Les nuits rouges du bourreau de jade

This movie was so bad it could have been a comedy. The acting was so wooden and the plot, so ridiculous and weak.

I thought I was watching a very poor tv series from the 1960's.

A woman steals an ancient artefact and flees to Hong Kong in order to sell it. Little does she know that the box contains a vial of poison, a poison that paralyses its victim but heightens their senses of pleasure and pain. The people she is dealing with will go to any lengths to obtain the poison.

This film had potential: an intriguing start, the mysterious woman after the poison, the tough, resourceful thief assailed on all sides, the dark tone of the film, the good production values. Yet, for all this its more miss than hit.

The main problem is the plot: it's clumsy, with some contrived, silly developments. Just because the film falls in the horror category doesn't mean you have to fall back on horror clichés. Even worse, the pacing is all over the place. Some incredibly intense scenes that move at a great pace in among some scenes that are incredibly slow and empty, padding the movie. This all leads to a start-stop sort of journey.

The ending is a bit weak too.

Overall: disappointing.

There is a legend of directors who created a movie which brought laughter to viewers through a poisonous plot. This legend repeats nowadays when a French director flees to Hong Kong after killing her dog at home and stealing from it an old artifact containing this poisonous plot. She meets Taiwanese actor Jack Kao and veteran Hong Kong actress Carrie Ng, who all want to get a paycheck by participating in this poisonous movie with absolutely meaningless content that only kindergarten kids would watch through. Be warned.

Just saw it..still puzzled by some details. First: the opening..the innocent young girl is put into the vacuum bed-enjoys the sensation-then is killed with the jade claws. this seems irrelevant to the main plot. anyway-the Frenchwoman who steals the box-shot twice and somehow recovers..how is that? finally, the ending devolves into a Jacky Chan type of slapstick. still, enjoyable..in and odd sort of way.

I just got back from this film, as it was screening at the Stockholm Film Festival. Going into it I had no idea what to expect, and the first 20 minutes of the film are not bad, and even give the illusion that the film might be about something or involve an unraveling mystery of some sort with suspense and layers and that sort of thing, you know, content. Nope. The movie is just about a box from ancient times containing an ancient poison, and everyone wants this (can't imagine why) and is ready to tear each other to pieces over it. The film climaxes with an excessively gory torture scene that goes on for a very long time. Absolutely nothing here, if I could go back in time I'd give it a miss and select a movie with content.

On the bright side . . . the movie looks very good. It is well shot.