Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases


Before Dawn (1983)

Director: Clarence Ford Fok Yiu-Leung

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Ah Po, aged 17, has been spoiled all his life by his mother, a nightclub dancer dumped by his father and a succession of other men. He considers himself straight but one night's service as a rent boy leaves him implicated in a series of murders of gay men - which are actually being carried out by the bent cop who is charged with investigating them. Fok's hysterical, barely coherent melodrama throws in everything from kitchen sink realism to forced-sodomy fantasies with fluttering doves but centres on the chasm between adults and kids. It had the distinction of being the first Hong Kong feature to imagine a gay sub-culture and broach the possibility of its protagonist's sexual ambivalence. There are no 'positive images', but the film was a cult favourite in underground gay circles in the unliberated '80s.

Author: TR

Time Out Film Guide


What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields




Most popular on this site


Top Stories

Has David Cronenberg turned tame?

Has David Cronenberg turned tame?

Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?

The 10 worst date movies

The 10 worst date movies

Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made

Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films

Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films

Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas

10 unlikely badboy biopics

10 unlikely badboy biopics

Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects

Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'

Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'

The first-time director of the brilliant new thriller discusses religious cults and robot boxing

Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day

Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day

Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing