The Lady Punisher (Hong Kong, 1994)

 


The world of Category III entertainment is a murky one. Away from the big names such as the serial killing Dr. Lamb or the diseased antics of Ebola Syndrome is a cesspit of soft porn, rape and gore films. Along with those, you get the occasional hybrid that worked in action, revenge or crime elements such as Lady Punisher from 1994 does, all whilst the exploitation dial is jacked up to eleven.

Despite the happy-go-lucky cover art of the image above, The Lady Punisher is anything but. Instead it is a sordid saga of rape-revenge, gang war, sodomy by bottle, lesbian frolicking, and undercranked action. Fang and Lan are two girls who meet a bunch of drug-running mobsters led by a turd called Mason who assault them in the Thai woodlands. Lan is killed and Fang swears revenge. Of course, later on in the film, whilst running a bridal fashion shop?! Fang bumps into Mason and his gang again and decides to start killing 'em. So starts CAT III own Frank Castles's crusade against rapey men. There is also a female reporter popping in and out of the narrative, along with a dumb as shite neighbour who wants in Fang's underpants.

Lady Punisher is a complete fucking mess, but an entertaining mess.

Directed by Tony Lou Chun-Ku, who was always serviceable but never an auteur seems drunk on this production, either that or he had a rabid ape do his editing as the whole thing careens out of control from the get-go, like me trying to ride roller-skates. Sped up action scenes blast onto the screen, with abrupt classic music scoring, like they have climbed out of the finale of Godfrey Ho commando film. Then there it'll be suddenly soft porn with synth scoring, that segues into a revenge sequence or some ugly sexual violence.



The only names in this are Tommy Wong as Mason and Shing Fui-On as a rival mobster. The whole gang plot is lazy and just there for an excuse for some gun battles and barely competent martial arts. But it could also be argued the revenge plot is handled lazily as well as the main villain never gets a comeuppance!

If it sounds as if I am pissing on this, I am not really. It is crude, rude, and a shotgun blast to the face of sleaze. I was laughing and whooping with delight at some of the cheap outrages on display.

The film never gains focus, it feels clumsy, but a lot of these films are, as they are merely vehicles for exploitation, made as cheaply as possible for a midnight crowd of Hong Kong degenerates and gwailo vhs collectors. The Japanese, especially in the 70s, could combine sex, art and violence but The Lady Punisher has nothing to do with art, it is merely sleazy fun and sometimes that is enough.


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