Lust for Love of a Chinese
Courtesan
Director: Chor Yuen
Year: 1984
Rating: 6.0
My interest was piqued
recently when I found out that Asia the Invincible’s concubine in Swordsman
II was the ex-wife of Chow Yun Fat and that she, Candice Yu On-on, had appeared
in a scattering of films in the eighties. I was able to track down this intriguing
title and found to my surprise that even though it’s not the type of film
I would normally go out of my way to see, it was kind of a fun change.
Chor Yuen directed the film in 1984 for Shaw Brothers very near the end of
their cinematic run (they were soon to move into television instead) and
it has a slightly dated feel to it. Chor Yuen was a legendary and innovative
director in the 1960’s and this melodramatic lush quasi-softcore period film
seems much more in tune for the 60’s than in the 80’s. By quasi-softcore,
I mean that though there are a number of love making scenes – there is no
nudity – and the love scenes are almost nostalgically innocent from our perspective
– full of clenched fists, choir music from a heavenly synthesizer, ecstatic
looks on the women’s faces as if they had bought a new pair of shoes and
lots of shots of flowers. I am not quite sure I got the significance of the
flowers, but one scene that transposed a sword fight with two people making
love and had the killing thrust coincide with an orgasm was corny but cute.
Candice runs a very high-class brothel in ancient China called Happy Valley
and it is certainly full of happy customers as the women are beautiful and
the service is perfect. Beneath Candice’s beautiful and composed exterior
lies the mind of a total merciless mercenary. She manipulates those around
her – has her swordsman (in more ways than one if you get my meaning) kill
her enemies or kill for money and is only too willing to buy young girls
that have been kidnapped.
She purchases Ai-nu a spirited girl that wants no part of this life and tries
to escape. Soon though she realizes that the whole town – especially the
men – are under the control of Candice and that there is no escape. Candice
becomes fond of the new girl and tries to teach her the ways of being a courtesan.
Ai-nu being the new girl in town is desired by all the men – even after one
dies of a hairpin shoved into his brain and another from a heart attack!
Candice finds herself falling in love with Ai-nu – and Ai-nu doesn’t seem
at all to mind her caresses and a few lengthy love scenes are played out.
Sex of course changes everything as we know, and slowly the balance of power
begins to shift – and Ai-ni soon has the upper hand. A young Alex Man is
an honest constable who investigates the murder and finds himself both drawn
and repelled by Ai-nu.
Though likely not everyone's cup of tea, the film with it's wonderful sets,
beautiful costumes, excellent acting, fine direction and erotic melodrama
is an enjoyable peek into another genre of HK film that is not too familiar
to many of us.
