"A Chinese Torture Chamber Story" is one of the more inexplicable movies I've seen from the Asian continent. It's not so much balls out weird, like "Holy Virgin vs. the Evil Dead" or "The Eternal Evil of Asia", as it is hard to explain. Is it a porn film? Torture porn? Or just a light comedy? The only thing consistent about it is the comedic tone, which you may find doesn't sit well in scenes of graphic torture and exploding penises.It's not really that graphic, though. Most of the torture scenes are played for laughs, and if you're familiar with Category III films, you know "The Untold Story" makes this look like Sesame Street. These scenes are nowhere near as intense as you might expect; there's nothing on the screen to make you cringe.So it doesn't really work as torture porn. What about regular porn? It doesn't really work in this regard, either. There's some sex but it's not erotic, and there's very little full-frontal nudity. While there are at least a couple of beautiful actresses, they mostly only bare their breasts to have some weird sex/torture toy attached to their nipples. We aren't given any opportunity to admire their bodies.I think the problem is that the direction is dull. The filmmaker knew what people wanted to see so he showed it. But we're never given any idea how we're supposed to feel about any of this stuff, so we don't really feel anything.The plot is something about a princess married to a man who tries weird (though not interesting) methods of pleasing her, like potions and stuff. She is observed by a young servant girl called Little Cabbage, who is then sold to another man. There's a bit of torture to work out who is having sex with who, or something. The plot surely didn't need to be this obtuse, but aren't they always?

To be very honest, I've watched this movie just to see Yvonne Ying Hung. It didn't matter what role she played. I think she was one of the outstanding star that can carry a lead role. She didn't disappoint here. She was beautiful, and even showed some skin. The movie is in the style of many Cat III movies of the early '90s. The bluish lighting that contrasts with the red clothing of the actresses, humor mixed with sex, and few odd twists to the story (this one is the torture angle). The extra bonus is that Wong Jin was the producer of this movie, putting in his extra spice of entertainment that made the movie a delight to watch.Loved the movie, and I wish Yvonne Yin Hung will come back to the screen even in a cameo role one day. This was also one of the better Cat III movies of the time too. Production quality is very high.For entertainment, this movie is highly recommended for viewing.

I saw this movie when I was in Hong Kong on business in 1993, it was on pay-per-view in the hotel I was staying in. The movie itself was hilarious. There is a lot of sex and violence but I found it so over the top as to be neither titillating nor disturbing. Some of the other reviewers found it to be too violent or sexist. Hey, people did bad things to each other in the past, get over it, they still do. Anyways, I knew this was a movie I had to show to my friends when I got back, my descriptions could not do it justice. Not being a Chinese speaker, I found the video in HK before I left and took a picture of it. Upon my return to the US, I sought out a Chinese video store and excitedly rented it when I found it. It had Chinese and English subtitles, and the English translation was HORRIBLE. It totally killed the humor in the movie. My friends, whom I had been babbling to about this movie, at this point, all thought I was a complete loon. I found a dubbed copy on DVD and I am awaiting it's arrival. I hope it's the same version I saw in Hong Kong, because the movie does truly rock, with proper interpretation of the dialog.

My favorite part of this bizarre movie, aside from the graphic violence and sex, was the poorly translated and wholly inappropriate sub-titling. The entire film already had me precariously balanced between disgust and hilarity, but the way they presented some of the dialogue pushed me over the edge into falling-out-of-my-chair laughter. What sticks in my mind the most (apart from the exploding phallus and aerodynamic coitus) was a scene where a woman in the midst of seriously pounding and fairly graphic sex moans something that was translated as "So comfortable... so comfortable..."