Luo xie (1969)

... aka: 裸血

... aka: Law huet

... aka: Raw Passions

Directed by:

Chen Lo

A lot of movies, regardless of the era they were made in or country of origin, are now being retroactively referred to as giallo (most are really regular ole murder mysteries, suspense or crime films just like they made decades before giallo even existed), which usually has me defiantly raising my eyebrow as the stickler for defined terminology that I am. However, the opening sequence of this Hong Kong production from Shaw Brothers screams giallo, so I don't necessarily mind comparisons in this particular case.

Things open with quiet, picturesque panning shots of a still lake, starting high up in the pine trees. Only a single bird can be heard. As the shots progress, they start to move down, gradually closing in a small lakeside cabin. And then the camera looks up at the trees and starts doing 360 degree spins because it spells incoming trouble. We then get the closest look at the cabin yet and a scream is heard. Inside, a young woman is in the process of being attacked and we get lots of quick cuts of a gloved hand holding a shimmering knife. The woman is finally stabbed and a hand reaches down and rips off her necklace. Those few minutes all capture the essence of what a true giallo is in my opinion, with off-kilter camerawork and editing, the unknown black-gloved killer, the light-reflecting blade, the beautiful, sexualized female victim (this one has her shirt torn and bra exposed) and the immediate introduction of a mystery element the rest of the film will play off of.

We then meet our four principal characters; two married couples. We have the Tao's; Wai Kong (Hsieh Wang - THE WEB OF DEATH) and his wife Ai Jun (Hsiang-Chun Li), and the Lin's; newlyweds Sau Ming (Yuen Kao - THE PAINTED SKIN) and wife Man Ying (Ivy Ling Po). Out for an evening of drinks and some adult-oriented entertainment at a fancy nightclub, the couples watch sexy chanteuse Sa-Sa (Li Meng) sing and then strip down to a sequined bikini to perform a belly dance. Afterward, she goes right up to their table. The wives don't seem to like Sa-Sa, but Mr. Lin blushes at her presence and it's soon made clear that Mr. Tao is already very well acquainted with her when this cuts to the next scene and the two of them are in bed together. They've been carrying on a long-time affair, but now Sa-Sa wants more, especially since she's three months pregnant. Ultimatum time: Leave his wife to be with her, or give her 200,000 dollars and she'll go away quietly. Problem is, Mr. Tao's business has barely been staying afloat recently and he doesn't have that kind of money on hand.

It's not all smooth sailing with the newlyweds either. Prior to getting married, Sau Ming also had a brief fling with Sa-Sa. Now his suspicious spouse suspects that they may be continuing that affair. One day out of the blue, Sa-Sa calls Sau Ming and demands he come to her apartment. There, she unsuccessfully attempts to seduce him and then attempts to blackmail him. If he doesn't pay her 100,000, she'll tell the wife they're still seeing each other and do all she can to destroy his marriage. I tell ya, this lady is one hell of a schemer! An outraged Sau Ming storms off.

Rather hilariously, Sa-Sa secretly arranges to perform at Sau Ming's birthday party and shows up to serenade him with a love song! Later that night, Man Ying's suspicions are put to rest when he husband explains that nothing is going on between them, but she's then put in another awkward position after overhearing Sa-Sa and Mr. Tao discussing their affair. Soon after, Sa-Sa's corpse is discovered in the lake house by a young couple as this comes first circle to the opening scene. Since Sau Ming was spotted in the area fishing, he's hauled off to the police station, questioned and, because of his recent encounters with the victim, becomes the prime suspect. However, the necklace yanked off the corpse, perhaps in an effort to hide a connection to her, was one that Mr. Tao had given to her as a gift. Philandering husbands and betrayed housewives aren't the only possibilities here either...

To complicate matters further there are not one but two other blackmailers trying to capitalize on what's going on. The first is Sa-Sa's mentally unstable loser brother, Dai Kang (No Chai), who is first seen swinging by his sister's place trying to bum money, which is apparently a regular occurrence for him. Since she's dead now, how's he going to get by? Why trying to extort 50,000 from Sau Ming in order to "leave him alone," that's how! His plan doesn't quite pan out after Sau Ming beats him in a fight, so he later sneaks into their home and attacks Man Ying with a switchblade. Another mysterious man, Fei Ma (Feng Ku), is lurking around as well, making claims he has audio and photographic evidence about who the killer is. He too has an asking price: 100K, and he offers it to both the Tao and Lin couples.

