Opening Day: 6 November 2008

Synopsis:

BYUN is a tragic character with a massive inferiority complex problem which stems from his seriously impaired libido. But he chance encounters a monk and gains the ultimate male power of never-ending erection. Around this time all men are grouped and sent off to war and only Byun remains to satisfy the women of the village and quench their sexual desires!

Movie Review:

Pardon the expression. This movie is all about Dicks! Cock, Willy, Little Birdie, whichever term you prefer, it’s a comedy about Penis. And basically for a Dick, there are only three function and they are used for Peeing, Comparison and Making Love Sex.

A Tale of Legendary Libido took those three function and blown them into exaggerate 'comedic' situation. You get fountain of pee, public penis size humiliation and extremely horny village women in this raunchy blown up comedy. Anything that you can think of that it’s likely to be remotely funny with the usage of Cock, you will get it here. Yes! Even incestuous and beastly sex is not spared.

Before you get all horny excited and rush out to get a ticket for this R21 movie, here some warnings about this film. There are simulated sex scenes in this movie but as again, it’s those awkward clothed sex (no they were not rushing for time) that cowardly movies with the sex theme pull when they want to broach on this subject. For a movie with suggestive sexual words, it at least 'bravely' gave us some decent shots of female nudity which many similar titled Korean movies don’t even dare to. There even some unnecessary nudity for one of the main actress that I can’t help wonder what will become of her career after this. But still, a consolation prize for those horny ah peks with their umbrellas and newspaper.

Another problem with this movie would be the story. This movie went all out trying to capture the comedic elements of spotlighting on the little birdie that it tied all the skits up with a thin storyline. The story serves as an excuse for our protagonist to get from one bizarre exaggerated situation to another that showcase the inability (and certain parts; ability) of his dick.

Bong Tae-gyu who was great as the hapless guy in "2 Faces of my Girlfriend" felt kinda wasted in the legendary Libido. His range of emotion felt restricted to only one and that’s sour plum face. It might not be factually correct but his character remains so sullen even when he was bestow with an incredible gift felt so implausible. There isn’t much for him to work on to endear himself to the audience as he is sullen most of the time. As again, it’s obvious that he is paying homage to his favourite comedian, Stephen Chow with certain comedy element setups that were a blatantly taken from Mr. Chow’s "A Chinese Odyssey" but this time round, the reproduction felt less successful than 2 Faces of my Girlfriend.

Overall, "A Tale of Legendary Libido" felt like homage to the old Hong Kong sleazy category III movies. It’s sexually exploitive in the comedic sense but pack with a rather weak storyline. Catch it if only you are a fan of such genre.

Movie Rating:



(Sexually exploitive and exaggerated till it became a disjointed tale)

Review by Richard Lim Jr