Marianna
Director: Cheuk Ang-tong
Year: 1982
Rating: 6.0
This is another one
of those 1980s films that I think must have been financed by the HK Tourist
Board. Their motto might be “Stay at Home. It’s a Scary World Out There!”.
The basic theme of these films is that when a Hongie travels outside of China
– in particular to the exotic lands of South East Asia – there is danger
lurking – death waiting.
This fairly unknown Sally Yeh movie may
have been her very first film and it co-stars Chin Han – best known to Western
audiences for his pairings with Brigitte Lin – both on screen and off – during
the 1970’s. The film takes a while before it gets cranked up, but the last
thirty minutes turns into a savage, brutal and frightening fight for survival
among the wilds of the Philippines.
Chin Han – Sally’s husband – goes off on a business trip to the Philippines
leaving his lovely wife and two children behind him. While conducting business
there he saves a desperate girl from a number of pursuers. The girl is Marianna
and she is the cause of a deadly rivalry between two native tribes. The leader
of one of the tribes wants to marry her, but Marianna and her tribe wants
nothing to do with them.
Marianna escapes to HK where she finds Chin
Han and persuades him to hire her as a maid so that she can hide out. Sally
isn’t too keen on the idea especially when she comes home unexpectedly one
day and finds her husband and Marianna playing house in the maid’s room.
Chin Han had boasted earlier on to his male colleagues that he was “promiscuous
but had never been caught yet”. His luck just ran out.
Sally leaves HK to visit her relatives in the Philippines and Chin Han follows
to make amends. They decide to go off on a road trip where hopefully they
can begin again. But this is the Philippines and road trips away from civilization
are never a good idea. Their scenic tour goes askew immediately and soon
turns into a horrific nightmare. First some kids drain most of the gas from
their car and they soon find themselves out of gas and surrounded by a band
of grasping zombie like lepers. Events though take a turn even for the worse
as they fall into the hands of the tribe that is after Marianna.
At this point the film becomes extremely violent and gory as Chin Han, Sally,
Marianna and some of her tribesmen fight their way out with machetes and
spears and run for their lives in the jungles with a tribe after them with
vengeance on their minds.
It’s always a pleasure locating an obscure
film such as this and it turned out to be much better than I expected. Considering
that this might be Sally’s first role, she does a terrific job as she goes
from pampered housewife to jealous outrage to total panic and fear. I believe
that is also Sally who sings a couple songs for the soundtrack.