This is a pretty standard mystery from a writing standpoint. I wish I could say I was taken by surprise or thrown for a loop by the red herrings at any point in this film, but I was able to accurately guess who the killer was in the first 20 minutes and nothing I saw after that ever made me second guess myself. In fact, what I saw afterward only made me even more certain I was correct. You can see it from a mile away based on what they choose to show and what they don't, and who they try to make you suspect and who they leave at the periphery.

Aside from that, this is well made and produced. The direction and acting are both fine, the camerawork and shot compositions are sharp and, best of all, the late 60s clothing, cars, interior décor and overall style are eye candy in the extreme. From a contemporary standpoint, much of the entertainment here actually comes from the art direction, with shots specifically framed to showcase loud wallpaper, swanky home furnishings and colored lights. Did people really decorate like this back then? If so, someone need to bring it back! There are also some nice exterior locations used and red-tinted and b/w flashbacks thrown in toward the end.

Since this was made during a transitional period in world cinema, while there's some nudity (all provided by Li Meng), it's of the very fleeting variety. You get lots of legs, bare backs and cleavage and a brief flash of an exposed nipple here and there. For a 1969 mainstream release, this was probably considered pretty risqué, but just a few years later, the sex and nudity would be much more prominent in these kinds of films, which probably rendered this comparatively tame affair pretty obsolete soon after it was made.

The two original songs on the BMI-issued soundtrack album - "The Night Before" and "Mad About You" - are performed by Mona Fong, who was a top recording artist at the time. Less than a decade after this was made, Fong would become a regular producer and production manager for Shaw and racked up well over 150 credits with them, including working on many of their major cult horror releases, like BLACK MAGIC (1975), BEWITCHED (1981), HUMAN LANTERNS (1982), THE BOXER'S OMEN (1983) and SEEDING OF A GHOST (1983).

Understandably, the demand for this particular title hasn't been quite as high as many others from the extensive Shaw catalogue. There was a customary DVD release from Celestial in 2005 (with English subtitles), but it came and went and not many were particularly interested. While this is perfectly fine to sit through once, it's still just kind of mid / forgettable in the grand scheme of things.

★★1/2

Wanda Whips the Dragon Lady (1990)

Directed by:

Ken Gibbs (Kenny Gibb)

I know they cranked 'em out fast and cheap in a day or two, but could adult video makers of the 1980s really not afford a bottle of fake blood, or some Karo syrup and food coloring or, hell, even some ketchup? Were they scared to add fake blood to their films as it may potentially turn off their viewers? Or was it that they really just didn't care? I'm not entirely sure but in the opening sequence here it's a little annoying seeing a vampire go right for the jugular, taking a bite and then pulling back only to leave some drool behind. I also have to wonder if the people who made these films actually thought viewers who'd watch a vampire-themed porno would actually mind seeing a little blood. I mean, they could be watching something about naughty cheerleaders or bored housewives instead but they've actively sought out vampires so one would figure they'd not only be fine with some red stuff but perhaps even want it as part of the whole vampire fantasy.

Here, they not only forego any blood but don't even try to make it look like the victim was actually bitten. They could have at least drawn a couple of dots on the neck with a Sharpie to resemble a puncture wound. Nope. Just spit. On the plus side, at least they sprung for some fangs. I've seen several movies like this that didn't even bother with that much.

A potential selling point for this one is that this was made by an experienced cinematographer and camera operator whose career stretched all the way back to the early 70s. Gibb worked on many R-rated exploitation movies, including some pretty notable titles like THE CANDY SNATCHERS (1973), THE SEVERED ARM (1973) and The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976). Based on that we'll just overlook his work on the awful Troma release FERTILIZE THE BLASPHEMING BOMBSHELL (1990), which was horribly photographed and far too dark. From 1992 to 1996 he shot many episodes of the syndicated TV show Renegade, which I've never watched but I can only assume was at least competently photographed or he would have been replaced. Since he was well-versed in ways to make low budget films look decent, one would figure that would serve him well here, and it does a little bit, just not enough to make this notable.

