With its plot about a man caught up in a world of perversion out of his control, and touching on such taboo subjects as bestiality, necrophilia, BDSM and rape, I can't shake the feeling that Hotel De Sade is aiming for the kind of notoriety enjoyed by A Serbian Film. It fails, as so many do, by not having the balls to go as dark or as extreme as Srdjan Spasojevic's infamous shocker.
Fish Chaar plays Zhang Li, who believes that he was responsible for the death of his daughter Scarlet (Joanne-Marie Sim); to try and forget his guilt, he subjects himself to physical pain, as meted out by prostitutes. A meeting with a pimp results in a visit to the depraved secret brothel Paradise, where clients can engage in their wildest and most deviant desires. Zhang Li asks to be subjected to extreme torture, and is put in the capable hands of masked mistress Mu-Dan (Debra Teng), but his visit to Paradise involves more pain than he bargained for as he uncovers the truth about his daughter's fate.
Directed by Oman Dhas, Hotel De Sade dips its toe into extreme perversity, but never dives in; so while there is talk of all manner of sick acts, they mostly remain unseen, leaving anyone looking for the next big thing in transgressive cinema sorely disappointed. With this type of film, it should be a case of 'go big or go home' - no half measures, thank you very much! The contrived plot twist at the end is also extremely daft: without giving too much away, we're supposed to accept that the massive Paradise underground complex has somehow been built without detection in the countryside (and at some considerable cost) for the sole purpose of revenge. Seriously?
Oh well, at least the film looks nice (when the focus isn't shifting erratically for no reason), with polished cinematography, breathtaking scenery and some nice footage of cormorant fishing on a river.
