Nude Fear
Reviewed by YTSL
Don’t judge a book by its cover or a Hong Kong
film by its title (especially its English language one?). Or a person
by their looks (and potentially all too deceptive demeanor). These
were the lessons that got reinforced upon my viewing this absolute sleeper
of a Category IIB effort with the exploitation movie title -- whose villain
a friend of mine had intriguingly described to me as being like the male
version of Takeshi Miike’s “Audition”’s main female character (in terms
of their having the huge potential to make viewers of the works that they’re
in think more carefully than previously about trusting (even) those members
of the opposite sex who -- at least initially -- don’t come across as being
all that strange or scary acting).
In its very first few minutes, NUDE FEAR offers
up the really disturbing vision of a young girl returning from school,
being confronted with the bloody aftermath of a very violent attack on
her now obviously dead mother (whose bound and naked form lies near the
far side of the modest abode’s main room) and going into major denial for
some time re the taking place of those horrible occurrences which one would
have thought it impossible to even momentarily disbelieve had been enacted.
In all honesty, the rather surreal as well as macabre sight of the victim’s
innocent faced daughter going about doing some homework in the midst of
all the sickening evidence of brutal deeds having been very successfully
carried out only hours -- or maybe minutes -- ago is one that’s hard to
get out of my mind; this not least since, in those particular circumstances,
that usually mundane activity involved an pig-tailed child needing and
trying to ignore the falling of drops of a loved one’s blood onto her exercise
book from the ceiling above.
At the end of Alan Mak’s impressive maiden directorial
effort, a dedicatory note appears on screen that -- especially if it had
sincerely come from the bottom of someone’s heart -- sent more chills up
and down my spine. “For a distant friend. Hope his nightmare
is over”, reads the personal sounding -- even while publicly expressed
-- message. Verily, it is my sense that after being witness to some
of the maybe not so completely fictitious after all events and actions
that are shown taking place in NUDE FEAR before the dispatching of this
oblique sounding yet revelatory feeling communiqué, it will be the
rare individual who does not get similarly affected upon his or her setting
eyes on these otherwise not particularly significant words (whose meaningfulness
is accentuated for me by their making up only the third personal dedication
-- with those that can be found within “Hu-Du-Men” and at the end of “Ah
Kam” -- that I can recall having come across in a Hong Kong movie).
In his review of this thrilling 1998 film (that
can be found on his “Another Hong Kong Movie Page”), Tim Youngs stated
that: “All the plot elements have been done elsewhere”; and “some
viewers will find [its] formula generic”. While this may be so to
some extent, I’m inclined to suspect that it’s difficult to ever be completely
blasè about any movie in which a team of policewomen and -men are
trying to track down a cunning serial rapist cum murderer (whose name I
will not reveal for fear of this divulgence acting as a major plot spoiler)
plus copycat protégé (who comes in the form of Sam Lee) whose
gruesome modus operandi includes their doing such as cut up their victims
from the vagina to abdomen -- so that they die by way of slowly and painfully
bleeding to death -- plus remove their tongues. And when it is revealed
that the uncommonly driven Homicide Bureau detective Superintendent in
charge of this offering’s investigation (who Kathy Chow competently plays)
is none other than the woman that the unfortunate little girl -- whose
mother’s killer had remained at large for some 20 years -- seen in NUDE
FEAR’s opening sequence had grown up to become, there cannot help but be
an emotional charge attached to much of this crime drama’s proceedings.
As was hinted in this review’s opening paragraph,
some tension is added to this movie’s mix by way of NUDE FEAR’s main villain
and more than one of its red herrings coming from the ranks of those who
were among the most familiar -- and therefore least suspicious -- to the
film’s protagonist (i.e., her department colleagues and professional superiors;
among whom are characters that are intriguingly portrayed by Tze Kwan Ho
and Cheung Tat Ming). Strange as it might (initially) seem to others,
further frissons came to me by it being the movie’s master criminal --
rather than its heroine or some innocent and/or “good” guy or gal -- who
openly questioned why it is that the world can be so twisted. More
than by the way: IMHO, the long speech that this most definitely
warped, yet often still clear-thinking, individual gives -- in which he
makes that philosophical sounding query plus offers up an answer that rests
on the seemingly valid suggestion that “the relations between human beings
have changed because they have choice” as well as an explanation of what
sent him along onto the path whose temporary “stops” included the kidnapping
of young girls (one of whom is essayed by Ruby Siu) as well as the murder
of at least one adult female -- is one of those whose very effectiveness
is a tribute to the obviously considerable abilities of the actor who so
smoothly delivered it along with those who wrote it.
Although this Joe Ma and Susan Chan scripted effort
is not without some plot holes, I will vouch that NUDE FEAR (also) is a
film whose story stayed captivating when I viewed it a second time (Yes,
this admittedly frequent repeat viewer truly thought that this offering
was good enough to merit my doing this!). For the record: Others
who undoubtedly contributed towards ensuring that this Brilliant Idea Group
production is by no means a pedestrian one are its music composer (Chung
Chi Wing), cinematographer (Keung Kwok Man) and editor (Cheung Ka Fai).
Like with the movie itself as well as its apparently still under-rated
director and non A list cast, it seems a real pity to me that their work
has not been accorded greater recognition.
My rating for this film: 8.5
This is not a Category III sex film as the
title might suggest, but actually a decent little thriller. It begins in
1978 when a little girl comes home from school and discovers her mother’s
brutal, grisly murder. Jump forward 20 years and the little girl is now
a brilliant homicide detective in the HK police force, played by the lovely
Kathy Chow.
She comes across a murder with the same M.O. as
her mothers and thus begins a game of cat & mouse between her and the
killer. Only an idiotic supervisor who constantly makes such litigious
comments as "I want to see the expression on your face when you make love"
or "do you work as hard in bed as out?" detract from a constant feeling
of tension.
Even if it is quite unbelievable in that "movie
way" that serial killers always seem to know everything, it is still fairly
suspenseful with some scenes of graphic violence and a good no nonsense
performance from Chow.
My rating for this film: 7.0
