The Bamboo House of Dolls (1973)

A nurse in a Japanese women's POW camp during World War II masterminds an escapee.

Director:

Chih-Hung Kuei

Stars:

Birte Tove, Lieh Lo, Hsieh Wang

Cast

Credited cast:
Birte Tove	...	Jennifer
Lieh Lo	...	Tsui Kuo-Tung
Hsieh Wang	...	Inoue
Terry Liu	...	Mako
Roska Rozen	...	Mary
Niki Wane	...	Elizabeth
Hsia-ying Lo	...	Huang Hsia
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shen Chan	...	Bald moustaced Japanese soldier
Feng Chen Chen
Chi Cheng
Ko Ai Chiang
Dana	...	Tortured inmate (as Tsen Shu-Yi)
Mei Sheng Fan
Chen Feng
Tessa Finch

Storyline

A nurse in a Japanese women's POW camp during World War II masterminds an escapee.

---

Plot Keywords:

nurse | trap | red cross nurse | gun in mouth | prison camp | 

---

Taglines:

The fight for LIFE between the KUNG-FU masters! ONLY ONE LIVES!

---

Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller | War

---

Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin Japanese Danish English

Release Date:

August 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bamboo House of Dolls

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shaw Brothers

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011)

User Reviews

Very strange HK-produced women-in-prison film

During World War II a group of nurses are captured by the Japanese army and thrown into a brutal internment camp presided over by a cruel Japanese woman (kind of the Nipponese equivalent of Ilsa). There's a subplot involving Chinese spies in the camp and a hidden cache of gold that both the Chinese and the Japanese are after, and there's not one but TWO big "bust-out" scenes.

This seems to be a Hong Kong take-off (produced by the notorious Shaw brothers)of the WIP genre made popular in the early 70's by people like Roger Corman. But since the American WIP films were usually shot in the Philipines and used Asian actors in supporting roles, and this movie cast Caucasian actresses in the lead roles, it isn't on the surface that much different from its inspiration (aside from the historical setting). However,the "American" characters here are actually Danish softcore porn stars like Birte Tove, and the whole thing apparently had to be dubbed clumsily into English, so this film lacks a lot of the character development of American WIP films. But at the same time it also lacks a lot of the chop-socky action sequences that characterized Hong Kong films of that era.

The tone of this film is all over the place. At times it is more serious and brutal film complete with torture and rape scenes. It is somewhat stronger than the American WIP films if not nearly as strong the later Eurpean WIP films made by people like Jess Franco or the notorious Italian "Nazi sexploitation" films (or their American equivalent, the "Ilsa" series). Other times, however, it descends into slapstick comedy like a long, bizarre food fight scene. Sex, as always, is the real name of the game, but even this is curiously circumspect. There's plenty of nudity (shower scenes, etc.), but when the cruel female commander apparently rapes her favorite Caucasian stoolie with a strap-on dildo, the action is kept so much off-screen that it's hard to even figure out what's happening. And after Birte Tove's character first discovers that the Chinese camp cook is a spy who is going to help them escape, she decides to have passionate sex with him, even though they just barely met, and they proceed to do so after lighting about a hundred candles--which is strange to say the least considering this is a spontaneous and furtive encounter in an enemy prison camp.

That's not necessarily to say this is a bad or entirely un-entertaining WIP film, but it is definitely a very strange one.