Red Nights, Femme Fatales Behaving Badly

A sultry French assassin...A sultry Chinese torture/erotica vixen...a sultry French art thief...a sultry Chinese art thief...and the brute men who want them dead...what a formula. Forget about the men, with these many femme fatales in one film, odds are they will kill each other off. Oh yeah...add in a mysterious poison that can heighten an orgasm 100 times and we have 2010's "Red Nights," directed by Julien Carbon and Laurent Courtiaud.

As our story begins, Chinese beauty Tulip (Kotone Amimiya) arrives in Shanghai to meet the sultry Carrie (Carrie Ng). Tulip pays her a valuable jewel and in return, Carrie brings her to a torture/erotica chamber where Tulip will undergo a suffocation/erotica experience. Tulip gets off on it and asks for more...bad move. Carrie complies but this time, guts Tulip during the next orgasm. Enter French assassin babe Catherine (Frederique Bel). She murders her arms dealing partner and takes command of an arms deal. She steals an antique box and tries to sell it in Shanghai. Enter Sandrine (Carole Brann), a French babe in Hong Kong. She'll double cross Catherine and have another Chinese babe, Flora (Maria Chen) shoot and kill Catherine.

Uh oh...Carrie wants the antique box and brutally murders Flora to get it. Uh oh again, Catherine survives her own murder and wants revenge. Now the French assassin hunts Carrie and Sandrine. Uh oh again, Carrie hunts Catherine and Sandrine. You see, in the antique box is a first century poison which heightens orgasms, increases pains and paralyses. Now Carrie has the poison and she will use it on Sandrine in an elongated and ornate torture scene steeped with sexual arousal and pain. As Catherine and Carrie continue their war, the two beauties seem destined for something awful...if not alluring.  A word of warning, Sandrine's orgasmic fate will have you turning your head.

Just what does Carrie want with this orgasmic poison? Do any of these lovely femme fatales have even the remotest shot at surviving this film? Does the moral bankruptcy of the Chinese and French vixens indicate that Europe's influence in the molding of modern day China will only serve the ruination of any Asia claim to dominance? Okay, throw out that last question. Alluring, bloody, and highly sadomasochistic...yet, most enjoyable. For a weird and satisfying thriller, see "Red Nights."