This Friday, I reviewed Tyler Perry's Mea Culpa - a soft-core porn masquerading as a film that changes into a ridiculous thriller by the end. Today, I am reviewing Thang Vu's Black Rose - a soft-core porn masquerading as a film that changes into a ridiculous thriller by the end. Sometimes, being a film critic doesn't seem too exciting. There are good days when I get to watch a variety of films. Then there are days like these when I sit through the same kind of films. My feelings regarding Black Rose are similar to my feelings regarding Mea Culpa. In other words, I don't have many thoughts on this Thang Vu snoozefest. I risk repeating myself.
Let me give it a shot anyway (it's not like I have any other choice). Let's start with the basics. What is Black Rose about? Good question. Um, a woman named Thao My (Miu Lê) takes on the role of a babysitter to take revenge. She steps inside Ha's (Phuong Anh Dao) home and vows to destroy her life. Is this why we sometimes see inverted images? Are they meant to indicate that this family's life is about to be upended? Anyway, how does Thao execute her plan? By seducing Ha's husband, Son (Lanh Thanh), and his brother, Hoang (Karik). You know what they say: Kill your enemy with sex.
Hoang is horny, so Thao's plan becomes easier to implement. He doesn't notice her curves alone but also points Son towards them. There you go: Two aroused men ready to fall into a woman's trap. This triggers a series of racy fornications that are at least better than the one in Tyler Perry's thriller. Son's family has breakfast near the pool while he and Thao have a quickie inside the house. To add spice to this situation, the movie gives us Ha searching for her baby inside the house. The director titillates the audience, making Black Rose suitable for people who merely want sex from their pictures.
But then, Thang Vu creates such a mess that you are left bewildered. Some of it elicits laughter (a victim survives a fire only to die in another one). The greatest mystery in Black Rose is never solved for us - How did that woman get those photographs of murder at those angles? Then, of course, you have that final scene, which introduces the possibility that everything you watched happened inside Thao's head. What an absurd conclusion. Like Tyler Perry, Thang Vu tries to become too clever and ends up making a preposterous, monotonous display of incompetence.
Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times