Sentenced to Hang

Kent Cheng (Run And Kill—93) stars as 'Hair Sticker', a fat man that works part time as a merkin applicator in a strip joint. Tired of being bullied and beaten down by harsh bosses and life, he, his friends Tony Leung (Dragon Inn—92) and Chang Shan get drunk and decide to organise a hasty kidnap which quickly goes wrong.

Like many blue-lit, bad luck CAT III crime capers, this Hong Kong shocker soon becomes a catalogue of ill will and despair, amped up by a hectic pace that pushes its 'true story' beginnings through patches of black humour and sad melodrama—not normally a watchable mix, but here it's handled well.

Violence, shouting, numerous stabby homicides, a twisting story, sick jokes and a touching, over-long and super sentimental GIMME-THE-FUCKING-OSCAR finale that'll have you weeping tears of sad regret... well, probably not the scene where one of the men loudly shits all over himself when he's hung by the neck and executed. Aww, did that ruin the ending for you?? Duuh. Read the title.