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'The daughter of an English father and a Burmese mother, Me Me Lai was born in Burma circa 1952. Little (i.e. nothing) is known about her childhood. She moved to England in her teens and began working as an actress, appearing in bit parts on television and in low-budget British films, most notably in Au Pair Girls (1972). Also in 1972, she appeared in Il Paese del sesso selvaggio (aka Man From Deep River, Deep River Savages), the first of several 'cannibal' movies by Italian directors. After that role she returned to England, where she became the hostess of the popular game shows The Golden Shot and Sale of the Century. She returned as the lead female native girl in Ruggero Deodato's Ultimo Mondo Cannibale (aka Last Cannibal World, Jungle Holocaust) and Umberto Lenzi's Mangiati Vivi! (aka Eaten Alive!, The Emerald Jungle). Of her small movie roles, she is perhaps best known as a Chinese hooker in the Peter Sellers comedy Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978). During the 1980s she was again cast in various small roles before she left the movie business and she has not been heard from since.' * - IMDb Mini Biography by Matthew Patay
Welcome all, this tribute to ex-actress Me Me Lai (sometimes credited as Me Me Lay) exists because she has starred in some of the most controversial, strange, twisted and frankly screwed up films ever made. She has also worked with notable actors & directors and had very diverse & demanding roles. In the years after her retirement she has gained cult status despite only appearing in a handful of films and having limited screen time (especially in early roles). In some cases, her screen time clocks in at less than a minute! This is probably a reason why she has never received enough credit as an actress, another being she has little dialogue in her films. She's mute in Last Cannibal World and is not seen speaking (but literally has the last laugh) in Crucible of Terror, an underrated film in which she is encased in plaster and then molten bronze by a crazy artist (see the pictures opposite) while still alive; madness! In reality, she has a nice, soft (and actually quite posh) voice. Her final film - The Element of Crime - probably is the best example of her acting ability.
However, I doubt Umberto Lenzi cast her in Man From Deep River back in '72 based on her acting/delivery of her lines. Her exceptional exotic beauty and charm was enough. In the 3 cannibal movies she appeared in (her 3 most popular/infamous roles), she's 'raped', tortured, humiliated, wears nothing but a furry thong and in gruesome detail - in Last Cannibal World - she's hacked into tiny bits and eaten by her cannibal chums. She must be praised for having the, ahem, guts to appear fully naked in the unforgiving climate of the Malaysian & Philippine jungles and to act in films that pushed the barriers of taste and decency. She's definitely the most glamorous aspect in these films which are full of sleaze, gore and unacceptable animal cruelty.
As for memories of her by co-stars/directors who shot the cannibal films she starred in, there are a few interesting anecdotes; in an interview for the Shriek Show DVD of Eaten Alive!, the late Ivan Rassimov claims he had a good friendship with her over the years and this lead to speculation that they may have been romantically involved, especially due to their love scenes in Man From Deep River. In Ruggero Deodato's audio-commentary for the Shriek Show release of Ultimo Mondo Cannibale (re-titled 'Jungle Holocaust' for some reason), he mentions that Me Me was a fearless actress who was not put off by snakes and other jungle perils. During a break in filming, Deodato recalls her sitting on what looked like a rock but turned out to be a huge snake! He also claims that in one scene she was badly cut by the sharp jungle grass; this is not suprising considering she is completely naked throughout most of the movie. Deodato also mentions that Me Me was married to a martial arts instructor at the time and he even flew out to Malaysia to see what was happening... Christ only knows what he thought was going on!
Due to her being bollock-naked in all of her cannibal movie roles, it's amusing to note that between 'Man' in '72 and 'World' in '77, she appears to have gained breast implants; something which adds to the absurdity and legend of the Italian cannibal sub-genre. A cannibal babe with the most Western attribute possible... fake boobies.
Moving away from the cannibal films, the other films are decent enough, with Au Pair Girls being suprisingly good. Many people who remember seeing her on Sale of the Century & The Golden Shot didn't know about the film roles and were quite suprised at the degree of nudity involved. It was her initial fame from those gameshows that led to cameos in TV shows such as Paul Temple, Hine and Jason King, with only the latter being available on DVD.
Her disappearance from acting/TV is uncertain, no one really knows a reason why and there's little information on the Internet about her activity since the mid 1980s. One claim is that she became a bodybuilder (and excelled at this) but no further information can be found. Hopefully, she's alive and well and hasn't suffered a sticky end in the jungle like in one of her cannibal films!
* Update April '09
I have been informed by Me Me's daughter Lesley that her mother is alive and very well. Awesome news!