Diary Of A Serial Killer (Guang Zhou sha ren wang zhi ren pi ri ji) Directed By Otto Chan. starring Kwok-Pong Chan (1995).
According to certain sources this is the Cat III version of Maniac and since that film's reputation has been dragged through the meat grinder lately (with that abysmal remake starring Frodo Baggins as Joe Spinell), I'm expecting this one to knock my socks off, lets see what happens!
Lau-shu-Bill (Kwok-Pong Chan) is a hateful hooker slayer who ends up in jail right in the beginning, he narrates in a Joe Spinell/Travis Bickle psycho babble style of his rage toward the outside world. The time shifts back to 1992 when he was married, his saintly wife jerks him off while he watches bondage porn. Bill has a ravenous sexual appetite and prowls the streets searching for more action. He goes to a motel and films a hooker with his camcorder while she slowly undresses. The actor playing the serial killer looks like he just beat Simon Yam to the punch in the audition and has a scrawny crewcut look. Bill fondles the hooker in the shower with a sharp comb than strangles her with a garrote that's attached to the spigot ( I'm guessing they only have those in HK Days Inns)!
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| Hookers die better in cheap hotels |
I had immediate sympathy for the hookers that Bill dispatches in various disgusting ways, that involve his favorite past time: genital mutilation. When he kills, he prances around like a 3rd grader, jumping around and doing stupid karate moves!
His warped reasons for killing prostitutes involves a safe reincarnation passage, so their unclean souls can't return to other bodies! He builds a rumpus room with Xmas lights, TV's with bondage porn constantly playing and a fridge stocked with body parts.
His wife (who's aware that she's married to a psychotic) takes in an attractive border named Jade. Bill finds a stray pubic hair stuck in a bar of soap that she used and adds it to his scrap book of murder conquests! The wife is not totally innocent and even gives him advice on where to hide the dead bodies. The village of Guangzhao seems to have an endless supply of sexy hookers for Bill to victimize and kill, this was based on a real murderer (just like Bunman: The Untold Story). And in reality the film was based on "The Guangzhou Ripper", Li Wenxian, who was executed in 1996.
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| It's also fair and balanced |
Diary's main protagonist starts to design Ed Gein/ Frank Zito severed body part handy crafts, most likely to be sold at the Hong Kong Swap meet. Unlike other hermit serial killers, Bill blends into normal society and people think he's weird but not really a threat.
That's always been my favorite aspect of the original Maniac, that the killer is able to keep a social life, but cant stop the compulsion to murder prostitutes (that's the link between this "Eastern Maniac" and The Bill Lustig classic).
Jade turns into Bill's version of Caroline Munro and it seems that she may be able to tame his insanity. But it doesn't take and he relapses then turns a dead girl into his sex toy and makeshift puppet. There's always a certain level of empathy that I had for Frank Zito, because he never has cannibal tendencies and doesn't justify his murder with religion like Bill does. I almost felt sorry for him when he is interrupted in prison while jerking off and a female guard kicks him right in the boner! Lau-shu-Bill is a detestable piece of human garbage who dies, but with all the horrors he's committed, he deserved a worse punishment. Now, am I saying I have more sympathy for hookers than a Chinese necrophiliac crotch mutilator, Damn right I am!!!
An underrated Cat III gem worth seeking out that I liked alot more than Dr. Lamb.
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