The Underground Banker
Director: Bosco Lam
Year: 1994
Rating: 7.0
Damn,
it has been a while since I saw a Cat III Hong Kong film as hard core as
this one. Produced by Wong Jing, it was part of the extreme wave during this
period that included Dr. Lamb, The Untold Story, Love to Kill, Run and Kill,
Red to Kill among others. Before 1992 most of the films rated Cat III were
due to nudity and sex. Films like Naked Killer, Robotrix, Erotic Ghost Story
and Sex and Zen. Then came the onslaught of really rough nasty, skin crawling,
perverted films pushing the boundary of good taste and what was allowable.
After 1994 films became tamer with Ebola Syndrome in 1996 being one of the
few that deserved a Cat III rating - most of the others again were based
on sex. Films like Viva Erotica, Nude Fear, Happy Together and Young and
Dangerous: The Prequel (I would guess based on something related to the triads).
Now I doubt a film like this could be made.
This has it all - sex, nudity, violence,
erections, misogyny and degradation. And Anthony Wong who early on in his
career was the Cat III King. Here he even makes a threat "I'll chop you and
make BBQ Pork Buns". A reference of course to his The Untold Story. The film
has bits of black humor strewn around like forgotten body parts. Director
Bosco Lam (A Chinese Torture Chamber Story, Spike Drink Gang) fools the audience
up front into thinking this is just going to be a dark comedy with Marshmallow
(Wong) trying to get an erection to satisfy his sexy wife Kitty (Lam Yuk-chi)
through various methods. His neighbor Lam (Lawrence Ng) tries to help him
with acupuncture. He is also a pardoned ex-serial killer who brings a hatchet
and chainsaw to their apartment when he visits. They let him kill the chicken
which lights up his eyes. He plays video games with their young son.
Then it gets as gnarly as you could want.
Kitty gets talked into investing in margins by an old boyfriend (Karel Wong)
who works for a sleazy money lender. There isn't much doubt that this will
go badly since he is played by William Ho, one of Hong Kong's great creepy
psychotics. Well, you know where this is going - she has to become a prostitute
to pay the debt and it gets worse when they try and rape Marshmallow's sister
(Hui Pui). Worse is to come and we keep waiting for Marshmallow to go crazy.
Anthony Wong crazy. Kill crazy but he isn't called Marshmallow for nothing.
Still, everyone has their cracking point and he has a good friend who just
happens to be a former serial killer. Parts of this are gut wrenching - lots
of forced sex and nudity - intestines dripping out. It was a special time
in Hong Kong films that didn't last long but left a red bloody sock in the
bedroom drawer for some to open.
