The Beheaded 1000
Director: Ting Shan-hsi
Year: 1991
Rating: 6.0
AKA - The Executioner
Everyone likes round numbers. The Top 100 or Best 20. This also goes for
public executioners. Ren De Tie is an executioner for the government and
he is planning to retire when he hits 1,000 executions. He is getting close.
As the film begins he has three beheadings for the day - a trifecta as crowds
come out to watch and cheer him on - all members of the Blood Gang - and
this will make it 997. Ren is an artist though and a man who takes pride
in his work. He makes the chopping painless to the victim - one clean slice
- and makes sure the head doesn't touch the ground with some nifty moves.
One of the detached heads compliments him for a job well done. Yes, that's
right. Giving a slight indication of how bizarre this film is.
This Taiwanese Hong Kong 1991 production is as nutty as a Christmas fruitcake.
It is a supernatural fantasy period film that swings wildly between pathos,
humor and action that keeps you entertained to some degree but at the same
time you are always aware just how idiotic it is. It is full of special effects
that are so bad that a teenager in his bedroom with a computer today could
do a better job. It has a lot of green bolts across the screen, ghosts and
some flying that stayed up longer than a Boeing jet - but the best special
effect isn't really a special effect at all - it is the face of Joey Wong
with eyes so sorrowful that they feel like a chorus of crying angels.
Even though she is a psychotic killer in this one. She is Blood Lotus and
the number 2 in the Blood Gang. She is so bad that at one point a man who
idolizes her tells her how much he loves her and she castrates him while
he is doing so - ouch - talk about rejection. Another time she does an Untold
Story with some pork buns. But those eyes could melt an iceberg. Being an
executioner has a certain karma attached to it and in the end the ghosts
of the Blood Gang come looking for revenge and it gets even weirder with
children spilling out of beans and giant green spiders. This film never wants
to end though - it has like three or four natural endings but just keeps
going - and going - getting to over 2 hours which is really long for a Hong
Kong film in those days.
A very solid cast here - the Executioner is played by Jimmy Wang Yu, legend
from the Shaw Brothers days and this was to be his last film for nearly 20
years. Joey of course who was a staple in supernatural films ever since her
role in the Chinese Ghost Story films - as was Wu Ma who appears as the Guardian
of Hell. Pauline Wong is his ghost sister, Chin Siu-ho is the Executioner's
incompetent apprentice and Monica Chan plays the daughter. This is just a
wacky film - much too long - terrible special effects but director Ting Shan-Hsi
(800 Heroes, A Queen's Ransom, Magnificent 72) throws everything at the screen
hoping some of it might stick. This was to be his last film.
