Tristar

The mid-90s were a terrible period for Hong Kong cinema, none of the big names were able to escape the sudden collapse of an empire. Tristar is one of Hark's attempts to keep his career afloat, but the result is nothing like the polished films he delivered in prior years. It's passable filler for completists, others can skip this without feeling too bad about themselves.

A young prostitute goes to church to make a confession, where she tells the priest she faces an enormous debt. The priest is shocked when he hears her story. Later on, he finds her address on a piece of paper she left behind, and he decides to help her out. He observes the woman from a distance and wants to make her life a little better without her noticing.

There is potential here, that's for sure. There are some fun ideas and the setup is interesting enough, but the rest is simply insufficient. The film looks cheap, the soundtrack is incredibly poor and the performances are way below the norm. The once so well-oiled machine is visibly unraveling, but there are some remnants of Hark's former glory to ease the pain, if not by a lot.