During the 70s, due to social pressure, local Hong Kong female movie stars were unwilling to strip or appear in erotic films while some Taiwanese imports were not shy in taking their clothes off for the camera. Chen Ping was one such actress; upon joining Shaw Brothers she landed the leading role in Ho's sleazy rape and revenge thriller and by going nude she became an overnight sensation.
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In general, Ho Meng Hua doesn't waste time in telling his story; the film begins with the brutal gang rape of a young female textile factory worker Chu Ling (Chen Ping) on her way home, by five thugs. Too traumatized by the horrific attack, she is unable to continue working in the factory in which the rhythmic motions of the machines remind her of her torment. She quits her job and in her desperation to find her attackers she becomes a bar girl in a local nightclub hoping they might turn up there.
This all comes to a boiling point when she starts to get sick and bleeds at regular intervals and after visiting a dodgy unlicensed doctor, she discovers that she has in fact contracted “Vietnam Rose”, a deadly form of venereal disease for which there is no cure. Now that her world is falling apart, she only has one thing in mind, which is to find her assailants and kill them all. Meanwhile, upon hearing her story, her boss, Wong Ta (Lo Lieh), the club owner who happens to be a kung fu expert, takes pity on her and agrees to help her about her quest for revenge.
Incidentally, the rape scene in the beginning is indeed rather hard to watch, showing Chu being set upon by the five men who casually devour her in their sinister ways, it is brutal and horrendous. During this time, Ho's undertaking into the horror genre like “Black Magic” and “The Oily Maniac” and the horror elements show here. Furthermore, the scenes leading to the rape are dark with minimal lighting to create a sense of dread and gloomy atmosphere and he makes good use of his handheld camera work too with low angle shots which follow the characters around.
On the other hand, Chen Ping is equally good at portraying the victim; we get to see her different emotions play out, especially through her expressive eyes. Of course this being an erotic production we get to see quite a bit of gratuitous nudity from her and other supporting stars. Most of her fighting scenes are of the kicking variety and she gets thrown around a lot too by those thugs. Likewise, she is pretty mean with a knife and she sure knows where to stab her targets precisely, mostly between their legs where it hurts the most. She is also handy with a deck of razor-edged playing cards. Credited as the action choreographer, Luk Chuen's action sequences don't really stand out but then again this is hardly a kung fu film to start with.
As usual, Lo Lieh looks cool in tailored suits and walks around with a cane that has a concealed sharp tip which comes in handy when he is fighting multiple enemies and he gets the lion's share of the action throughout. But when pairing with Chu, their fights are fun to watch and the build up to the final is equally well put together. In fact their relationship plays out like that of an old school kung fu film where a master takes in a student who then ventures out for the hard-earned revenge.
The five thugs who rape Chu are low lives who seemingly rob jewelry shops during the day and frequent nightclubs at night if not to prey on girls. Shaw regular Fan Mei Sheng plays their cruel leader Wong Tai who favors the use of a brass knuckle. The other memorable members have equally colorful names like Crocodile Head (Chiang Tao), Atom (Chan Shen), Heroine (Lin Wen Wei) and Pimp, played by a young Hui Siu Hung who specialized in making pornographic videos with girls in night clubs after spiking their drinks.
There is enough sleaze here to satisfy both action and exploitation fans and the pounding psychedelic soundtrack also helps to move the plot along nicely. Besides the setting of Hong Kong during the early 70s like the streets, nightclubs and fashion are a welcoming contrast.
