“Lover of the Last Empress” Chinese Theatrical Poster
Director: Andrew Lau
Cast: Tony Leung Ka Fai, Chingmy Yau, Chan Kwok Bong, Valerie Chow, Ku Feng, Yu Rong Guang, Kingdom Yuen King Tan, Yvonne Yung Hung, Bao Fang, Lo Hung
Running Time: 99 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Before John Wick went on the rampage triggered by the murder of his puppy, there was Chingmy Yau in Lover of the Last Empress, whose ascent to the position of Empress Dowager is kick started when a group of jealous concubines boil her pet cat for a tasty late night snack, leaving nothing except it’s fluffy white tail. Yes, the tale of the Empress Dowager and her tyrannical ways has been covered plenty of times before, from Li Han-Hsiang’s The Last Emperor to Zhang Yi-Mou’s Raise the Red Lantern, but this is the only time such a tale would be told with Wong Jing in the producers chair.
It’s also the only time that such a topic has received the infamous Cat III rating that was practically its own genre in early to mid-90’s Hong Kong. Usually signifying 90 minutes of gratuitous violence or nudity, often both, the Cat III ratings reputation in many ways preceded it. Palace set sex romps were something of a thing during this period, however for anyone clocking into Lover of the Last Empress hoping for another dose of the previous years Sex and the Emperor, chances are you’ll leave disappointed (although ironically, Sex and the Emperor’s lead Yvonne Yung Hung is here in a supporting role).
Wong Jing called in up and coming director Andrew Lau to helm proceedings, and in 1995 Lau was still a year away from his breakthrough with the first Young and Dangerous (from which he’d go onto direct the succeeding 6 instalments). When Hong Kong cinema still felt like Hong Kong cinema, Lau was a director who found a way to connect with each era he was active in. In the late 90’s it was his big budget CGI wuxia’s like The Storm Riders and A Man Called Hero, and in the early to mid-2000’s it was the Infernal Affairs trilogy which he co-directed with Alan Mak. Sadly in more recent times he’s fallen into a rut of directing unremarkable fare like Kung Fu Monster and The Captain, but as one of the HK directors who made their debut in the 90’s, he certainly deserves a mention in any discussion on Hong Kong cinema.
All of the principal players here had worked together before. Lau and Wong Jing had worked together in the capacity of director and producer on 1993’s Ghost Lantern and Raped by an Angel, as well as 1994’s To Live and Die in Tsimshatsui. Raped by an Angel starred Chingmy Yau, while To Live and Die in Tsimshatsui starred Tony Leung Ka-Fai. Yau and Leung Ka-Fai would be paired for the first time to headline Ghost Lantern, and in Lover of the Last Empress they’re reunited for a 2nd time. Yau was one of Wong Jing’s discoveries, having debuted in his 1988 comedy The Crazy Companies, and he’d continue to cast her in his productions, regardless of if he was the director or producer, up to her retirement from the film industry after appearing in 1999’s Raped by an Angel 4: The Rapist’s Union (for those wondering, yes, there’s 4 of them).
Much like the controversially named Raped by an Angel from the year prior, Lover of the Last Empress feels like a movie which is more interesting to talk about than it is to watch. First up, let’s get the obvious expectations out of the way. There’s not much going on here to warrant the Cat III rating, and likely it was slapped with the label mainly for a handful of scenes rather than the movie as a whole. As a director Lau seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place, unsure if he’s supposed to be making a serious dramatic flick about the Empress Dowager’s rise to power, or a piece of softcore erotica designed to titillate its audience. As a result, it doesn’t succeed at being either, instead flip flopping between the 2 contrasting approaches in such a non-committal way that I swear sometimes some of the cast look confused.
The other issue is that Yau simply isn’t a serious dramatic actress, and to be fair to her she’s never pretended to be. The carefree nature of her initial scenes, before she’s selected as a concubine for the emperor, come closest to being the onscreen persona of Yau we’re most familiar with, however once she’s in the palace the more dramatic moments don’t always convince. Tony Leung Ka-Fai plays the emperors brother who, after briefly meeting Yau by chance, comes to her rescue when she’s ambushed on the way to the palace to take on her role as a concubine. Declaring his love, he takes it on the chin when she reveals where she’s enroute to and why, creating an unrequited love which somehow feels largely irrelevant to the story (indeed, the title Lover of the Last Empress is referring to Leung Ka-Fai’s character, but he rarely feels like a lead).
The emperor himself is played by Yu Rong-Guang (Mirage, Fox Hunter), and it’s Yau who he chooses out of the latest batch of concubines to spend a night together. Due to her lack of sexual experience it’s not the most memorable of nights, leading to her being told that she “can’t keep his sperm”, the consequence of which is particularly painful. After falling into a depression as the months go by and she’s no longer selected, she decides to take a leave from the palace, and hires a pair of prostitutes to give her a crash course in turning men on. It’s these scenes which likely provided the Cat III stamp, as we soon see the importance of being able to sit on eggs without crushing them, the correct way to lick an icicle, and how to apply massage oil to get the best result. One of the prostitutes even does all this topless, just because, well, I think they needed to show at least one pair of breasts so that audiences didn’t feel cheated.
Indeed much like in Naked Killer, Yau proves to be a game performer when it comes to the sex scenes, but there’s always a tastefully placed obstruction meaning we never see too much. Despite this, for fans of the actress the seductive dance that she delivers for Rong-Guang upon her return to the palace will likely be worth the price of admission alone. A masterclass in the art of teasing, it’s easily the highlight of the entire movie, and I’m not saying that because I’m a shallow guy (which I am), it’s just an effectively executed scene, similar to the first time we watch Tang Wei seduce Tony Leung Chiu-Wai in Lust, Caution 12 years later.
With her newfound confidence and a baby on the way, soon Yau gets a taste for power, and is smart enough to figure out it’s within her reach if she just steps on a few toes to get there. The toes she needs to step on mostly come in the form of the stellar supporting cast, who are made to meet a variety of gruesome ends. Valerie Chow plays the Queen and feels somewhat underused after her memorable turn as the flight attendant in the previous years Chungking Express. Faring much better are the trio of advisors to the emperor, played by Ku Feng (The Avenging Eagle, Killer Constable), Lau Shun (Blade of Fury, Once Upon a Time in China V), and Lo Hung (The Blue Jean Monster, The Chinese Feast), who do the usual advisor trope of plotting for their own benefit, only for it to backfire against them. Ku Feng in particular is made to suffer, having his lips sewn shut in a sequence which is sure to draw a few grimaces!
Despite containing all of the right ingredients of a Cat III flick – softcore erotica, nasty violence, Chingmy Yau dreaming of getting it on with a giant rubber dragon – ultimately Lover of the Last Empress never quite engages. You could either say it takes itself too seriously considering the bombastic nature of various scenes, or that it never fully commits to its Cat III approved premise of raunchy sex and power struggles in the palace. The result is a decidedly middling effort that always feels as if its just about to ramp up a gear, but never does. If you’re a diehard fan of Chingmy Yau, then needless to say Lover of the Last Empress should be seen for obvious reasons, for everyone else, especially those who own a cat, I recommend to proceed with caution.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10
