This one did not look promising, mainly because no 'name' Hong Kong actors were in it. but it turned out to be a pretty decent thriller. some scenes were pretty intense and violent, but realistic. acting was overall OK, i just wish Hong Kong actors wouldn't shout so much.

I may not have seen that many movies from Hong-Kong, but in the ones I have there's always the same thing annoying me tremendously. I'm referring to the sudden, abrupt, and extreme leaps in tone and atmosphere. One moment, you're looking at something that almost feels like slapstick, then the next you're in the middle of a sadist and disturbing thriller. It's also like this in "Fatal Vacation".

I almost turned off the film after half an hour because it felt like a lame comedy about uptight and eccentric tourists from Hong-Kong traveling around in The Philippines. The first half hour only features idiotic situations (like males dancing in bikinis) and stereotype comedy-characters, like an over-enthusiast tour guide, a dancing midget, an overbearing grandmother, and an adulterous husband. Then, practically out of nowhere, the group is taken hostage by a violent band of guerillas, and there isn't anything to laugh about anymore. The tourists are brutally executed, regardless of age or gender, raped and beaten up. It may just be me, but my autistic brain short-circuited due to this sudden shift in tone. The half hour of comedy is quite annoying, but the barbaric half isn't much better. It's unoriginal, raw, and deeply unpleasant.

Bizarre detail, this extremely obscure (at least, I assume it is) stars the recognizable American - although with obvious Chinese roots - actor Victor Wong, known from cult hits "Big Trouble in Little China", "Prince of Darkness" and my personal favorite monster-movie "Tremors". This guy was the inventor of the name "Graboids", I'll have you know!

Eric Tsang writes directs and stars in a nasty exploitation film about a bunch of Chinese tourists to the Philippines who get taken hostage by rebel forces. Trapped in a village where they are manhandled abused and raped they must find away to help themselves when it appears that the military and police will be unable to find them.

Tsang, one of my favorite Hong Kong actors, has made a nasty little film filled with hopelessness, humor and brutal violence. Had the film come out ten years earlier it would have been considered a classic from the end days of the Grind House cinemas. The action when it comes is well done. The performances are good with Tsang often touching as Bob, the tour leader who tries his best to do his best to keep everyone safe.

The films weakness if that its characters are a tad cliché and that it can be overly talky with the film taking a while to get going, and the slowing down once the group is being held hostage. The trouble is not that the material is bad its just that the talk pales next to the great action sequences.

Worth a look if you run across it as a rental or on cable.(or in my case as a dollar vcd in a dump bin.) (and Victor Wong, Egg from Big Trouble in Little China, appears playing one of the hostages-though not using his voice in either the Cantonese or Mandarin dub tracks)