Siu lam juk kau (2001)

Chinese Torture Chamger Story II
All I can say is...I'm glad the justice system isn't like that in ancient China. Phew!! There's some rough stuff in this flick. Yikes!! My rating for this one is three stars!

Pleasantly surprised
In reading some of the reviews below, some seem to be for another movie - presumably Part I with the same title (but I can't be sure since I haven't seen Part I). The December 6, 2001, does a excellent job of reviewing the plot of ASIN: B00005IAQQ and I'm not going to re-review what s/he did. Rather, I'll focus on what s/he didn't touch upon:

The topic is unquestionably prurient, a la Dolcett, et al. If you can't handle that, do yourself a favor and run, don't walk, away. Some of the story is traditional Chinese theatre: simplistic dialogue which falls easily into the "silly" column. That being said, the overall "arc" of the movie isn't silly. In a very limited way, I could see some Shakespearean influence to the plot: he dies loving her, she dies avenging him, everybody dies. The scenery is almost perfect for the genre. The torture/blood-FX are (in Hollywood standards) outright horrible, pathetic, deplorable, break-out-the-thesaurus bad - which is really too bad since I got the impression the movie was trying to be a well-made torture/soft-porn flick. The sex is the typical, late-night cable, TV-MA fodder plus some S&M. The digital video is *very* good: wide-screen, stable, crystal clear. In fact, I saw a few analog boo-boos but the conversion to digital is top-notch. Utilization of the traditional DVD capabilities (menus, etc) is par. The box says "CC" but I couldn't find it - however there are English subtitles (picky, I know, but! If it says CC, I want captions. If it says subtitled, I want subtitles. If it says both, darn it! I want both!) Speaking of subtitles: eww... get an interpreteur! There are many grammatical errors, a nonsensical sentence or two, etc. Additionally, don't put the remote away as you'll be freezing the image to read some of the subtitles... they are *that* fast.

Anyway, thumbs up. Why? For the genre, the movie is well made. Splasher flicks don't have to be pathetic. Porno movies (which this ain't) don't have to be artistically and intellectually void. Just because you choose to make a film which caters to the basest of our species aspects, doesn't mean you have to do it in a moronic, low-class sort of way. If you don't understand that last sentence, this movie isn't for you.

Trust me SHOCKING would be the the least I could say ...
I can not believe what this Hong Kong Chinese erotic movie depicts and it's rateed as five stars only because it's made for the most prurient and lacivious viewing audience.

This is the Torture Chamber Story II and should not be confused with the first DVD of the same name which is a completely different story and which I have not seen.

The movie is, oddly enough, exactly what it says in that it's a 'Torture Chamber Story'. Nothing in this movie is gratuitous, I'd say it's in your face violence, torture and cruelty and perversity fully depicted at it's best.

The story is a series of flashbacks and starts with our young heroine, Lotus, being dragged into the torture chamber to be exceuted for the murder of the governor, Ma, by 1000 cuts and pieces of flesh being removed from her body before she dies.

We meet Ma as he was coming down from the mountains and is portaryed as a young virile graduate of a Taoist monk and he is going into the city to apply for a job as the general of the army. He is portrayed as a kind and perhaps naive young fighter when he meets up with a group of townsfolk robbers, Lotus, her brother and his wife and her fiance. Ma makes friends with the group and gets them to swear that they will stop the thievery and change to the path of good.

From that point we then meet the whole group again when Ma has become governor and gives jobs to the two young men at the governors mansion.

Since this is a Chinese Movie with English subtitles you have to understand that there are more twists and turns in this plot than a small road in the mountains. What we do get in the movie is bloos, a lot of it because remember Lotus is getting cut up into 1000 oieces and the movie shows that, we get cannibalism since the bandit leader enjoys eating the hearts of his live vitims, we get a lot of blood since most of the soldiers get their heads and arms cut off. I think I counted at least 15 arms getting cut off in this movie and at least 7 heads.

If that ain't bad enough, this movie also depicts tounges being cut out, at least 5, boiling wax poured into to ears .... OK why continue I think you get the picture .... The sex and eroticism, well, I think you may have guessed they don't hold back the slightest here either since Ma, our hero, is sexually dysfunctional since he was raped by a pervert as a little boy .... Oh, and lastly, you remember the 1000 cuts for Lotus, you think they show the executioner coming up with his knife to cut apiece of flesh while the camera pans away and we hear her scream, nooooo not in this movie, we get to actually see the cuts of fleah as if we were med students in an operating room ....

Ok so I rated it five stars, not because I liked the movie, far from it, but if you ever wanted to see the most violent and perverse movie about torture, cruelty and perverse sex, then this is the movie for you .....