As Cham jumps to operatically cruel methods to exact revenge on To, the premise of To agreeing to help him feels far-fetched, even within Hong Kong cinema’s world of honor and heroic bloodshed. The set-up of Limbo is a veteran bad cop paired with a rule-abiding, academy valedictorian the immediate convenience of these tropes is not worth their paperthin inauthenticity. This lineage appears in the film as well: the second half of Limbo basically rehashes PTU’s premise (also co-written by Au), but it remains superficial without PTU’s probing. An apprentice of Johnnie To, Cheang has brought over not only Cheng and editor David Richardson, but also screenwriter Au Kin-yee from To’s production company Milkyway Image Limbo is an informal Milkyway reunion. Unfortunately, Limbo’s story does not reach the highs of its visuals. Perpetual Pain Courtesy of Sun Entertainment Culture. All the artisans behind the film work together to realize Cheang’s vision-a stylized but not realist, familiar yet slightly foreign Hong Kong that keeps the viewer on edge.
Cheng fully captures even the tiniest insect in his widescreen, the mark of a fruitful collaboration between different teams in a production. While actors lurch in filth, the result is almost revolting yet irresistible to watch. The production design team has turned in extremely visceral, clearly laborious work, constructing mountains of trash bags, severed limbs, swamps, and flies. Most of the film takes place in back alleys and rundown apartments, often amidst torrential downpours. Limbo was adapted from a Mainland Chinese short story taking place there looking at the film, one would be hard-pressed to find out, as Cheang has seamlessly transposed the story to Hong Kong through remarkable production design. He has once again delivered stunning work that recalls the neon lights and shadows of PTU, Throw Down, and Exiled. DP Cheng Siu-keung- Johnnie To’s regular-is Hong Kong’s Roger Deakins, somehow still empty-handed at the Hong Kong Film Awards despite many deserving movies and eight nominations. Black-and-white brings out more contrast in shadows than color does, and Limbo makes use of that to create a Hong Kong even more guttural and hellish than it already is. Limbo was converted to black-and-white in post-production, but except for a few flat shots in daylight, the film doesn’t betray these origins. A 100% black-and-white film from start to finish is rarer than a blue moon in the Hong Kong film industry. Limbo is first and foremost an aesthetic achievement. Jeweled Trash Courtesy of Sun Entertainment Culture. Limbo is Hong Kong crime cinema at its well-oiled best-some hackneyed, lazy storytelling, but with a damning pessimism for the city, and the best-looking shots coming from Hong Kong in years.
Limbo movie times serial#
Director Soi Cheang tells the story of a low-level gangstress named To (Cya Liu) who helps a weathered, hateful detective named Cham (Gordon Lam Ka-tung) trace a fetishistic serial killer because of a shocking debt she owes him. They took a massive financial hit as everyone had feared, but, if there is any reassurance, the film has since received immense critical acclaim. Once it became clear that the category III film (the equivalent of NC-17 in the US) was never going to make it through China’s censors, the producers took it to the Berlin Film Festival and released it only in Hong Kong theaters. One such “missing” movie is the appropriately titled Limbo. However, due to China’s volatile censorship board constantly moving the goalposts on what’s allowed in theaters, and the months-long closures of Chinese cinemas from sudden COVID lockdowns, these films have been stuck in limbo, waiting for release dates to no end.
These mid-to-big-budget productions, most of them partially funded by Chinese studios, need the Mainland Chinese market to recoup their budgets, as Hong Kong’s is nowhere near big enough.
Many Hong Kong films made in the late 2010s have seemingly gone missing.
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