sam-519 I'm just recovering from seeing one of the strangest category III releases I've yet clapped eyes on. Red To Kill is an unusual film about a man who rapes a girl from the retarded children home that he runs. Apparently the colour red sets him off and one night, when she comes to his room wearing red after a dance competition, he finally cracks and rapes her in the work area among the toy footballs. Later on he becomes slowly more insane, attempting to rape another co-worker and becomes stronger against the forces that try to smother him like some maddened shaven-headed hulk. He finally meets his demise at the hands of his co-worker while the retarded girl is left with a brain haemorrhage and eventually dies.Red To Kill really is a strange piece of work. The storyline is unrelentingly bleak and the film's pessimistic conclusion with Ming Ming lying dead on her hospital bed actually had me laughing through disbelief. This film start scarily, climaxes through a grim and gory fight scene and ends on an extremely depressing note. I have to hand it to the director for not pulling any punches with this one.It really needs some work on a couple of points though - firstly the soundtrack, which is dreadful. The film is filled with pseudo-poignant Asian songs which seem to go down a treat over there but here in Europe come across as awfully naff. Some of these sound so dated and out of place that it's almost impossible to take the 'sad' scenes seriously. As well as that, something must have gone wrong on the transcription from master tape to DVD since the music drops pitch occasionally, which sounds like someone messing about with an old record player, and it really is very amusing.The second point that needs work it the 'retard' acting which is similarly risible in places. Some of Ming Ming's friends - also retarded - are just bad actors flailing their arms about and making silly faces. Especially in the final scene when Ming Ming dies I noticed one attacking a hospital screen out of grief - retard grief apparently. It really is quite silly.Overall Red To Kill is a good piece of exploitation though miles below other rape films like Irreversible. If you think the first hour is bad then stick with it - the last 20 mins are definitely worth waiting for. If you're a fan of these kind of films I'd certainly recommend taking a look at this, even though you may not be able to keep a straight face all the way through.

Libretio RED TO KILL (Ruo Sha)Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: MonoThough Chinese filmmakers have long been fascinated with images of violence and bloodshed - from the vintage horror films of Ma-xu Weibang through to Chang Cheh's splattery kung fu pictures of the 1970's - it wasn't until the early 1990's that Hong Kong horror movies found a new and unexpected foothold within the cultural mainstream, due to a wave of 'true crime' dramas spearheaded by DR. LAMB (1992) and THE UNTOLD STORY (1993), both helmed by Danny Lee (Chow Yun-fat's cop nemesis in John Woo's THE KILLER). For a brief period, the former colony played host to a wave of confrontational 'Category III' (Adults Only) movies, dominated by the work of controversial director Billy Tang. Already notorious for a scene in RUN AND KILL (1993) in which a little boy is burned alive in merciless detail, Tang proceeded to scale the heights of calculated outrage with RED TO KILL, arguably one of the most harrowing films ever made.Orphaned by the death of her parents, a mentally handicapped young woman (Lily Chung) is remanded to the care of a hostel for the disabled, where she falls prey to 'benevolent' caretaker Ben Ng, a musclebound hulk whose charming demeanour belies his true nature: Traumatized by a childhood incident in which his mother slaughtered his father and brother with a meat cleaver, drenching him in blood, Ng is prompted to murderous psychosis whenever he sees the colour red, resulting in horrific explosions of rape and murder. Unable to control himself when confronted by Chung wearing a long scarlet dress, Ng assaults her and is promptly arrested, but his indictment is later dismissed on a technicality, and the three main characters (including Money Lo as a sympathetic social worker) converge on the workshop beneath the hostel for a climactic showdown which closes proceedings on a note of ABSOLUTE SCREAMING HYSTERIA!! Judged alongside similar Asian atrocities, such as MEN BEHIND THE SUN (1987) or the infamous "Guinea Pig" series from Japan, RED TO KILL is either a fearless challenge to established cinematic limits or a reckless descent into the abyss, depending on your point of view. Photographed with stunning visual flair by Tony Mau and expertly edited by Choi Hung, the movie alternates scenes of naive sentimentality with eruptions of graphic horror, taking time to establish Chung's beauty and innocence before unleashing the forces of hell against her. But while Chung and Lo are dignified in adversity, Ng plays the villain as an unstoppable force of nature, literally throbbing with uncontrollable rage; his descent into complete psychosis during the hair-raising finale provokes a devastating rampage which is truly frightening to behold. Unsurprisingly, Ng has been typecast in villainous roles ever since.But the filmmakers' bravura technique, coupled with an obstinate lack of moral restraint, makes it difficult to defend the film's worst excesses. The protracted rape scenes are designed as a visual spectacle, showcasing the humiliation of vulnerable female characters. Worse still, following the sexual assault on Chung (the movie's pivotal set-piece), the actress is involved in a shocking episode of self-mutilation which not only degrades the entire production, but seems deliberately contrived to test viewers' patience to breaking point. However, despite its questionable motives, the film is executed with such breathtaking cinematic gusto, it compels attention in a way that few other horror movies have managed before or since.Director Tang continued his one-man assault on the boundaries of taste and decency with such inferior offerings as BROTHER OF DARKNESS (1994) and SEXY AND DANGEROUS (1996) before going 'legit' with a number of socially conscious dramas, beginning with Chinese MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (1997), featuring Ben Ng and HARD-BOILED's Tony Leung Chiu-wai.(Cantonese dialogue)

