Erotic Nightmare
Director: Steve Cheng
Year: 1999
Rating: 7.5
Sex and guilt often
go hand in hand like young lovers and no more so than in this edgy Molotov
cocktail mix of a film that straddles the line between being a mystic horror
film and being a perverse Japanese sex and fetish film. The director Steven
Cheng (Troublesome Night, Horoscope I & II) mixes all these elements
together to create a fast paced, erotically charged thriller that becomes
quite involving as the film progresses. The film breaks down almost into
two acts – the first focuses on sex, blood and guilt, the second on revenge.
Both in their own way are quite satisfactory.
As the film opens one senses immediately
that this is not your ordinary HK horror film – as Anthony Wong walks into
a doctors office and the camera pans over to the nurse behind the counter
performing fellatio on someone. The camera then ducks down and goes around
the desk to shoot up the nurse’s skirt. Wong acts as if nothing is askew
and walks blankly into the doctor’s office where the female doctor and the
nurse then seduce him. But before Wong can consummate this opportunity, the
doctor shows him a police badge and arrests him. Wong wakes up shivering
out of his wet dream to find himself lying next to his wife.
Wong is just your every day ordinary businessman in this film that for no
clear reason terrible things begin happening to. His wife suffers from a heart
condition and so is unable to participate in sex – leading to Wong’s nightly
release – but his love for his wife and guilt over his dreams prevents him
from ever consummating them. Another time he is interrupted when a principal
comes after his manhood with a large pair of cutting shears. One day a magician
comes to Wong and offers to provide Wong with beautiful dreams. Wong eventually
accepts and begins having erotic dreams with a young school girl. These scenes
are quite graphic in nature and I am not really sure if Cheng is making fun
of the school uniform fetish genre or playing into it. The actress – Kei Heung
– is amazing though as the nymphet that Wong can’t say no to – as she metamorphasizes
from schoolgirl innocence into man eating succumbus and her smile changes
from shy and sweet into one of an evil demon.
Once Wong finally finishes the sex act though – and breaks the Lolita taboo
- things start going horribly badly – as his dog loses its head and his mother
gets mutilated and stuffed into a box while he was asleep. The dream maker
(Ng Ting Yip – in a wonderfully malicious performance) has gained control
of Wong through his dreams and his desires and is out to take everything from
him.
Ng's battered wife Pinky Cheung is frightened to death of him – and later
is instrumental in fighting him. What a grueling performance Pinky gives here
as she is constantly beaten and tortured – but how sweet is her revenge. In
a later duel of dreams – where staying awake means staying alive – she quietly
sings a soft lullaby to Ng – a perfect moment.
This is clearly not a film for everyone’s taste – not normally my own –
but Cheng does a terrific job of pulling you into this bizarre blood soaked
supernatural tale and makes it thoroughly entertaining.
