Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageIntimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972)
Director: Chu Yuan
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A good looking production, but a rather embarrassed cross between archetypal kung-fu and the sex film. Set in medieval China, the plot involves the Lesbian head of an exclusive brothel who hires a gang of louts to kidnap likely young girls, who are then broken in and sold off to a series of more or less geriatric local officials with inflated ideas of their own desirability. Our heroine, a young teacher, even undergoes multiple rape, almost entirely in reaction shots and freeze frames; in fact almost everything is filmed in reaction shots, whose over-familiarity just makes this comic strip fable that much more ridiculous. Women with any kind of consciousness, however, will be interested in the superbly acted 'false' ending in which the two women are reconciled - hastily followed, of course, by the hugely predictable 'real' climax.Author:
Cast & crew
Director: Chu Yuan
Producer: Runme Shaw
Cast: Lily Ho, Yueh Hua, Betty Ting Pei, Tung Lin, Wan Chung-shan full cast
Duration: 91 mins
Top Stories
Ben Drew aka Plan B interview
The singer, rapper and now film director discusses his debut film 'Ill Manors'
Cannes Film Festival 2012: final round-up
Dave Calhoun draws the curtain on the world's greatest film festival
Ridley Scott interview
Director Ridley Scott tells Cath Clarke why he's making a science fiction comeback
What do you think?
Post your review now