"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?

Not being the typical hong-hong film fan (actually I have seen very few HK films) but having seen many of the world's most extraordinary films, I have to say that I loved "Chinese torture chamber story" in a very special way.Most reviews here, although not losing the point, are representative of the western exploitation-type-of-viewing, with which I cant't really identify with, at least in regard with this film. I actually thought this blending of comedy, horror & erotica resulted in a most magnificent, poetic, weirdly funny, wildly violent result. This is quite unlike everything I have ever seen - I always had a tension to love any original and extraordinary film.Okay, I admit, I have seen the majority of violent & strange films, so it's quite understandable that I am not offended or shocked by the bold erotic element or the horrific tortures, and so I could dive in deeper in the films story and concept which is by no means shallow. I have the feeling that it's for the most part the filmmakers craft and smart use of humour and the way the story was presented make the violence & erotica a means to a higher end. Yet, extreme violence is not hidden or implied - on the contrary, it's on display every once in a while.Go after this film, if you can tolerate some violence, this is one of those one-of-a-kind films which can make the difference....

A Chinese TORTURE CHAMBER STORY isn't a great film by any stretch, but it sure has some fun stuff going on... Long and short: a woman goes to work for a rich guy, the rich guy's wife gets jealous that her man is constantly eye-ballin' the hired help, and the wife decides to murder the servants husband and pin it on her husband and the servant-girl. The servant-girl's husband is known around town for having a big donkey-cock, and decides to slip an aphrodesiac in this poor cats medicine, causing his penis to explode (believe me, I couldn't make this sh!!t up if I tried...). Anyway, all goes according to plan until some of the other hired help rat the rich-guy's wife and her lover out. The torture scenes are relatively tame if your used to this sort of thing, and the sex scenes aren't explicit compared to porn - but there are some truly funny and original things going on in A Chinese TORTURE CHAMBER STORY. The aerial-acrobatic-kung-fu-sex-submission and the invisible-stalker-man-in-the-middle-blow-job scenes were worth the price of admission on this one (not to mention the exploding-penis-hand-job...). The whole film is handled pretty tongue-in-cheek, so the f'ed up subject matter is a little easier to "swallow"...Definitely worth a look - 8/10

I've seen so many Hong Kong movies now that when I eventually came to watch this notorious Category III melodrama I took it all in my stride, but thinking back on it now, it has to be one of the most startling viewing experiences available to any viewer unfamiliar with HK cinema. Its part of a string of CAt III movies seeking respectability through use of historical settings (Sex and Zen, Sex and the Emperor, Lover of the Last Empress etc.), and for all its horrors, its not as sickening as Escape from Brothel or Eternal Evil of Asia. Yvonne Yung-Hung has perfected a set of wounded facial expressions that render her a perfect victim/fantasy figure, and feminist critics will find much to deplore in films like this, finding as they do eroticism in sadistic beatings of defenceless women - when one couple is executed, we only hear about the man's horrible death, but we see a graphic depiction of the woman's killing by wooden horse/dildo contraption. This movie is packed with ideas of how to find sexual grotesquerie in contortions of the human body, and the motif of escalating levels of torture is perfectly apt for Wong Jing's style of producing imaginative variations on his favourite preoccupations of sex and violence. He's only the producer, but his presence is tangible - I guess his closest Western equivalent might be Roger Corman. Fans of historical Cat III films will be pleased to see that the great Elvis Tsui once more steals the show with some spectacular sexual wirework.