Review | Mad Fate movie review: in absurdist Hong Kong murder thriller from Soi Cheang, Lam Ka-tung and Mirror’s Lokman Yeung try to change the course of destiny
- Soi Cheang’s film follows fortune-teller The Master, played by Lam Ka-tung, and delivery boy Siu Tung, played by Lokman Yeung, as they try to alter destiny
- A frenzied experience that offers a morally complex meditation on good and evil, the film has an inspired premise that sadly runs out of steam before the end
3.5/5 stars
Mad Fate’s ridiculously funny opening sees Lam Ka-tung’s fortune-teller, credited simply as “The Master”, bury a prostitute alive in a cemetery in a feng shui ritual meant to cheat fate – the woman is supposed to die in an imminent stroke of misfortune, he reasons, and the fake death might change the course of destiny.
However, soon after an unexpected thunderstorm pushes her to abort early, the prostitute is brutally murdered in her brothel unit by a serial killer (played by Peter Chan Charm-man), credited as “The Murderer”, who has a tendency of being triggered by rainstorms into slaughtering sex workers.
Arriving just in time to witness the bloody aftermath at the crime scene are The Master and a young man credited as “Siu Tung” (Mirror member Lokman Yeung in a breakthrough role), a delivery boy and son of the owners of a nearby cha chaan teng restaurant who has been accidentally directed to the flat by a rain-smudged handwritten note.
The corpse fascinates Siu Tung, who has a natural-born bloodlust that saw him being put away for killing a cat years earlier. The former convict doesn’t want to go to prison again – though he really doesn’t mind murdering a person for the first time – and The Master’s paranormal expertise looks to be his get-out-of-jail-free card.
