Hocus Pocus
Director: Chin Yuet-sang
Year: 1984
Rating: 6.0
Sammo Hung is only credited with being the producer for this
film but his mark is all over it from many of the actors being from his personal
group of stuntmen that he used in so many of his films during this period
to the subject matter of the film. It is a supernatural kung fu comedy that
he had pretty much invented with Encounters of the Spooky Kind in 1980 and
then followed up in 1982 with The Dead and the Deadly. The percentage mix
of action, comedy and the supernatural shifts in the films but they all have
elements of them. In Hocus Pocus for me it shifts way too much to goofy slapstick
comedy but still manages to have a few terrific scenes of acrobatics, action
and some wonderful bits of Chinese Opera (not singing - just beautiful and
graceful movement).
It is a period piece though exactly when I can't say and I don't expect it
matters other than ghosts are part of the accepted landscape. It begins with
the Opera leader Master Sheng (Lam Ching-ying) relaying to his troupe a story
that happened to him years before when the Opera performed in a theater and
were well paid only to find out the next morning when they woke up that they
had performed to ghosts and that the theater and money were not real. From
this point ghosts or the fear of ghosts push the film along.
Lam Ching-ying is a legend in Hong Kong though he passed away at the relatively
young age of 45. He had studied at a Peking Opera school as did so many of
these stuntmen back then. In the early 1970's you can begin to spot him as
an extra in lots of films but over the years his roles grew larger as did
his reputation as a remarkable martial artist on screen. He joined up with
Sammo and the two worked together for years. But it wasn't until 1985 with
the classic Mr. Vampire that he really became famous as the exorcist battling
Hopping Vampires. He became so popular in this role that he made a ton more
supernatural films with the same themes basically. Hocus Pocus was a year
before Mr. Vampire and he doesn't get to do as much action as you would wish.
Much of the film centers on one of the troupe members who provides the comedy
with a series of practical jokes about ghosts. Kuei is played by Stephen
Tung Wai who never made it as an actor though he was in a lot of films but
as an Action Choreographer there were few better. His resume of films is
pretty astonishing - A Better Tomorrow, Magnificent Warriors, Fox Hunter,
The Blade, A Taste of Killing and Romance - right up to today with Kung Fu
Jungle and Operation Mekong.
The kidding about ghosts goes on for too long - like urinating on an urn
and the ghost yelling at him to an elaborate practical joke on one of the
haughty members (Law Ho-kai) but eventually a real Wandering Ghost (Chin
Yuet-sang who also directs the film) shows up - a mischievous one who at
one point possess Law - where he is unpossessed the old-fashioned way - by
having a baby pee on him. You may need to know that some day. And finally
a nasty ghost shows up and they try and trap him with nets and dog's blood
- remember that too just in case. The final 20 minutes is frantic and crazy
with people and ghosts flying through the air and crashing through walls
- but it took a long while to get there.
