Temptress of a Thousand
Faces
Director: Cheng Chang-ho
Year: 1969
Rating: 7.0
This is a delightfully
trippy lark that should have been accompanied by a soundtrack with Nancy
Sinatra singing, “The Last of the Secret Agents” and Bardot and Gainsbourg
doing “Comic Strip”. I am not sure if this would be called a James Bond imitator
or a James Bond parody or even perhaps a parody of a James Bond parody –
but whatever its intentions it hit a lot of my silly retro pleasure zones
with its zany enthusiasm and unending energy. It has all the ingredients
that these kinds of films are suppose to indulge in – the mysterious criminally
insane mastermind, gadgets galore, close calls, fashionably coordinated minions
and naughty sex appeal in spades. And of course, the requisite gauche headquarters
of the mastermind. Like most of the other Hong Kong Bond-like films, this
one is situated in a cave – and as popular as these are with the cool criminal
in-crowd the rents must have been enormous. They have everything you need
though to carry out your nefarious plans – invisible to the naked eye, lots
of space for your helpers to hang out when they are not busy causing mayhem,
areas that are easily convertible to dungeons and torture chambers and just
in case things don’t go according to plan (and do they ever) numerous secret
escape passages. But the air conditioning bills must be hell to pay.
Generally, the Shaw Brothers turned to director Lo Wei for these kind of
films – in fact Wei made “The Angel Strikes Again” in this same year (1968)
– but this time they interestingly recruited a Korean director. The Shaw’s
attempt to borrow technical and filmmaking talent from Japan is fairly well-known,
but they also looked to Korea where some fairly polished films were being
produced. Not only did they receive funding from Korea in a number of co-productions,
but they also drew on their acting and directing pool of talent. Some of the
directors were Kim Soo-Yong, Choi Kyung-Ok and the director of this film,
Chung Chang Wha (credited in Hong Kong as Cheng Chang-ho). According to Law
Kar, Chung had primarily been a director of melodramas and historical films,
but in Hong Kong he was put to work in action films – first this spoofy adventure
film but later he directed some terrific kung fu films – the most famous being
“The King Boxer” but also two Angela Mao films – “The Association” and the
fabulous “Broken Oath”. A couple others of note were “The Skyhawk” and “Heads
for Sale”. He made six films for the Shaws before moving on to Golden Harvest.
Daring robberies and panicky headlines are consuming the waking hours of
Hong Kong as a villainess – known as the Temptress of a Thousand Faces - makes
fools of the local police and generates grist for the howling press. In the
habit of leaving her calling card after a robbery, she breaks into a bank
vault and later buys a parcel of jewels with a check that explodes after
she has left the premises. Yikes! Not only is she sneaky, but she also is
able to take on any appearance she wants by putting on a rubber mask – that
looks exactly like a rubber mask until she puts it on her face where upon
it instantly looks exactly like a human face. Gasp! She carries around a
bunch of these in her briefcase for any occasion. Later when she is called
a thief by the heroine of this film, she is deeply insulted – “why do you
call me a thief when many rich people make their money by lying and cheating”.
Good point, but probably not a good defense in the courthouse.
The Temptress is being hunted down by a senior police inspector (Yeung Chi
Hing) and his very able female assistant Ji Ying (the always luscious Tina
Chin Fei) as well as by a feisty reporter Molly (Pat Ting-hung), but none
of them are getting very close. In fact, Molly spends more time chasing after
Ji Ying’s boyfriend/also reporter Yuk Dat (Korean actor Chen Liang) than she
does after the Temptress. After Ji goes on television to badmouth the Temptress,
she receives a bouquet of roses that emits a knockout gas and when she wakes
up she is a prisoner of the Temptress – tied to a round table like a bondage
queen and surrounded by a bevy of brightly costumed female followers of the
Temptress all in a kneeling position. This is exactly how I'd like to wake
up in the morning, but perferably without being strapped down. The Temptress
uses her ample female staff for sponge baths and massages, but as later events
prove she would have been better off having them take pistol practice instead.
Still a good massage is hard to come by. With a low mist hanging in the air
and everyone in color co-ordinated outfits, it looks like a movie set for
a Vincent Minnelli musical. Ji is mocked by the Temptress behind her veil
and then inserted into a revolving cylinder that tortures her with a high
pitched sound until she collapses. Gasp! She wakes up in her apartment and
wonders if the whole thing was a dream. She could only wish!
During the film, Ji is captured and brought to the Temptress Cave so often
that it’s a shame she wasn’t in a frequent flyer program – but the Temptress
of course never kills her – it’s so much more fun to toy with your captives
like a ball of yarn. Next the Temptress takes on the appearance of Ji and
steals diamonds right under the noses of police just to be mean and to get
Ji in trouble with her boyfriend. This isn’t so bad, but when the Temptress
then seduces Yuk Dat while the real Ji is forced to watch on a close circuit
TV from her cell in the cave it’s a bit much for Ji who then in a fury breaks
out of her confinement and shoots a passel of bad guys while still in her
underwear. When she breaks out of the cave and finds herself on a busy highway,
she brings traffic to an immediate standstill as every man offers her a ride
and a leer. It only gets better though as she rushes to her boyfriend's house
to save him from the clutches (and so much more) of the Temptress and finds
them both still in bed. This leads to a lovely cat fight that sends them
both crashing through doors and walls while poor Yuk Dat looks on in bemusement
– certainly two Tina Chin-fei’s in underwear are better than one!
Interspersed in all of this is some bad slapstick comedy that should have
been out of place but in retrospect nothing would really be out of place in
this film, a pointless cabaret show with a heavily voluptuous female, a wooden
leg filled with diamonds, a fight between Ji and four henchmen all adorned
with specialized weapons (one guys whips out a ball and mace from his pocket!
I could almost hear Mae West crack "And I thought you were just glad to see
me!" ) and an ending as politically incorrect as one could wish for. It’s
low art. Silly, nonsensical, muddled and inconsequential, but it still manages
to entertain like being buried in a pile of feathers.
My rating for this film: 7.0
