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素女經之挑情寶鑑 (1992)
The Story of Lady Sue


Reviewed by: STSH
Date: 05/12/2001
Summary: A mixed bag

They certainly managed to pack quite a lot into this one. Basically, the plot is Chinese Ghost Story with the elements chopped up and rearranged, with bits of Erotic Ghost Story mixed in.

The opening sequence made me feel immediately comfortable, being set at night and filmed using the blue-wash look which was used in many of Ching Siu Tung's films, such as CGS. What follows is quite a lot of wu'xia (flying people who engage in swordplay) and casting of magic spells with wonderfully tacky swirling special effects.

The film does earn the Cat III rating, but you have to wait 51 minutes for any full frontal. This scene lasts about ten minutes, and features a completely unknown (and probably never seen again) actress pleasuring herself with a wax penis. Several other actors engage in sex scenes, but only this girl shows it all, and only in this scene.

In the scene which follows, Tung Ling and Tan Lap Man engage in a marathon sex session. Nothing unusual for either one. What is odd is that, in a shot panning down Tung Ling's naked body, there is a moment where her pubic hair is exposed, but it is painted over. I rewound several times to check that it wasn't a piece of white cloth, but it was definitely an overpaint. Very puzzling, as Tung Ling has spent much of her fairly brief HK movie career sans clothes and doing lots of full frontal, both before and after this film.

Why the distributors would paint out one pussy and show another has me stumped.

Anyway, there are a number of sex scenes which are mildly exciting at best, but there is quite a lot going on which involves all sorts of other stuff. The plot veers dangerously close to being muddled nonsense. One thing it does have going for it - this is a sexy film with almost no violence until the last few minutes. Why is it that makers of HK Cat III films feel they MUST have have people getting brutally chopped up ? The director here seems to have been told "quick, the film's nearly finished. Spill some blood before it's too late".

No particular reason to recommend this film, but it is a great deal less awful than many other Cat III cheapie confusers.

Reviewer Score: 4