Gloria has sex problems. She is a frigid virgin, but is also a "tease", who encourages sexual advances from men and then shuts them down when they respond. One night, after scornfully turning down a pass made by her boyfriend Paul, she is attacked and raped in her hallway. She finds that the attack sexually stimulates her and begs her attacker to stay with her, but the man--high on drugs--ignores her and leaves after the rape. The experience turns her from a notorious "tease" into a promiscuous nympho with a voracious sexual appetite--for both men and women. Complications ensue.
The Three Kingdoms period begins as the walled fortress of Hsin Yang falls to invaders. Centered around this historical event, The Last Days of Hsin Yang follows the escape of the prince of Hsin Yang as he hides with a small family and escapes from the sacked and burning city.
Three identical prints of a single 100 foot fixed-camera take are shown from beginning to end-roll light-flare, with a few feet of blackness preceding/bridging/following the rolls.
Forced behind British lines by engine problems, the Red Baron camouflages his plane, swaps uniforms with a dead soldier, and, posing as a Belgian, makes his way to a hospital.
"In my film I suggest that there is no greater mystery than that of the protagonists. War and Love are simply equated for what they are; the aftermath is inevitable, and a normal human condition, for which like the ancients one can only have pity and understanding.
Centring on the legend of the four ancient Chinese heroines, the film was a novelty for audiences at the time, as the singing performance was in Cantonese and used huangmei operatic rhythms—a popular trend in the 1960s, yet it retained traditional flavours by using operatic luogu percussion in the battle scenes.
There's nothing like a good, opulent, gaudy musical to lift the spirits, but when it's a 1960's Hong Kong musical orchestrated by a Japanese director and composer, it breaks through the ranks as a classic of campy kitsch.
Comments
Have you watched An Angle of Love yet? What did you think about it?
