The moronic, choleric, loud-mouthed Hong Kong fisherman (and
wannabe-doctor) Ah San buys himself a wife from the mainland, Ah Chi
(Julie Riva) to share the life on his boat with him. She though detests
the man pretty much immediately, since he doesn't show her the least bit
of respect for her, but instead falls in love with neighouring farmer Ah
Wen, who regularly brings them vegetables in exchange for fish. Before
long, the two have a sexual affair, shagging each others brains out every
time Ah San is out fishing.
Then though Auntie comes for a visit and asks Ah San for money he
doesn't even have ... but Auntie finds out about Ah Chi's affair, and now
asks the money from her to keep mum ... but in a fit of rage, Ah Wen kills
her. Then he and Ah Chi drop the body into the ocean.
Out gambling, Ah San learns that his wife cheats on him. He refuses to
believe it, and fights for his wife's honour, to a point where he actually
kills another man. Coming home of course he finds out that the others
where totally right when he sees his wife fuck Ah Wen. The two men get
into a fight, and ultimately, Ah Wen kills Ah San in pretty much the same
way Ah San killed the man who claimed his wife was cheating not much
earlier.
Ah Wen and Ah Chi decide to go back to the mainland, but the way there
turns out not to be easy - especially when Ah Chi finds out the money that
Ah San has given her to buy her is forged. Eventually, with Hong Kong not
far behind, Ah Chi and Ah Wen have to kill a man who wants to betray them
top the police.
Ultimately, still in the hills above Hong Kong, they see no way out,
and after having extended sex - including a fistfuck (fake, while the
other sex scenes are all real genuine hardcore) - they throw themselves
off a cliff ...
Many reviewers have made a point about how sleazy this film is ...
well, it's not so much sleazy, it's just genuine hardcore porn, directed
and starring an actress (Julie Riva alias Lee) who has played parts in
numerous softcore films. The sex-scenes, mind you, are all real, these are
no body doubles or cut-ins from other films, the actors are visibly doing
it themselves.
But being porn doesn't necessarily make a film bad ... and this one
isn't - it does feature a thought-through story that even shows some
social relevance (which you don't find too often in hong Kong cinema let
alone Hong Kong porn cinema) and it shows some interesting settings and
some fresh ideas ... and at least two films that were produced later and
are considered as art-cinema by some reminded me of this one:
Takeshi Kitano's Dolls (2002) for the ending and Bigas Luna's Bambola
(1996) for the fisherboat sets (though I'm of course nowhere near sure
that either of these men has actually seen Trilogy of Lust).
But does that make Trilogy of Lust an art-movie ?
My answer is no, short and simple, and it's not because of the porn.
The problem of this film is that the direction is totally unimaginative to
the point of being idealess, on a style level this film is a vacuum, many
of the (non-porn) scenes are way too head-on to actually work, and the
acting of all of the involved never rises above mediocre.
Now that's not to say Trilogy of Lust is a bad film, I rather
like it actually, one just wonders what this film could have been done by
a good director with decent actors and all the porn scenes intact
...
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