1980s Chih-Hung Kuei Horror Part Two

XIE WAN ZAI XIE

(1982)

Overall: MEH

While not as grating as Che Dau Che which this serves as director Chi-Hung Kuei's immediate sequel to, Xie wan Zai xie, (Hex After Hex), still adheres to the same juvenile, absurdist shtick.  Taking place where the previous film left off yet thankfully leaving out said movie's obnoxious main character, this one has Lan-Hsi Liu as an adorable, arbitrarily prankster ghost who shacks up with a physically fit stuntman for no decipherable reason besides possible boredom.  She proceeds to playfully manipulate a shady real estate owner who is pushing her new boyfriend plus all of his fellow tenants out of their apartment complex, yet she does so by keeping her motives entirely to herself which only unnecessarily aggravates matters.  All for the sake of on-paper "comedy" though as it provides the movie with one nonsensical, immature set piece after the other where everyone performs in fast motion as prat falls, body odors, genitals, and various other low-hanging fruit gags are utilized.  These quickly grow annoying and the frantic pace still ends up feeling its length, but there are also moments that are so bizarre that they garnish genuine chuckles.  This includes Lan-Hsi turning into both a Yoda puppet and Darth Vader, plus a "Huh?" finale where a statue animates, reveals itself to be a slot machine, and then start puking up gold coins.

CURSE OF EVIL

(1982)

Overall: MEH

 

A typically wacky and messy supernatural horror concoction by the Shaw Brothers and director Chih-Hung Kuei who cranked out many such oddities in the latter half of his career, Curse of Evil, (Xie zhou, Che jau, Jinx), is the studio's twisted take on the old dark house film.  Here, the inhabitants of an overstuffed abode who almost exclusively refer to each other by their titles as opposed to their actual names all squabble, cry, gossip, get raped, and get murdered in aggravated fashion as a family secret about servants posing as relatives, (plus some stuff about piranha-like frogs and a reptilian like demon that lives in the bottom of a well), seems to be at the center of everything.  Not that On Szeto or Chin-Hua Tan's script spends much time logically explaining any of the events, even with a convoluted expository dump and flashback at the very end.  It is one of those confusingly plotted trainwrecks that throw so many indistinguishable characters at you while rapidly editing between scenes that the viewer is scarcely aware that there was a mystery to be unfolded in the first place.  Again, common for a Shaw Brothers production of the era whose primary agenda is to throw a bunch of nonsensical nudity and disgusting gore, slime, and vomit at the audience to keep them howling.

THE BOXER'S OMEN
(1983)
Overall: GOOD

If The Holy Mountain was Rocky IV and Housu at the same time, the result would be The Boxer's Omen, (Mó, Magic).  A film as wildly clashing as this is bound to raise some eyebrows as well as cause discomfort to many brains that are trying to make sense of the tonal shifts, but even though it feels like several different movies desperately duck-taped together, it is consistently bananas enough to endure.  A bonafide laundry list of "what in the goddamn fuck?" things like toy bats and spiders, vomit, puss bubbles, alien babies, munching skeletons, glowing tattoos, severed heads attacking with silly-string entrails, live eels getting barfed up, maggots crawling out of eye sockets, and a resurrection ritual involving a crocodile with too many other gross and batshit crazy details to explain or comprehend here all make an appearance before the film is even halfway done.  These moments do a solid job of carrying the comparatively slow third act through before the ending once again revs up the wackiness to alarming proportions.  As his penultimate film, director Chih-Hung Kuei was granted an adequate budget and pulls no punches in utilizing it to concoct one of the most feverishly strange genre movies to make it out of any country.

1980s 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.

1970s 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.