This is an extremely obscure late HK genre flick. Growing up, a young kid gets beaten by his abusive mother, who won't let him read comic books. One day, he finds her dead in the apartment while the police are looking for a criminal. He blames this man for her death. All grown up, the guy has become a comic artist, and channels his memories into a new hit comic called "The Devil Shadow." It's around here that the film falls apart. He's engaged to one woman, but starts an affair with another at a comic shop, though this may or may not just be a part of the comic he is drawing. There's a creepy guy who occasionally messages him online, he's constantly fighting with his boss about money, etc.
This film seems to have no idea where it wants to go. It starts like a serious domestic/crime drama, has long digressions into romance, a supernatural martial arts fight toward the end, and vaguely gestures toward being a horror movie in the last 20 minutes. It's a shame, because there's a lot of good raw material here. The film actually does an excellent job of painting the milieu of its artist characters, and I found them interesting and engaging, particularly the conflicted protagonist. It's a shame they're left adrift in this amorphous mass of a movie.
This film seems to have no idea where it wants to go. It starts like a serious domestic/crime drama, has long digressions into romance, a supernatural martial arts fight toward the end, and vaguely gestures toward being a horror movie in the last 20 minutes. It's a shame, because there's a lot of good raw material here. The film actually does an excellent job of painting the milieu of its artist characters, and I found them interesting and engaging, particularly the conflicted protagonist. It's a shame they're left adrift in this amorphous mass of a movie.