Fantasia XXVI Review: For a Dose of Thrills, Make an Appointment with DR LAMB!
Scrolling through a list of available films to review for a film festival can be overwhelming. One should not judge a book by its cover, but sometimes a reviewer has to follow their gut and request films whose posters and titles catch their attention. I can’t explain exactly what drew me to Dr. Lamb at first, but once I read the brief description saying that it was about a serial killer in Hong Kong, I knew I wanted to watch it.
Dr. Lamb was written by Kam-Fai Law and directed by Billy Hin-Shing and Danny Lee. It was originally released in 1992 but has been restored and re-released.
Let me tell you right now: this is not your typical serial killer movie. For one, there are some humorous parts to it even despite the gore. Dr. Lamb has a balanced ratio of giggles and gags throughout this 90 minutes film. For the other, the story opens with a glimpse of Lam Gor-Yu at a young age, but when we fast forward to his adulthood, he is being arrested and so is his whole family. There is a huge amount of time spent watching he and his family be interrogated as the police try to get a confession. It is not until after his confession that we get to hear him describe the killings. I absolutely approve of this not usual order of storytelling.
The only downside I could say there was to Dr. Lamb is that sometimes the audio would go into English. The characters would say a few sentences in English and then return to Cantonese, which was a bit distracting.
Did I mention that this is based on a true story? These are real events that happened in Hong Kong in 1982.
So if you are a true crime fan or a horror fan, I highly recommend making an appointment with Dr. Lamb.
Screened for this year’s 26th edition of Fantasia International Film Festival.
Writer, bookworm, geek in too many fandoms to name, Indianapolis Colts and Chicago White Sox fan.
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