Camara Chinesa

I've seen so many Hong Kong movies now that when I eventually came to watch this notorious Category III melodrama I took it all in my stride, but thinking back on it now, it has to be one of the most startling viewing experiences available to any viewer unfamiliar with HK cinema. Its part of a string of CAt III movies seeking respectability through use of historical settings (Sex and Zen, Sex and the Emperor, Lover of the Last Empress etc.), and for all its horrors, its not as sickening as Escape from Brothel or Eternal Evil of Asia. Yvonne Yung-Hung has perfected a set of wounded facial expressions that render her a perfect victim/fantasy figure, and feminist critics will find much to deplore in films like this, finding as they do eroticism in sadistic beatings of defenceless women - when one couple is executed, we only hear about the man's horrible death, but we see a graphic depiction of the woman's killing by wooden horse/dildo contraption. This movie is packed with ideas of how to find sexual grotesquerie in contortions of the human body, and the motif of escalating levels of torture is perfectly apt for Wong Jing's style of producing imaginative variations on his favourite preoccupations of sex and violence. He's only the producer, but his presence is tangible - I guess his closest Western equivalent might be Roger Corman. Fans of historical Cat III films will be pleased to see that the great Elvis Tsui once more steals the show with some spectacular sexual wirework.

My favorite part of this bizarre movie, aside from the graphic violence and sex, was the poorly translated and wholly inappropriate sub-titling. The entire film already had me precariously balanced between disgust and hilarity, but the way they presented some of the dialogue pushed me over the edge into falling-out-of-my-chair laughter. What sticks in my mind the most (apart from the exploding phallus and aerodynamic coitus) was a scene where a woman in the midst of seriously pounding and fairly graphic sex moans something that was translated as "So comfortable... so comfortable..."

This film revolves around the plight of the oddly named Little Cabbage, a servant girl who finds herself in a heap of trouble after she takes up voyeurism. Through a series of plot twists too long to summarize here, she ends up accused of murder and facing a judge with some rather unpleasant methods for extracting confessions.

This is Hong Kong Category III cinema at its weirdest, a grotesque mixture of sex, comic sex, sexual violence, torture, and even a comedic rape scene meant to challenge the viewer's limits. It will either have you laughing aloud or running for the bathroom with your hands over your mouth. It also has an ending that will have you pounding the table and yelling "Now THAT'S justice!"

In seriousness, the film does have a certain level of misogyny. The torture scenes involving females are shown very graphically, and there is a somewhat disconcerting theme of sexual pleasure being fine for a man while totally unacceptable for a woman. However, the film itself is so broad and over the top that it is difficult to be too offended by it.

The title says it all.

A woman is accused of the murder of her husband. In order to extract a confession the court subjects her to a series of violent methods of torture. Most of the story is told in flash backs, recounting how the story leads to the ultimate gory death of her poor husband (his penis explodes). Along the way we found out about sexual martial artists, lesbian frolicking, adultery, lost love, back stabbing and a very potent aphrodisiac.

The torture scenes are appropriately brutal, but generally short. There is nudity aplenty and some sex, but it never gets excessively graphic. Also there is an odd unbalance of dead serious scenes and goof-ball humor; half the film is comedy. Genre fans familiar with exploitive flicks will likely find this a tad prodding and slow, all others will sit slack jawed muttering "what the hell..."

It may be a little too violent for some viewers and not sexed-up enough for others, but those willing to take a shot might enjoy it. Maybe...

5/10

I saw this singular film double-billed with The Naked Killer (one of my all time favorite movies). Chinese Torture Chamber is weird through and through.

It takes place sometime ago in China's glorious past, when the courts utilized Spanish Inquisition-like techniques to get the truth out of defendants. The opening scenes are a fairly graphic, though oddly funny, demonstration of ghastly tortures.

Then, we are taken to the estate of a rich prince, married to an insatiable princess. He tries to please her by employing exotic "marital aids", but to no avail. She seeks fulfillment through another man. Sexually curious housemaids secretly watch their trysts through holes in the rice paper walls. One is caught, and becomes the subject of the wrathful princess' ire.

Throughout the rest of the movie, as told in flashbacks, this poor maid must prove her innocence of murder (by exploding penis!). The court systematically tortures her and the prince (a suspected accomplice) first by spanking, then through more excruciatingly depicted techniques.

What's odd about all these precedings is that they are simultaneously horrifying, erotic and funny. Kind of like the Japanese film Tokyo Decadence.

Oh yes, there is one sequence that totally blew my mind: The prince spies two heroes flying through the trees, fighting each other kung fu-style, ripping each others' clothes off (ends up being a man and a woman), and then f***ing while still mid-air!

Only Hong Kong could come up with a "porno/horror/fantasy/comedy".