The Peeping Tom (1997)

How sad is this?

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This may be the high (or low) water point of the whole Category III sex- and-sleaze genre that had its hey-day in the late 90s. The visuals are dazzling. Bright, often garish lighting illuminates every prop and surface in the film like something from a Hollywood musical, while the camera lingers caressingly on the short-skirted limbs of its gorgeous female cast. Creative camera angles and tight editing energize the action and brilliantly staged tableaux lend everything a truly operatic grandeur. All of this cinematic flair is in the service of one of the darkest and sleaziest plots ever to come off the Asian continent: an amateur film buff and camera freak stalks women with great legs (and WOW are there ever a lot of them on display in this film), subdues his victims and then adds their wonderful gams to his personal collection by... *mild spoiler*...CUTTING THEM OFF WITH A POWER SAW! The film's villain teases the victim (and the audience) with this possibility, but when it comes the shock is so visceral it is nauseating. Honestly, if a viewer can make it through the movie's first ten minutes without barfing, he is in for a roller coaster / hellride as the protagonist's crime escalate into almost unimaginable evil. Not only is movie not for the faint of heart, the strong of stomach may want to fortify themselves beforehand.

A sadistic killer with the penchant for female legs is murdering women.A female cop Cheng Hsuen(played by Jade Leung)becomes the killer's unwitting target after he catches her(or more precisely,her legs) on camera during a gun battle.The murderer boldly enters her life,stalking her at work and hiding out in her home,before eventually kidnapping and assaulting her sister.A distraught Hsuen is forced to take the law into her own hands and sets out for justice,using the killer's infatuation with her as bait to lure him in."The Peeping Tom" is a fantastic HK Cat.III fare filled with sleaze and brutal violence.The rape scenes are quite unpleasant to watch,but the film is stylishly made and twisted enough for my liking.There is also a fair amount of nudity on display,including an incredibly long shower scene,so I wasn't disappointed in that aspect too.Give this one a look.

Director Ivan Lai, who has helmed his share of sleaze classics (DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS 1 + 2), tries real hard to exploit maximum capital from every gory, perverted, bullet-ridden moment of this highly recommended thriller.It's a fetishist's wet dream. The gorgeous women of the cast all wear short skirts and we get plenty of opportunities to see up them. The rape scenes are as graphic as possible within the rating category. The opening sequence, in which a pretty young maiden is kidnapped, raped and dismembered, is a real keeper. Also worth noting is the music and sound design.There is a gleeful amorality about Lai's films, a nod (intentionally or unintentionally?) to Japanese "violent pink" cinema of the 70's and 80's.The modus operandi of rapist Roy Chen Chih-Lai does not really wash, but that is not the point of this film. The point is gleeful sensationalism of gutter-level subject matter.There is a strong erotic undercurrent and leading lady Jade Leung is pretty damn cute and pretty damn feisty as a police detective on the rapist's blood-spattered trail. Miho Nomoto, a Japanese actress who plays Jade's sister, turns in a terrific masturbation scene that pushes the boundaries of the rating.Although it doesn't maintain the style and pace its opening stanza establishes, it is still righteous, unapologetic sleaze.

This is not the movie you would let your children watch! The movie has nudity and even rape! Not so surprising since this is the story of a crazy psycho who kidnap women so he can rape and kill them! Top of the cake; he cuts of their legs and keep them as a souvenir! The rest of the body he dumps!In a confrontation between police and some bank robbers, he takes notice of a female inspector with perfect legs. He gets obsessed with her and starts to invade her private life, breaking into her apartment, waiting for her to arrive! Even her family is not safe for this crazy madman!Good acting, nice directing and a very realistic script, makes this movie better and more scary than an average suspense/erotic thriller! People who enjoyed: Henry-Portrait of a serial killer will definitive enjoy this Hong Kong flick!Score: 8/10