The women who entered the Cat III film industry
did it for their own reasons and on their own volition, but even so there
are times when you have to feel awfully sorry for them. Sure, getting naked
is part of the business and you have to expect a bit of pretend torture,
a bit of embarrassment, some tomfoolery and of course a fair amount of
simulated foreplay and sex – but still, there should be limits to any one’s
endurance. And that should be having to get naked and entwined with Charlie
Cho. Cho was practically an institution in these types of films from the
1980’s through the 90’s – his leering lip licking smile is almost as much
a Hong Kong landmark as the Convention Center. How this came about I can’t
imagine but if the Book of Guinness Records has a stat for simulated sex
in movies, Charlie Cho’s name would have to be there (unless Elvis Tsui
beat him out by a whisker) beside it. Cho is the kind of guy you would
avoid sitting next to on the subway and if for some reason you had to then
you would want a long shower as soon as you got home. Not that he is an
ugly fellow – he just gives off such sweaty hentai vibes that you just
want to look at him out of the side of your eye. No doubt, as I have heard
about Elvis, in real life he is probably a wonderful guy with a loving
family but I sure would not accept an invitation to dinner at his house.
In Hunting Evil Spirit, lucky Charlie gets
down and dirty with three different actresses – in one instance for a really
lengthy and graphic grappling that had me reaching for the fast forward
button. He was not shy, nor was she. Maybe she is Mrs. Cho. He plays Mr.
Chen, an owner of a swimsuit and underwear manufacturing company and he
makes good use of the models that parade about – but his true passion is
Pauline (Pauline Chan) one of his designers. She has a boyfriend though
and wants nothing to do with Charlie and this frustrates him so much that
he naturally turns to a Taoist priest to aid him in his time of need –
“I want to fever” he tells the priest who goes by the apt name of Black
Magic (Fong Yau, who also gets co-directing credit if the word credit can
be used here). No problem – fever you will – and he sends Chen’s spirit
off to rape Pauline – who thinking this must be a dream, enjoys the experience
more than one would hope.
Later though she begins to worry – could this
have been a supernatural experience and so fortunately her boyfriend (Andy
Dai) has a female cousin who is a witch. Don’t we all. Suchi (Otomo Rena)
has an ever more powerful witch sister (Alvina Kong) named East Evil (which
sounds like a bad business decision – would you go see a witch with the
word “evil” attached to her?) but she is in Thailand getting a remedial
course after Black Magic bested her in an earlier encounter. Mr. Chen wants
more of course and so the two wizards battle for the possession of Pauline’s
body but then Black Magic throws in the Blood Spell and all bets are off.
Lots of nudity and cheap special effects are on hand – the only really
magical thing we witness are Pauline’s supernatural breasts in a shower
scene (among others) – where oddly she keeps her panties on – maybe something
she picked up from a Harry Potter book to ward off evil spirits?
My rating for this film: 4.0