I'm just recovering from seeing one of the strangest category III releases I've yet clapped eyes on. Red To Kill is an unusual film about a man who rapes a girl from the retarded children home that he runs. Apparently the colour red sets him off and one night, when she comes to his room wearing red after a dance competition, he finally cracks and rapes her in the work area among the toy footballs. Later on he becomes slowly more insane, attempting to rape another co-worker and becomes stronger against the forces that try to smother him like some maddened shaven-headed hulk. He finally meets his demise at the hands of his co-worker while the retarded girl is left with a brain haemorrhage and eventually dies.
Red To Kill really is a strange piece of work. The storyline is unrelentingly bleak and the film's pessimistic conclusion with Ming Ming lying dead on her hospital bed actually had me laughing through disbelief. This film start scarily, climaxes through a grim and gory fight scene and ends on an extremely depressing note. I have to hand it to the director for not pulling any punches with this one.
It really needs some work on a couple of points though - firstly the soundtrack, which is dreadful. The film is filled with pseudo-poignant Asian songs which seem to go down a treat over there but here in Europe come across as awfully naff. Some of these sound so dated and out of place that it's almost impossible to take the 'sad' scenes seriously. As well as that, something must have gone wrong on the transcription from master tape to DVD since the music drops pitch occasionally, which sounds like someone messing about with an old record player, and it really is very amusing.
The second point that needs work it the 'retard' acting which is similarly risible in places. Some of Ming Ming's friends - also retarded - are just bad actors flailing their arms about and making silly faces. Especially in the final scene when Ming Ming dies I noticed one attacking a hospital screen out of grief - retard grief apparently. It really is quite silly.
Overall Red To Kill is a good piece of exploitation though miles below other rape films like Irreversible. If you think the first hour is bad then stick with it - the last 20 mins are definitely worth waiting for. If you're a fan of these kind of films I'd certainly recommend taking a look at this, even though you may not be able to keep a straight face all the way through.
Red To Kill really is a strange piece of work. The storyline is unrelentingly bleak and the film's pessimistic conclusion with Ming Ming lying dead on her hospital bed actually had me laughing through disbelief. This film start scarily, climaxes through a grim and gory fight scene and ends on an extremely depressing note. I have to hand it to the director for not pulling any punches with this one.
It really needs some work on a couple of points though - firstly the soundtrack, which is dreadful. The film is filled with pseudo-poignant Asian songs which seem to go down a treat over there but here in Europe come across as awfully naff. Some of these sound so dated and out of place that it's almost impossible to take the 'sad' scenes seriously. As well as that, something must have gone wrong on the transcription from master tape to DVD since the music drops pitch occasionally, which sounds like someone messing about with an old record player, and it really is very amusing.
The second point that needs work it the 'retard' acting which is similarly risible in places. Some of Ming Ming's friends - also retarded - are just bad actors flailing their arms about and making silly faces. Especially in the final scene when Ming Ming dies I noticed one attacking a hospital screen out of grief - retard grief apparently. It really is quite silly.
Overall Red To Kill is a good piece of exploitation though miles below other rape films like Irreversible. If you think the first hour is bad then stick with it - the last 20 mins are definitely worth waiting for. If you're a fan of these kind of films I'd certainly recommend taking a look at this, even though you may not be able to keep a straight face all the way through.