Shaw Bros sleaze and Category 3 madness
March 6, 2010
From the 1970s Kung Fu boom, right up until the 90s Category 3 sex and violence titles, Hong Kong films were continually a target of the Australian censors. During this time there existed a strong Chinese language cinema circuit. At the peak in the early 90s Sydney boasted three such cinemas, and Hong Kong was second only to the USA as the country of origin of films submitted to the OFLC.
However the rise of VCD and later DVD, coupled with the general lack of quality product from the piracy ravaged HK film industry saw attendances decline. This meant that most of the cinemas had closed down or were on their last legs by the time 2000 came around.
The often extreme violence, and especially sexual violence, ensured that many Hong Kong films ran into problems when being rated. So in our on going quest to cover the ever changing standards of Australian censorship, Matt has provided us with two reviews of titles that were banned in different decades.
Exploitation Shaw Brothers Style
Shaw Brothers are probably best known in Western countries for their period kung-fu films. However they also produced a wide variety of genres, including some solid exploitation titles that pushed the boundaries of the sex and violence that was allowed in Hong Kong. Many of their films played in Australian Chinese Language cinemas, and a good few had local censorship problems. Titles such as DREAMS OF EROTICISM, GODFATHER'S FURY, BROTHERHOOD, and LUST FOR LOVE OF A CHINESE COURTESAN were all originally banned by the Censorship Board.
The 1980 Shaw Brothers film LOST SOULS probably best illustrates what was permissible in Hong Kong cinema of the time. It's an ultra-sleazy tale of mainland Chinese immigrants being exploited in HK. It was banned by the Australian Censorship Board in 1981. Our database contains details this, and all of the above mentioned films.
First up we have a review of ASSAULT: CRIMINALS PART IV which was the final part in the Shaw Brothers true-crime series. In June 1979 a 2547.80m (93:07) print was banned by the Censorship Board because of 'indecency and excessive violence'.
Thanks to Matt for this review in which he takes a look at the film through the eyes of a 70s censor.
CRIMINALS 4 consists of two (true-crime?) stories.
MANAIC (42m): A Mongoloid psycho and his gang are kidnapping women from the streets, holding them hostage and raping them.
This censors would have found lots to object to in this episode.
2 to 4 mins approx: A topless Western woman is tied up with her hands above her head and whipped and beaten by the gang.
9:30 to 13:30 approx: A topless girl is tied up and the Manaic pours milk over her body and puts ants on her. The gang arrive force her to take some drugs, then move in to rape her as the scene ends.
32:30 to 35:30 approx: The previous victims sister is tied up with her hands above her head as the Maniac taunts and strips her
QUEEN OF TEMPLE STREET (47m): A worthless husband owes a huge gambling debt so pays the gang off by selling his wife to work in their brothel.
Again there area few scenes that would have caused problems.
60 to 62min approx : The wife is raped by several men.
78 to 79:30 approx: After she is caught trying to escape she is beaten and raped by the brothel owners.
The Hong Kong Celestial VCD runs 89:19 and may be censored. I noticed at 85:33 where the husband brings down the meat cleaver on his wife the screen goes black, with red blood splatter shown. This may be how the Director intended it. However a couple of seconds later at 85:35 the music seems to skip as we see the face of the husband after he has killed his wife. I suspect a shot of her body may have been removed.
Overall this is a typical piece of 70's Shaw Bros sleaze. No full frontal nudity, but lots of topless shots.
Sex and violence CAT III Style
As we have mentioned, Shaw Brothers continually pushed the boundaries of sex and violence in their films of the 70s and 80's. However it took the introduction of the Category 3 rating in 1988 for things to really take off. During this time the Australian censors were particularly hard on sexual violence, something of which featured heavily in many Category 3 titles. It was because of this that Hong Kong films made up the majority of non-hardcore titles that were banned by the Classification Board in the early to mid-90s.
Some of the films that ran into problems included ANGEL DELIGHT (1992), THE DEMON WET NURSE (1992), DIARY OF A SERIAL KILLER (1995), DON'T STOP MY CRAZY LOVE FOR YOU (1993), DR LAMB, THE FRUIT IS SWELLING (1997), LABORATORY OF THE DEVIL (1992), RAPED BY AN ANGEL (1993), THE RAPIST (1994), TAKE ME (1991), and ROBOTRIX (1991). All were later censored and rated R18+ before playing Chinese language cinemas. Further details on each of these titles can be found in our database.
The film REBEKAH was submitted for rating in 1996, at the tail end of the Category 3 boom. Sexual violence was cited as the reason for it being Refused Classification in 1996. However in 1997 it was censored from 88m to 86m and passed with an R-rating.
Again Matt has attempted to get in the mind of a censor with the following review.
The fact that REBEKAH was banned demonstrates how pathetic the OFLC had become in 1996. After all this was the year they also banned Jim Jarmusch's DEAD MAN for sexual violence.
This is a typical Hong Kong Category 3 comedy with lots of full frontal nudity. It remains a comedy just about all the way through (complete with stupid music) and does not suddenly go off into nasty territory as some Cat 3 films tend to do.
I am quite sure that the scene that the censors would have objected to involves Brother Meng and two of his gang picking up a very drunk mainland Chinese girl. At around the 48m point they take it in turns having sex with her. All the time she is saying in Mandarin "I have VD". When they have all finished the Cantonese speaking Brother Meng thinks she is saying that he was the best at sex. The sex ends at around the 50min point which adds up just about right to the cuts in the R-rated version. This (and the DEAD MAN case) illustrates that at the time the OFLC were strict on just about any rape scenes. This scene in REBEKAH contains no violence, and is played as comedy to demonstrate how stupid Brother Meng and his gang are.
There is a second scene at 68m where Han B grabs a traffic warden into his van who he thinks is a hooker. He says "I must punish you". The traffic warden radios for help saying "I'm being raped by Han B". The scene lasts a minute and is played for laughs. I doubt this would have been a problem.
Thought you may like to know that there is a scene that runs from 25 to 28m where Rebecca is acting in an UNTOLD STORY rip-off which the subtitles refer to as either LUST BUN or HORNY BUN. Cammy Choi shows she can suffer for her art as in one scene a mixture of fake blood mixed with real worms is poured over her to make her look like a rotting corpse.
The Hong Kong VCD from Universe Laser and Video Co runs 88:08 and would seem to be the uncut version.
March 6, 2010
Refused-Classification.com
