Lost Souls, released by Shaw Brothers in 1980, is a bit of a hard watch, but a good one nonetheless. It is hard to quantify that statement, as the film features torture and rape, nudity, killing and more than a little brutality. Yet, given all that, it is a good movie and one more people should watch, despite the horror within. It may be exploitative in one sense, even bleak, but it is also a movie about life, hope, and the dream of a better future.

Mou Tun-fei, a man famous for the even more graphic Men Behind the Sun, a film that could be called his masterpiece, or at least the one he is most associated with, would bring this movie to vivid life. This picture could be called his warm-up act, but it is fairly powerful in and of itself. The film follows immigrants from China, making their way to Hong Kong for the chance at a better life. It is not an easy road to travel, as they could be caught or killed at any moment. Each step could lead to freedom or to death; they do not know which, but they do so because staying is not an option. As they make their way, some of them are captured by soldiers, and they might be the lucky ones, as others are caught by traffickers and find themselves in a situation worse than death.

Those situations start not long after the movie has started, and they last nearly till the end of the film. Those immigrants who are murdered would get off easy, as Mou would then stuff his feature full of human depravity, and it would be unrelenting until the final act, when the prisoners would finally decide to fight back. There is a scene where a woman is burned alive at one point, though thankfully, Mou would keep his distance with the camera. There is rape of both men and women, the killing of a child by strangulation, beatings and psychological torture by a group of men who seem to think it entertaining to treat others as less than the dirt beneath their feet. It is grim and, again, is not easy to watch people sinking to their lowest, but Mou reins it in a little during the final act when the prisoners rebel. When they take matters into their own hands, one cannot help but cheer them on, even if they, too, resort to some dastardly tactics against their captors.

There is not a lot of story going on in this film, as it is fairly light and never really goes into too much depth. The plot is simple, yet Mou makes it compelling no matter how nasty it gets. He also does a great job behind the camera; the movie is shot extremely well, and the pace never really lets up for a minute. The ending, while downbeat in its stark realization, is a perfect endcap. It’s about attaining freedom and grasping that a better life isn’t, and wasn’t, going to be easy, and that sometimes dreams are just dreams. Sometimes it is better to change things where you are than to run away. Exploitative, dangerous, horrific, and more, Lost Souls might be a challenge for some to watch, but it offers something just a little different.

4 out of 5