Fei taugh mo neuih (1977)

User Rating:

4.5/10   

Director:

Lian Sing Woo

Genre:

Horror | Fantasy

Plot:

A woman who has been cursed by a witch must rip off her head every night so it can fly around, attack people and drink their blood, which keeps her alive. |

Plot Keywords:

Witch | Blood | Sorcerer | Curse | Pregnancy

Cast

Peter Chen Ho
You Min Ho
Feng Yeh

Also Known As:

Fei tou mo nu (China: Mandarin title)
The Witch with Flying Head (Hong Kong: English title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Absolutely Incredibly Bizarre and Amazing !!!

The title creature is one of the most grotesque monsters known to zoophagousdom. Neither gorgon, nor utukku nor amphisbaena, it is rather a flying head, or undead being that could detach from it's trunk at will to swallow the living whole and has bloodthirsty tendencies, still having the spinal column & all of the internal organs intact! This aeronautical mooncalf, as depicted in this movie, can breathe fire, shoot laser beams from it's eyes, & even spit out exploding miniature disco balls. After a long night of blood drinking, the monstrosity floats back to rejoin with the body. By day, the beast is an innocent girl who's the victim of a terrifying curse, caused by a mass of fleshy matter, generated in the uterus, that lives within her body...

The origin of the Penanggalan (for such it is called) can be traced to the Malay Peninsula, it's legend tenuously handed down through the gauntlet of time, leaving us with only tattered remnants of its original horrific glory. Having full control over her organs, the dreadful cockatrice uses them much as the octopus manipulates its tentacles, yet this fact is often overlooked in descriptions. The Penangalian would use her entrails (primarily her small intestine, because of their length) to perform a variety of common mechanics, as well as using them to grapple with & constrict her prey. In the Philipines, and throughout Southeast Asia, it was said she would land on rooftops of houses where children were being born, signaling her appearance with a high-pitched whine.

The IMDb lists Féi toú mó nü as a 1977 production, yet the soundtrack blatantly steals music from other movies (a common HK movie practice) bearing later copyright dates, most noticeably THE BLACK HOLE (1979), CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982), HERBIE IN VANCOUVER(1982), and STAR TREK 2(1982) , and This particular film has never been subtitled into English, but is none the less perhaps the most accessible to Western viewers, with the possible exceptions of STREET RACING GRASUEH (Ta'ah Psushii Le'ak) & the more recent DEMONIC BEAUTY (Krasue). But this being a HK flick Kung Fu, Nunchucks, plus a highly psychedelic climatic battle between powerful Taoists are featured as well. And let us not forget the pulsating organs that are attached to the head, and the extremely brutal. blood-saturated showdown where teeth bore into flesh, knives penetrate intestines, and an axe chops into necks and hacks limbs off causing the red red blood to spray, and making this one of the most intense films from out of Hongkong!