Jue ming pai dui

Wade (Bryant Chang), a junior at a large corporation, is given an invitation to go to a swanky party for the elite by company president Mr. Yang (Jerry Huang), who is unable to attend himself; the only proviso is that Wade must masquerade as Yang's cousin. To help him blend in at the posh event, Mr. Yang provides Wade with designer clothes and plenty of cash, none of which stops Wade from bonking his boss's extremely hot model girlfriend (Maria Ozawa) at the bash after cleaning up at the roulette table (talk about a winning streak!). On top of all that, Wade is also presented with the one thing he has always dreamed of: a silver Ferrari Modena 360 (I would have gone for a classic red one myself).

Just as the evening looks like it couldn't get any better for Wade, it doesn't: it turns out that, along with four other guests who also aren't who they claim to be, he is to become an unwilling participant in the evening's entertainment, a gruesome torture show laid on for the benefit of the city's sadistic socialites.

The plot for Invitation Only, Taiwan's contribution to the sub-genre frequently termed as 'torture-porn', doesn't stray all that far from the film that it was clearly inspired by, Eli Roth's Hostel: a group of gullible people are duped into becoming victims for rich sickos. But despite being very derivative stuff, I still give Invitation Only the edge over Hostel: first off, the violence is nastier (including a particularly eye-watering jump-leads-to-the-genitals scene!!!); secondly, the women are hotter (not that Hostel's Barbara Nedeljakova is a munter, it's just that given the choice I prefer my ladies of the Asian persuasion); and last but not least, the film isn't by Roth, whose over-inflated ego really gets my back up.

6.5 out 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

Heralded as Taiwan's first slasher movie, you wonder what took it so long (really?). Director Kevin Ko knows the ingredients to make it work though, with copious amounts of thick, crimson blood and the numerous shots of hot female bods in slinky dresses grooving to the beat right from the start for that cursory first kill as an appetizer before the main course. Heck, I think the casting of Japanese AV star Maria Ozawa was a shrewd move as well, for what it's worth, at least to get her fan boys into the theatre for this.

The filmed worked like clockwork though, introducing us to a loser/slacker Wade (Bryant Chang), a chauffeur who one day unwittingly chances upon his company CEO Yang (Jerry Huang) in a compromising position with Ozawa's fashion model in the backseat of the S500 Benz (which I tell you has plenty of room for that kind of shenanigan). In order to shut him up, Yang offers Wade the chance to live the high life through an all-sponsored invite to a high society event, which promises the fulfillment of one's fantasy, and the networking opportunities abound when rubbing shoulders with society's elite.

But of course there's no such thing as a free lunch, and soon Wade got more than he bargained for, after getting his wishes satisfied of course, with unbelievable winnings at the gambling table, a gift of a Ferrari, and the highlight? Bonking the much coveted fashion model which made Ozawa look real comfortable aside from her very contrived acting with clothes on.

Things of course are more than meets the eye, especially when this underground event gets situated in the same warehouse in the opening scene, and soon enough the newcomers to the party, Wade included, are unmasked for being the fakes they are, and the body count begins. It's a little peculiar as well that the story chose to show all quite early in the film, and settled instead for plenty of bloody gore with scenes crafted that will make you shrink in your seats, so much so that even an R21 rating here didn't get passed clean, with a jarring edit made to a facial treatment.

If there's anything close to this offered by the West, then Hostel would come close. But I have to admit that the story did offer something that's refreshingly bizarre with its preaching (or beliefs) of the characters on the the rich-poor divide, where torture becomes a gladiatorial sport to satisfy what's being perceived as injustice being done. It's hunter versus prey for the masses, until the prey begin to fight back when forced to a corner.

As with any slasher flick there are a number of plot loopholes that will make you chuckle, such as the extremely poor logistics the villains have set up, as well as very silly goons being employed. The execution of the premise and the performance of a number of not-so- beautiful cameos (read: high society aunties) were really bad, and I cannot help but to laugh out loud at the implausible, obligatory car-chase scene involving a Ferrari and a pick up, which did highlight the modest budget here because creative camera techniques were employed to simulate a minor wreck. Of the Ferrari that is.

