Bedevilled
Director: Lo Wei
Year: 1975
Rating: 5.0
A Golden Harvest Production. Most of their films
up to this point were kung fu or modern action films, but here they aim for
something out of the supernatural. It is directed by Lo Wei who after leaving
the Shaw Brothers had signed up with Golden Harvest and in their early days
directed some of their better action films with Jimmy Wang-yu, Nora Miao,
Polly Shang-kuan and of course Bruce Lee. He misses the mark here though
with a film paced like a dying horse with a broken leg. It just drags. The
best part was the opening credit sequence of grinning skulls which raised
my hopes. But it quickly settles into a crime story followed by a man being
corrupted and then finally the ghosts show up. By which time you are likely
to have lost interest. To its credit it is shot very nicely by cinematographer
Cheung Yiu-cho who also has on his resume many of the Jackie Chan films of
the 1980s.
The son (Dean Shek) of a wealthy man enters
into a small restaurant and harasses the wife of the owner. Then he forces
her into the back and attempts to rape her. The husband Tseng (James Tin-chuen)
comes back and they find the son dead (Dean Shek being killed early on is
always a plus) and the wife gone. For some reason Tseng is set up as the
killer - we never find out why or who killed Shek. It is kind of forgotten
about. Tseng is brought in front of the Magistrate (Ko Chun-hsiung) who has
a reputation for being honest and fair. Until a load of silver is placed
in front of him to sentence Tseng to execution by the father. Again why?
One death leads to others and they nearly all become ghosts - or is it just
in the Magistrates guilty mind. Lots of flying heads.
An interesting aspect is who plays the wife.
Ike Reiko in her only Hong Kong appearance. That may not be a familiar name
to Hong Kong fans but to fans of Japan's Pinky Violence films she is a star.
Even though her career was short - 1971 to 1975 - she appeared in many of
the highlights of the genre - at some point almost always disrobing. Does
she here, some might ask. Oh ya. Often. Lee Kwan, Ou-yang Sha-fei and Michelle
Yim (Butterfly Murders and We're Going to Eat You) appear as well. Not a
scare to be had.
