Daughter of Darkness (1993)

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I suppose this melodramatic piece of clownish claptrap is the Chinese' idea of dark and deviant. As if a year and a half there wasn't enough to let me know how lame their films and TV shows are.It gets pretty nasty for a few minutes toward the end. The "row, row, row your boat" part nearly had me fapping. But even then the general air of "aw shucks" stupidity will make it difficult for most people to even get that far. The typically Chinglish subtitles only lessen the impact.Unless you are not a fan of these kind of films, I wouldn't recommend this. Communists simply do not have enough worldliness or emotional depth to create anything truly profound, since they are indoctrinated to be lamers from birth.The ending is nearly twenty unrelenting minutes of a moronically cruel downward spiral that is supposed to have you in tears, but in reality just makes you wanna roll your eyes till your brain starts to hurt. It just goes on and on and on. It's as if some idiot thought (and I'm sure he did), "Let's make a hundred item list of every single possible thing that would make people sad, then show them all scene by scene toward the end!!"

DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS is a pretty sleazy Cat III "shocker" with themes of violence, rape, murder, incest, voyeurism, among other assorted nastiness, but before ya get too excited, this one is pretty mediocre. Lily Chung (who was Ming-Ming in the far superior RED TO KILL) plays another tortured soul (the type of role she seems to do so well...) who is the "black sheep" of her family. There doesn't appear to be any real rhyme or reason, but her mother, father, sister, and brother all hate her and treat her like complete garbage. Eventually she gets tired of the constant abuse (and the abuse takes many disturbing shapes) and flips the f'ck out. The rest is pretty typical Cat III history.DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS isn't bad, but it isn't nearly as much of a stand-out HK "shocker" as THE UNTOLD STORY, RED TO KILL, or THE EBOLA SYNDROME, for example. Anthony Wong has another great performance - and even though he is a cop in this one, he is still a twisted, perverse, filthy f!cking scum-bag (and that's why we love ya Tony!!!). One of the big problems is that DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS starts as almost a straight-up comedy, then switches mid-film into a typical Cat III sleaze-fest when Chung begins to tell her story of abuse to the cops. I don't much mind the comedic aspects that tend to go along with even the most shocking of these types of films, but DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS switched from comedy to serious drama in a blink, and made for a disjointed feel. Regardless, still a decent entry and worth a look for all you pervert douche-bags out there (like me...) ; ) 7/10

"Daughter of Darkness" is a tale of a young woman's sexual abuse by her father.The film is very dark as it offers plenty of sex,nudity,gore and heavy violence.Lily Chung-who played Ming-Ming in Billy Tang's "Red to Kill"(1994)-is extremely convincing as titular heroine Fong.The film is pretty uneven,because it's filled with lame comedy and silly jokes.Still the scenes of rape and sexual abuse are very shocking and unpleasant.The final slaughter scene is extremely violent and bloody.Anthony Wong from "Ebola Syndrome"(1996)is also memorable as police captain Lui.The scene where he molests the female corpse totally cracked me up.Overall,"Daughter of Darkness" is a pretty good shocker,so if you like extreme stuff give it a look.7 out of 10.

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*This is the third movie I've seen with Ming Ming, (Lily Chung), from "Red to Kill". My God she never disappoints. Once again she plays the shy, sweet, innocent girl who gets the boot slammed upside her head. What is it about this girl that drives men mad with lust and violence? I don't know but I like it. The DVD cover has a picture of her standing naked with her hands tied together. There are blood spots covering her private areas. This is not blood on her body mind you, but blood spots the filmmakers decided to use for the DVD cover. That way they're blocking your view of the sweet spots yet drawing you in like a bull to a flapping red cape. Charge!There are two parts to this flick. The first part is a goofy comedy. I use the word "comedy" loosely. The movie thought it was being funny but I wasn't laughing. Or smiling. In fact, I was worried this movie was going to break my heart. The cops stumble upon a murdered family. The head goofball cop does a lot of supposed funny things. He poses with the corpses, peeps on Ming Ming and basically just acts stupid. I was concerned. The second part of the movie is sleaze-o-rama. It flashbacks on why this family was murdered. The title of this flick is "Daughter of Darkness" but I think a more appropriate title would have been "Father of Darkness" or maybe "Family of Darkness". The sleaze pours out. Ming Ming gets smacked around and sexually abused by her family. She also has plenty of sex with her boyfriend. Why the movie needed to flashback on boyfriend sex is unknown but appreciated. The family murder scene is a four star buffet of carnage. This DVD is worth getting for the slaughter party at the end.