Review: Beyond Hypothermia is an excellently produced film. The actors (although the dubbing is a little lame), action, and storyline are all executed well enough. The problem is that it doesn't have an original bone in its body, the entire movie has too many cliches for its own good. Maybe I haven't watched every single Hong Kong shoot 'em up there is, but Beyond Hypothermia definitely follows the formula. For example...
1. Chilly assassin wants to stop killing people after a traumatic incident that hits too close to home.
2. Assassin falls for a dumb, but lovable character.
3. Assassin's betrayed by the one closest to her.
4. Most recent assignment comes back to haunt assassin by introducing a rival.
5. Someone's true love is mortally wounded just before they get hitched.
6. Rival has a personal reason for taking on the assassin.
7. Most recent assignment goes wrong for one reason or another and the entire Hong Kong underworld is after the assassin.
8. Assassin will have to KILL the entire Hong Kong underworld before she's free of her life of killing.
The list goes on, but that's what immediately leaps to mind. The characters and actors are decent, Sa-Lei Wong as the female assassin works well as a visual character (she looks so cold, but it worked for the character), but when it comes to lines and such she's just kind of there. But I guess that's supposed to fit seeing as how the character doesn't have a past or real life.
Why is it in these movies the main female protagonist has to hook up with a dick? Long is a kind noodle shop owner that takes a liking to the killer, but that's pretty much it. He's a part of the formula, nothing more and nothing less. At least he's decently acted by Ching Wan Lau (who starred in Black Mask, always a good sign), but the dubbing makes him sound like an idiot. Maybe the characters would seem better in a subtitled version, who knows?
Sang Woo Han kicked incomprehensible amounts of ass as Yichin, the assassin's main rival (refer to cliche list and you'll know what I mean). Which is pretty good considering this is a guy with a Flock of Seagulls haircut. He's crazy (always a plus) and has many, many clips for his beretta and the will to use them. Though, if I was head of a criminal organization I wouldn't put my most trigger-happy underling in such a high-ranking position. I mean, that's just asking for a bloodbath.
Which brings me to one of the shining moments of the film...the gratuitous violence! As soon as she starts getting out of the business, the bodies just start to pile up. The gore definitely flows, but the action sequences don't really have much style to them. They're just put in there to spice up the movie a little without any real thought put behind them. Still, it's nice they didn't forget that this was an action flick first and foremost.
The movie above all else looks good. Shots are well-done as is much of the filming as well as the character developments, but the problem is it's just so formulated that any enjoyment you could've found in Beyond Hypothermia is gone because you've seen it a billion times before and can predict things before they happen. To be honest, I had some laughs and just how formulated the movie was (the true love getting killed, who didn't see that one coming?).
Beyond Hypothermia has all its pieces in place. There's no doubt in my mind the makers of this movie have seen a lot of Hong Kong action flicks and worked out an all too familiar storyline. The only real difference between this movie and the dozens of others is that the character's female and for some reason her body temperature's lower than a normal person's.
You'd think that would've caused some medical complications, but nope. If you feel like catching your standard "I'm trying to get out of the game and everything then goes to shit" movie, then you might like Beyond Hypothermia, but if you want something different I say you skip it and move onto something like Fulltime Killer.