A Wild Party (1993)

Written & directed by: Wong Pak-Tse
Producer: King Hoi-Lam
Starring: Pauline Chan, Ying Siu-Liu, Chim Bing-Hei, Cindy Yip, Ruby Wong & Lam Wai

Revolving around a group of characters that are members of a swingers club called 'Happy Pal Club', within it we find new recruits such as cab driver Lee Keung and Pauline Chan's Susan is struggling to free her emotions and find true love. Others are just having fun with the other happy pals...

In many ways reading like an excuse for a couple of sex scenes, writer/director Wong Pak-Tse does have ambition to shoot something akin to a drama and a character-piece for adults and rated adults only. The ambition is to be admired. The execution leaves a lot to be desired. Although the setup is actually of decent quality as again the character of Lee Keung stumbles upon this world of agreed upon partner exchange, sometimes even with an elevated kinky edge. Wong gets sufficient looking cinema on screen, actors that know how to sell the sensual or raw eroticism connected to content and it seems like A Wild Party is on the springboard ready to jump off and tell us something.

A huge problem is an increasingly confusing and muddled character-gallery though. Sure, the majority of the 'happy pals' happy. And there's no danger brewing or conflict for them so Wong isn't painting a picture that is condemning adults who are not forcing anyone into their closed circle. Introducing Pauline Chan as a self proclaimed emotionless woman going to a psychiatrist also connected to the club (the doctor will be representing some oddly inserted dark psychology into the picture), because Chan has fine presence we hope this will be thread to pick up on. But her sporadic appearances makes the character-clarity drop and same can be said for the additional 2-3 ones that seems to matter in Wong's script.

A Wild Party can not be accused of not caring and some ideas about kinks, emotional stability when engaging in the events of the club versus stability that could only be achieved outside of it are interesting notions not explored with any considerable skill. It's not lazy. It just simply can't take a surface idea and make it deep and impactful.

reviewed by Kenneth Brorsson