I think people's most common
misunderstanding of category 3 films is
that vergis cheap and throwaway and you
know just violin or pornographic films
and they're not in the cinema of Hong
Kong identity very depictive of where
Hong Kong is during that period for me
you know category 3 cinema really ends
and I don't mean it ends with the sense
that it completely disappears but I
think it ends with the Asian financial
crash
my name is a Callum Waddell and I'm the
director of category 3 the untold story
of Hong Kong exploitation cinema I
worked for three years in China I did my
PhD at Aberdeen University my research
is on global exploitation cinema and
basically films which aren't spoken
about so much in the academic world
there's actually four categories so
there's the category which is suitable
for everybody
category 3 which is overeating is only
the early influence really comes from
1970 the late great run run Shaw when he
began the Shaw Brothers he made a film
based on the pasta legend of the oily
Manor and that was he made in the 1970s
oil maniac but also films like killer
snakes witty wildly crazy in some cases
quite sexy films but they didn't have a
rating attached to them before 1988
there wasn't this rating system in Hong
Kong now happened in 1988 and actually
came about because of a mainland Chinese
film which was to be released in Hong
Kong called man behind the Sun that
before 1987 the films were made very
cheaply and very fast so they have this
sort of really gritty really kind of
threadbare look to a lot of them which I
think heightens the sense of insanity
so the documentary is really about that
period rather than the period afterwards
so I think that was the peak year in
1993 and that certainly legitimized
category 3 was the untold story based on
a true story gave Anthony Wong a Best
Actor Award there's a very strange mix
of horror and comedy which is so
incredibly brutal it would be
unthinkable that film like this would
play in a mainstream theater in the UK
or in you know America it just makes you
want to take a long shower after
watching it which is the mark of good
exploitation cinema zone called run and
kill which is about this man his wife's
not an affair and he Wow he's drunk he
indicates the hit man that he wants to
kill his wife and his hit man who's
played by Simon Yam takes him literally
and actually does kill his wife and then
says you need to pay and Kent Chen's
you know I was drunk I don't remember
any of this I'm going to report you to
the police
so this hit man then was about you know
attempting to kidnap and kill his
daughter and things just get worse and
worse and worse and it becomes so
incredibly violent lower the top David
Bordwell is a very famous film academic
and he says you know Hong Kong cinema is
a cinema of excess it's a cinema where
you know if you can exploit the body
you'll exploit it to it you know to the
realistic stand exploiting your interest
in violence and gore and be not set and
whether or not you can tolerate or watch
the screen in terms of people want to
cut it's actually about making a
category three film so it's actually
maybe the the very first postmodern
category three films have Suki and
Leslie Cheung but the irony is that you
plays a sex-starved never undress she
broke into the mainstream with fever rot
occur so it's kind of you know having
fun with what low-budget filmmakers are
doing in Hong Kong at that time so happy
together made by Wong kar-wai it was
really groundbreaking happy together is
a real example of a category three film
went all around the world after Hong
Kong films play with stereotypes because
you know quite offensively it was
assumed that if a women posed nude she
was that's all she could do like sex is
an an erotic ghost story obviously for
you have Amy yet became a big category
three star if you look at the category
three performers that are still
performing today like Simon Yam they're
the minority rather than the majority
yeah Josie was very proud of it she
really likes these films thinks it's
important to keep them alive
Asian financial crisis in 1997 which had
a considerable impact in a lot of local
industries including the Hong Kong film
industry les films are made in Hong Kong
and because the rise of DVD and then
today with with you know a younger
generation who have Netflix called
streaming when they do get made
they have release in Hong Kong and
nobody else have receives them category
3 cinema is it's becoming rarer and
rarer to see it now Herman Yau now makes
films in mainland China Daniel Chan is
an example of a relatively new director
on the scene who wants to make category
3 films that's because he wants to make
the movies that he grew up with the
challenges are how can you make a cinema
which is profitable but which is only
for people in Hong Kong
you