|
|
|
|
||||||
|
Naked Killer 2A psychopathic lawyer, Chuck (Mark Cheng), brutally rapes his new neighbour Chu Kit-Man (Jacqueline Ng). The case comes to court, but the trail of false evidence the lawyer had cunningly prepared leads to Chuck's acquittal. Worse is to come as, angered that his victim would have the temerity to act against him, he has Chu murdered. Chu, however, is in turn avenged by her flatmate Yau Yuk-nam (Chingamy Yau) who, aided by her Triad turned film producer boyfriend Tat (Simon Yam), manages to outwit the lawyer and bring him to justice. If Naked Killer worked it was because it did not take itself seriously. Okay, you've got a lesbian assassin with a penchant for castrating her victims, a gag where a severed penis is mistaken for a hot dog sausage and so forth, but it's all so patently ridiculous and divorced from reality that you'd have to be pretty literal minded to find it offensive. This in-name only sequel is, however, a rather different proposition. Initially my reaction was one of appalled fascination, a sort of "Oh My God… What were they Smoking?" but, as I thought about it a bit more, I really started to question the film-makers (lack of) judgement. It's not that I'm easily shocked, as anyone who knows of my taste in films could tell you. More that whereas one goes into Salo, Irreversible , Cannibal Holocaust or Pink Flamingoes with an idea of what to expect and what the film-makers are trying to achieve, for better or worse, those responsible for Naked Killer 2 really didn't seem to have any coherent vision to articulate. It's the way that the rapist becomes infatuated with the girls through a TV commercial that presents them as kick ass battling babes, only for the film-makers to then present Chingamy Yau's character as the more or less the same, without any hint of irony or distance. Or it's the way the rapist's encounter with a casual pick up, where we would expect there to be a suggestion of suspense and identification with the potential victim, seems played primarily to arouse the male members/potential rapists in the audience. Or – this perhaps most jaw-droppingly offensive of all – the juxtaposition of a subplot about a friend of the girls who is HIV-positive with the scene, right at the very end, where she allows herself to be raped by the bad guy to help avenge . Though competently made, Naked Killer 2 is just too fucked up to be enjoyable. The problem isn't that the film-makers are going out to offend; it's that they don't appear to realise how offensive they are being. Maybe, just maybe, the film is akin to the likes of Rapeman and Hanzo the Blade and I simply don't get it culturally. But unless someone can demonstrate this to me, I won't be watching Naked Killer 2 again and can't really recommend it to anyone – no matter how hot Chingamy Yau is… Copyright © K H Brown 2002-2005
Rating: 0.0 / 5 (0 votes) |
14706 views |
Previous |
Next |
Text-only
|
||||||||
