Daughter Of Darkness (1993) (Remastered)

Directed by Ivan Lai Kai Ming

Produced by Kimmy Suen King On

Starring Lily Chung Suk Wai, Anthony Wong Chau Sang, William Ho Kar Kui, Hugo Ng Toi Yung, Money Lo Man Yee

Daughter Of Darkness

The early nineties were when the Category III classification came into its own as a benchmark of the extremes Hong Kong cinema could achieve when pushed to its limits. Over a short period of time, a wealth of "true-crime" adult thrillers made their way into Asian cinemas, raking in unheard of box office returns on their initial runs. These films took horrific stories from the daily newspaper headlines and dressed them up as garishly violent entertainment for the over eighteen masses, luridly parading the shocking details of their subject matter with graphic, uninhibited glee on silver screens across the continent. Danny Lee & Billy Tang's "Doctor Lam" and Herman Yau's "The Untold Story" were the best of a deliriously gruesome bunch, gaining strong notice in the West. Meanwhile, a selection of lesser, though equally noteworthy, shockers bubbled just below the surface, eventually to be overlooked by Western genre scribes. Welcome to Ivan Lai's oppressively grim domestic thriller, "Daughter Of Darkness"…

Lai's progenitor set up the formula for the successive entries in the series (as well as a couple of copycat thrillers and his own eventual "The Imp"), and the formula was this: The film opens on a grotesque tableau of broken, torn and bloodied bodies, apparent victims of some unspeakable massacre. Captain Lui (Wong), the local constabulary, noses around the crime scene, reeling off bad taste jokes, and doing things police aren't legally allowed to do with corpses. He speculates to his offsider (Lo) the most probable circumstance of events, but the truth is far wilder than Lui's insanely fanciful assertions. All are members of the same family, however the youngest daughter Wei-Fong (Chung) seems to be curiously unscathed. Lui, showing that he's all class commences his questioning of the teary-eyed Wei with the unforgettable line "Do all your family have big tits?". Pure class, my friends. However, Lui is convinced something is amiss, more so when Wei's boyfriend Kin (Ng), a fellow law officer, claims responsibility for the massacre. Lui smells a rat, and with a modicum of digging, unveils Wei as the true culprit. Once in custody Wei reveals the ghastly turn of events that drove her to murder.

Poor little Wei, she'd always been the put upon Cinderella to a family of morally bankrupt Ugly stepsisters. Her brother bullies her like a spoilt child, her bitchy sister makes her life a living hell, her mother lords over her like a prison warden, and her father (Ho)…ugh! What a poor excuse for a man! He whores behind his wife's back, tugs himself off outside the keyhole of the family bathroom while Wei showers within, and spends every other hour juiced to the gills. One night, in an alcohol-fueled stupor, he rapes Wei, leaving her irreparably scarred. Boyfriend Kin does his best to wrest her from the sick environment she is trapped within, but sadly cannot be by her side all the time. The night her father beats, binds, and rapes her again proves to be the deadly trigger for the tortured Wei to finally snap, and there is no fury like a woman scorned.

Setting up a shocking premise (that was effectively topped tenfold in his immediate sequel), director Ivan Lai crafts a taut thriller that shies away from none of its revolting, personal horrors. At first dolling out an unhealthy dose of deliriously bad taste humour through Anthony Wong's disturbingly crass Mainland officer, the film quickly gives way to horrors of a far more disturbing nature once the true narrative of the feature begins to unfold. How far Lai pushes the envelope should shock the pants off even the staunchest of viewers, his motivations almost questionable as he sets up the breaking of Chung's character. Once again, genre regular John Wong composes an aptly fitting and emotive score that heightens the visuals as seemingly the Chinese only know how. Lily Chung elicits massive amounts of sympathy with her character, giving way to wild-eyed murderous rage by the finale. What a finale it is too! Partially restored from composite film elements, it is a shock sequence that barely justifies the catalogue of degradation that precedes it. Don't let the goofy opening deter you, this one blows out into a wild ride of frightening excess in no time.

Universe pull a trump card with this disc, having snapped up the copyright on this title once Ocean Shores rights had expired. No longer presented fullscreen and shorn of some of its more graphic highlights (though not all), this remastered disc presents something of a watershed for Category III films on Hong Kong DVD. While not only correctly letterboxed and presented with optional subtitles, Universe have undergone something of a composite restoration of Lai's over-the-top shocker. Print quality varies considerably between the majority of the feature and the composite elements, but as with Billy Tang's "Brother Of Darkness" it is a surprisingly good restoration. All previously censored material, bar the phenomenally graphic stabbing during the finale (reduced from over a dozen blows to a mere two), have been reinstated making this version the closest to the original theatrical print available. Expect the theatrical monaural track, and you won't be disappointed, and per the also reviewed "Brother Of Darkness" there are no extras available on this new and improved budget re-issue.

Yeah, it's an absolute shocker, and an extremely difficult watch as well, but Universe should be commended for attempting to reassemble what is essentially a low budget exploiter back to a form resembling its original uncensored incarnation. Although snipped of the phenomenally graphic stabbing during its finale, "Daughter" manages to shock further now due to the re-instatement of its notorious rape scenes, which are intrinsically the motivation behind Chung's climactic bloodbath. As always, if you have a strong stomach and are open-minded enough to comprehend another culture's attitudes towards screen violence, then "Daughter Of Darkness" is definitely one of the unsung gems of Hong Kong's adult-horror industry. Just don't blame me if it offends you in the extreme!

Review by M.C.Thomason


 
Released by Universe Video & Laser
Category III - Region 0
Running time - 94m
Ratio - Widescreen 1.85
Audio - Dolby 1.0
Extras :
none
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