Ai Nu, esclave de l'amour

I saw this movie in an English Cinema, in Birmingham, in the mid- 1970's, and was quite bowled over by its startling originality, at least to my eyes as a western viewer. It is far better constructed than most of the Kung Fu type movies that have world popularity, and will appeal to a discerning audience. The intricate plot deals with the fate and adventures of two women, masters of their marshal arts, and sworn to vengeance. The significance of the relationship between the two women grows until it becomes central to the film. That alone was original enough in the 1970's - but amazingly it is still original now.

The film has a legendary, classical feel to it, and is absolutely not self-conscious about the role of its female leads. The plot twists and turns down to its tragic denouement, breathtaking in its melodrama and beauty. I don't know enough about this but it felt very rooted in chinese culture , and had the classical structure of a greek or shakespearian tragedy.

It is also beautifully filmed, and has many of those chinese fencing scenes the mass public has only really just become familiar with in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. But the latter is really not a patch on the earlier film.

There may be many more like this - I don't know - and although it didn't feel formulaic to me, perhaps it might to the chinese audience. So I only gave it eight, rather than the nine that was tempting me.

So why is this film so unknown, alone and unrated? That, I think, is the result of the unfortunate terms of its original release. Subtitled chinese movies at the time would appeal only to a specialist audience - (and Enter the Dragon had not yet appeared to change all that ) . But the specialist audience would instantly have been put off by the unfortunate "Confessions" marketing title, which immediately put it into the category of the contemporary naff British comedy series "Confessions of a window cleaner" and the like. Many a time I have tried to recommend this film title to friends only to be looked at incredulously as if - oh dear - how pathetic. Not that they would have found it easy to see it - it can't have enjoyed wide release.

Now is the time for re-release.

This film essentially begins with a young woman by the name of "Ainu" (Lilly Ho) being kidnapped by slave merchants and taken to a brothel owned and operated by a beautiful but extremely evil woman named "Lady Chun" (Betty Pei Ti). Although Ainu tries to escape and does everything in her power to resist she eventually is auctioned off to four men in particular who each take their turn raping her one day after another before returning her back to Lady Chun. However, after these ordeals are finished she not only gains the respect of Lady Chun but subsequently wins her affection as well. Yet in spite of her elevated status, Ainu still nurtures a hatred in her heart for those four men and as a result she patiently waits for the right time to gain her revenge. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, although I would have preferred a bit more depth and intrigue, this still turned out to be an entertaining martial arts movie for the most part. Likewise, it certainly didn't hurt to have two beautiful actresses like the aforementioned Lilly Ho and Betty Pei Ti. Be that as it may, while I don't consider this to be a great martial arts film by any means, it was certainly good enough for the time spent and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

18 year old Ainu (Lily Ho) is kidnapped and sold to a brothel. Her good looks and wild personality make her very popular with the lustful clients, but also draws the lesbian attentions of brothel madam Betty Tei Pei. Betty teaches Ainu the ways of lust and the ways of kung fu, and Ainu becomes more and more similar to her captor. But rage at her treatment is still burning inside her.

INTIMATE CONFESSIONS... ("Ainu" is the Chinese title) is another wu xia film from ace director Chor Yuen, but this time the exploitation angle often present in his films is brought right into centre stage. Chor Yuen seems to have been fascinated by lesbians, but this is the only film of his that I've seen where he gives them the starring roles. Both Lily Ho and Betty Tei Pei give sterling performances as the beautiful but vicious martial arts hookers, and they're joined by a cast of Shaws starlets in the nude to create a pre-Cat III film that balances action, intrigue and eroticism surprisingly well. The film is the acknowledged inspiration for Clarence Fok's NAKED KILLER, the ultimate Cat III classic.

As with all Chor Yuen's films, AINU is filmed entirely on Shaw Brothers sound stages, and features his trademark opulent art direction and cinematography. The plot is less labyrinthine than in many of his wu xia works, probably because Gu Long was in no way involved. In fact, the plot is probably too straight forward - the film runs less than 90 minutes, and doesn't develop its characters or situations as much as I would have liked. It still has a certain amount of depth and sophistication that is exceptionally unusual in a film centred around sex.

Yueh Hua has a small role as a hapless police officer, but it's undoubtedly the women that are the stars of the film. Even in the action scenes, which are not the main focus but are a pleasant bonus, it's Lily Ho and especially Betty Tei Pei that dominate. Given that neither of the ladies are martial artists they do a good job in the fights, with stunt doubles being noticable but not distracting. Ultimately its the characters and the situations that make the film interesting, and the art direction, cinematography and naked flesh that make it compelling. I enjoyed the film on a number of levels, and even my girlfriend was positively disposed towards it. I just wish it had been about 30 minutes longer, and spent a bit more time developing its story.

Definitely recommended.

Overall, this is a pretty good Wuxia story, with a brothel context and revenge story at its centre. The original Hong Kong title is more honest - if less salacious-sounding - and, apart from some appropriate toplessness towards the beginning and end, there's not much titillation. It is of course wildly patriarchal and sexist but presumably that's supposed to be a historical given?

Meanwhile, I'm not an expert in the genre but, for me, the action scenes aren't really a patch on fare such as House of Flying Daggers or (my favourite) Hero. This predates both by quite a while, of course.

Worth a watch if you like this kind of thing, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it.

This movie is much more than I expected, the 70s mainstream movie by a mainstream director has more eroticism and violence in it than most movies dared now. However, it is not a movie that simply tries to shock and push boundaries, it is a movie about injustice done to women and poor while the persecutor only care for the rich. The revenge story is restrained at first deliberately and the revenge escalates into a full blood bath at the end when Ai Nu finally let all of her fury comes out, it is easy to see the feminist movement connection.

I also thought the cinematography is beautiful, especially at the beginning when camera captures the slow dance of Ai Nu in contrast to the corpse covered by snow.

The fight scene is also rather good. In other words, a perfect 10/10.