Monday, January 15, 2024

80's Chih-Hung Kuei Horror Part One

CHE DAU CHE
(1980)
Overall: WOOF

As many terrible horror comedies can attest to which certainly includes this one, it is often tricky to meld the two genres successfully.  The Shaw Brothers' Che dau che, (Hex vs. Witchcraft), has the even more questionable misfortune of being an insensitive product of its time which makes continual and comedic light of rape, public nudity, genital mutilation, addiction, and overall deplorable behavior.  The film's protagonist is an unrepentant loser who is pathetically hooked on gambling to the point where he tries to get his wife raped by a gangster that he owes money to, only for her to end up logically leaving him alone and at the mercy of a ghost who then also marries him and possesses just about every other character that comes on screen from that point on.  This naturally gives way to wacky scene after wacky scene of both attractive and unattractive women as well as men all getting to act daintily and sultry while under her spell, usually while trying to rape some more.  It if all sounds like a hilarious hoot then you are the target audience for the type of off-color taste that the movie was going for.  The rest of us on the other hand besides being put off by the very ickiness of the content, will surely be put off by the monotonous, wretchedly unamusing presentation.
 
HEX
(1980)
Overall: MEH

A tonally confused combination of supernatural infidelity drama, slapstick, and bizarre eroticism for a single ridiculous scene, Hex, (Xie), finds co-writer/director Chih-Hung Kuei scratching his usual oddball itch.  A smorgasbord of mystical horror films were dropped in both Hong Kong and Indonesia in the early 80s, nearly all of which involved ghostly activity and/or black magic ceremonies.  This particular film is no different in this respect, but what makes it unique is not exactly what makes it "good".  The first act is played deadly serious, but is also downright difficult to watch as Jung Wang repeatedly, (make that very repeatedly), beats the shit out of his wife and servants to such an extend that the audience will quickly get annoyed that his victims do not kill with him sooner.  This is followed by a Les Diaboliques-styled switcheroo which oddly introduces all of the ghostly elements and absurd comic relief where characters spasm wildly, swing weapons around, and piss their pants at anything that is supposed to be spooky and atmospheric.  Also, the perplexingly unfunny, cross-eyed comic relief character actor Tau Wan Yue bafoons his way through all of his lines, though he is less cringy as he was in the same year's Che Dau Che, also directed by Kuei.  Then Ni Tien, (who up until this point has been victimized with her clothes on), gets completely naked in the finale and gyrates her body to an interpretive dance ritual while being exorcised and having blood spat upon her tits.   So again, whatever that is about.
 
CORPSE MANIA
(1981)
Overall: MEH

Hong Kong filmmaker Chih-Hung Kuei's Corpse Mania, (Shi yao), serves as a rare slasher/giallo entry in the Shaw Brothers cannon.  Granted it does not strictly adhere to such established motifs, (the killer's victims are not predictably broadcasted and he does not wear black gloves, per two examples), but the plot line still revolves around a weird pervert who murders mostly women in gruesome fashions.  Well, or so one would think as the last four minutes drop a rug-pull on us that is comparatively less absurd than many from the more outrageous giallos out there.  In fact the tone and structure here is more specifically in line with German Krimis movies with its wet, fog-ridden, Jack the Ripper-worthy location and emphasis on the police procedural aspects of such violent murder stories.  On that note, the movie is atmospheric visually and Kuei knows when to cut the music out to emphasis suspense, even if such a tactic was already becoming a cliche for films of the slasher variety.  For better or worse and depending on the viewer, this lacks the head-scratching wackiness of most Shaw Brothers products, but the kill scenes are plenty brutal with a guy getting his neck sliced while being held underwater and a woman's face bizarrely turning into mushy, multi-colored slime after being thrown off of a balcony.

BEWITCHED
(1981)
Overall: GOOD
 
Part gross-out exploitation, part atmospheric mysticism, part unintentional comedy, part black magic instruction manual, Bewitched, (Gu), is a fitting precursor to director Chih-Hung Kuei's off-the-rails The Boxer's Omen.  The film works best when it dedicates itself to detailed and often times disgusting depictions of elaborate incantations, flashing the names of what spells are being cast on screen with narration describing their specific construction and effect.  Such sequences are drawn out either to silence or chanting, both of which provide the appropriate, eerie atmosphere.  This along with some evocative color schemes and garish gore make for an aesthetic that is fetching and/or nauseating.  Plot-wise, there is not much to On Szeto's script, so the movie loses momentum when it stops to let characters deliver dialog, plus there are several establishing shots and brief detours that are unnecessary to anything going on.  Thankfully though, it only drops the ball in this respect at sparse intervals, ultimately making way for more maggot eating, fetus blood drinking, child murdering, and puss exploding.  Not for the faint of heart yet silly enough to not take seriously, it is an effective mess with enough memorable, insane, and macabre moments to forgive its crude shortcomings.

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