Chik juk ging wan

Director Ivan Lai, who has helmed his share of sleaze classics (DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS 1 + 2), tries real hard to exploit maximum capital from every gory, perverted, bullet-ridden moment of this highly recommended thriller.

It's a fetishist's wet dream. The gorgeous women of the cast all wear short skirts and we get plenty of opportunities to see up them. The rape scenes are as graphic as possible within the rating category. The opening sequence, in which a pretty young maiden is kidnapped, raped and dismembered, is a real keeper. Also worth noting is the music and sound design.

There is a gleeful amorality about Lai's films, a nod (intentionally or unintentionally?) to Japanese "violent pink" cinema of the 70's and 80's.

The modus operandi of rapist Roy Chen Chih-Lai does not really wash, but that is not the point of this film. The point is gleeful sensationalism of gutter-level subject matter.

There is a strong erotic undercurrent and leading lady Jade Leung is pretty damn cute and pretty damn feisty as a police detective on the rapist's blood-spattered trail. Miho Nomoto, a Japanese actress who plays Jade's sister, turns in a terrific masturbation scene that pushes the boundaries of the rating.

Although it doesn't maintain the style and pace its opening stanza establishes, it is still righteous, unapologetic sleaze.

The movie is about a manic rapist and murderer who falls for a female police officer and stalks her and her family members. Acting of Mark Cheng who plays the role of rapists/murder is superb. Screenplay is ok. Acting of the support staff is ok. A good c grade thriller

That's what updating a classic thriller (this is loosely based on the 1960 film by Michael Powell) Hong Kong style looks like.

Mark Chen is the nutcase getting his kick of murdering young women with pretty legs and filming his deeds (of course, raping the victims before comes quite natural). Jade Leung (of "Black Cat" fame) is the young policewomen whose paths accidentally cross with those of the killer. He falls in love with her, infiltrates her life and preys on her sister and her lover.

For a HK Cat. III thriller this has a rather straightforward story, fine acting by the leads, and very stylish direction. Atmospheric, violent (to a certain degree - there are much more violent Cat. III movies) , erotic - highly recommended to all fans of modern Hong Kong moviemaking.

Ival Lai's (Daughter of Darkness 1-2) Peeping Tom (1997) stars Mark Cheng as sick serial killer rapist Roy Chen Chih-Lai who not only rapes and kills his female victims, cuts off their legs as he seems to have some fetishism towards them. He does this by a handsaw and then gets rid of the rest of the body. Jade Leung (the lead actress in Stephen Shin's Black Cat, 1991) plays police detective Cheng Hsuen who gets during one spectacular shootout on the top of the killer's hunting list. She has also a sister Kelly played by Japanese Miho Nomoto and they both are cops. Michael Tse plays Jade's boyfriend and a police chief so they all are trying to capture this nasty killer on the loose.

This film suffers from things which are hard to take seriously and the script is almost laughably bad at times. HOW on earth the police cannot do anything to get the killer as they know his face and the red glasses he wears and the white van he drives, and as he appears everywhere all the time?! This kind of stupidities make me almost angry when seen on film. Also, the motives of the killer are more than ridiculous as he finally tells them to Jade. This is, in fact, pretty bad film, but as a Hong Kong cinema lover, this is little easier to sit through and watch.

The cinematography tries to be ultra stylish but fails. It is not stylish to keep the camera twisted and moving all the time. Clarence Fok's Naked Killer is stylish film because it doesn't sow these camera techniques everywhere but uses them more restrainedly and in right places to create the crazy atmosphere for the film. Peeping Tom looks occasionally nice and has some distant atmosphere or even suspense, but otherwise never achieves what it tries.

There is one very well done gun play sequence in the beginning and that's about the only really fast moment in this film. It is pretty violent and reminded me of such brutal Hong Kong classics as The Big Heat and Requital. The violence is pretty strong throughout the film, but the leg sawing at the beginning is the goriest part there is and it seems to be there just to grab the viewer's attention for the rest of the film. There's plenty of sex and nudity, too, and one amazingly long and detailed scene in which Kelly masturbates in a shower and that scene is definitely more than explicit! The film isn't too strong compared to other CAT 3 films, but it has enough nasty moments and sleaze elements to achieve the CAT 3 rating.

I can't say this is too great film, but it is much more watchable than some Daughter of Darkness 2, which is horrible example of CAT 3 junk. I give Peeping Tom 4/10 and "recommend" it for Asian buffs only.

To be honest, I really wasn't expecting much going in to THE PEEPING TOM. I have to say I was quite pleasantly surprised. This one has a bit of everything: violence, rape, gun fights, car chases, and all other sorts of Cat III goodness. The story centers around a serial killer who collects his prey's legs as trophies (after he rapes them, of course...). A female police detective and her cop boyfriend are on the sick-o's trail, and the killer starts obsessing over the female detective - and it all goes downhill from there...

There are a lot of great elements to THE PEEPING TOM. Strong sleazy rape and nudity (not to mention a protracted shower masturbation scene that's pretty hot...), some pretty strong violence (though not nearly as graphic as some of the classic Cat III nasties), excellent acting and camera-work, and some really interesting plot twists. THE PEEPING TOM is also obviously devoid of the silly humor elements that are evident in even most of the strongest titles from this genre. The only comic relief at all is from a smart-ass reporter who has a combined total of about 2 minutes of "on-camera" time. If you dig HK action/horror/drama/sleaze then I think you'll really get into this one. An excellent, straight-faced serial killer entry ... 8.5 out of 10