Fatal Attraction (1987) with a trolley-dolly is the high-concept premise behind The Stewardess, although this Hong Kong production puts a darkly comic spin on the usually po-faced “psycho-bitch” genre. Geeky scriptwriter Ken Ma (Sam Lee) has a reoccurring nightmare in which he is stabbed to death by a woman in red wielding a toy aeroplane. This does not stop him from picking up comely air stewardess Apple (Lee San-San), who proves rough in bed and worse, hot-tempered, insanely jealous and the daughter of triad boss Dragon (Michael Chan Wai-Man). Apple makes Ken swear to be faithful while she is away, but he can’t resist a tryst with his foxy new neighbour, Japanese air hostess Yurei (Seina Kasugai), even though she wears a red uniform. Unfortunately Yurei is a few air miles short of a round trip. Following their one-night-stand, she takes to obsessively cleaning Ken’s house, hiding in his closet and sneaking into his bed for bouts of weird sex and torture. Then when Ken tries to distance himself, Yurei really goes off her trolley (sorry…).
Despite the eerie, horror movie atmosphere woven by writer-producer-director Sam Leong Tak-Sam, The Stewardess is more an eccentric black comedy than straightforward thriller and one where the humour is initially quite broad. Ken’s early attempts to get laid encompass scenes that spoof In the Mood for Love (2000) and A Better Tomorrow (1986), part of a surfeit of movie references including his editor berating him for getting John Woo movies mixed up with those of Clifton Ko and the moment he tries to pick up a pretty film buff by claiming his favourite François Truffaut movie is Lady Chatterley.
Things briefly get serious during some unhinged psycho-killings and cracking up scenes enhanced by a genuinely loopy performance from Seina Kasugai, who projects a vacant smile and manic glee. Yurei, whose command of Cantonese consists of one sole sentence (“I am a Japanese stewardess”) either repeats herself or else wavers between spasmodic violence and bouts of obsessive cleanliness, hilariously cleaning up her crime scenes before Ken can prove she’s a killer. When things get really rough, she amusingly resorts to demonstrating airline safety procedures. Her first steamy encounter with Ken carries an eerily erotic charge, though as the plot unfolds its schizophrenic tone is liable to alienate those less tolerant of Hong Kong movie-making eccentricities.
While something of a disjointed mess, the film remains intermittently stylish. Leong Tak-Sam directs with a penchant for unsettling P.O.V. shots, super-wide lenses and dreamily disembodied cameras that result in some skin-crawling scenes. None of the characters are especially likeable, with supposedly good girlfriend Apple surprisingly painted as an unappealing bully, though the script suggests we are meant to regard Ken as an idiot who more or less gets what he deserves. “Screwing Japanese girls is my way of avenging the Chinese!” he wisecracks. He later reminisces about screwing his way through hookers across Tokyo, only to discover they’re all Chinese migrants. Sam Lee makes a suitably hapless lead, often directly addressing the camera, and carries things through to a conclusion less Alfred Hitchcock and more Looney Tunes.
