Poison Rose (HK 1966)

Rating: **
Review Date: 4/30/19
Cast: Julie Yeh Feng, Hsieh Wang

Policeman Kang Hua (Hsieh Wang) is assigned to investigate the murders of two undercover cops. He initially refuses the mission until he discovers there's a beautiful dame involved. Jiang Feng (Julie Yeh Feng) is a sexy and wanton singer at the Black Spider night club where the murders took place. She takes a liking to Kang, who plays hard to get in order to incite her desire and slowly gain her trust. Illegal deals are going down at the Black Spider, and Kang must carefully manipulate Jiang in order to obtain evidence. But who's manipulating who? Kang eventually comes out on top, as the good guys always do, and goes back to his obsessive girlfriend that he was trying to get away from in the first place.

It's a colorful production with attractive cinematography and fantastic looking sets. Julie Yeh Feng is drop-dead gorgeous and bears an eerie resemblance to a young Wei Ying Hung. Her sassy attitude and sweet and sinister charm are the film's main draw. Unfortunately, Hsieh Wang is just dead weight and his character is completely dull and uninteresting. That makes the film a bit of a chore to watch, as he's the main character. Apart from that and a convoluted reveal at the end, it's a pleasantly innocuous entry in the 1960's spy thriller genre.