LUST FOR LOVE FOR A CHINESE COURTESAN

I recently reviewed Lust ror Love for a Chinese Courtesan (1984) at easternKicks (which you can read HERE). It is a remake by the great Shaw Brother's director Chor Yuen, of his seminal film Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan. I have talked a lot about the latter here, and it is one of my favorite movies, but this was my first time seeing Lust for Love, and watching it dispelled a lot of misconceptions I had about the movie. While I had always heard it was much more graphic than the first in terms of sexual content, and it is to a large degree, it is still a real movie and not simply an excuse to string together nude scenes. There is genuine drama behind it all.  It also tells us a very different story than the first one, and some of the most intriguing changes, like having the two female leads no longer be martial artists, take the story to unexpected places. While it certainly doesn't rival the first movie, and it shows signs of strain as a mid-80s Shaw Brothers outing, it had some good ideas. Unfortunately those ideas still mostly make it amount to mid-level entertainment for me, and some of the sex sequences veer into the unintentionally amusing (though I could be wrong and the amusement might be intentional). I am glad I saw it though as one thing it delivers is more of Lady Chun's perspective. Check out my review to see my full thoughts on Lust for Love of a Chinese Courtesan. This review was part of a two part series on the Imprint Asia boxed set that includes both Lust for Love and Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan. I highly recommend the boxed set. It has great commentary and the original film is a masterpiece.