Intimate Confessions Of A Chinese Courtesan (1972/aka Ai
nu/Image Entertainment DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C Extras: C+ Film: C+
Chu
Yuan’s Intimate Confessions Of A Chinese
Courtesan (aka Ai nu/1972) is
yet another solid, typical martial arts revenge film in even the Westerns
tradition that delivers the pure exploitation of Shaw Brothers filmmaking as a
kidnapped young lady is brought to a brothel with its penchant for sick risks
and playing with this fire leads to murder and all hell breaks loose.
This is a
big production and the Shaw’s do put some money into it, from the sets to the
costumes and even if some may or may not be from their other productions, they
look good. The acting is good, the
fights entertaining and pace decent, yet it has nothing much to distinguish
itself from their other works unless you are a diehard fan of these films. It is entertaining and interesting, but does
not exceed their usual production standards.
At least the ladies are pretty.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is colorful as is typical of a Shaw
production, but this still a softer image than the restored print should
yield. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono shows
more of its dated age and is typical of most Shaw films in their on the fly
sound recording and editing. Extras
include a bunch of trailers for other Shaw and related genre films, plus a
featurette entitled Intimate Confessions Of 3 Shaw Girls that fans will like.
- Nicholas Sheffo
