Sexy Pei Pei (Ai Ti) and her older husband Harry (Tang Ching) make love with no idea they are being spied on by the pervert next door. His dingy apartment is covered wall-to-wall with photos of Pei Pei, but thus far the only outlet for his obsession is his inflatable doll. While Harry is at work, Pei Pei spends her afternoon with a women’s group led by her cousin Fifi (Yum Yum Shaw), of whom her husband does not approve. That is because Fifi divorced her adulterous husband Michael (Frankie Wei Hung) and now cavorts with a young gigolo called Philip (Lee Chi). After hearing Fifi’s story, Pei Pei is adamant her man will never stray, but little does she know Harry is having an affair with sexy bikini model Betty (Ling Tai).
After a twenty year career as a romantic lead, former matinee idol Lu Chi - sometimes billed as James Lu Qi - turned to writing and directing soft-core sex comedies at Shaw Brothers in the Seventies. Lacking the literary sophistication of his contemporary Li Han-hsiang, Lu Chi’s movies play like tabloid exposés of the swinging lifestyles of the rich and famous: Sexy Girls of Denmark (1973), Adultery, Chinese Style (1973) and Starlets for Sale (1977) (where he gave Hong Kong moviegoers their first glimpse of pubic hair), among many others till his retirement in 1987.
The Stud and the Nympho kicks off as Lu Chi cuts right to the chase with a naked aerobics workout in lurid close-up and spectacular Shawscope to boot. A feisty Yum Yum Shaw diverts the episodic plot with her breezy anecdote about how she feigned suicide and tricked Michael into confessing his affair with a gorgeous European model. Thereafter the film nosedives through forty five minutes of teeth-grindingly unfunny comedy, centred on Harry’s attempts to hide his adultery. Veteran Tang Ching is a long way away from the suave, lean customer he was in his Sixties spy movie heyday. By the time he dons ladies’ makeup and a frilly white nightgown, the likes of Interpol (1967) and Summons to Death (1967) seem like distant memories.
His glamorous co-star Ai Ti was a dab hand at this sort of thing. The former model and beauty pageant winner was signed by Shaw Brothers and immediately cast as the lead in Sex for Sale (1974). Beginning with Girl’s Diary (1975), she became a regular in Lu Chi’s movies and strengthened her “sex bomb” image with Shaw’s comedy blockbuster The Crazy Bumpkins (1974) and its sequels: Return of the Crazy Bumpkins (1974), Big Times for the Crazy Bumpkins (1975) and Crazy Bumpkins in Singapore (1976). Foxy Ling Tai was another of Lu Chi’s favourite leading ladies, as all of her twelve movies were directed by him. Lastly we have Yum Yum Shaw, another sexploitation star but surprisingly versatile with a sparkling screen presence. Her most famous movie was probably the Golden Harvest production Confessions of a Concubine (1975), images from which appear in Pete Tombs’ essential cult film tome Mondo Macabro. The delightfully named Yum Yum graced Shaw’s legendary Charlie’s Angel’s imitation Deadly Angels(1977), Li Han-hsiang’s altogether classier erotica The Scandalous Warlord (1972) and played a disfigured mistress in martial arts in the magnificent Buddha’s Palm (1982). She is still active today.
Made at the height of disco fever in Hong Kong, The Stud and the Nympho includes numerous hilarious scenes where disco dollies and dudes with wide collars boogie the night away beneath the glitter-ball. Eventually Pei Pei catches Harry in bed with Betty, whereupon the film splits into two parallel stories. In one strand, Harry attempts to build a substantial relationship with Betty who meanwhile manages to continually outfox Pei Pei’s vengeful friends. The secondary thread finds Pei Pei caught by the mystery pervert. He strips her down to her underwear, but unable to do the deed runs into the night and rapes some random woman. Fresh out of a mental asylum with one death to his credit, he’s more dangerous than anyone suspects but Pei Pei’s friends think he’s just a shy guy and encourage her to date the creep!
We expect sexploitation movies to be seedy, but the twisted ideals Lu Chi serves up here are truly loopy. Harry blames his adultery on his wife being “too virtuous and perfect”. Betty teaches Fifi how wrong she is for keeping Philip as her pampered boy toy, then in turn is lectured by Harry. “You’re overwhelmed with lust. You know nothing about love and responsibility!” he scolds. Er, look who’s talking. Most crucially, Pei Pei is in no way a “nympho”, unless you take nymphomaniac to mean a sad, lonely woman who reaches out for a platonic male friend and finds a dangerous psychotic instead.
The last ten minutes veer into horror territory as the vengeful lunatic dons a rubber Halloween mask and takes a hammer to Pei Pei’s servants, before abducting her back to his hideout. Bound and gagged like a dog, she is forced to give him a sponge bath (?!) until the cops bust in. Bizarrely, one skinny psycho with a hammer fends off an array of armed officers and the film freeze-frames without offering a satisfactory conclusion. The insulting, implied message is ladies, put up with your unfaithful men because the alternative is far worse.
