Gu (1981)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Chih-Hung Kuei

Writer:

On Szeto (writer)

Release Date:

11 September 1981 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

While possessed by an evil spirit, a man murders his daughter. A police detective investigating the case also becomes possessed. A good monk helps fight the evil spirit. |

Cast

Fei Ai	...	Stephen Lam Wai
Hussin Bin Abu Hassan	...	Exorcist priest
Lap Ban Chan
Lily Chan	...	Bon Brown
Chun Chin
Miao Ching	...	Judge
Piao Chin
Kwok-Kwong Choi
Kin Ping Chow
Fanny Fen-ni	...	Mary
Sau Kei Lee
Jenny Liang
Shang Yun Liang
Wei Tu Lin
Chun Liu
Gwan Tak Tai
Ying Tan
Leng Gwong Wan
Melvin Wong	...	Bobby Wong King-Sun
Siu Ming Wong
Pei-chin Wu
Chih-Ching Yang

Also Known As:

Bewitched (Hong Kong: English title)

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese | Mandarin | Thai

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Shaw Brothers

Moral: Don't Jilt Your Thai Girlfriend

The first film of Kwei Chih-Hung I ever saw was the indescribable Mo (Boxer's Omen) so working backwards I just had the chance to watch his previous outing into the world of Thai black magic.

A policeman investigating the horrid death of a five-year old girl is led to Thailand where he encounters black magic and eventually a series of horrible curses are placed on him to prevent his solving the mystery. That description makes the film sound reasonable if not a bit boring but believe me it's not boring! We are witness to lots of sights including, a six inch nail being pulled from the corpse of a five year old girl, an extended spell battle between a monk and a sorcerer, a séance with floating skulls and twigs that write plus exploding bats. We also learn many useful things such as how to extract oil from the rotting corpse of a pregnant woman, or that eating maggots gives you super evil powers, or that if you discover a loved one is eating raw pork liver at night, all may not be well. All this commotion is because a callous Hong Kong tourist didn't come back to his Thai lover by a certain date. She happily causes the death of several people and is willing to kill more so her ex-lover dies a protracted death. And strangely she somehow convinces a black magic priest to go along with this despite the pain and danger he goes thru when a Buddhist priest volunteers to fight back.

It's quite an experience but it falls apart by the final third and the ending looks like they ran over budget and Mona Fong said, "You have one night to finish this film and send those Thai actors back!". So they shot the ending in a HK airport terminal. Regardless, the film looks quite good at times with interesting art direction and photography. There's a bit of nudity when the Thai girlfriend goes for a slow motion swim, but most of the film is just silly looking but gross effects.

Fun but "Mo" is more fun.