Xiong mao (1987)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Dennis Yu

Writer:

Jing Wong (writer)

Release Date:

January 1987 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Comedy | Fantasy | Horror

Cast

Mark Cheng	...	Long
Gallen Law		(as Kar Leung Lau)
Chia-Liang Liu	...	Master Cheung
Yiu Fung Si
Lai-Ying Tang	...	Siu-Chuen Cheung
Suk Woon Tsui
Jing Wong	...	Inspector Wu
Sai-Kit Yung		(as Stuart Ong)

Also Known As:

Evil Cat (Hong Kong: English title)
Hung mau (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIA

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Dennis Yu Film Production Company Ltd.

Gore Mongral Movie Review: Evil Cat

Here we go again with another look at those off the wall films that are out there in the world. Boy do I have one for you today. It is a Chinese film titled Evil Cat. With a name like this your thinking what is it Morris the Cat going crazy killing people. Actually no in fact its more or less about a Demon that looks like a Thundercat (really cheap Thundercat) that needs to kill enough people as it jumps into human bodies to do this. The more kills the stronger it gets and it eventually will be able to take its true form and destroy the world...or something like that.

The movie starts off showing us a discovery of the chamber where the demon has been hidden then we flash to a man who we find out later is chartered to destroy the beast. His family has been doing it for centuries and have killed it 8 times one more kill is the last and the beast will be destroyed forever (note 9 lives like a cat). From there we have a "cat and mouse" game between the old man, the demon and a guy he has chosen to help him defeat the demon.

The problem I had with this film is it tries to be too many genres at once. One minute its a comedy, next it is action then in the finale tries to shift back to horror. For the most part it does not work and the few cool scenes that are in it become diminished when it goes Helter Skelter and tries to be one of the other genres mentioned again. The sad thing is it does not do any of the things it tries to do very well and despite what could have been a very interesting premise turns into a barely recommendable outing.

Lastly the ending itself would have been interesting if it would not have been for the tone set earlier in this film. What can I say, I wanted to like this film but cannot recommend this as a movie to run out and get a copy of. Instead it is mildly entertaining due to a few cool set pieces but otherwise falls a little flat.

5/10 Mildly recommend. If you know someone who has a copy or you can get it rather easily give it a look, otherwise if it seems like a feudal quest to find this film don't worry your not missing greatness just mediocrity.

To my knowledge this has not had a stateside release so finding it outside of importing or booting may be your only option. The copy I watched appeared to be from a foreign DVD. The subs were OK as far as translation but they ran by the screen so fast at times it gave me a headache. Unless you can speed read the subs you may have to pause the movie every couple seconds to read the screen which is annoying. I however cannot do that as it breaks up the flow of the film to me.

You will get the general idea if you can at least read a few words in the sub at a time but otherwise if you cannot read quickly, may get lost. Whoever put the subs on this film obviously did not have to worry about reading them that is for sure! That's it for now pygmies until next time PEACE!!