The Cat
Director: Lam Nai-choi
Year: 1992
Rating: 6.0
The world is once
again in terrible jeopardy and its survival lies in the hands of sci-fi writer
and adventurer, Wisely (played here co-incidentally enough by the similar
sounding Waise Lee). Director Nam Nai-cho (Peacock King, The Story of Ricky,
Erotic Ghost Story) brings the character of Wisely (a series of popular books
in China) to the screen for the second time. Six years earlier in 1986, Nam
created the delightfully bizarre The Seventh Curse in which Chow Yun Fat
took on the role of Wisely. The Seventh Curse has taken on the sheen of a
cult classic over the years, but The Cat has not fared nearly so well. Perhaps
unfairly.
If The Seventh Curse is a terrific B-movie, then I would have to categorize
The Cat as a reasonably enjoyable C-movie. It has some wonderfully ludicrous
moments and contains echoes of The Terminator, The Blob and numerous low budget
alien exploitation films from the 50’s. Lots of low rent special effects come
your way that are too cheesy not to appreciate on some level – and the film
rarely slows down for a moment – unless it is to focus in a nearly fetishistic
manner on the sweat dripping off of Christine Ng (Wisely’s girlfriend) in
a truly odd selection of camera shots! This film may also have one of the
greatest fights in HK film – between a cat and a dog that is. Animal lovers
beware!
Wisely is brought into the odd case by a friend who has been kept awake
at night by the pounding of his upstairs neighbors. He knocks on their door
only to be met by the strange appearance of an elderly gentleman (Lau Siu-ming)
and a lovely but vacant looking young woman (Gloria Yip) holding her black
as night cat. After they depart one day, he finds bloody intestines in their
apartment and calls in Wisely and a police friend (Phillip Kwok) to investigate.
After a museum theft of an ancient mysterious object in which numerous guards
are horribly murdered, Wisely tracks down the secretive couple, but is nearly
killed by their ferocious cat. He later decides that the best way to fight
a cat is to get a dog – and he finds one of the most enormous dogs imaginable.
This leads to a scene that is incredibly bizarre even by HK film standards
– as the two animals battle it out for what must have been ten minutes – ripping
into one another with the force of a freight trains that would have many
Americans picketing the movie theater. Now I am used to most humans in HK
films knowing kung fu – but not a cat! This cat is a kung fu master and performs
some amazing stunts – and though this cat claims to do all his own stunts
– I am reasonably sure I detected some stunt cat doubles being used. In truth,
there are clearly often puppets and other cinematic means being utilized
– and I am sure no cat or dog was hurt filming this movie. Uh-huh.
Wisely finally realizes that he has been fighting the good aliens who have
been sent from a distant star to stop an evil alien from destroying the earth.
Only the cat – that Wisely did his best to kill – can save the world. This
alien can possess humans – though their eyeballs tend to pop out – but it
is also growing monstrously fast – blob like – tentacles – all very gooey
– and it is sucking people in like melting Popsicles – can the world be saved?
If ever you find yourself in the mood for a fun and totally low budget HK
sci-fi film – of which there are very few – this might fit the bill.
