The Six Devil Women
Director: Tony Ma Tin-yiu
Year: 1996
Rating: 5.0
There are certain
films you want to watch just because of the title. It was that way with Lunatic
Frog Women and it was that way with The Six Devil Women. I had no idea what
it would be about, but felt certain that there would be a certain exploitation
angle to it. And trashy it was. Sex and violence. Much more violence than
sex and even then the sex tended not to be exactly loving and tender. On
another level beyond the exploitation angle, there is actually within this
film a fairly interesting sociological theme. It looks pretty harshly at
the way life is changing in Mainland China and the negative effects it is
having on some people. The way that materialism is gaining a hold on the
people again and leading to crimes such as those that take place in this
film.
The film begins with the trial of a gang
of four men and six women. They are being tried for luring men back to their
apartment and then brutally killing and robbing them. The girls all came from
poor rural areas to Shenzen to look for money and a better way of life. They
are drawn into this criminal lifestyle by the flash of green and the flashing
lights. As the girls await their sentence, their stories are told in various
flashbacks. One young innocent girl joins her sister and is horrified the
first time she witnesses a killing, but before long she is the most vicious
and greedy of them all.
But this is trash, not a sociological treatise.
The killings of their victims are numerous and graphic. There is some nudity,
but not a huge amount. But there is the equialent of a wet sari scene with
four of the girls getting hosed down with bonus points for focusing on Diana
Pang Dan in her white almost see-through outfit. For the most part this is
an unpleasant film, but at the same time fairly intriguing. And in the final
execution scene – done in slow-mo of course – there is a certain amount of
pathos for all these wasted lives.
