A murder mystery from the Shaw Brothers. The mystery itself is fairly good - keeps you guessing who the killer is but after a while I started getting annoyed at the stupid decisions that the two main characters keep making. I wanted to yell at the screen - no, going there would be a mistake - no, telling this person would be stupid - no, not telling that person what happened would be idiotic. People keeping secrets. All the wrong ones. So the plot is jerry-rigged around people making stupid decisions. Also, in a mystery you expect someone to figure it out - to work through the clues - to be the hero of the film. Not here. It is the killer who reveals all and no one had a clue. Oops. I thought you knew. Now I have to kill you. Sorry.


Two friendly couples go out for dinner. The Tao's consist of the husband Wai-kong (Wang Hsieh) and his wife Ai-jun (Li Hsiang-chun) who have been married for years. And a younger newly married couple Lin Sau-ming (Kao Yuen) and Man-ying (Ivy Ling-po, the big star of this film). They are having a pleasant night out at a club when the singer Sa-sa performs a song (voiced by Mona Fong - wife of course to Run Run Shaw - and a wonderful singer - and another song later on voiced by her) and a belly dance. Sa-sa is trouble with a capital T or maybe B. Both wives fume as she flirts. Mainly with Sau-ming who she had a relationship with before he was married. Man-ying shoots daggers in her direction. Wai-kong gets a phone call and says he has to go to the airport to pick up clients. It turns out his client is Sa-sa and they are having an affair. Then she lays it on him - I am three months pregnant - divorce your wife or I will tell her or give me $200,000. A real sweetheart. Later she tells Sau-ming that she wants $100,000 from him or she will tell his wife about their pre-marriage affair. She is clearly setting herself up to be  . . . murdered! No one deserved it more.



The police suspect Sau-ming and they build a case against him. Two blackmailers show up saying they have evidence against him - one being Ku Feng. Man-ying isn't sure - it could have been her husband - no it could not have been - well maybe. And both she and the husband start the streak of stupid. Initially, I expected Man-ying would try and solve it but not really - she just wants to keep the blackmailers quiet. When one of them tries to kill her, she doesn't bother to tell her husband. When she finds another dead body, she doesn't tell anyone till much later and then very much tells the wrong person.



 Directed by Lo Chen (Shepard Girl, Between Tears and Laughter, Torrent of Desire) who just never gets a handle on the material and on a couple of occasions spends an odd amount of time shooting the establishment shots - twirling the camera around for no purpose. As I mentioned, Ivy Ling-po was a huge star at the time - often in Chinese operas but some wuxia as well - and you expect more from her character than such a passive easy to scream and easy to panic character. The beginning of the film is pure Giallo - blade slashing, woman screaming - the killer never shown - but that is about the highpoint of the film.