FOX GHOST
Cantonese: Liu jai ji yi: Yip yuk wu gwai
Mandarin: Liao ji zhi yi: Ni yu hu gui
English: "Liu Jai" Strange Tales: Sinful Desire Foxy Ghosts

NAKED POISON II
Cantonese: Ye sing san yan lui II: Sat yik sing hung wai
Mandarin: Ye xing xin ren lei: Shi yi xing xing wei
English: Wild New People II: Amnesiac Sex Activity

On top of the fact that theatrical playdates for Category III sex films are no longer even worth the cost of striking 35mm prints, HK producers also now find themselves with a decreasing share of the video market. Thanks to the proliferation of bootleg Japanese pornography (which generally offers content that is far more graphic and kinky than HK censors will allow), sales of domestic product have slumped, prompting companies like Universe to adopt digital video and slash already low budgets to impoverished levels. The current stable of stars is also fairly unexciting, particularly compared to predecessors like Shu Qi, Loletta Lee Lai-chun, Veronica Yip Yuk-hing, Rena Murakami, Amy Yip Chi-mei, and Yvonne Yung Hung.

An exception is the lovely and talented Sophie Ngan Chin-man. Ngan trained at the ATV Network and appeared in a number of their productions before deciding to break her "morality clause" by posing for Penthouse. Even though she remained rather discreetly covered in the pictorial, ATV promptly fired her and Ngan was quickly tapped for sexy roles in HOROSCOPE II: THE WOMAN FROM HELL and CONSPIRACY (both 2000). She then appeared topless in the Category III horror/sex thriller NAKED POISON (reviewed in issue #86a) and revealed a bit more in ELECTRICAL GIRL (reviewed in issue #59). With her bright presence, striking face and figure, and actual ability to act, Ngan is the only genuine asset these two C-III DV cheapies have.

FOX GHOST (which bears no English title on the packaging, disc, or the program itself) is a shabby period sex comedy that has nothing on the SEX AND ZEN trilogy (or even YU PUI TSUEN III, for that matter). Randy scholar Tao Wang-san (Ng Ting) dares to travel through a forest reputedly haunted by the wandering spirits of murder victims. Along the way, he encounters beautiful noblewoman Jiang Xiao-you (Ngan) and convinces her family to let him stay in the "haunted cottage" out back. The place is aptly named as, that evening, he is visited by a pair of sexy fox spirits who scare him into a state of unconsciousness. In no time, the slippery scholar has convinced Xiao-you's father to give them his blessing and, although the girl is a virgin, she very quickly warms to sex and soon becomes the aggressor in the relationship (image; nudity). Although Wang-san has the characters for "Top Notch" tattooed on his "golden cudgel," Xiao-you's insatiable sexual desires are leaving him drained, so he comes up with a way to spend some time away from home. However, his abstinence is short-lived and the foxes are soon sharing his bed. A wandering monk (with bleached blonde hair!) warns that Wang-san is in for some karmic repercussions and, sure enough, the scholar is soon framed for rape. He must also journey to the netherworld to match wits with The Dark Faced Judge of Hades (played by an actor with what appears to be shoe polish on his face).

Director Stanley Tong Man-hong (not to be confused with RUMBLE IN THE BRONX's Stanley Tong Kwai-lai) displays no apparent aspirations other than to get the thing in the can and move on to his next quickie. The DV image has that flat, over lit television look during interiors, and the various sexual encounters are strictly routine (save for a couple of outdoor liasons in a picturesque stretch of forest). Sight gags are desperately punctuated with sound FX from old cartoons and the cottage is represented by incredibly cheap flats that constantly distract with their sheer phoniness (a low angle shot of Ngan in the throes of ecstasy is also destroyed by a nice big blotch of water damage above her head). The supporting cast is hopelessly amateurish; one actor playing a magistrate strains to read his lines off of cue cards. To sum up, FOX GHOST promises everything you would expect from the EROTIC GHOST STORY series (which also purports to be based on the famous Liu Jai ghost stories) but fails utterly at delivering the excitement, special effects, dark humor, or fantasy content.

HK films lift storylines from Hollywood movies all the time but would you believe a Category III version of Christopher Nolan's MEMENTO?! Bearing no connection to its theatrical forerunner, NAKED POISON II also lacks that film's daring and shock value, though it does showcase one of the more absurd resolutions in recent memory. Unable to retain memories for more than 15 minutes at a time, Ann (Ngan) resorts to taking polaroids of seemingly insignificant places and writing messages on her body with magic marker. Sometime earlier, Ann's lover, Kent (Ng Ting again) was garrotted before her eyes, while a second assailant brained her with a bottle. It was this combination of traumas that put Ann in her present state, leaving homicide cop Nam (Mark Cheng Ho-nam) without a witness unless he can figure out a way to jar those dormant memories. To that end, he takes Ann on a guided tour of her past, paying a call on the woman's lesbian boss Cherry Wong (who had taken Ann to a "tomboy bar" and tried to seduce her). Thanks to this meeting, Ann recalls Kent telling her that he would soon have enough money to finally buy a three carat diamond ring she longed for. However, he refused to divulge just how he would acquire such a hefty sum. Following another injury-induced blackout, Ann finds herself at the scene of a second homicide and is threatened by a woman who claims that she owes her HK$500,000. With Nam's guidance, Ann learns more and more about her rather dark past, which included a trip to Cherry's private S&M playpen.

Directed by the wonderfully named Batman Hung (aka Hung Chung-hap), NAKED POISON II is more cinematic than FOX GHOST, offering a few interesting locations, mixed with MTV flourishes and tawdry emulations of Wong Kar-wai's familiar stylistics. The movie is less ambitious on a narrative level, not only swiping MEMENTO's premise but reducing it to a more conventional A-to-B yarn that, naturally, comes to a complete halt every few minutes for some softcore groping. Said sequences are fairly enticing but, in spite of gratuitous asides like candle wax dripping and autoerotic asphyxiation, lack the joyfully decadent imagination that distinguished so many of the C-IIIs produced in the early days of the rating. As promised by the publicity, Ngan reveals more here than ever before but, in true exploitation form, this does not happen until the final minutes. (This bit may have been a last minute addition; when Ngan washes the messages off of her body, they all magically reappear as soon as she gets out of the shower!). While Ngan (image; nudity) does not always appear particularly enthused during these bits, she does give a creditable performance overall and, clothed or not, deserves better roles in far better movies.

Universe #6403 (Hong Kong label) Dolby Digital 5.1 (Mostly) Sync Sound Cantonese and Dubbed Mandarin Language Tracks Optional Subtitles in English and Chinese (Traditional or Simplified) 8 Chapters Illustrated in the Menu With Clips Enhanced for 16:9 Displays Letterboxed (1.85:1) Coded for ALL Regions NTSC Format 95 Minutes Contains frequent nudity and sexual content, mild sexual violence, and coarse language

DVD menu courtesy Universe.

Universe #6333 (Hong Kong label) Dolby Digital 5.1 Sync Sound Cantonese and Dubbed Mandarin Language Tracks Optional Subtitles in English and Chinese (Traditional or Simplified) 8 Chapters Illustrated in the Menu With Clips Enhanced for 16:9 Displays Letterboxed (1.80:1) Coded for ALL Regions NTSC Format 100 Minutes Contains frequent nudity and sexual content, and mild sexual violence

DVD menu courtesy Universe.

FOX GHOST and NAKED POISON II are available at Poker Industries.