05-29-2006, 11:04 AM
So this spineless, alcoholic big-time businessman marries this world-famous ballroom dancer played by an actress who can't really dance. These are the people we are supposed to identify with and root for. A recipe for disaster, salvaged by some degree of character development towards the end and a whole lot of nudity.
The wife keeps having masochistic dreams. One has to do with a snake (CGI) that slithers around her and jams its head down her throat. That's the extent of the serpent in the title. As for the flower, it never materializes. So we're deep in metaphor country.
The husband incurs a huge debt to the Triad, whose boss is wheelchair-bound, in his nineties, and enfatuated with the wife. So the husband is forced to sell his wife to the Triad. The exchange will be made at a masquerade ball.
Masquerade balls are great. I've seen several movies that used them masterfully for all kinds of intrigue. So I was a bit surprised when the husband and wife enter the ball, and suddenly the Triad goons pull off their masks and grab the lady and that's that. What a wasted opportunity.
In a dungeon, the Triad goons subject the wife to every form of humiliation and degradation. There's lots of bondage (a bondage-master was clearly employed), forced fellatio, forced lesbian sex (with her martial arts bodyguard, who in many ways was the most interesting character in the movie), forced peeing -- you get the idea. Oh, and the wife is given a very striking full-body tattoo -- although later on it is gone, so it wasn't really a tattoo, just painted on. Still, it provides some striking imagery.
Eventually the old mafia boss wants to have sex with her. He orders everyone out and has as it. Yessiree, he falls out of his wheelchair, crawls across the floor with his one good arm, reaches her big toe and droolingly sucks on it--
But I won't spoil the rest.
I'll give it a C-. It's refreshing to see B&D treated without embarrassed giggling or outright ridicule or contempt (Exit to Eden comes to mind). But as so often happens in sex-laden movies, the director lost the thread of the plot in the dungeon, and there was just lots of footage -- interesting, I suppose, but it weakened an already weak vehicle. The two main characters are underpowered, though the wife did grow stronger later on. As for the actress, I think she's more than capable, but the script failed to make her interesting enough. And she really needed more training as a dancer to be believable.
In many ways this reminded me of Behind the Green Door. But any detailed comparison is impossible, since I saw that movie 35 years ago.
--cranefly
The wife keeps having masochistic dreams. One has to do with a snake (CGI) that slithers around her and jams its head down her throat. That's the extent of the serpent in the title. As for the flower, it never materializes. So we're deep in metaphor country.
The husband incurs a huge debt to the Triad, whose boss is wheelchair-bound, in his nineties, and enfatuated with the wife. So the husband is forced to sell his wife to the Triad. The exchange will be made at a masquerade ball.
Masquerade balls are great. I've seen several movies that used them masterfully for all kinds of intrigue. So I was a bit surprised when the husband and wife enter the ball, and suddenly the Triad goons pull off their masks and grab the lady and that's that. What a wasted opportunity.
In a dungeon, the Triad goons subject the wife to every form of humiliation and degradation. There's lots of bondage (a bondage-master was clearly employed), forced fellatio, forced lesbian sex (with her martial arts bodyguard, who in many ways was the most interesting character in the movie), forced peeing -- you get the idea. Oh, and the wife is given a very striking full-body tattoo -- although later on it is gone, so it wasn't really a tattoo, just painted on. Still, it provides some striking imagery.
Eventually the old mafia boss wants to have sex with her. He orders everyone out and has as it. Yessiree, he falls out of his wheelchair, crawls across the floor with his one good arm, reaches her big toe and droolingly sucks on it--
But I won't spoil the rest.
I'll give it a C-. It's refreshing to see B&D treated without embarrassed giggling or outright ridicule or contempt (Exit to Eden comes to mind). But as so often happens in sex-laden movies, the director lost the thread of the plot in the dungeon, and there was just lots of footage -- interesting, I suppose, but it weakened an already weak vehicle. The two main characters are underpowered, though the wife did grow stronger later on. As for the actress, I think she's more than capable, but the script failed to make her interesting enough. And she really needed more training as a dancer to be believable.
In many ways this reminded me of Behind the Green Door. But any detailed comparison is impossible, since I saw that movie 35 years ago.
--cranefly
I'm nobody's pony.
