Indecent Woman (1999)

Director: Lee Siu-Kei

Producer: Bowie Lau, Carly Wong

Cast: Yeung Faan, Charlie Cho (Cha Lee), Elvis Tsui Kam-Kong, Lam Wai Kin, Dung Yi, Lee Siu-Kei

Running Time: 83 mins.

Plot: A young woman's life is ruined when her husband lured his partner to have sex with her in exchange for business favors. For vengeance, she begins to seduce every man that she meets and kills him.

GWAILO'S REVIEW: The whole of Indecent Woman is pretty cheesy, super low-budget even, but it's use of Cat III contrivances, from chainsaws hacking human flesh (off screen) to people unknowingly chowing down on other people at dinner, with some T&A liberally spread throughout, is satisfying. If your looking for cheap thrills, there's no shame in watching IW, in fact, you could do a heck of a lot worse in the genre.

This sordid, little, late-night, skin-flick wannabe opens with sex sax wailing, signaling the seediness to come. A newly nabbed prisoner(Yeung Fan) reveals the reason behind her collar, in flashback, to police Capt./film's director Lee Siu Kay and a handful of 'wet behind the ear' cadets, in true HK-police procedural fashion. Yeung plays Irene, a dutiful housewife to a philandering company executive husband. Her hubby's exploits are vile at best, and in one scene, he attempts to gain the favor of his boss, treating Irene to a roofie cocktail at supper, furthering the scene into the bedroom, where he holds her down as the CEO has his way. Hey, in the cutthroat business world, hubby was trying to get ahead! Irene is also peeped at, in a lovingly extended shower scene, by the town's 'sex molester' cum mailman Fook, played by the master, Tsui Kam-kong. Her disdain for men now cuts deep and in full man hating mode she yells into the nighttime sky,"I must revenge". And she does. Who could blame her?

There is also a seamy subplot involving the newly psychotic Irene and her intervention in a tenants relationship with his soon to be, that just serves as a barometer on how 'out of her gorde' she has become. Yeung Fan intensely plays the stock 'woman scorned, turned psychotic' character; one that could have and usually does turn into camp. Though her crazy chick character plays in a B-rated film, her descent into madness is wholly believable and her psycho-lean performance rivals that of Wu Chien-lien in the A-rated Intruder. Yeung, as evident in her other films like, Raped by an Angel 2: The Uniform Fan, has no problem shedding her layers for the camera or engaging in 'monkey affairs' when needed. She's not only unabashed, but a natural beauty as well, forsaking the usual anorexic 'flower vase' look for a more 'healthy' one. Think Sir Mix-A-Lot.

Indecent Woman was produced by Wong Jing's Workshop Limited and it's production values are dirt cheap. The film has that shot-in-a-week wonder look and probably was, though it's cheapness takes nothing away from the finished product. Jing knows that audiences have seen countless films of the same ilk-his hand is usually involved with the majority-and churns out a familiar tale to capitalize on titillation and terror. A valiant effort I must say. Stick around for the final few lines. They're classic.

GWAILO'S RATING: 7/10