Monday, September 25, 2023

70's Chih-Hung Kuei

THE KILLER SNAKES
(1974)
Overall: MEH

With The Killer Snakes, (She sha shou, The Sex Snakes, Se Sat Sau), the Shaw Brothers come to the rescue for anyone who wanted to see a reptilian version of Willard with the lead human protagonist being a sexually traumatized pervert.  The movie can be applauded for the relentlessly dour series of events that transpire, as much as it can be heralded for maintaining such a miserable tone.  Kwok-Leung Kam plays a hopelessly disturbed loser who never gets a single break throughout the hour and thirty-nine minute running time.  He is fired from his jobs, robbed every time that he has any money on his person, beaten to a pulp by hoodlums, laughed at by prostitutes and pedestrians alike, and his only friends are various snakes that are otherwise used for getting their gallbladders removed as a delicacy in restaurants.  The sadism angle is prominent as well, with Kam having witnessed, (presumably), his mother getting mercilessly beaten into ecstasy as a young boy, so now he fanatically struggles with such sexually violent temptations himself.  Things play out brutally and the Hong Kong slums setting is naturally captured by director Chih-Hung Kuei in all of its grimy glory.  It is not for most tastes, but it has plenty of exploitation hallmarks for the already initiated.
 
GUI YAN
(1974)
Overall: GOOD
 
Over-long and not without its share of plot holes, Gui Yan, (Ghost Eyes), remains one of the more interesting supernatural horror films from the Shaw Brothers.  This was director Chih-Hung Kuei's second crack at the genre and he and cinematographer Chi Yu do some top notch work with eerie color schemes and camera angles to create a visually compelling atmosphere that is as much Mario Bava inspired as it is fittingly rooted in the Shaw Brothers quick-edited template.  Whether it is merely a subtitle malfunction or a tweak on the screenwriter's part, this particular interpretation of "vampires" is unique to say the least.  An ophthalmologist gets burned up in a fire only to return three years later as a rapist ghost who terrorizes Szu-Chia Chen by way of otherworldly unremovable contact lenses.  There is no blood sucking to be found, but Wei Szu's nasty antagonist does have an aversion to mirrors at least.  He is also undone in part by incense sticks, presumably triggering his human demise by way of burning alive.  Thankfully, much of the rape and unwholesome murders happen off screen which may disappoint gore hounds and exploitation fans, but it actually allows for the film to focus on its dread-fueled mood where Chen is relentlessly hounded with seemingly no end in sight.  That said, the characters make some asinine decisions and obvious maneuvers allude them at times, but it still gets by on its sinister presentation.

FEARFUL INTERLUDE
(1975)
Dir - Chih-Hung Kuei
Overall: MEH

One of a handful of anthology horror films made by the Shaw Brothers in the 1970s, Fearful Interlude, (Gu zhi se lang), was allegedly commissioned as such due to its final, (and by far worst), segment being abandoned as a full-length during production.  Two more stories were then filmed, thus combining the three into its final form.  With no framing narrative, it simply presents them one after the other, each story with enough macabre details to thematically link them.  The first, best, shortest, and most self-explanatory is "The Haunted House" which utilizes the ole scenario of a guy with a lot of money betting his friends to stay the night in a specter-ridden abode.  Wonderfully photographed, it is loaded with spooky atmosphere and gets in and out before becoming too redundant.  This is followed by "The Cold Skeleton" which is overlong but is also properly atmospheric and concerns a grieving son who is tormented by his recently deceased mother that repeatedly returns from the grave, (or so he and the audience may think).  Sadly, the longest and worst of the lot "A Wolf of Ancient Times" closes things out and why this one was dropped as its own feature is wholly understandable.  This is because it features a "comedic", horse-toothed protagonist who not only disgustingly adheres to bygone, Western stereotypes of Asian people, but is also as funny as a gymnasium full of baby seals getting tortured while children cry.

SPIRIT OF THE RAPED
(1976)
Overall: MEH

Though it has the standard Shaw Brothers kinetic energy at regular intervals, Spirit of the Raped, (Suo ming), is too low on plot to captivate as much as it should.  The last horror film from director Chih-Hung Kuei at least until the 1980s rolled around, the vengeful spirit story is laid out within the first act where the husband in a newlywed couple is murdered at knife-point by a bunch of thugs, only for the widow to get swindled and then drugged and raped later on by a fresh crop of unrepentant, awful people.  It would be an exclusively miserable viewing experience if not for the bizarre and outlandish set pieces that keep things on the ridiculous side.  These include a woman turning into a bloated, vomit-eating, possessed, boil-covered lunatic, a guy getting a "ghost ulcer" that aggressively grows out of his neck, and another guy gouging his eyes out on spikes.  The gore is disgustingly gleeful for fans of the nonsensical variety and as far as comeuppance spectacles go, the movie delivers the bad guy justice with a fervor.  Sadly though, Kuang Ni and On Szeto's script forgot to include anything besides gross-out nonsense, with the story's sole victim disappearing into the otherworld early on and the bulk of the narrative being nothing more than horrible people dying by also horrible, arbitrarily supernatural means.  If that all sounds delightful then by all means, please partake.

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