The title is basically an example of Engrish. Grammatically, the title
should be "Severely Raped," but even that is completely misleading since Gik dou keung gaan
includes neither rape nor severity. It means "raped" in the sense of "coerced"
or "manipulated," and the proper title should be something like "Thoroughly
Scammed." It's a Hong Kong Category 3 (softcore) comedy which might be
described as kind of a Chinese take on being a 40-year-old virgin.
Elvis Tsui, king of the Category 3 films, plays a middle-aged
virgin who owns an interior design shop in Hong Kong. His younger friend has
frequent fun with a mainland girl whenever he can get away from his wife. The
younger man
introduces Elvis to a friend of his own girl, never realizing that both women are married hookers
who are out to bilk the two men out of every cent they
have. Elvis's friend spots his girl with another man, and picks up yet another
woman. The third woman, it turns out, is in on the whole scam.
Unfortunately, some of the subtitles are direct, literal translations, and
some knowledge of Chinese languages and culture will aid in understanding what
is going on, especially since some of the humor derives from a language
barrier between Mandarin and Cantonese, and that is not easy to capture in
English subtitles. That notwithstanding, the film is worthwhile. Elvis gives a
nuanced, thoughtful performance, and comes off as a very sympathetic
character. The women are attractive, the acting is good, and the story is
interesting.
.
If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to
read the
explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by
our definition, a
C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs
and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:
