The Imp

   
Directed by Dennis Yu
Year: 1981
Rating: 8.0
I am rather amazed that I had never seen this till now. It is considered one of the highlights of the Hong Kong New Wave and also a breakthrough horror film. Perhaps I expected that I would be let down and so kept putting it off. But damn, this is great. There is a sense of dread and unease that flows through the film from start to finish like a long screech in the night. It mixes elements of Chinese supernatural horror of ghosts, a Taoist priest, feng shui along with the influences of Rosemary's Baby and The Sentinel and throws in enough gore and jump scares to satisfy most horror fans. But it is that unease that slowly creeps into your bones and settles there even past the ending of the film. Unlike so many Hong Kong horror films it brings in no comedy at all. Serious and unnerving. It paints a gritty depressing picture of Hong Kong overall - people living in dingy small apartments, trying to hang on to your job, financial worries and a city ripping down the old to put up the new - even if the old was haunted.






This is directed by Dennis Yu who is also placed into the New Wave bucket. Much of that I think has more to do with his career pre-feature films than the films he actually made. He followed in the same path as many of the other New Wave directors. Born in Hong Kong in 1950, he studied film abroad at the University of California and when he came back to Hong Kong he found employment at the TV station TVB, first as a scriptwriter and then as a director. A number of his TV films were serious social dramas and were critically acclaimed. Along with Ronnie Yu (Bride with White Hair) and Yim Ho (Red Dust) they formed a film company that produced The Extra and Yu's first film See-Bar. From what I have read (Hong Kong New Wave Cinema by Pak Tong-cheuk) this was a goofy comedy - nothing like his TV shows - and he used TV actors - one though being a guy called Chow Yun-fat.






Next he formed Century Motion Picture with Jeff Lau (A Chinese Odyssey, The Eagle Shooting Heroes) and his next two films were The Beasts (which I will soon get to) and The Imp. But after The Imp his career seemed to go off the rails - the mediocre Musical Singer, the decent but not great Evil Cat, City Hero and not much else. He only directed seven films, his last being in 1987. Not sure what the story is there but there has to be one. This film is so well directed - great editing, good use of cheap special effects (green lights, fog, moving chairs), creepy music, good acting and keeping the pace up all the time - never allowing it to flag. There was other talent as well involved - Joseph Koo composing the music, Ivan Lai as Assistant Director - he was to direct Daughter of Darkness I and Ii and The Imp in 1996 with Diana Pang Dang, the Script Supervisor was Fruit Chan, Bob Thompson who I know nothing about but as a cinematographer he also did Lonely Fifteen and Reign Behind the Curtain which he won awards for as well as Armour of God and Thirty Million Dollar Rush. The end result is a terrific film.






Keung (Charlie Chin who had been a huge star in Taiwanese romances often paired with Brigitte Lin) is out of work and having no luck. His wife Lan (Dorothy Yu) is pregnant and getting very irritable about his not having a job. As the film progresses her face gets whiter and whiter and her lipstick redder and redder. In the first clue that this will not be a kitchen sink drama is when a newspaper arrives and the "wind" blows it open to an ad for a job as a night security guard at a large office building. He gets the job and works amiably with his co-workers - Kent Cheng (called Fatty of course), Shaw star Chen Sing as Old Uncle Han and Wong Ching as the one who cooks a dog for all of them - with the bones. Things quickly start going weird for Keung - an elevator to Hell  - but he needs that job.




At a funeral he is seen by a Taoist priest who immediately recognizes some evil aura about him and offers to help. He is played by another Shaw star - Yueh Hua - who turns out to be overmatched by this evil and gives a terrific performance. The pace just keeps picking up and getting crazier. The baby is on its way. The Taoist Priest battles the supernatural and Keung has to find the evil before the baby is delivered and he has to go back to Hell. These days who knows what horror will scare people. It has moved so far from 1981 but this had me going. I loved that there was not a light moment in the entire film. Unless choking on a dog bone makes you laugh.