MOVIE REVIEW In ‘Golden Lotus,’ Life Is Rough--All Over Again : Clara Law’s reincarnated heroine finds herself in a world that’s still inhospitable to women, even centuries later.

“The Reincarnation of Golden Lotus,” screening tonight as part of UC Irvine’s “Tragedy and Comedy” film series, begins with a fantastic prologue:

Lotus, described as the “No. 1 slut in ancient Chinese history,” is offered a deal at the gates of hell. But rather than accept it, the feisty heroine (played by the lovely Joi Wong) decides to send her spirit back to Earth to set the record straight.

From there, Clara Law, a Chinese director not afraid of visual risks, takes us on a wildly erotic run through feminist terrain.

Reborn as a young dancer during Mao’s violent Cultural Revolution, Lotus is soon raped, labeled a whore and counterrevolutionary and finds herself married to a foolish baker, all the while plagued by flashbacks from her life centuries ago.

As events unfold, she learns, as we do, that her present experiences closely mirror those of her previous life. Through Lotus’ growing awareness, Law comments on how a man’s world can be a pretty inhospitable place for a woman, especially in China, where traditions hang on through the centuries.

Placing the movie in the Cultural Revolution also adds a political resonance that makes the melodrama that much more intriguing.

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But Law isn’t a didactic filmmaker. In this 1990 release, only her second feature, she brings comic shading to the fast action (the movie often seems to sprint along) and a rich, curious texture. How about an orgy scene set to disco? That’s one of the tickles Law offers in “The Reincarnation of Golden Lotus.”

Law also has a disarming way with dialogue: Lotus’ chunky husband, not the finest of lovers, remarks to her during one particularly clumsy night, “My best performance yet. Ah, how romantic!”

The film is sprinkled with those kinds of asides. It’s also sprinkled with spurts of intense violence and unblinking sex, not always complementary elements in Law’s hands. But even when Law slips and the film feels graceless, the overall impression is of confident originality.

* Clara Law’s “The Reincarnation of Golden Lotus” screens tonight at 7 and 9 p.m. in the UC Irvine Student Center’s Crystal Cove Auditorium, Campus Drive and Bridge Road, Irvine. $2 and $4. (714) 856-6379.