Escape from Brothel (1992) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
7 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
Extreme violence, extreme sleaze
Bogey Man11 November 2002
Lung Wei Wang's film ESCAPE FROM BROTHEL (1992) tells the unhappy story of two prostitutes working in a Hong Kong brothel. One of the girls has a boyfriend in the mainland and she is wishing to see him some day again, as does the boyfriend, too. He goes to Hong Kong and tries to save the girl(s) but it is easy to tell what'll follow since this is a CAT III rated film and made in 1992 in Hong Kong.

Director Lung Wei Wang has also directed another ultra violent exploitation actioner called CITY WARRIORS (1991) which is pretty close to ESCAPE FROM BROTHEL but lacks its strong sex scenes. Wang also plays a gang leader in Billy Tang's incredible RUN AND KILL (1993). ESCAPE FROM BROTHEL stars Pauline Chan, who died very recently and sadly so. The cast is adequate in BROTHEL and after all it is a once watchable exploitation junk if the viewer has high tolerance for this kind of film.

The film opens with very graphic and strong sex scene to secure the target audience's interest. There's full frontal female nudity which I haven't seen too often in a "straight" Hong Kong (exploitation) film like this. But the Eastern girls are very beautiful, natural and sensual, and BROTHEL naturally isn't an exception. Alongside sex, there's one other thing this film was made for, and that isn't hard to guess..

Violence, mindless and over-the-top violence which together with sex, makes this among the maddest efforts of the genre even thought it is FAR away from the real masterpieces of the Hong Kong cinema in the 90's. BROTHEL is just exploitation and nothing more, but still it could be much worse than this, and I'm glad I haven't seen too many of the really worst ones.

BROTHEL has some very nice "blue night time photography" which makes the film easier to watch as there's at least some talent in the director. The "plot" turns very slow at the end part of the film, and it is very unnecessary and totally waste of celluloid. The film runs approximately 95 PAL minutes in its uncut form and at least 15 minutes of that is too much. The "dramatic" discussions at the end really makes it hard to watch the film without falling asleep. Also the theme about immigrants and foreigner's in Hong Kong could've been an interesting one, but I would feel naive to try to look this film as anything more than just exploitation. There is some sparks between he and she at the end, but the film makers didn't want to concentrate on those deeper and more ambitious sides, they were interested in the third level rating only.

ESCAPE FROM BROTHEL is among the Hong Kong films that really don't give much clue to what they can really achieve if they want to. BROTHEL is a noteworthy example of Eastern (s)exploitation at its most graphic and insane element. 3/10
5 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
3/10
An Erotic crime thriller ruined by end
sauravjoshi853 May 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The movie is an Erotic thriller movie about two prostitute friends and the lover of one of the prostitute.

The story is good but poorly written script and bad direction and screenplay ruined the movie.

Acting is good by the two lead characters but support staff doesn't make any impression.

The climax is bad and the fight scene is painfully long and boring, the movie also ends abruptly.

This is an average Erotic thriller.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Extremely vicious drama
rundbauchdodo24 June 2001
"Escape from (the) Brothel" is one of those Hongkong films that mix drama with action, nudity and pure terror to make a notorious "Category-III-classic". In a way, it's also a love story, but don't expect to get a Hollywood-standard happy end here.

A man falls in love with a prostitute who works in a brothel. He wants to get her out but there is no way to do that. The more he tries to help her, the more violence he witnesses and he has to fight against it. In one scene, he is attacked by a kick boxing nude amazon blonde (sic!).

The second half of the film is a violent "tour de force", and as bodies are piling up during the action-packed climax, this film also becomes one of the goriest Hongkong films aside the great "The Untold Story" and the viciously funny "The Ebola Syndrome".

I recommend this film to everyone who likes "Category-III"-movies from Hongkong. However, people who are easily offended by the blending of sex and violence surely should let this one be.
7 out of 11 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
Like A Dead Fish
saint_brett29 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Okay, this is the second time I have tried to watch this movie. I only lasted 5-minutes the first time as it didn't do anything for me and the picture quality is the worst.

Some restaurant owner wants to buy 2 hookers and they want to fleece him with the assistance of their pimp lady boss in return. They swindle him out of pocket and douse him in mop water and this comes back and bites them later in the movie.

I watched Tom Brady and Fournette calmly beat the Colts on the road earlier today, which was highly entertaining. Now I'm back to this disinteresting movie.

