Daughter of Darkness II (1994)

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滅門慘案II借種 (1994)

Daughter of Darkness II

Reviewed by: mrblue
Date: 07/10/2002
Summary: Good flick

I think it's safe to say that we can put Daughter of Darkness II into the "only in Hong Kong" file. What we have is a dopey comedy, softcore porn and slasher film all revolving around the slaughter of a family. In other words, it's a perfect exploitation flick. It's as low-budget and slap-dash as they come, but for fans of the genre, finding a movie like this is a rare treat.

The film begins with the discovery of the aforementioned slaughter, and a dim-witted cop (Liu Kai Chi) trying to solve the case. His, shall we say, "unconventional" methods include having all the men in town masturbate into pots and his buxom deputy getting a vaginal exam so he can rifle through a doctor's files. As you might guess, this consitiutes the comedy portion of the movie. It's very loud, obnoxious and over-the-top; I normally don't like this style of comedy, but for some reason it works in Daughter of Darkness II and I found myself chuckling along.

Around the half-hour mark, the movie switches into the softcore porn portion, as Liu discovers a mysterious stranger (Cheng Yim Lai) burying her husband, and she begins to tell him a story. Like a lot of softcore porn stuff, this part of the movie begins to wear thin after a while. Even though Cheng is pretty good-looking, once she takes off her clothes for the third or fourth time, the thrill starts to lose its' effect.

Thankfully, at about a hour into the movie (despite how low-budget Daughter of Darkness II is, it does have some good pacing and editing), the slasher part of the movie kicks in as Cheng (ala I Spit on Your Grave) is kidnapped and raped, and then takes revenge on her attackers. There is some truly brutal stuff in this part; things that I had a hard time sitting through. Most notably, a scene where Cheng's privates are violently cleaned after the rape, and a shocking part where she performs an abortion on herself are some of the few scenes in cinema that make me cringe. It's stuff like this which makes recent so-called "horror" movies pale by comparison.

[review from www.hkfilm.net]

Reviewed by: ButterflyMurders
Date: 02/09/2002

I caught this movie about 20mins in. I must've caught the end of the low-brow humour section where the always good Liu Kai Chi digs around a doctor's files while his female partner has some fun getting a vaginal probe. For most part it's a watchable soft-porn flick as Cheng Yim Lai (her boobs are like marshmellows, by the way) recounts her story to Liu. There's a particularly notable scene where Cheng masterbates with fervoured joy.

Then..

(BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!)

...it turns into a g(l)orious slasher flick with quite a brutal extended killing spree. And that, for me, is BY FAR the best part of the film. Lots of blood, ripped tendons and horribly disfigured faces. And just right for dinnertime viewing :) 7/10.

Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: STSH
Date: 02/02/2001
Summary: Very gory

A bloodthirsty little revenge thriller indeed. The story is neatly split into two parts. Part one is a very silly low-brow comedy, where the men in a village are tested to rule them in or out of suspicion of the brutal murder of an entire family. Then Cheng Yim Lai steps into the room and tells here story, whereupon the tale shifts to sex, nudity, grimness and extreme cruelty and violence.

I'm trying to make clear that this film is not for everyone. If you don't like slashers, stay away ! But if you can stand 'em, and you like lots of nudity with your gore, then I recommend this film.

Previously published:
Without the benefit(?) of seeing the prequel, I was a bit lost as to where this story was going. An hour into the story, and I was totally lost. Starts out with a mainland police sergeant (played as a sort of cut-rate Stephen Chow) thinking he'd finally be in line for a promotion, when an entire family is brutally murdered in his precinct. This part of the story is played for laughs, and bad taste is writ large. Finding one of the victims had sex before dying, the cop assembles the town's male population, to give their sperm (for identification), in an unbearably long and hysterical (but not funny) scene.

The sergeant steals records from the local doctor, and gets his first good lead on the case. He goes to the cemetery, where he finally confronts the title character, nearly half-way through the film. The "Daughter" then tells her sad story to the cop, in a series of VERY long flashbacks. There's impotence, arranged adultery, blackmail, organized rape, pregnancy, veneral disease, DIY abortion (don't watch if you're squeamish), murder and, at last, a revenge which Jason of Friday The 13th would be proud.

Cat III seems barely adequate to cover this movie. If it were made in America, it would surely be refused classification. Overall, this is like two films jammed end to end, slightly overlapping. One very silly and rather black comedy, the other a serious gore-fest. Trouble is, the comedy comes first and, although the gore half is as violent as only the Chinese can manage, it's hard not to keep laughing.

Reviewer Score: 7