The Trail
Director: Ronnie Yu
Year: 1983
Rating: 6.0
This is a fairly obscure Hong Kong film considering the talent behind
the camera. Directing is Ronnie Yu who helmed three certified classics -
The Bride with White Hair, The Phantom Lover and Fearless. Like a few other
Hong Kong directors around the time of the Handover in 1997, Yu tiptoed into
Hollywood to direct a couple films that were well below his talent, The Bride
of Chucky and Freddy vs Jason. Admittedly, Bride is fabulous. The Trail is
early in his career. Then writing the film with Yu is Michael Hui, the biggest
comic star in Hong Kong in the 1970s.
With Hui writing and a couple actors best known for their comedies, one might
expect laughs from this film but it surprises you by playing its horror fairly
straight suspenseful. It does pause from time to time for some mild amusement,
a bath scene in which a man is hiding beneath the soapy water with a woman
(Tanny Tien) while her husband shaves her (his) legs being the main one.
But these few bits almost feel like throwaways to the audience. Yu wants
to make a tense vampire film and he does.
Taking place in 1922, opium smugglers take on the guise of a Taoist priest,
his assistant and four hopping vampires in order to get through military
checkpoints. This group is quite a crew of actors - Kent Cheng, Ricky Hui
(brother of Michael), Chung Fat, Anthony Chan and Mars - all well known supporting
actors at the time. Circumstances force them to take a real corpse that they
lose in a pond of sulphur water. This re-animates it and it comes back looking
for vengeance. Instead of running away as they would in a HK comedy, they
decide to hunt it down armed only with yellow paper, nets and that old standby,
urine from virgins. But again it is not played for laughs as it turns very
deadly. Also appearing are Walter Tso and Fung Fung, famous for his crooked
mouth. Produced by Golden Harvest. Agnes Chan sings the theme song. Unexpectedly
enjoyable film.