Still, this film drew in the crowds and I was quite surprised that it was quite the date movie as well. To the jaded torture porn viewer, the film is like a walk in the park which delivers exactly what you'd come to expect, plus some unintentional comedy when things get played straight.

The plot copies ideas from several movies I've seen such as 2008 french movie Vampire Party (Les Dents De La Nuit) - 5 people got invitation cards to a special party off an island and found out they are nothing but walking prey to a bunch of vampires. Another one is Saw, with the video recorder scenes.

For the movie itself, I'm disappointed about the script as it brings nothing new to the table. What makes a story / movie special is the local cultural elements + human nature / universal questions we all have or face during the era. For horror movies, especially Asian, what works most but neglected most are urban legends.

The surprising part of this movie is one of the actress is more famous than anyone in the film turns out to be a Japanese porn actress - Maria Ozawa could land a role more than a sex scene. It's another porn actress got into mainstream movie after Dany Verissimo successfully played a role in Distrct 13 (Banlieue 13).

Usually is Hollywood who does the rip-off, taking different foreign productions and making the worst out of them. Well, I have now lived to see it otherwise, Invitation only, the absolute worst of revenge gore.

OK, so stating that it is more gore than horror should be a no brainer, but while we are playing this card, let's also admit that it is a bad production, not the worse gore use out there, bad acting, a plot of a B- film, and overall easily predictable. Reasons to see it? Not many, I say you stay with the American ones, I actually find those smarter and it is a more familiar concept there, thus, resulting in better productions.

Invitation Only could be accepted as a first try, the smallest of baby steps, but a step nonetheless. Beyond that, this film should be ignored. It even feels too long for what it delivers.

Cheers!

Attending a lavish party, a group of strangers intending to use the celebration as a means of networking with an elite society instead find the whole affair is a cover for the hosts to spend the evening torturing and murdering them for past indiscretions and must find a way to stop it from continuing.

Overall, this one is solid enough despite some issues. One of the better features here is a fine and workable premise that sets everything in motion. Operating under the guise of a networking party for the super-elite but featuring a much darker underbelly that provides the impetus for the action to follow, everything comes together quite nicely. With the original party plans serving to get the group to the particular event unaware of the true intent behind the festivities, the darkness of the eventual reveal as a setup intending to torture and kill them in brutally horrific means is rather shocking. When added alongside the secondary storyline about each of the guests being sent there purposefully by an associate of the club to punish them for indiscretions that were committed against them so that everyone is lying to a degree, the main setup of the film comes off well enough. That serves the film perfectly to launch into its main impetus with the stand-out practical gore effects. As befits a film in this particular style, the work here is brutal and graphic with impactful outcomes designed to spill as much carnage as possible which causes plenty of extreme discomfort in the variety of kills featured here. Containing slit throats, snapped limbs, close-quarter gunshot wounds, and mutilations with hand-tools is just a taste of the stuff on display throughout here as the party takes a dark turn and the true purpose of their presence is discovered. This provides a great base for the encounters throughout where the brutality inflicted by the Elite society trying to kill them and the counterpoints by the victims trying to fight back leave this with some highly effective moments to give this a lot to like. This one does have some pretty big issues with it. The biggest factor is something outside of the film's control but the overall concept which makes it feel like any other film in its particular genre. Featuring so many of the same elements commonly associated with the style including the usual favoring of brutal violence at the expense of character-building, a pessimistic tone without any kind of comedic levity to break the tone, and much more, this one loses a lot of its identity by being another entry in this style without much else to really differentiate it from many other films. That also brings about some pacing issues when he confronts the leader of the torturers explaining everything which just reinforces these aspects so it's quite dull at points. This is especially true for those who aren't bothered by the gore and want more substance in their films which this lack, as both of which end up bringing this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, and a sex scene.