Turns out the pimp lady boss was in fact their own mother.

Movie was going nowhere until some out of the blue Kung fu takes place seeing Don the Dragon Wilson go berserk on 3 thugs.

Oh man, this is boring.

A staged robbery is botched and some British tourist loses his head in the ordeal much to the horror of the school teacher who wasted him.

They've introduced comedy now, so I don't know if this is a sex movie, gangster movie, Kung Fu movie, or a comedy?

Movie's just too slow.

The course it's running now could be classified as a love story between the murdering school teacher and the easy street prostitute?

They're pursued across town by mafia hitmen who are hell bent on silencing them.

The finale's just a martial arts slug fest with a touch of Jackie Chan comedy.

People die. One guy was even set on fire just for the movie's benefit but it does nothing to enhance the dull storyline.

School teacher's handcuffed in the end and in this part of the world he would have been executed for what he did, framed or not.

He's a dead man walking.

Boring & dull.
0 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Sleazy Crazy CATIII "Fun" That's Another Perfect Example Of Why I Love These Films...
EVOL66611 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Thought not as high on the "sleaze-scale" as notorious CATIII "classics" THE UNTOLD STORY, RED TO KILL, or THE EBOLA SYNDROME - ESCAPE FROM BROTHEL sure tries hard to wallow in it's rating, and does a damn good job...

Two parallel story lines collide when a guy living on the Chinese mainland is called over to Hong Kong to pull a job with a few buddies to rob a jewelry store for the store-owner's boss to get the insurance money. His girlfriend lives in HK, but turns out she doesn't work at the factory that she claims to, and is actually a prostitute. The jewelry store job goes wrong when one of the robbers shoots an interfering tourist - and are then double-crossed by the jewelry store owner. Our hapless mainlander is the only one to survive the set-up, and goes looking to his girlfriend for help. He finds her, and realizes that her career-path is not quite what she had led him to believe. Of course he's upset, but he has bigger koi to fry - like getting out of HK alive - so the couple enlist the help of her ex-husband to smuggle the fugitive back to China. This also turns out to be a set-up - and the ending is not happy for the two luckless lovers...

ESCAPE FROM BROTHEL, and most CATIII films in general, are not to most "casual" or "mainstream" film viewers tastes. Tons of sexy full-frontal and soft-core sex, some good violent scenes (including a kung-fu battle with a nekkid chick that is off-the-hook...) and an extremely downbeat ending don't make this one the feel good film of the summer - unless you're like me and live for this sort of trash. Again - it's not the best of the genre - but it's definitely one of the better ones. Essential for CATIII fans...8.5/10
8 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
A memorable experience in extreme sleaze and violence.
HumanoidOfFlesh16 March 2006
Hung and Ann(Pauline Chan and Rena Murakami)are down-on-their luck prostitutes trapped in Hong Kong.Pauline's boyfriend,Sam back in China,who is under the impression that she is away working at a factory,is double-crossed by Billy Chow,and while looking to escape;flees for Hong Kong and winds up at the brothel where Pauline is employed.He is crushed when he finds out the truth..."Escape from the Brothel" combines plenty of gory fighting,romance,sleaze including several violent and unpleasant rape scenes and comedy,all into one.There is plenty of full-frontal female nudity and I'm not complaining about that.The violence is rather brief until the full-blooded finale,although one scene where a woman is strung up and has her nipples wired to a portable electric generator is strong stuff even for Cat III sleaze.A must-see for die-hard fans of smut!
6 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Entertaining, in a sleazy sort of way !
dvdHistorian18 August 2002
This film tells the story of two young and pretty prostitutes working in a Hong Kong brothel. One of them is rather carefree and accepts her life, while the other longs to be reunited with her boyfriend back in mainland China. Owing to her unfortunate circumstances, she has no choice but to work as a prostitute, and has to suffer the slobbering sex of some truly unsavoury and repugnant characters. She is too ashamed to tell her boyfriend the truth, telling him that she works in a factory.

Being true to the CAT III genre, there is plenty of sex and full-frontal nudity. There is without doubt a high exploitation feel throughout the movie, and features the girls in several humiliating scenes (cut in the UK version, but fully shown in the Hong Kong DVD). The film also features a high degree of violence.

Rating this film within its genre and after a couple of beers , I would give it 4 stars out of five. Without the beers and on a more serious note, it's not the sort of film to watch with your parents unless they're extremely liberal !
2 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed