Crazy Love

Director: Roman Cheung
Year: 1993
Rating: 5 and 10
Oh Loletta. Sweet Loletta what were you thinking? This should be a pictorial as opposed to being a review because there was one and only one purpose behind making this film. This being a PG site though I am afraid I had to be a bit circumspect in my choices of pictures to capture. Sorry about that! Loletta had been one of the premier teenage stars in Hong Kong for a number of years in her Cinema City days, but she always had a certain innocent sexuality that gave her characters an alluring edge. After her Cinema City teenage days were over she took on ever more mature roles such as in Final Victory and Chicken a La Queen, but in the early 1990’s she was appearing in a number of middling films – Off Track, Summer Lovers and Angel of the Road. So in 1993 she decided to go Cat. III. With a vengeance.
 

Going nude in Hong Kong is not a small matter. Unlike Hollywood where a large percentage of actresses have at some point disrobed in their career, in Hong Kong there is almost a physical divide between actresses that are willing to show nudity and those who won’t. No serious dramatic actress in Hong Kong would ever shed her clothes for the camera. There have been instances of Cat. III actresses who succeeded in escaping their film past and going mainstream – Hsu Chi and Veronica Yip – but very few who have gone the other way around. So when Loletta announced that she would be shedding her clothes for the cameras it was big news. It certainly doesn’t take the film long to get to this and Loletta certainly never looks in the least bit hesitant or shy. Though the film purports to show the sexual adventurers of Loletta’s character, Jane, in a real sense it is chronicling the transition of Loletta from teenage sweetheart to Cat. III star.
 

Before you can get a chance to blink there is Loletta taking a shower for all the world to see. It only lasts a minute or so, but don’t worry Loletta finds numerous occasions to show her many charms during the next 90-minutes of the film. In fact by the end you might be saying to yourself – “oh not Loletta getting naked again” or you might not be complaining in the least! Not only does Loletta freely exhibit her body, but she also has a number of heated scenes that are fairly explicit and another one that is not exactly explicit but she makes a coke bottle very happy. I wonder whether Pepsi made a counter-offer.
 

Here is the story or what there is of it. Loletta is being sent to the UK to learn English by her parents Tien Ching and Chiao Chiao (what an odd film for this veteran actress to have chosen to be in!), but she gives the airline ticket to someone else and begins her sexual odyssey. Along the way she allows Tommy Wong to ogle and fondle her, voyeuristically watches another couple go at it while she eats M&Ms (another product placement?), flashes an elderly husband and wife and giggles as the older gentleman nearly has a heart attack, fends off two rapists with strategically placed kicks, gives a demonstration of self-fulfillment, slams a door on her cheating boyfriends you know what (ow!), comes on to Shing Fui-on with a straw and has torrid sex with her new boyfriend (Poon Jan-wai). I’m tired just thinking about it.
 

One has to credit Loletta I suppose – when she decided to go Cat. III there was none of that often artistic posturing – she just sort of went this is what I look like – like it or not – and my guess is that most people of the male persuasion will give her a thumbs up! Of course being a fan of Loletta’s early work I have to admit there is a residue of sadness that she felt she had to do this to get her career going again. She was to make a few more Cat. III films over the next few years – Girls Unbutton, Spirit of Love, Sex and Zen II – but it didn’t give her the career push that she had expected and her roles got fewer and fewer. But in a lovely turnabout she has made a terrific comeback in the last couple of years with Ordinary Heroes, a play and a few other films. For Loletta it has been a long, strange trip indeed.

My rating for this film: 5.0 for this film; 10 for Loletta!