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| A brutally sadistic and exploitive film about a naive girl (Chingmy Yau) who becomes one of the emperor's concubines. She's not popular with the other girls in his harem, and when her inexperience can't satisfy the emperor she's treated even more badly (the highlight of this was scrubbing her vagina with a wire brush to make sure she didn't keep any of the emperor's sperm). She goes over the edge when one of the other girls kills her pet cat and she proceeds to viciously murder the cat killer. Then, to get revenge for everything anyone has done to her, she goes to a brothel to learn the ancient and secret arts of seduction and sexual pleasure. She uses her newfound talents to secure her position as the emperor's favorite concubine, and they eventually marry. Then she kills him and takes charge of everything. She brutally executes anyone who poses a threat to her power and sadistically executes all of the harem girls that were mean to her. By the end of the movie she's a nasty brooding bitch in charge of an entire nation. The film is great looking with wonderful cinematography, but it's really just another Category III sleaze fest parading as a period film. Chingmy Yau is still cute, but you can really tell that she's aging in the film, and has a hard time pulling off being a young ingenue. I should have probably given it three [out of 4] stars, but it's just so nasty and dislikeable that I bumped it down to two [out of 4]. |
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| This intriguing new film from prolific producer/director Wong Jing is a return for Wong and his regular leading lady (on and off screen), Chingmay Yau Suk-ching, to the realm of "Level III" filmmaking (Hong Kong's equivalent to NC-17). The shamelessly parasitic Wong, leaving behind his recent John Woo imitations, here opts to cop the style of Tsui Hark's period melodramas. The plot casts Yau as a shy young woman who, with the help of a couple of sex experts, becomes something of a sex bomb. Proceeding to use her irresistible charms to sleep her way to power, Yau transforms herself into a cruel and merciless bitch. Her ambition destroys everyone around her and leads to a predictably tragic finale. On the surface, Wong utilizes a style that seems, at least from a purely visual standpoint, to be ridiculously close to that of Tsui. The incorporation of (supposedly) telling historical references, fluid photography, lush costumes, and the occasional gravity-defying action sequence manages to give the picture an admittedly Harkian feel, but director Wong just doesn't have the skill to reach beyond the surface details of these elements and, therefore, fails to make them resonate as anything more than eye candy. Wong Jing isn't Tsui Hark, and never will be no matter how hard he tries. While Tsui has shown himself to be a consistent innovator on the Hong Kong film scene, Wong has always shown himself to be the follower of the latest trends, and though some of his work is undeniably entertaining, it can rarely be called original. This erotic melodrama does have its moments due primarily to the cast. While these performers have all done much better work in the past, they almost manage to keep Wong's loony sensibilities in check, allowing for a few moments of effective drama. The moments of eroticism, while certainly more graphic than the typical Hong Kong flick, don't come close to the sexual antics of the Wong Jing-written and -produced Naked Killer, and occasionally they even seem inhibited by comparison. There are worse movies than Lover of the Last Empress, but this thing really is severely lacking in individual personality. However, Tsui Hark's fans may find this one interesting for obvious reasons. |
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