Movie

Les Nuits Rouges du Bourreau de Jade (2010)

Also known as Red Nights, this joint French / Hong Kong production has extensive nudity and bloody violence throughout. The antagonist, Carrie, is arguably the main character. She sells perfume by day, but is a truly evil and sadistic serial killer by night. When the cast keeps their clothes on, there are erotic sculptures, brutal murders, and sexualised camera angles of women to remind us this movie is intended for an adult audience.

The opening scene introduces a beautiful, long-haired Asian girl named Tulip, whom Carrie blindfolds and drives back to her place. The villainess has a secret lair with a vac bed centre stage in a spherical construction. And the innocent Tulip ought to be more concerned about the gloved male assistant. Instead, the naive girl strips naked, lies down on the bed, and Carrie encases her body in latex. The sweat-drenched Tulip stretches her body after the session, but that’s just the warmup before the main event.

Carrie tapes over the breathing holes, then – while the victim squirms and suffocates under the latex – puts on her trademark jade claws, one for each finger and thumb of her right hand. This villainess likes to inflict maximum pain, but not before twisted fun. Once she’s done running her claws over the trapped Tulip, she kneels on the bed in a sexual pose and stabs the girl in the stomach. That’s the pre-credits sequence over, and the tone set.

For viewers wanting a longer prologue – albeit tame in comparison – the US DVD release includes a fifteen-minute short titled Betrayal. In the minimal plot, a foolish gangster captures Carrie and goes back on a deal. She gets her revenge, using her belt to gag the man and a hairpin to stab him. This happens off screen, followed by a long scene where the high-heeled murderess stalks a woman who betrayed her through dark streets. After dealing with that problem, Carrie poses on a Hong Kong balcony wearing her jade claws.

Les Nuits Rouges is full of evil schemers, all interested in an ancient Chinese box and prepared to kill to get it. Carrie is the most ruthless, and since the prize is an ancient poison that heightens a person’s senses (including any pain), the villainess really wants it. The protagonist Catherine (Frédérique Bel) is a cold-blooded contract killer who murders her lover accomplice to sell the vial on the black market, but she’s out of her league. Carrie is unmatched in intelligence and villainy.

Villainess

Carrie Chan (Carrie Ng)

With the brutal introduction out of the way, it’s time to get down to business. Catherine – now a wanted woman – brings the stolen box to a broker contact. The killer practices with her weapon beforehand and brings it to the meeting, but doesn’t factor in that her contact is also a ruthless bitch. She’s already made a deal with Carrie and shoots first, using a weapon hidden under the table. The nervous woman is an amateur at this betrayal thing, as the gun jams and she has trouble firing the second shot.

The broker doesn’t suspect that Carrie is even more murderous, and gets slammed teeth-first into a table before she can go through with the double cross. Like in Betrayal, Carrie uses her belt as a makeshift weapon. We see the murder in full, except for a few cutaway shots to the wounded Catherine, but this choking death – despite being graphic – is mild compared with the two torture death scenes to come.

Catherine tracks Carrie by identifying a woman with the distinctive high heel shoes she saw at the dojo meeting place. There’s a standoff in the street as the two killers stare each other down, but Catherine is reluctant to pull the trigger with cops around. Carrie takes advantage of this – and her enemy’s wounded shoulder – to flee the scene. The foreign woman has connections in the Hong Kong underworld, but no longer has the precious box to bargain with. So she settles for a risky IOU.

Perhaps cutting her losses would be wise, but Catherine kidnaps Carrie’s associate Sandrine (Carole Brana) and reveals herself to the villainess. Mimicking a gunshot in a public place is hardly discreet, but this is a setup. Catherine has already spotted a vacant apartment across the street from her safe house, so she handcuffs Sandrine to a loose pipe and pulls the old “let her think she escaped” trick. Sandrine is oblivious to the ploy, and once Carrie realises she’s in Catherine’s sights, the sadist is a cool and fearless customer.

The assassin aims to wound as she still needs the box, so it’s a shot in the shoulder for the villainess. Before Catherine can do any more damage, the henchman switches off the lights. That doesn’t stop Carrie from taunting her foe before the narrow escape, though.

The villainess has already shown a sexual interest in Sandrine at her nightclub, and this presents the perfect opportunity to try out the poison on the woman who failed her. The victim soon realises her evil employer has paralysed her and watches in terror as she’s strapped into a harness and raised into the air. Once again, Carrie has a naked woman at her jade-clawed fingertips, and the torture begins in earnest.

The gruesome scene lasts several minutes, beginning with psychological groping before the villainess cuts deep into Sandrine’s bare foot. The victim is clearly in pain but unable to scream. Next up is a swipe that causes several cuts at once, and Carrie pauses occasionally to walk around the suspended Sandrine. Unlike the murder of Tulip, which cut to the opening titles, most violence happens on screen. One gruesome moment has Carrie slice out and remove a butterfly tattooed piece of skin as a trophy.

The killer pauses mid-torture to open a case full of surgical instruments and blades. Sandrine fears even worse is to come, but Carrie stirs a glass of martini with a sharp fork. The evil woman stands beside Sandrine and sips her drink, then pours the rest onto her bloody victim. Carrie phones Catherine and has her listen in to the muffled agony, which is so disturbing that even the cold-blooded hitwoman is unnerved. Then, the villainess stabs Sandrine in the chest to end her suffering.

The local gangsters have no use for a wounded woman, so they shoot Catherine on a beach. Yes, the protagonist doesn’t even make it to the end, but at least she gets a quick death. Far worse awaits the criminals after they poison Carrie’s lover at a deserted estate. He makes it to the roof and dies in her arms, and a stormy night is the setting for the revenge of the jade-clawed killer.

The criminals have guns, but that doesn’t help them. Carrie knows the building layout and uses a mirror reflection trick to surprise one guard and gut him. Another henchman gets a swipe to the face and goes down instantly. Carrie stalks the final villain through the dark halls, running her jade fingers across the wall as a scare tactic. She punches through a weak panel to stab the guy in the back.

With the last victim barely alive, Carrie pours the poison down his throat and tortures him. The camera pans up to the sky as he screams, and another villainess earns legendary status.

Honourable Mention: Asian Killers

Sharp Guns (2001) – Rain (Anya)

This Hong Kong actioner is mundane and formulaic, except for the ruthless female assassin among the mercenary protagonists. Tricky On (Alex Fong) is hired to find and rescue a kidnapped teenage girl, but shouldn’t have trusted his old friend, especially since that guy is untrustworthy and has no problem executing his own men.

Tricky recruits a sharpshooter (the only character with a moral compass), another man for hired muscle, and a doctor who has no issues with violence. The standout – of course – is the sadistic Rain, who specialises in torturing people and is also skilled with close-combat weapons. She seems more interested in money than loyalty, which foreshadows a betrayal later in the film. However, this is all a ruse, as Rain helps Tricky gain revenge on the man who betrayed him.

An ice-cold killer, Rain isn’t someone you want to piss off. Her best moment comes after she gets herself arrested to gain access to a police station. By this point, a corrupt and misogynistic cop has added himself to Rain’s hit list by sexually groping her. Too bad the police missed the plastic lock pick and piano wire the assassin concealed in her clothes.

While the action rages, Rain surprises the cop and brutally strangles him in front of a terrified female prisoner. Her repulsion doesn’t stop the sadistic woman from enjoying her kill, though. Rain may be on the less evil side, but she’s not exactly good.