Invitation Only (2009)

When Wade Chen (Bryant Chang), who is the driver of President Yang (Jerry Huang) of the Weida Group, accidentally sees his boss shagging a top-model in the backseat of his car, Yang surprisingly invites him to go to a high-society party. Wade thanks and tells that he has neither money nor clothes to go to the event, but Yang tells the he would sponsor everything to Wade that could tell that is his cousin. In the invitation, the guest is requested to fulfill with the offbeat dream. In the party promoted by Mr. Warren in a warehouse, Wade gets closer to Miss Liang and two other rookies. Each one of them sees the dream coming true but sooner the quartet discovers that they are the lead attraction of the party that is promoted to torture losers in a deadly fight of classes. "Jue Ming Pai Dui" a.k.a. "Invitation Only" is another brutal film of sadism and torture. I do not like this sub-genre of horror and I have already seen similar sadism before, since the stories are very alike with a shallow pretext to show graphic tortures. This unpleasant film is not the worst slasher and the special effects and makeup are very realistic but unfortunately the plot is ridiculous. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "Acesso Restrito" ("Limited Access")

Heralded as Taiwan's first slasher movie, you wonder what took it so long (really?). Director Kevin Ko knows the ingredients to make it work though, with copious amounts of thick, crimson blood and the numerous shots of hot female bods in slinky dresses grooving to the beat right from the start for that cursory first kill as an appetizer before the main course. Heck, I think the casting of Japanese AV star Maria Ozawa was a shrewd move as well, for what it's worth, at least to get her fan boys into the theatre for this.The filmed worked like clockwork though, introducing us to a loser/slacker Wade (Bryant Chang), a chauffeur who one day unwittingly chances upon his company CEO Yang (Jerry Huang) in a compromising position with Ozawa's fashion model in the backseat of the S500 Benz (which I tell you has plenty of room for that kind of shenanigan). In order to shut him up, Yang offers Wade the chance to live the high life through an all-sponsored invite to a high society event, which promises the fulfillment of one's fantasy, and the networking opportunities abound when rubbing shoulders with society's elite.But of course there's no such thing as a free lunch, and soon Wade got more than he bargained for, after getting his wishes satisfied of course, with unbelievable winnings at the gambling table, a gift of a Ferrari, and the highlight? Bonking the much coveted fashion model which made Ozawa look real comfortable aside from her very contrived acting with clothes on.Things of course are more than meets the eye, especially when this underground event gets situated in the same warehouse in the opening scene, and soon enough the newcomers to the party, Wade included, are unmasked for being the fakes they are, and the body count begins. It's a little peculiar as well that the story chose to show all quite early in the film, and settled instead for plenty of bloody gore with scenes crafted that will make you shrink in your seats, so much so that even an R21 rating here didn't get passed clean, with a jarring edit made to a facial treatment.If there's anything close to this offered by the West, then Hostel would come close. But I have to admit that the story did offer something that's refreshingly bizarre with its preaching (or beliefs) of the characters on the the rich-poor divide, where torture becomes a gladiatorial sport to satisfy what's being perceived as injustice being done. It's hunter versus prey for the masses, until the prey begin to fight back when forced to a corner.As with any slasher flick there are a number of plot loopholes that will make you chuckle, such as the extremely poor logistics the villains have set up, as well as very silly goons being employed. The execution of the premise and the performance of a number of not-so- beautiful cameos (read: high society aunties) were really bad, and I cannot help but to laugh out loud at the implausible, obligatory car-chase scene involving a Ferrari and a pick up, which did highlight the modest budget here because creative camera techniques were employed to simulate a minor wreck. Of the Ferrari that is.Still, this film drew in the crowds and I was quite surprised that it was quite the date movie as well. To the jaded torture porn viewer, the film is like a walk in the park which delivers exactly what you'd come to expect, plus some unintentional comedy when things get played straight.

