Director: To Man-bo
Year: 1988
Rating: 6.0
I have to admit to having a weakness for these
low budget Hong Kong supernatural horror films chock full of fog, colored
lights, worms, ghosts, evil spirits, cheesy special effects, dim-witted comedy,
spells and counter-spells. These films were only made in Hong Kong and they
have a special place in my heart. I don't know why. They are not at all scary
or competently made but they give it a good effort. This was directed by
Ta Man-bo who made a similar film Bloody Sorcery just two years previously
and directed The Devil Sorcery in between. All three films had Kwan Hoi-san,
Ku Feng and Alan Chan in them. Sort of like Scorsese and De Niro. Interestingly,
he was assistant director on Enter the Dragon and then went on to make a
bunch of Bruce Lee clone movies.
Wei (Emily Chu) and Chan Che (Sun Xing) are a happily married couple and
she is pregnant. They go to visit their Uncle (Kwan Hoi-san) who is also
a Taoist priest. Chan tells him that he is going to Thailand with a few of
his fellow police friends just for a holiday. Uncle raises his hands in protest
"There are many evil spells in that country. There are heads that have been
cut off that float around. Try and avoid them". True. Every now and then
I see one on the Metro and people just shy away as if it is a bum with a
bad smell. New Yorkers know about that. His friends (Alan Chan being one)
are there to woo girls but Chan has no interest. He loves his wife. But evil
can show up on your doorstep. He sees a thief steal the wallet of a woman
and gives chase - in a decent action scene he gets it back and gives it to
the Thai woman. She thanks him and tells him her name is Chuma. What she
doesn't tell him is that her father (Ku Feng) is a wizard.
And she has learned a bit from watching. She mixes a love/sex potion with
the help of a sprit caged up and goes to Chan's room and slips it into his
drink. Heated sex scene to follow. This was Sun Xing's debut film and he
gets to roll in the sheets with a naked woman - he must have been thinking,
I like this acting thing. He goes back to Hong Kong and forgets about her.
She doesn't and with the help of her little friend in the box starts harassing
him with long distance spells. When that doesn't work she goes to Hong Kong
and makes his life a living hell. He tries to strangle sweet Emily and horrible
things follow. Emily's cousin and daughter to the Uncle (the very cute
Yip Yuk-ping) comes up with an ingenious plan to fight the Thai woman. By
reading her father's book for five minutes. A quick study.
Then for about ten minutes it becomes a Wong Jing ghost comedy and finally
a fun showdown between everybody with spells being thrown around like confetti
on New Year's Eve. Yet another film that warns Hong Kongers not to travel
to South East Asia. It is a genre unto itself and in fact I don't see many
Hong Kong tourists here. Lots of Mainlanders though (pre-covid of course).
They probably never got to see these movies.
