The Illuminated Lantern If there is one thing you used to be able rely on Hong Kong exploitation cinema for, it is gruesome, ripped-from-the-headlines video nasties (often, inexplicably, starring Michael Wong). This time, a bunch of punks kidnap a girl, torture her, rape her, kill her accidentally, then stuff her remains in a Hello Kitty doll. The Hello Kitty copyright owners were none to amused by all the screen time the doll was getting, however. Since the film was already in the can, the doll is simply digitally scrambled whenever it is on screen. There is something incredibly ironic about watching full frontal nudity and brutal, bloody violence in full color, while behind the mayhem and to the left sits a little fogged stuffed animal. The same true crime also inspired the (even worse) film HUMAN PORK CHOP from the same year.

dbborroughs Told in mostly in flashback this film is about the police investigation into the remains that are found in an apartment, and more to the point a Hello Kitty Mermaid which has been optically censored out of the film because Sanrio was unhappy. (This is based on a true story and parts of the woman really were found in the Hello Kitty doll.) What we find out is that the victim was a girl who made a wrong turn and life and the downward spiral lead to prostitution and worse. It all ends after she steals some money and she's brutalized to the point of death. The killers then dispose of the body in the title manner.This is a really unpleasant film. Its low budget adds a grittiness to to it. With in its limited budget its not a bad looking film which adds to the nastiness. The trouble is that the script is a meandering mess going from unpleasant person to unpleasant situation.We get to see more than we ever wanted about the lives of everyone involved. The only one you really feel for is Maggie, but even then you grow weary waiting for the inevitable. On some level I feel that the director's desire to do something with the story clashed with budget concerns and a need to make an exploitive film that would return its cost and so they ended up with a film thats neither socially relevant nor good exploitation.I don't like this movie much. Granted it gets points for provoking a reaction of horror and disgust, but at the same time it shouldn't be coupled with the question "Why are you watching this then?". What bothers me about the film is that I'm intrigued with it as close representation of what really happened. Its ghoulish, but it won't allow me to totally dismiss the film even though I really should. I can't recommend it since it is a really ugly movie, but its there if you want to try it, although you'll probably question why you're watching it.Rated 5 out of 10 because I'm so conflicted about the movie even though it should probably be lower.

fertilecelluloid Lazy, unfocused, inept film-making from director Yeung Chi Gin. Supposedly based on a true story, it sabotages any opportunity it may have had with patented cluelessness.It's arguable that it never had a screenplay. Everything that happens is so random and linear. Chiu Chiu Chan (Maggie) steals money and a lighter from a girlfriend's husband (a gangster) to pay for her mother's operation. When the husband finds out, he begins to subject her to non-stop abuse. The abuse, ultimately, leads to her demise.The flashback structure (ala DR. LAMB, UNTOLD STORY, etc.) provides a sloppy hook to hang a narrative on. Told from the perspective of several miscreants who participated in Maggie's demise, it provides for a choppy, uneven experience.What truly capsizes THERE IS A SECRET IN MY SOUP is amateurishness. There is no atmosphere, style or intelligence at work here. The film is a simple exercise in cynical commerce.The abuse scenes look more like charades than reality and the performances are wildly uneven. Two scenes, in which Miss Chin dances "seductively" for one of the criminals, are totally out of context and ludicrous. What were the producers of this mess thinking? Boring crap.

Robin Bougie (mindseye100) This film is based VERY closely to real events in a homicide that took place in Hong Kong the year before the film came out. The mermaid Hello-kitty in the film, that the killers store the victims skull in after they've finished torturing her and cutting up her corpse, is identical to the mermaid Hello-kitty doll that the real killers used in the exact same way. (Note: In the non-theatrical versions of the film *dvd, vcd*, Sanrio demanded that the film makers digitally fog the doll. This aspect makes the film even more strange!) This is a disturbing film and a very memorable experience, that is all the more insane and outrageous when you take into account that it actually happened.Another film, "HUMAN PORKCHOP" was made around the same time, and is based on the same case, although it takes a few more liberties with the story.