threats. Model-turned-actor Jessey Meng (RED CORNER, MUMMY 3) is all clenched control and simmering rage as Samantha while Zhang Yimou veteran, Qu Ying, is an out-of-control mess as Kate. Backing them up are two of Hong Kong’s greatest character actors from the 80’s and 90’s, Elvis Tsui and Richard Ng.  A veteran of over 100 films, Elvis Tsui plays Mao, a drunk, woman-battering cop who’s as burnt out as an ashtray at the end of a long night. Richard Ng plays Samantha’s boss, Dr. Lee, and you’d never know that this cardigan-loving, dusty old curator is the comedian who mugged through dozens of movies with Jackie Chan in the 80’s. Confident, controlled and steeped in noir, MAGAZINE GAP ROAD has high priced hookers on the run, crystal meth, kidnappings and appearances from a host of Hong Kong favorites. What more could you want from a film?