Mo (1983)

Director:

Chih-Hung Kuei

Writers:

Chih-Hung Kuei (story)
On Szeto (screenplay)

Release Date:

21 November 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Plot Keywords:

Surrealism | Female Nudity | Eel | Ghost | Crocodile

Cast

Somjai Boomsong
Tien-chu Chin	...	Bellman
Phillip Ko		(as Phillip Kao)
You-hsing Lai
Wai Lam
Hak Shun Leung
Chih Tai Lin
Xiaoyen Lin
Chun Liu
Han-yuan Ma
Edmund P. Meneses
Major Oponpa
Victor B. Pumicpic
Gwa-pau Sai
Rolando San-Juan
Elvis Tsui
Lung Wei Wang
Jiawen Wei
Bolo Yeung	...	Mr. Bu-bo - the Thai Boxer
Hsiang Lin Yin

Also Known As:

The Boxer's Omen (Hong Kong: English title)

Runtime:

105 min | USA:99 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin | Cantonese | Tagalog

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Shaw Brothers

Movie Connections:

References Phantasm (1979)

Beyond awesome!

A shady Chinese boxer gets caught up in a web of fate, buddhism and black magic when he's in Thailand to avenge his brother who was crippled in a dirty fight with a thai boxer. It turns out in a past life he was the twin brother of a enlightened buddhist monk, who is now preserved in a state between life and death after being poison-spelled by a powerful black magician who wanted to stop him to reach full enlightenment and eternal life. Only the power of Buddah stops the semi-dead monk's body from decomposing, and since their fates are linked from previous lives, when the monk finally decomposes the boxer will die too... a horrible, messy death! So the boxer has to become a taoist monk and beat the black magician to break the poisonous spell and save his life and the eternal life of his ex-twin brother (are you confused yet?). But the black magician has a few cards up his sleeve too... or rather decks and decks of 'em to! The final battle between good and evil that takes place is in an inferno of laser beams, crocodile carcasses, weird magic, maggots, bats, magic relics, devouring of disgusting foods, adult baby birth, monk chanting, puke eating, monsters etc. etc. etc... You could go on and on and on!

At the risk of sounding like a fashion-blogger: GAH! OMG! I can't believe I haven't seen this before! All I can say is do believe the hype because this is an amazing slice of HK black magic-weirdness. And best of all it's not only "so weird it's good" like movies like Devil Fetus or Wolf Devil Woman, it's actually a really good, original, well-crafted weird film with good actors, production values, lots and lots of imaginative effects and impressive trippy cinematography... visually it looks nothing else! All the actors work fine but extra credit goes to the guy who played the black magician (he's sort of like an though-to-be harmless, half-crazy old hobo who gets sudden outbursts of extreme anger) - best voodoo-style screen black magician ever! Genius! Not a guy I would let anywhere near a chicken farm though... A question: Did HK producers hire their cast at the geek section at their local freak show or was it considered a normal thing to eat maggots, kill animals and puke live barracudas (!) in Hong Kong movies?

Even though I didn't find it scary (a little bit disgusting maybe) I had WILD nightmares about witches and black magic all night tonight. I even woke up at five in the morning scared as hell, decided it was too good to miss and fell right back to sleep. It was like the film's sweetness continued in my dreams.

Sorry catholicism, paganism, old school (pre-LaVey) satanism & Jewish mysticism - close but no cigar, buddhism is now the coolest religion on the block. An absolute must-see!