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 irector Billy Tang is best known for category III
classics such as "Red
to Kill" and "Dr.
Lamb", and since the majority of his less graphic films have been
disappointingly pedestrian, it is with understandable trepidation that we
come to "Devil Touch". Alarm bells continue to ring with the fact
that the film is a 'corporate politics' thriller and has a DVD case
promising nothing more than glossy melodrama. Thankfully, these initial
fears turn out to be unfounded, as "Devil Touch" is entertaining,
trashy and vigorously sleazy, far more akin to John McNaughton's "Wild
Things" than the dull bureaucracy of films like Michael Crichton's
"Disclosure".
Despite having a complex plot and
reasonably high production values, "Devil Touch" is still very
much recognisable as the work of Tang, and the director manages to work in a
handful of gory murders, rape scenes and even some mild lesbianism. Although
none of these are particularly graphic, and are in fact limited by the
film's IIB rating, they do help to give the proceedings a nice sense of
amorality, and make watching these beautiful people fashioning their often
ludicrous plots against each other all the more enjoyable.
The film begins in fine style, as secretary Amy (Iris
Chai, from the confusingly titled Hong Kong thriller "Violent
Cop") turns up for work and promptly goes berserk with a knife,
attempting to stab her boss and ladder climbing executive, Cheuk (Michael
Tao, also in the director's "Street
Angels"). After things calm down, Amy accuses Cheuk of sexual
harassment and rape, a matter which causes great concern in the company
since it just happens to be on the brink of an important merger. Rather
than informing the police and creating a scandal, the company brings in
internal investigator Joe (Alex Fong, from the excellent "One
Nite in Mongkok").
The result is that Amy gets a nice financial
settlement in return for her silence, and Cheuk is forced to resign,
freeing the chief executive position being created by the merger up quite
conveniently for his bitter office rival Jacqueline (Pinky Cheung, star of
"Raped
by an Angel 3" and more recently the dire "Sex
and the Beauties"). However, Joe smells a rat, and continues his
investigation, uncovering a sleazy web of greed and ambition that turns
deadly as the players begin to betray and blackmail each other in their
desperate quests for personal gain.
The plot is actually incredibly convoluted, and there
is a great deal more to it than outlined above. However, the film's
constant stream of deceptions and double dealings make for engrossing
viewing, and it would be unfair to reveal any further details. Tang
handles the narrative quite well, and although there are a fair few leaps
in logic, requiring a considerable suspension of disbelief, the result is
nonetheless very entertaining, if for nothing else than the sheer amount
of skullduggery on show.
Aside from the incredibly smug investigator Joe,
everyone else in the film is entirely motivated by self-interest, and is
only too happy to resort to vicious underhanded tactics to achieve their
goals. Tang plays this fact quite knowingly, never making much of an
effort to generate sympathy for any of the characters, choosing instead to
keep the viewer interested through the question of who will come out on
top -- or as the corpses start to pile up, who will be left alive.
Around halfway through the film, once the central
deception has been uncovered, the tone does shift, and the narrative
lurches into far more recognisable Tang territory, with a couple of rape
scenes and gratuitous bloody murders. These actually follow on quite
nicely from all the preceding back stabbings, and provide an effective
change of pace, though they do rapidly transform the rest of the film into
a ludicrous schlock ride, casually tossing away any of its earlier
credibility. Whether this is a bad thing or not is debatable, as they make
things very entertaining, leading to a ridiculously over the top climax
involving a chainsaw, which has to be a first for a film which is
ostensibly based around office politics.
There is a fair amount of sleaze in the film, though
very little actual nudity. Tang goes instead for a teasing approach, with
all the female cast members being clad in short skirts and dangerously low
cut tops. Pinky Cheung, in particular, provides outstanding eye candy in
her role as the consummate office ice queen, who just happens to have
bisexual tendencies and a penchant for wandering around in her underwear.
Again, whilst perhaps detracting from any kind of realism, it is sleaze
such as this which boosts the film's entertainment value, as Tang was no
doubt all too aware.
On these grounds, "Devil Touch" certainly
has a lot to offer viewers, and is undoubtedly Tang's best film of the
last few years. Although it is hampered by its IIB rating, the film still
provides some moderately entertaining debauchery and some amusingly
twisted plotting, making it worth watching for even casual fans of Hong
Kong cinema.
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