Today's movie was worth an internet research for extra info and mostly as usual movie posters pics and some screen caps to avoid myself from dealing with screencaps, but the only thing I found was that there were two movies with the same title Sha Chu Chong Wei one released in 1973 and the other, the one I'm going to explain now, released in 1978. The movie was made in Hong Kong and it was directed by Karen Yang.
Originally recorded in Mandarin one of the many let downs of the film, the dubbing issue makes the movie a little weird to watch at the very few minutes, since Asian speakers seem to be speaking faster than an English speaker would do, but as I'm saying that only happens in the beginning of the film, cause the consistency of the story behind the characters is so interesting and reminiscent of other thriller/horror films that you can totally skip the dubbing issue and once you're ok with that you have to deal with issue number 2 which is the digital transfer, due to having so many scenes filmed in doors and at night you will find the greenish color transfer a little disturbing and most of the action scenes will probably don't look so interesting as they would if the film transfer had a decent treatment. The version I'm reviewing is the one and only in existence on the DVD format, the one known as Breakout From Oppression, which comes on the 50 Drive-In Classics released by Mill Creek Entertainment some years ago.
Breakout From Oppression is a very interesting film, it's somehow right there between being a horror film wannabe and actually, a real horror film. I wouldn't call it an exploitation film, since it's rated PG and it features no nudity and no sex, nor partial nor explicit, so no exploitation for me. Violence is an added element, we get to see an interesting a la Mortal Kombat Fatality and plenty of other violent actions, less explicit but still decent.
So, here goes nothing:
Released from an eight-year prison stint after falsely being convicted of the the murder of her married lover, Fonda Chiu gets a new job as assistant editor of a newspaper, moves into a nice house in the country and tries to have a fresh start, vowing to keep her criminal background a secret. Everything's looking up for her socially, professionally and romantically, as she's making new friends, doing well at her job and begins dating her nice and understanding boss Simon (Alan Tam). Unfortunately, Fonda has also attracted the attention of a vengeful psycho who goes out of their way to make her life a living hell. Said nutjob is a jealous 17-year-old psycho-bitch named Sheena (Lona Chang), who works for the same newspaper as a secretary, victimizes her wheelchair-bound granny and tortures a male prisoner (the missing newspaper president) in the cellar of her home! Sheena also twists the head off her doll, kills animals (including chopping off chicken heads and hanging Fonda's pet monkey), tries to seduce Fonda's new man, beats someone to death with a flashlight, beats another guy over the head with a wrench, stabs a guy to death with a butcher knife and feeds a child a spring roll laced with broken glass! To make matters worse she's clever enough to implicate Fonda for her crimes, turning friends and coworkers against her.
The weaving of the current storyline with flashbacks is confusing at first, but the film adequately ties up all the loose ends by the end and is done with some competence. In other words, it all starts to makes sense if you hang in there long enough. The film also boasts quite a few entertainingly weird moments, such as when a shrieking monkey appears out of nowhere or when Fonda and a photographer (Jacky Lim) visit a crime scene and are suddenly attacked by some random madwoman with a butcher knife.
Perhaps the most startling thing about this film is that if it was indeed made in 1978 then a very famous slasher movie completely ripped off the ending and hasn't been called on it. Ever heard of Friday THE 13TH? ring any bells? Here we get the female lead vs. the psycho on a beach. There's an overturned canoe nearby. They fight with oars. The psycho gets on top of our heroine and starts beating her head into the ground, and finally the leading lady grabs a machete off the ground, runs up to the psycho and chops her head off (Fatality!). The shots, editing and even use of slow-motion are completely identical and Fonda is even seen floating in a canoe the next morning when the police arrive! If I had to venture a guess, I'd say the year for this film is incorrectly listed on the DVD box set and on the IMDB website, if not, boy we got ripped good.
Here a movie excerpt from the opening titles and the first few minutes:
Still looking for pictures, movie posters to add to this review, if someone has some please share.
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