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The Peeping Tom
Movie

The Peeping Tom

1997 • Unknown

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

Roy Chen Chih Lai is a serial rapist and murderer with a leg fetish, and cuts off his victims' legs as trophies after he's through with them. One day at a bank robbery shootout, he catches police woman Cheng Hsuen on camera, and chooses her to be his next victim. He begins to stalk her and enter her personal life, even waiting for her inside her home. He notices her sister, Kelly, as well (who is also a cop), and her boyfriend, Ken. After he kidnaps and rapes Kelly, Cheng decides to lure the madman by using herself as bait, and bring justice to the situation.

Overall Series Review

The Peeping Tom (1997) is a Hong Kong Category III crime thriller focused on the depraved acts of a serial killer with a leg fetish and the efforts of two policewomen to stop him. The narrative is a straightforward, low-budget psychosexual exploitation film, characterized by graphic violence and sleazy voyeurism. The killer, Roy, is a psychopath fixated on collecting his victims' legs, and he chooses policewoman Cheng Hsuen as his next target after seeing her during a shootout. The film's primary focus is on shock value and tension, with an emphasis on the cat-and-mouse game between the killer and the female protagonist. The police force, including Hsuen's male colleagues, is depicted as exceptionally incompetent, which allows the killer to operate and ultimately leads to Hsuen's sister becoming a victim. The climax involves Cheng Hsuen using herself as bait to lure the killer, an act of proactive justice in the face of institutional failure. It is a highly localized genre piece with no discernible engagement with modern Western cultural or political debates.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The film is a Hong Kong production where the narrative is not centered on race, intersectionality, or immutable characteristics, but on a serial crime. The conflict is an individual psychological pathology (a leg fetish) versus the police. There is no vilification of 'whiteness' or forced diversity, as the cast is ethnically homogeneous and the story is rooted in its local context. Character merit is the sole driver of the hero/villain dynamic.

Oikophobia1/10

The film is a product of Hong Kong genre cinema and does not engage in hostility toward Western civilization, its home culture, or ancestors in the prescribed definition. While the local police force is depicted as 'idiotic' and 'terrible at their job,' this is a common trope in many crime thrillers for dramatic effect, not a condemnation of the civilization as fundamentally corrupt or racist. The movie's focus remains on individual depravity and crime.

Feminism5/10

The female lead, Cheng Hsuen, is a strong, proactive policewoman who takes the initiative to use herself as bait to confront the killer after her sister is victimized. This portrays her as a 'Girl Boss' figure of sorts. Conversely, the male characters in the police force, including her superior and partner, are depicted as grossly incompetent and ineffectual, directly enabling the killer's escape and continued violence. While the female characters are subjected to extreme sexual violence and exploitation inherent to the Category III genre, the narrative clearly centers the woman's agency in bringing justice against the male villain and the emasculated police structure. The film contains no explicit anti-natalist messaging.

LGBTQ+1/10

The core of the movie's sexual conflict is a heterosexual male serial killer's leg fetish and voyeurism, which leads to the rape and murder of women. The narrative is a straightforward psychosexual crime thriller. There is no presence of 'queer theory,' deconstruction of the nuclear family, or centering of alternative sexualities or gender ideology.

Anti-Theism2/10

The movie is a nihilistic crime thriller focused entirely on the investigation of a psychopath described as 'devoid of any sort of moral compass.' The conflict is secular, between the police and the killer. There is no mention of religion, specific hostility toward Christianity, or discussion of transcendent morality. The amoral content is a function of the exploitation genre, not a political argument for moral relativism.