The Stewardess
- -Keung suffers from a recurring nightmare in which a woman in red chases him down a highway and tries to kill him with a plastic toy jet. When his girlfriend Apple leaves on a business trip, Keung pounces on the chance to approach his new neighbor, Yurei, a Japanese stewardess. However, it soon becomes apparent that his new love interest is damaged goods, and that she has Keung and Apple booked first class for a flight straight to hell.
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A womanising screenwriter meets the girl of his dreams in director Sam Leong’s genre-busting The Stewardess, only to get caught in a nightmare instead.
When Ken Ma (Sam Lee) comes across Japanese air-hostess Yurei (Kasugai Seina), he’s already dating local flight attendant and triad boss’ daughter Apple (Lee San-san). Despite the risk of an intimate amputation if caught cheating, Ken gets naughty with the foreign visitor anyway and fulfils a vengeance-tinged wish to sleep with a Japanese woman. It turns out to be a very bad move… Largely ignored in Hong Kong cinemas – it pulled in US$826 on its release – The Stewardess sees its scenario spin out of control into a farcical mess stemming from bedroom affairs. With an odd mix of horror, comedy and thriller stylings, Leong somehow manages to rifle through the genres for entirely scattershot but fun storytelling. Horror images, racier highlights, gangland silliness and various ludicrous deviations fill the plot for enjoyably trashy viewing. Accomplished set design, lighting and music arrangements occasionally surprise – the soundtrack even parodies In The Mood For Love at one point. Ridiculous inserts including a World War II battlefield scene as a sexual climax, a Japan sequence looking like it was made with leftover film stock and a character’s nipple fascination turn up out of the blue, not to mention more mundane computer effects, camera trickery and clearly repeated set-up shots which should also catch the attention of viewers into Hong Kong cinema’s low end. Special mention goes to Kasugai Seina, who provided her first Hong Kong leading role as the title character, dressed up in red or black with stark make-up and a post-Ring horror hairdo. With limited lines made up for with tough stares and sexy stripteases, Kasugai’s presence is a constant highlight.
Tim Youngs
Thanks to Far East Film Festival