rustyangel13 RED TO KILL: Wow! Again, I ask myself why the hell I watch this stuff?! I mean, from my experiences so far, I should know better but damn it, it always seems to start the same way. I get alittle nervous at the beginning. It's that uneasy, quizzy sensation that creeps up from your bowels when the movie first starts. Because no matter how well you think you've prepared yourself, you NEVER really know for sure what to expect, or whether or not you're going to see something that you shouldn't when it comes to these vile Chinese Category 3 chunkblowing displays of moral debasement. And this movie is certainly one of those unredeemable, wretched messes that no one should like to watch, or lord forbid, find enjoyable. Oh, but that's exactly why we LOVE them so much in the first place! But this one wasn't so much shocking to me as it was just plain sleazy. It's the corruption and perversion of innocence in this flick that causes that awful scratching at your principles of what's right and wrong, or at least, it should. Why, you ask? Well, most of the movie takes place in a shelter for mentally retarded young people so the subject matter alone could easily get completely out of control very quickly if you think about all the wonderful possibilities that a creative sicko-twisted mind could come up with. It also stars LILY CHUNG as Ming Ming, yup, you know her all too well. She's the same poor girl who was tormented and repeatedly raped by her father in another supra-sleazy Chinese C3 taboo-trasher entitled DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS. I will give her credit though, she's NOT afraid to snatch her clothes off and perform a mock rape scene in a very visually disturbing, almost pornographic way. So with depraved s**t like that going for it, what's the movie about you're wondering... it tells the story of an insane mental shelter super-intendent who, whenever he sees the color red on clothes (especially girl's panties), he goes totally bonkers and KILLS and RAPES (usually in THAT order too) the woman or young girl wearing it. Yes, I know what you're thinking, I thought the same thing, this is NOT a nice movie and why am I watching it?! But alas, it's not really his fault (or so society would tell us). When he was young, he and his brother witnessed their mother having sex with a strange man and when their father caught her in the act, she killed him with a meat clever. Enraged, she went on to chop up his little brother and ends up killing herself as well, splashing WHAT all over the place? That red, red blood, of course. Hence the name of the movie and why he goes stupid kill-crazy when he sees it. And in the end, it all gets surprisingly real damn moist and just about everyone gets f***ed up some kinda bad. So, all in all, a repulsive idea for a film that shouldn't have ever been made with scenes of detailed filth for which there is no remorse or forgiveness for. The shower scene after retarded Ming Ming's first rape where she tries to "clean" her "dirtied" sexual body parts with a razor knife comes to mind first. Simply nauseating, sickeningly foul, morally-offensive stuff indeed. But ya know, if you really think about it, the whole exploitive nature of the Asian Horror-Shock Cinema just wouldn't be the same without these rare, uncompromising gems of celluloid obscenities.

GathofBaal I've seen quite a few of Billy Tang's films, and I must say this is the best. The direction is great, Tang's penchant for blue lighting works perfectly with the material. Lily Chung plays a retarded girl who is sent to a home after the death of her father. Ben Ng plays the mild mannered director, who happens to be a psychotic killer and rapist, his violent impulses triggered by the color red. This is an awesome performance, ranking as one of the most entertaining film loony's I've ever seen (and that's no small number). While bleak, there is also plenty of humor, some unintentional, due to the poorly translated subtitles ("Crash your penis, cut it to make soup!"). Fans of HK horror will love this.