Red Nights

A woman steals an ancient artefact and flees to Hong Kong in order to sell it. Little does she know that the box contains a vial of poison, a poison that paralyses its victim but heightens their senses of pleasure and pain. The people she is dealing with will go to any lengths to obtain the poison.

This film had potential: an intriguing start, the mysterious woman after the poison, the tough, resourceful thief assailed on all sides, the dark tone of the film, the good production values. Yet, for all this its more miss than hit.

The main problem is the plot: it's clumsy, with some contrived, silly developments. Just because the film falls in the horror category doesn't mean you have to fall back on horror clichés. Even worse, the pacing is all over the place. Some incredibly intense scenes that move at a great pace in among some scenes that are incredibly slow and empty, padding the movie. This all leads to a start-stop sort of journey.

The ending is a bit weak too.

Overall: disappointing.

There is a legend of directors who created a movie which brought laughter to viewers through a poisonous plot. This legend repeats nowadays when a French director flees to Hong Kong after killing her dog at home and stealing from it an old artifact containing this poisonous plot. She meets Taiwanese actor Jack Kao and veteran Hong Kong actress Carrie Ng, who all want to get a paycheck by participating in this poisonous movie with absolutely meaningless content that only kindergarten kids would watch through. Be warned.

This is from a critic, which I thing summarize the movie:

Is most certainly not to everyone's taste and yet it's a rather fascinating movie: It's violent, it's perverted, its protagonists are all deplorable one way or another, but at the same time it tells an enjoyably bizarre story in elegant pictures and at a steady pace, it never loses itself in its perverions or bloodbaths but manages to always see the bigger picture, it features some bizarre but fun twists and turns, and it's carried by a very competent cast.

If you're into the grotesque, this is certainly worth a look!

I just watched it in Fantasporto Film Festival 2011. Wow! The relations between the women are stunningly wicked and the images of the film are beautifully disturbing. Killing people softly but till death do they part! It is such a revolutionary film, never seen anything like it before! If you watch it with a conservative mind and try to put it in any existing frame of genres in cinema, you will be lost. Because this movie is obvious an exploration of new sensations in cinema. A challenge in moral and an escape in reality, this movie is a crossover of love and death, modern and ancient, beauty and fear. Try to watch it with an open mind and you will be surprised how it drills in your heart. Love it!!!

Just saw it..still puzzled by some details. First: the opening..the innocent young girl is put into the vacuum bed-enjoys the sensation-then is killed with the jade claws. this seems irrelevant to the main plot. anyway-the Frenchwoman who steals the box-shot twice and somehow recovers..how is that? finally, the ending devolves into a Jacky Chan type of slapstick. still, enjoyable..in and odd sort of way.