Raped by an Angel 3: The Sexual Fantasy of the Chief Executive (1998)

Based on the director's previous films, I expected much more than this sleeper. Of course, it's silly to expect too much of any film of this type, especially when it has a title as awful as this.

Set in 2001 (presumably to protect the filmmakers) the story is about the next SAR Chief Executive, sex-mad Mr Li Chi Suen (Alex Fong). Unfortunately, he has suffered from 'illusions' in the past - illusions that have caused him to see naked women strolling about whenever he is under stress. Making matters worse, his job is a stressful one, trying to edge out his competitor for Hong Kong's top job. When a series of rapes, culminating in an attack on his retarded office assistant Chi (Pinky Cheung Man-Chi), occur in his office block, Li becomes the prime suspect. Although it seems pretty clear that Mr Li did it, he tries to prove his innocence in what becomes a rather complicated and messy plot. This was an unsatisfying movie, unlike the director's second and third films ('Sex and Zen III' and the delightful 'Love and Sex of the Eastern Hollywood'). It certainly did have some enjoyable moments courtesy of Simon Lui's dirty cop, but these scenes weren't enough to make up for the nasty little plot concerning Chi, the general trivialising of rape and the lifeless direction. I'm glad I had a free ticket - it wasn't worth the price of admission.

DVD information: Despite my previous negative review above, this is a nice little value-for-money disc. The letterboxed picture is crisp and clear, and looks good on a TV. I must confess that I enjoyed Raped by an Angel 3 more this time around than in the previous cinema viewing (the source for the unchanged original review above). The movie is split into only eight chapters from a single-screen animated chapter menu. There are three languages for the switchable subs: Cantonese, English and Putongua. An unsubbed trailer for RbaA3 is included. Cheerful and well-written actor biographies are an enjoyable bonus and they are all a good read: Alex Fong, Pinky Cheung (did you know she won "Miss Best Posture" at the Miss Asia Pageant?), Angie Cheung, Kenix Kwok and Simon Lui. The "More Attractions" section contains trailers for Your Place or Mine (a chirpy little taster), Cheap Killers and Tricky King -- each making already-good movies even more appealing. It's a Universe release.

Note: For those who don't follow HK politics, the Chief Executive is the post-handover equivalent of the Governor.

The Dynasty Theate's fine Raped by an Angel 3 painted billboard

Credits:

Director: Aman Chang
Producer: Wong Jing
Starring Alex Fong, Pinky Cheung Man-chi and Simon Loui