Rating: ***
Review Date: 10/22/99
Cast: Philip Ko, Tsui Siu Keung (Norman Chu), Maria Jo (Yuen Chi Wai)
A cautionary tale about the dangers of witchcraft, this shockingly over-the-top gross-out fest from Shaw Brothers really delivers for fans of drive-in movie exploitation fare. Philip Ko is a taxi driver who accidentally runs into a witch doctor with his car. Too bad for him, this brush with the supernatural spells certain doom for his future. His beautiful wife of only three months (Maria Jo) takes a liking to sleazy Norman Chu and has an affair with him. After he refuses to get a divorce and marry her, she is brutally raped and killed by a couple of street thugs. Philip is immediately suspected of the murder, and out of frustration he takes the law into his own hands, resulting in him becoming crippled. He finally goes back to the witch doctor and forces him to help him get revenge on those who wronged his wife. The last half of the film features her vengeful spirit delivering justice in a series of ultra-disgusting set pieces. One guy vomits worms (that is SO nasty...) while his buddy's lower back explodes. The ghost then uses his shattered body to impregnate herself with a demon child to finish off her job. This "love scene" takes place between an animated spirit and a desicated corpse. Wow. Meanwhile, Norman's wife becomes possessed and the witch doctor has to battle a bunch of Buddhist priests who are trying to free her. He eventually loses, but the ghost's demon child has somehow managed to manifest itself in Norman's wife. One evening while playing mahjong, her abdomen explodes, freeing a horrible placenta with tentacles and teeth! It proceeds to attack everyone in the house, but its real target is Norman, who finally gives up the ghost. A well placed shotgun blast takes care of the hideous monster as the credits roll.
Wow, what else can I say? At first the film looks like a softcore sex romp, and in the first fifteen minutes we see Maria Jo running naked on the beach (in slow motion, of course), taking a lengthy shower, making love to Norman Chu, and getting brutally raped. Then the film shifts radically, and the next fifteen minutes play out like a police procedural. After that, the film shifts gears again and things start falling into place as the remainder of the film is pure gross-out horror fare. It was a surprise and a disappointment to see Maria Jo in such an exploitive role, since I hold her in such high esteem for her unmatchable performance in the femme fatale classic, "Lethal Panther" (1990). Even more surprising was seeing kung fu actors Philip Ko and Norman Chu in non-action roles, performing love scenes instead of fight scenes! Too weird...