Jiang tou (1975)

A magician makes money by charging people to cast love spells on the objects of their affection. Complications arise when he decides that he wants a customer's bride for himself.

Director:

Meng Hua Ho

Writer:

Kuang Ni

Stars:

Lung Ti, Lieh Lo, Ni Tien

Cast

Credited cast:
Lung Ti	...	Xu Nuo
Lieh Lo	...	Lang Jiajie
Ni Tien	...	Luo Yin (as Tanny)
Lily Li	...	Quming
Feng Ku	...	Shan Jianmi
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ping Chen	...	Ms Wang
Norman Chu
Dana	...	(as Tsen Shu-Yi)
Ti Hua Ko
Tsan-hsiung Ku
Wen Chung Ku	...	Shaman Fu-Yung
Sau Kei Lee
Feng Lin
Wei Tu Lin	...	Wei Te-shun
Ying Tan

Storyline

A magician makes money by charging people to cast love spells on the objects of their affection. Complications arise when he decides that he wants a customer's bride for himself.

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Plot Keywords:

spell | infatuation | gore | magic | cobra | 

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Taglines:

Those who did not believe in the voodoo curse never lived to tell!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Release Date:

2 October 1975 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Magia Negra

Filming Locations:

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shaw Brothers

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was picked up for distribution in America in 1979.

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Connections

Followed by Gou hun jiang tou (1976)

User Reviews

The film that ushered in a new wave of exploitative Hong Kong horror.

Ti Lung stars as construction worker Xu Nuo, who is the object of desire for his sexy millionaire boss Luo Yin (Ni Tien); however, despite the obvious attractions (horny woman hot for his body and bags of cash into the bargain), Xu Nuo remains faithful to his fiancé, teacher Quming (Lily Li)—at least until the desperate Luo visits evil sorcerer Sha Jianmai and pays him to whip her up a love potion...

Legendary Hong Kong martial arts studio Shaw Brothers had dabbled in supernatural horror before, producing spiritual romance movies, but it wasn't until 1975 that they started to embrace their trashier side, with Ho Meng Hua's Black Magic, a tale of evil sorcery and sex that introduced some of the more exploitative elements that would become staples of the genre in the years to come.

With Sha Jianmai's magic requiring such bizarre ingredients as a severed head, snake venom, a freshly exhumed corpse, rice that has been applied to a woman's vagina, severed fingers, centipedes, human breast milk, blood, hair and footprints trapped in mud, and the result of his spells being uncontrollable lust or sudden death, viewers can rest assured that this entertaining slice of wackiness delivers plenty of blood, gore, nudity and other assorted deviancy.

This being the first of its kind, it might not be quite as relentlessly nutzoid or as extreme as later, similarly themed films like Seeding of a Ghost, Corpse Mania or The Boxer's Omen, but it definitely has enough moments of madness to make it worthwhile, the action culminating with a particularly funny magical battle on a building site between Sha Jianmai and a benevolent magician, whose weapons include a skull emblazoned laser mirror, a shrunken head, and magical blue streaks of lightning.