AKA: 聊齋驚艷, Liu jai ging yim, 聊斋惊艳 | Directed by Lam Yee Hung | Country: Hong Kong | Language: Chinese | 86 mins
Cast: : Gam Chi-Gei, Bonnie Fu, Ku Feng, Susan Shaw, Fang Mian
Subtitles : English, Chinese
Synopsis
This movie starts with so much promise, then like many of its ilk, loses its way and stumbles through various tropes before having a rather abrupt ending.
Opening with two petty thieves stealing silver from fallen imperial soldiers on a battlefield who hear a siren call coming from the river. They go to investigate and find two beautiful women in various states of undress. They take the ladies home with them and, over their light protestations, coerce them into having sex with them. Then the light changes, the women sprout fangs, and they rip out the men’s hearts to feed to their vampiric queen.
At this point, I was ready to see where in the world this movie was going and hoping the ride was insane. Unfortunately…it’s not. The next man/victim is set free because the sucubus falls in love with him. The next half hour is that sort of melodrama.
Then it becomes a rip off of the Erotic Ghost Story as they try to find a newly dead body for her to re-inhabit. Finally a wuxia movie breaks out as our hero has learned some special kung fu from a drunk old man (earlier actually) and is able to fight the demons.
The thing about all this is it’s sort of all fine, but can never get back up to its early promise. The director Lam Yee-hung is blasted as a hack in every piece of info on him I can find. I have to see a few more of his films, but I think he’s like HK Roger Corman or Bruno Mattei: he is always chasing the trends and making low budget copies. I have a few more to wade through, but honestly, his style isn’t bad. It’s not poorly made. It’s just derivative as can be.
*Review by LD4Days*
