Yan pei go jang haai

I actually bought--sight unseen--an obscure import DVD of this film, so my expectations might have been higher than those of someone just looking to rent. But in all honesty, I can't even recommend it for a low-priced rental.

I was willing to settle for something only half as disturbing and well-crafted as The Untold Story or Dr. Lamb when I ordered this DVD. I'm addicted to being disturbed; that is to say, I have intense admiration for violence, cruelty, brutality, and gore in films. So if a film contains enough of these elements, I can forgive other shortcomings. Unfortunately, Horrible High Heels isn't very disturbing to the jaded--yes, there's a decent helping of gore, but I've seen worse (or do I mean better?) in any dozen Italian zombie/cannibal films, and in quite a few Asian films as well. This is irrelevant, though, because its other shortcomings are so severe that no amount of barbarism could sway my low opinion of it.

The film's greatest flaw is that it's utterly incoherent. This is actually an odd statement coming from me, because I'm normally a huge fan of incoherence, especially when it's intentional--for example, when it's used to instill a sense of confusion in the viewer that mirrors the mental state of the film's protagonist. But the incoherence in HHH is the result of nothing more than an abundance of filmmaking ineptitude. If this ineptitude were at least comical, I might still have enjoyed the film, but it's simply perpetually frustrating and inappropriate to the narrative. In many sections, it's as if the editor decided that shot sequence was arbitrary, and simply spliced the shots together in random order.

And so on. To make a long story short (too late), don't waste your money. If you've seen Cannibal Ferox, City of the Living Dead, Organ, Men Behind the Sun, and the like, this film will not fulfill your mayhem jones, and it will irritate you besides. If you DON'T like your entertainment brutal, for god's sake why are you reading about this film?

Yup, you're probably wondering about the name. Nope, it's NOT a transvestite or homosexual film! It's more wacky fun from the "Body Horror" genre. Triple H (no, not the wrestler) is Category 3 at it's best (or worst, whichever the case may be). It's ingredients are: one part porn movie, one part Kung-Fu Theatre, one part cheezy B action flick, and one part TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Well, how can you go wrong with that, huh?! Basic storyline... a group of gangsta's help to supply a shoe store with a new fantastic line of special imported leather. The reason it's so special is because it's made from human skin! Anyone's a potential victim but they prefer young men and women. Softer and more elastic, I guess. If they catch ya, they'll kill ya, cut ya up, and skin ya for shoe leather. But not only that, there's scenes a-plenty of rape, murder, exploitation, and foul behavior that can only be seen as totally vile, totally loathsome, and just down right nasty. One in particular involves a picture of a woman's face with her mouth cut out taped to a live duck ass-end up. I'll let your imagination fill in the blanks of that story. And one thing I just couldn't quite understand, if you love someone, why would you want to urinate on them the first chance you get them alone? Like I said before, just plain nasty. Movies like this could give China a really bad name.

This is a thoroughly perverse and gore addled category 3 film from Hong Kong. For those who don't know, category 3 basically means 'rated as containing nudity and/or hardcore violence', and if thats what your looking for, this totally incoherent film delivers. I'm not too sure if the lack of linear structure is down to bad subtitles, s****y cuts or a godard fetish or even an excess of drugs, but this does deliver on important scores of bezerk originality, up front nastiness, and frothing insanity. If you manage to track a copy of this increasingly rare film down you will see what i mean; human skin is turned into ladies leather shoes at a luckless shoe factory, a maniac does something very very odd with a duck and a photo of a co-worker, cute asian girls are hassled in pretty bizarre ways by the killer of the title....... Well its a sleazy piece of schlock. Its very good but make sure you've got a 6 pack and you aint expecting Kurosawa, if you get my drift. L8R

Category III rating of Hong Kong cinema was created to classify those films filled with extreme violence and graphic sex,allowing them to be released free from censorship.Unfortunately "Horrible High Heels" is a slightly boring Cat III shocker that offers plenty of sex and some grisly gore.A sadistic killer has been skinning dead bodies and using their skin to make shoes.He sells such products to some unknowing shoemakers whose shoes are praised for their comfortable soft leather."Horrible High Heels" is a pretty depraved flick,but it's nowhere nearly as powerful as "Red to Kill" or "The Untold Story".The killings are mean-spirited and sadistic(the dismemberment of a young Chinese woman is especially memorable),but there is absolutely no suspense.The film is pretty hard to take seriously and the acting is absolutely bad.The sex scenes are plentiful and the sleaze factor is pretty high.Overall,"Horrible High Heels" is a mildly enjoyable piece of HK exploitation,so if you liked "Ebola Syndrome" give this one a try.6 out of 10.

If you want to watch this movie after my comments I will suggest you use the fast forward button. This movie is very confused..it is poorly acted and lousy written. I could forgive all this if it was groundbreaking in any way, but no. It´s about this shoefactory were people disappear and end up as fine quality shoes. All the characters are unpleasant, so who cares who kills who. There is a subplot involving some local thugs - an excuse to make some lame shootout in the end. The only good thing about this movie is a lot of softcore scenes, but it cant save this turkey. A fair amount of blood though, if anyones interested.