Dairy of a Lady Killer
During the 1960’s the Shaw Brothers reached out
a number of times to Japan to gain some of their cinematic skills in technology
and style. It began initially when the Shaw’s witnessed the popularity
of the Japanese Chambara films in Hong Kong and wanted to incorporate some
of these qualities – graphic violence, faster action choreography and stylish
designs – into their wuxia films. They did this by bringing some Japanese
directors and technicians to Hong Kong and by also sending some of their
staff to Japan. They later used Japanese directors for films other than
wuxia – in particular utilizing Inoue Umetsugu who directed over fifteen
films for Shaw – many of them lavish musicals. Another Japanese director
was Matsuo Akinori (Mai Chi-ho) who directed two Hong Kong films, The Lady
Professional and Asia-Pol.
Dairy of a Lady Killer also comes via Japan –
directed by Koh Nakahira/ Nakahira Yasushi (Chinese name,Yang Shu-hsi).
Nakahira had worked with both Akira Kurosawa and Suzuki Seijun back in
Japan and had directed a number of films there before coming to Hong Kong
in 1967. He was considered one of the premier post WWII New Wave directors
with his themes of youth and sex. He directed four films for the Shaw Brothers
– Inter-Pol, Trapeze Girl, Summer Heat and this one. Three of them including
Diary were remakes of some of his Japanese films – Diary from a film called
The Hunters Diary produced by Nikkatsu in 1964. He brings a nice eye for
design style as all the Japanese directors seemed to and a willingness
to film outside of the confines of the Shaw studio sets.
The film though doesn’t generate as much excitement
or tension as the premise might lead one to hope. It feels a bit slow and
ponderous at times and the supposed mystery of the film carries the suspense
of a brown bag lunch from home. Not having seen the original, I can’t say
whether the sexual content of the film was toned down, but this definitely
has little sizzle in that regard. In an odd choice, most of the erotic
substance of the film takes place during the opening credit sequence with
a few nude shots - one of Tina Leung/Tina Ti – but in the film itself
there is very little – only a quick shower scene with Fannie Fan. By the
end the film was testing my patience in a number of ways, as the killer
had been obvious for a very long time if one was staying awake and I was
getting annoyed with everyone – that was still alive.
The film opens nicely as the camera slowly pans
a typing pool of young women – one desk has no one sitting there though
and the camera zooms to an open window with her shoes lying there. She
is hanging outside from the ledge on the verge of suicide – and suddenly
lets go and falls to her death. Her sister begins to look into the cause
of her unhappiness and of course finds a man behind it. Chin Han (the one
who married Ivy Ling Po) is a modern day lothario – a lady-killer in the
old fashioned vernacular. With his tight stylish suits, good looks and
reputable job, there are few women who can resist his charms. He hits the
streets of Hong Kong when the mood strikes him (often) and looks for a
suitably lonely looking target to ply with drinks and sweet words. More
often than not they fall for his lines like a starving fish and end up
back at his hotel room for a roll in the sheets. The next day Chin bids
them adieu and rarely looks back. Wanting to keep a record of his trophy
taking, he keeps a diary of his conquests with all the details of how he
seduced them.
He has a fiancée (Fang Ying), but she is
a proper girl that sternly refuses his whimpering advances and tells him
to wait till they get married. One night after being rejected again, he
bangs his head in frustration on the steering wheel and sets out for a
little fun, feeling fully justified for cheating on Fang. He heads for
that well-known pick up spot – a bowling alley – where he quickly spots
and sizes up Fanny Fan decked out in sexy green and with a lurid smile
that spells “available”. He shows her his bowling skills and she is suitably
impressed enough to want to see his other skills – strike!
One night with Fanny is enough and he is soon
on to other targets – the next night he spies Margaret Tu Chuan through
the window of a record store and follows her to a Japanese movie that is
playing (bonus points to anyone who can I.D. the film being played) and
she is soon mewing back at his place like a lost kitten. The next day it’s
an artist he sees painting – he pretends to be an art dealer and a few
drinks later Tina Ti has invited him to her place. As an art connoisseur
he insists on seeing her best artwork – her nude body and she mildly resists
until her roommate comes in and spoils the fun.
He takes some time out from his activities – when
does this guy work anyway? – and notices that some of his conquests are
getting into the paper – unfortunately in the obituary section – murdered
soon after he had seen them. Coincidence or not – the cops don’t think
so. Fang finds out about his nocturnal activities by reading his diary,
but instead of giving him the heave-ho like he deserved, she suggests he
take care of this sex addiction – I think Michael Douglas has a number
he can use. At about this point I started losing interest in the film as
she goes about trying to prove his innocence.
This was the last film for both Fanny Fan and
Margaret Tu Chuan – both well-known actresses during the 1960’s for their
libidinous roles. Fanny married and retired from the business. She had
been in films since winning a beauty contest and joining Shaw in 1957.
At first she was in the Cantonese division under the name Wan Li Hong,
but she soon switched to the Mandarin film division, changed her name and
soon found success in the film Pink Murder and notoriety for her sexy role
in Golden Buddha. Her curvaceous figure earned her the nickname “the Oriental
Brigitte Bardot”. It was Margaret’s final film for a very different and
tragic reason – she was soon afterwards to commit suicide with her reputed
female lover. Nicknamed the “Wild Girl” for her lifestyle she had begun
in film in 1957 with Cathay but soon moved to the Shaw Brothers. She became
a star in the 1960 film How to Marry a Millionaire, but over the next few
years her career soured and her marriage into one of Hong Kong’s more elite
families went bad and she turned to sleeping pills on November 30th 1969.
The film also has a few other cameos of note –
Helen Ma and Shirley Huang show up as old girlfriends of Chin Han’s and
there is a nightclub number that I think may be sung by Mona Fong. I can’t
find any supporting evidence of this but it looks so much like the singer
in Mambo Girl, but that had been 10 years earlier. Mona had sung some theme
songs for Shaw previously and actually joined the company in 1969 – so
perhaps this was just a thank you to Shaw.
Note: I had a hard time figuring out who these
actresses were and am actually not sure I got all of them correct. If anyone
knows of an error I made, please let me know.
My rating for this film: 5.5
Information about actors/director from the
Biographies on the DVD and this
site.