Tagline: Surprisingly brutal and good slasher flick… Review by Neo: Known as Taiwanese first venture into the slasher genre arena, Invitation Only does not have the looks or the hype of a good movie. Just one look on the casting list, which includes Japanese AV superstar Maria Ozawa, the movie did not oozes or echoes any signs of a good quality production. That is why it is all the more surprising for me to unfold this brutal, slashing, unforgivable, but most importantly of all, it actually manages to be an interestingly good and entertaining film. Fans of Maria Ozawa be warned; she is in the film for nothing more than a glorify cameo to strip down, have sex and sell a couple more movie tickets. In fact, this is actually a good thing, as the film just gets better and better the moment the Euro-Japanese decided to roam back to her AV industry.The movie goes like this: Byrant Chang of Summer Tail and Eternal Summer fame plays a working class, high school drop-out who works as a driver for a rich business man. One day, Chang caught his boss having sex with a magazine model (played by Maria Ozawa, the star of numerous genre flicks), and in the process Chang is given an exclusive ticket to a higher class party event. At the party, he meets a fellow newcomer (played by Julianne Chu) and together they will realize that the party is not really what they think it will be.The film basically works because it is able to sustain a certain amount of audience attention. Whether the reason for captivating my attention is to find out what will happen next to the beautiful Julianne Chu or how many pieces the next person will be chopped, the fact is that it got my attention. For that the film does extremely well and more surprisingly is that usually these kinds of movies (i.e. Saw series or Hostel series) possesses underlying bad acting, but here, newcomer Julianne Chu steals the show, the spotlight and perhaps opening up an opportunity for herself and a promising career ahead.Byrant Chang who is usually a capable enough actor manages to disappoint big time. After some credible displays in the likes of Eternal Summer, here, Chang is lost and quite frankly confused. At times, he seems to be acting and at other times, he is simply overacting. In a way, his ambivalent towards Maria Ozawa works to a certain degree, but luckily, while Chang adds nothing to the movie, but in no way did he manage to ruin it either.Moving on to the best thing in the film itself is the underrated performance of Taiwanese newcomer, Julianne Chu. Julianne showed the audience a kind of performance that would make any newcomer proud and also forward a statement to Ozawa that you do not always have to strip down and bang something to be hot. Sure, Ozawa oozes the screen with some degree of hotness and probably the main reason why the majority of audience decides to take a crack at this film. Julianne is certainly someone to watch for years to come and her convincing display made this film better than it should be. Perhaps, focusing more on Julianne rather than Byrant Chang would have elevated the film just that a tad better.As with most readers here, they are probably interested in how Maria Ozawa fares, not bad is what I can say, but for a "used up" actress like Ozawa, there is really next to no excitement with or without her involvement in my honest opinion. In fact, her presence seems a little out of place in the film, but then again, if she can sell a few extra tickets with just 5 minutes of screen time, then why not? All in all, Invitation Only basically succeeds in all its goals and ambitions. The goal is to make a good and sustainable slasher flick, the ambition is to shock and maintain the audience attention. The fact that the film is actually brutal enough to satisfy me (I am quite demanding in genres like these), then it must be a good thing after all. Still, without ignoring the numerous plot holes, Invitation Only works well as a whole and most certainly have plenty of moments in shock, brute, fun and quite simply, mindless entertainment. With all being said, Invitation Only is really designated for particular genre fans only and if you look at the film from that perspective, the film have plenty to slash about and with my new muse on the run in Julianne Chu, the film easily passes the grade … (Neo 2009) I rate it 6.5/10www.thehkneo.com

The plot copies ideas from several movies I've seen such as 2008 french movie Vampire Party (Les Dents De La Nuit) - 5 people got invitation cards to a special party off an island and found out they are nothing but walking prey to a bunch of vampires. Another one is Saw, with the video recorder scenes.For the movie itself, I'm disappointed about the script as it brings nothing new to the table. What makes a story / movie special is the local cultural elements + human nature / universal questions we all have or face during the era. For horror movies, especially Asian, what works most but neglected most are urban legends.The surprising part of this movie is one of the actress is more famous than anyone in the film turns out to be a Japanese porn actress - Maria Ozawa could land a role more than a sex scene. It's another porn actress got into mainstream movie after Dany Verissimo successfully played a role in Distrct 13 (Banlieue 13).