It doesn't happen too often with the relatively small talent pool 80s adult filmmakers had to pull from (as opposed to today when there are endless wannabe porn stars), but this actually has three performers that I don't recall ever seeing before. Of them, primary focus is put on "Kitty Luv," who's better known as Charisma. I had a difficult time finding information about her online. No one appears to know her real name, where she was born (some sources claim Ohio and others Canada) or what she'd been up to since retiring in the early 90s. I've seen "light-skinned black," French-Canadian, Lebanese, Latin American and Native American listed as part of her ethnic make-up. Aside from her voluptuous physique (with a little surgical help for the top half), the height and volume of her massive and glorious 80s hair is impressive. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that her facial expressions and how she delivered some of her lines actually made me laugh.

Kitty / Charisma has the titular role of Wanda. As this opens, she's bitten by a female vampire, placed in a coffin with a bat-wing "W" emblem and awakens with vague memories about how she got there. The last thing she recalls is going to Hollywood, getting kidnapped and a black woman with a tattoo. Well, never mind all that, she's in a room with two horny female vamps and this is a porn so the ladies immediately get down to business while the director shows off a bit with lots of fog and colorful lighting.

We then meet up with Sade, a rare black performer I've also never seen before (also not the famous singer), who's been called to the office of attorney Renburg (Tony Montana), who's supposed to be a play on Renfield right down to spastic hand movements and eating flies. Montana's silly mannerisms and awful overacting makes him nearly incomprehensible (not helped by the fuzzy camcorder audio) but based on what I could make out he says something about her having to go to a mansion at 969 Transylvania Road because there's an inheritance at stake and whoever has "the mark of the vampire" on their inner thigh will get it. Sade happens to have a large dragon tattoo on her inner thigh and claims that "Dracula gave it to me," so it appears she may be the rightful heir.

Renburg then relates a sex flashback featuring "Fetish" / Heather Lere (nice body, terrible acting) and T.T. Boy (ditto) that doesn't appear to have much to do with anything. It's also shot in a hilariously mechanical manner with just a couple of camera set-ups; one for long takes and one for close-ups. These two are never seen in the film again, probably cause they showed up, did what they were paid to do and then ran off to cash their checks to go buy drugs. Uh, I mean groceries.

Sade takes a cab to the castle and for some reason (hint: they needed another dude to perform in the sex scenes) invites driver Tom (Jerry Butler) inside. There, they meet up with snobby Tasha (Renee Morgan), the mistress of the castle who also happens to be one of the vampires from the opening scene. Also there are Renburg, Tasha's assistant / lover Rain (blonde Ashley Winger, another new-to-me performer) and Herman the servant. Herman is played by Sean Michaels, who isn't listed in the credits, has no lines and is seen only in one medium shot. Despite having performed in well over 2000 porn movies he's not involved in any of the hardcore action here. Oddly enough, neither is the Colombian-born Montana, who has over 650 adult credits.

The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense to begin with (basically some people are vampires and there's a gold treasure hidden in the dungeon), and starts making even less sense after this starts focusing primarily on the sex scenes. Because most of his male co-stars don't partake in the festivities, Butler is left to carry the load so to speak in three of the four straight scenes (one with Sade and two with Charisma). It's obvious looking over the pairings that this was made to showcase interracial sex. Even the all-girls orgy scenes are divvied up to where at least one of the two non-white females are involved. The final scene does offer a potential cinematic first: I've never seen three naked vampire women killed by direct sunlight while performing oral sex on one another before.

As for the title, it's obviously a play on the adult classic Wanda Whips Wall Street (1982) starring the great Veronica Hart. However, this has zilch to do with that one plot-wise. It also really doesn't want to be compared to it quality-wise either as it comes off as proper film like many X movies did before video took over. The title also happens to be extremely misleading, hinting at some S&M / bondage scenarios that the film itself doesn't deliver on. During the first sex scene a cat o' nine tails gets pulled out and one of the ladies is given the weakest "whipping" I've ever seen in one of these things. It's more like she's getting tickled on the belly with it.

The same folks behind this also made Wanda Does Transylvania (1990), which I haven't seen but I'm assuming was filmed back-to-back with this one on the same sets. (Note: Alright, just found out that this is actually the SEQUEL to WDT so I got these out of order. Seriously doubt it makes a difference though!)

★1/2