The Spooky Bunch
Directed by Ann Hui
Year: 1980
Rating: 7.5
In any discussion of the New Wave films of the early 1980’s, this film and
its director Ann Hui is always center stage along with a few other directors.
The connective tissue that binds the directors of this film movement is not
always easy to discern. Their film styles and film subjects were not really
similar – from dramas to social issues to Wuxia to action and to the supernatural
as this film is. But what they had in common was that many of them had gone
to film schools in the West, learned their craft in Hong Kong TV and brought
a new sensibility to film when they had an opportunity. And made them in
Cantonese. Many of these directors had careers that faded out fairly quickly
– ones like Dennis Yu, Alex Cheung, Allen Fong, Kirk Wong, Clifford Choi
– and it is difficult to even find their films any more. The most successful
of the New Wave directors was Tsui Hark but the films that he made within
the New Wave catalog were all bombs (though quite wonderful) and he quickly
shifted to more commercial films. Patrick Tam has made some great films but
his output has been very slow and sporadic over the years. Yim Ho is similar
– not a lot of films but usually well-received by critics.
Then there is Ann Hui who has consistently been making films since her 1979
debut The Secret. She has really stuck to her guns, making films that are
serious and meaningful to her with only the occasional foray into more commercial
films like Visible Secret which was a return for her to the supernatural,
a two part historical Wuxia film in 1987 called Princess Fragrance and The
Romance of Book and Sword and a film for the Shaw Brothers near the end of
their era called Love in a Fallen City with Chow Yun Fat and Cora Miao who
had also starred in a previous film of hers, The Story of Woo Viet. Most
of her films have not exactly been box office bonanzas yet she continues
to get funding for new ones and in fact her films over the past few years
have been some of her most acclaimed. Many of her earlier films are also
not easy to find any more on any platform which is a shame. The Secret is
available only on Blue Ray at the Hong Kong Film Archives in person and as
far as I know Spooky Bunch has not been released on DVD. The copy I finally
watched after giving up on a nice clean version was ripped off a VHS years
ago when Chinatown had rental stores and 40% of the white sub-titles are
lost in the background. Some people seem to have seen it at festivals so
there must be a print around.
Her second film Spooky Bunch is rather fascinating – as helter skelter as
one can imagine with tonal shifts and scene changes that come at you in rapid
fire. Primarily a supernatural comedy but also with a few deaths along the
way, it stars Josephine Siao who was at the time one of the most popular
actresses in Hong Kong film history with hundreds of idol films she had made
in the 1960s. She was past idol age now and was looking for a challenge and
so produced this for Ann Hui who had a few big successes in TV directing
but not much of an established film resume. This film along with Sammo Hung’s
Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980) jump started a new trend in loads of
supernatural films in the 80’s. It also stars Kenny Bee who was also a star
at the time. Hui has never had trouble getting stars to act in her films
– Maggie, Brigitte, Anita Mui, Shu Qi, Andy Lau, Michelle Yeoh have all been
in her films.
An elderly man has hired a moth-eaten Chinese opera troupe to come to Cheung
Chau Island (off of Hong Kong) to perform for him and the community. He has
an ulterior motive though other than liking second rate Opera. He thinks
a former dead business partner of his put a curse on his family and so he
has tracked down the only remaining descendent of the partner – Ah Chi (Josephine)
who is a supporting member of the troupe - and wants his nephew Dick (Bee)
to marry her and thus get rid of the curse. Or so he hopes. He asks for Ah
Chi to be the lead though she is totally incompetent and a complete airhead
– kind of like Lucy Ricardo always wanting to get in show business. Siao
makes her character totally dimwitted but very adorable as she just never
really figures out what is going on around her. Which is ghosts. Everywhere
looking for revenge against her and Dick, The old man has it all wrong –
it isn’t a curse – but a group of soldiers that died because of bad medicine
sold to them by him and has partner years ago.
It gets loony and frantic as ghosts keep possessing live people – Cat Shit
being one who wants to harm no one but others who do. Lots of running around
– some wonderful back stage scenes that are full of detail and interaction
between the troupe that feels authentic, overlapping conversations at the
light of speed, great camera placement and movement within confined quarters,
chaos being the order of the day and performances on stage that go completely
off script due to Ah Chi and ghosts and the audience loving it. When Dick
tries to explain to Ah Chi that ghosts are trying to kill her and they need
to leave, her response is but I am the lead of the Opera. My big chance.
Ya, to die. The film is at times hard to follow – the invisible subs don’t
help – and it goes a mile a minute with lots of cultural Chinese elements
that probably whizzed by me. You sort of wish you could slow it down a bit
to catch up, but Hui shows a very able hand to do comedy (not something she
does a lot of) and interweaving all the various characters in the film. Hopefully,
someday a DVD will emerge and I will understand it all better. Hui's next
two films - The Story of Woo Viet and Boat People - were very interesting
downbeat contemplative subjects unlike almost anything else being made in
Hong Kong and were to be much more the model she was to follow in her career
rather than The Spooky Bunch.
