Three deranged Asian supernatural-themed excesses from the golden days of Shaw Brothers cinema are unleashed in an impressive box set from Imprint.
Founded by the wealthy Shanghai textile factory owner Run Run Shaw with his male siblings, Shaw Brothers became a phenomenal industry turning out hundreds of films- from action-packed Kung-Fu extravaganzas to whacked-out supernatural shockers. I was partial to the horror films they churned out in the late 70s and early 80s like Human Lanterns (1982), The Boxer’s Omen (1983), Corpse Mania (1981), Black Magic (1975), etc. Included in this set are two of my favorites- Seeding of a Ghost (1983) and The Oily Maniac (1976) and there’s one I’ve never even heard of- Sex Beyond the Grave (1984). I am so not used to seeing them look so beautiful on Blu-ray. When I used to stalk the DVD and VCD bins in Chinatown for some of these rare titles I was resigned to settle for blurry, crummy looking copies with ludicrous, nonsensical English subtitles (often more amusing then the movies themselves). But what a twisted treat these three are! And they all look amazing.
Seeding of a Ghost (1983) Director Kuen Yeung’s ghoulishly entertaining shocker about a cab driver named Chau (Phillip Ko Fei) who accidentally hits a mysterious old man. The stranger is a practitioner of black magic, who warns the cabbie of bad luck ahead. Boy, he isn’t kidding.
Chau’s wife, a dealer at a casino, begins an affair with a married man and then gets raped and killed by two punks. Chau returns to the old man, begging him to use black magic for revenge. They dig up the cabbie’s wife, rub coconut oil over the body and invoke supernatural horrors for all those responsible.
One guilty man spits up worms, another is sexually attacked by his sister and chased off a roof and the married man’s wife becomes possessed and even impregnated with a toothy, tentacled creature that bursts out of the wife’s stomach and goes on a rampage at a doctor’s house after a spirited mahjong game.
The whole gory ending defies description it’s so wild and demented. Extras include: “Ghosts and Ghouls,” with critic James Mudge, and “Seeding of a Trend: The Birth of Hong Kong Splatter Cinema” with filmmaker Calum Waddell.
The Oily Maniac (1976) Set in Malaysia, Shen Yuan (Danny Lee) has been a cripple from having polio at a young age. He works for a law firm and visits his girlfriend’s (Little Yue) father in prison on death row, who asks him to copy a strange tattoo on his back. The tattoo instructs him to dig a big hole in his house, climb in chanting “Please give me peace…and power” as bubbling black water envelopes him. It transforms him into an oily monster with glowing golden eyes. He glides under doors like the blob and then materializes, killing bad guys. He returns to his former shape and goes about his business. Anytime he wants to turn back he covers himself with motor oil or diesel fuel. This would be a great kiddie movie except for all the nudity and sleaze. This goofy 1976 film was directed by Ho Meng-Hua and is vaguely based on a Nanyang folk tale. There was a 1958 film about the “oily maniac,” but, unlike this avenging angel, he was a rapist monster.
Extras include an interview with supporting actor Jack Long called “Maniacal Memories.” “Oil and Water,” a conversation with the creator of Eastern Heroes magazine Ricky Baker, and “A Slippery Story,” with filmmaker Calum Waddell.
Sex Beyond the Grave (1984) (aka Love Beyond the Grave) At the Tao Tao Mansion on Christmas Eve during World War II, a husband, wife and child, fleeing from Japanese soldiers, attempt to seek shelter. But the wealthy home owner turns them over to the soldiers and the husband and son are killed and the wife sexually assaulted. Then she is raped again by the owner and killed for her jewelry. Soon after, everyone in the mansion mysteriously disappeared and the house is rumored to be haunted. Flash forward to modern day and a Tao relative is being hounded by loan sharks for huge gambling debts. He reluctantly agrees to sell the family mansion to his wife’s sister. She moves in with her 4-year-old son Nicky and mushroom-growing professor husband and weird things begin to happen. The rice turns into worms. A ghost kid appears in the fridge and causes it to fly across the room. The young son levitates and then plunges into the well and vanishes. A Catholic priest with a necklace of garlic is brought in for an exorcism. The wife has to be lowered down the well (into hell) to coax her son back to the real world. And yes, the vengeful female spirit haunting the house does come back for sex beyond the grave at the end. The disc extra, “Grave Encounters,” is author Victor Fan on this delirious doozy.
It’s unfortunate that two of these three titles also appear in latest Shaw set from Arrow.