Till Death Do We Scare
Director: Lar Kar-wing
Year: 1982
Rating: 6.0
This is an early comedy from Cinema City in Hong Kong. That pretty much says
everything you need to know if you are familiar with their work. Formed in
1980 by Karl Maka, Dean Shek and Raymond Wong with Sam Hui, Tsui Hark and
Eric Tsang coming aboard later, it produced a slew of mid-brow comedies through
the 1980s. Some like the Aces Go Places, All the Wrong Clues, All the Wrong
Spies, Thirty Million Dollar Rush are held in good regard - and The
Happy Ghost series with the Happy Troupe Girls has its fans (that would be
me) - but the vast majority of these comedies have basically become forgotten
and are hard to find anymore. They are silly, juvenile, full of stunts, hijinks,
word play and physical comedy - but in the end some of them can be quite
amusing. This one is as stupid as a horse talking politics but I had a bunch
of laugh out loud moments and then felt slightly embarrassed. Because it
is so idiotic. It also somehow managed to get the services of Tom Savini
who did the special effects - his credits include a number of films for George
Romero. So it is fitting that this is about ghosts. Funny ghosts. As I was
watching this I kept thinking, that was a really good special effect - especially
some of the facial changing ones - and this is the reason why.
Irene (Olivia Cheng) is having trouble keeping a husband. Three of them have
died. Walter Fink (David Chiang) a third rate actor in a freak Rube Goldberg
accident, Boss Butch (Wong Ching) the head of a triad when a sparrow flies
into his mouth and chokes him and Reverend Pik (Raymond Wong) when he is
scared to death. She acquires the nickname The Black Widow and not surprisingly
finds another husband hard to find. She also has three ghosts in the house
- the ex-husbands - who are jealous of any man. But then it dawns on them
that if she kills herself there will be no one left to pray for them, put
their picture on the wall and feed them. So they decide to find her a husband.
That turns out to be Bruce (Alan Tam) who along with his partner Bibot Tam
aka Fat Bottom (Eric Tsang) produce a scary if inept horror show.
It gets a little strange as they try to assist him in courting Irene but
not sleeping with her. Such as pulling up his pants when he is wants to join
her in the shower. They also very much enjoy playing practical jokes on Bibot.
Absolutely dimwitted but quite clever at times and funny in moments. Bruce
is persuaded by a ghost that to win Irene's hand he needs to go to a haunted
temple and steal the pearl inside the mouth of the dead Ghost King (Lau Yat-fan).
Instead, he and Bibot end up at the yearly Ghost Ball and have the daughter
of the Ghost King want to marry them. Till they realize they are human. Directed
by Lar Kar-wing, best known for his martial arts as an actor and choreographer,
written by Raymond Wong and Clifton Ko and produced by Wong, Mak and Shek.
A lot of comedy talent there. Frantic with lots of antics.
