Li Tung can't slep at night due to noisy hammering in the appartment
above. When he goes to complain, he finds an absent-minded man (Lau
Siu-Ming), a
beautiful woman (Gloria Yip) & a black cat. The next day though they are
gone, leaving behind only some cat-entrails. The story evokes the
interest of his friend, writer Wisely (Waise Lee), & soon it is found out that
the trio (man, woman & cat that is) are breaking into some museums
for some mysterious octagons. What Wisely & his friend inspector
Wang (Philip Kwok) don't know yet though is that the trio is from outer space &
has come to earth to hunt down another malevolent alien creature, that
occasionally takes on the form of a giant tentacled mushroom., &
they need the octagons as a sort of weapon. However, Wisely & Wang
decide that they need to borrow a dog to hunt down the cat, but while
Wisely is out with the dog searching for clues, Wang & his fellow
police-officers have to face the malevolent alien killer who kills all
the officers & uses Wang as a human host. In the form of Wang, the
alien then atacks & kills an illegal arms dealer plus company for
his rich arsenal. Wisely & the dog meanwhile do actually trace the
cat to another museum where a ferocious fight between the 2 animals
ensues, almost killing the dog, & the little feline even escapes
Wisely, who manages to rip her tail off, though. However, the caat plus
her male & female companion then pay a friendly visit to Wisely
& tell their story (about being aliens & all), which he is
brought to believe with surprising ease. But the friendly visit is soon
interrupted when the evil alien in the form of Wang attacks Wisely's
place with literally hundreds of weapons (but however much he shoots, he
doesn'T seem to be able to hit his target even once), & he ruins
& in parts blows up Wisely's home, & even when the male part of
our alien trio sacrifices his life for the sake of the others it doesn't
slow Wang down all that much, only enough for the others to have a
temporary escape. When Wang catches up with them, he is no longer of
human form but a monster powerful (& large) enough to suck in
10-storey buildings, but in an underwhelming climax, the cat takes the
octagon, flies into the mouth of the monster & blows it up. Monster
dies, everyone else survives, happy ending.
This synopsis might sound much more exciting than the movie actually
is, because even though there are some good special effects & a
warped story, something just doesn't quite click. It might be because
none of the characters is really fleshed out at all, so everything that
happens to them leaves the viewer rather untouched, plus they always
show the most casual reactions to the most far-out things that happen to
them (like "So you're from another planet, why don't we go there on
a joyride ?" or "So you are going to fioght this most powerful
alien against which us humans are powerless, let us go with you.").
Furthermore, a cat pressing buttons or even flying does divert greatly
from any dramatic potential the story might have, it just looks
completely ridiculous. At least the cat versus dog fight was nice &
expertly handled (even involving something resembling animal-martial
arts).
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