He Lives by Night is a little known, yet excellent, Hong Kong slasher flick! Unfortunately I don't have a lot to compare it to having seen less than half a dozen of this sort of film; but as a film in its own right; this is an excellent mix of horror, romance and comedy! Director Po-Chih Leong takes a basic idea for a plot and really runs with it; managing to inject a cheesy love story and a boatload of twisted humour into the tale without it seeming forced or out of place. The film takes place in an urban metropolis and focuses on a killer that stalks and kills female victims; the only similarity between the murders being the fact that they were all committed with a similar weapon; that being the victims' own white stockings! Meanwhile, a young 'tomboy' radio DJ known as Sissy is covering the murders while getting attention from the town's fat police chief. It later transpires that the female killer is actually a man in drag and the two central plot lines combine when the radio DJ is stalked by the psychopathic killer.
The cinematography in this film is great and despite the plot line, He Lives by Night is very beautiful. Hong Kong's cinema is generally known for being bloody and brutal; but this film isn't. There's a surprising lack of blood and even the murder scenes are tame compared to those seen in later films such as The Untold Story. They are very well done, however, and one that takes place in a bathroom is very well shot. There's not a great deal of sex and sleaze either - and this is mostly made up for by the comedy. That's not a big problem, however. The comedy is very funny and the storyline itself is deliciously sick and twisted enough to account for a lack of visceral horror. The idea of a transvestite killer has been used many times before in horror films; but it's a bit different here as the fact that the killer is a transvestite is never really dwelt on and provides the story with little more than a bizarre twist. Overall, He Lives by Night is a stylishly shot and very interesting slice of Hong Kong horror and comes highly recommended to fans of this stuff.
