Ghostly hijinxs with Chin Siu-Ho and Chiang Kam (heavyset martial arts actor and stuntman who appeared in Snake In The Eagle's Shadow) trying to learn the craft of magic from master Lin (Lo Lieh) after prior conning their fellow men into thinking they got the gift. A showdown between Chinese and Japanese wizards also lies ahead...

An energetic opening reel where acrobatics registers as a highlight, the following lighter section of the film is mostly an unbearable, not to mention totally unfunny, double act between the leads. This Shaw Brother's production even feels deeply, deeply uninspired even when it does during these sections stage fantasy battles. Occasionally director Hsu Hsia (action choreographer as well as director of fare such as Lion Vs. Lion) lets the swords clash in fluid choreography but it's not until the surprise death of a main character that the film takes a turn for the better! Concerning itself mainly with set piece after set piece, the Western viewers may not be in on the joke of featuring various gods as tools of combat but Ghosts Galore does possess an energy eventually that at least guarantees little boredom. Lo Lieh on autopilot makes the production automatically also gain some colour but Hwang Jang-Lee almost solely behind a worshipping altar is poorly used, only cutting loose way too late when we're in fantasy territory again. Magic and sorcery usually equals fun but Ghosts Galore is despite all its bells and whistles a bit resigned to do anything for the genre. Something that goes hand in hand with Shaw's decrease in market demand as the 80s rolled along. Yeung Jing-Jing (who appeared in the far more satisfying Holy Flame Of The Martial World) and Lung Tien-Hsiang also appear.

A script collaboration officially but the end result that is Ghostly Vixen has Wong Jing's paws entirely over it. Insulting everyone from blacks, transvestites to Sandra Ng, the premise of Amy Yip playing an Evil Girl aiming for immortality by draining virgins of their sperm is of course also unashamedly tailor made for the busty actress but the director of The Inspectors Wears Skirts, Wellson Chin steers this one perfectly allright towards its goals of being energetic entertainment. Nat Chan's virgin character is both abusive and suffering from bad luck in the sex stakes and the only one who's ever loved him, the ugly Lumy (Sandra Ng) even puts spells on him when all's not going in her favour. In one sequence therefore Chan is running around with a lumber-sized erection, one he has to tie to his leg when going to work the next day. Cue skit. It's crass, low and a lot of fun thanks to director Chin's confidence in working with this particular material. With a cast of supporting characters equally well suited for the ride, in particular Shing Fui-On as sort of a biker wizard, Ghostly Vixen tickles, even when it's for the wrong reasons. Wu Fung, Charlie Cho, Wu Ma and Bill Tung also appear.

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Merely weeks before the wonderful The Seventh Curse premiered, Nam Nai-Choi unleashed more b-movie excess in the form of The Ghost Snatchers. Playing out like a zanier version of Dennis Yu's The Imp, it's clear while watching that Nam reserved most of the creative energy for his latter 1986 effort. The Ghost Snatchers does provide a steady stream of horror hijinxs though, with the low effects budget obviously not being a hindrance for the filmmakers to pour their all onto the screen. Having watched Nam's work throughout the years, you do sense that he's striving for horrific atmosphere. At the same time he's realizing the limited effects potential and provides a needed sense of fun about it. Few could do it as well...he should perhaps even be considered a master of the genre (should be noted that I thoroughly love this stuff also so perhaps I'm a bit biased). Stanley Fung (in lucky stars mode), Wong Jing, Joey Wong, Joyze Godenzi and Michael Chan stars. Charlie Cho and Wong Yat-Fei can also be spotted.

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KENNETH'S REVIEW: From a director that apparently made it his mission twice to combine Asian horror with hardcore porn (other flick of his is called Mind Fuck), Ghoul Sex Squad takes the hopping vampires into that realm indeed. Seriously low-budget and lacking much aspects to make it legendary, it's a short oddity at least. A priest takes his vampires across the landscape, they start running amok and into women but the priest himself is not shy about matters either. He even lets loose on one of the female vamps, essentially making this flick portraying necrophilia then. When in town to search for wine, priest gets it on more and the very minor panic portrayed (as X-rated scenes are in its place) by the presence of the vampires at least features two hilarious scenes. One sees a vampire (or rather the actor) desperately trying to hold on to his false teeth while another shows more vampire-man sex ending with a stream of blood shooting out of a vagina (creative way of sucking blood?). The surprisingly agile, stiff corpses proves to be an amusement too.

The hectic and everyday office life seriously changes when three friends (Carol Cheng, Joey Wong & Sandy Lam) finds a bag of money just sitting in the office. They decide to do the immoral thing and keep it, leading to paranoia, greed and all that comes with a story like this.

However it's light stuff from a feature debuting director Andy Chin (who would go on to helm Victory and Call Girl 92 among other things), shooting in synch sound and utilizing his female talent well. However there's more challenging stuff going on in Gift From Heaven. Many mentions of the hardships that are going to come in the 1997 handover occur, which is also the reasoning of the characters but on the whole, their choices are highly unsympathetic and they all kind of loses a lot by the end, despite the fact that this is still light fare. Chin handles himself well and the end result may not be spellbinding but Gift From Heaven proves to be a tiny bit more subtly deep than you might think. Derek Yee and Mark Cheng co-star while Wu Fung, Helena Law, Lau Siu Ming, Bowie Lam and Tats Lau (who also provides the fun score) also appears.

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It's safe to venture into the sequel to Gigolo And Whore (as close un-PC of a title you can get) first as it has no story-connection. Andy Chin steps in as director, re-teaming with Veronica Yip for a second go at exploring drama territory after a marvelous collaboration on Call Girl 92. Yip however hasn't left her racy image thoroughly behind but Chin admittedly is more clever in the beginning with his excuses to feature nudity. Tongue in cheek half the time as he explores training methods and the world of gigolos with the best one at center, Simon Yam's character. But it's when trying to convert lesbian businesswoman Sherin (Rosamund Kwan) so that her rival Johnson (Alex Fong) can reacquire his company shares, that money desire gets switched for actual love. It's a tad corny and silly but Chin avoids certain traps skillfully. First the whole conversion plot isn't as offending as it sounds and while Yam is watchable in playful comedy mode, he then transfers nicely into the serious aura of the film. This is not Andy Chin at his serious best but despite predictability, performances take up the drama to sufficient levels. Also with Jackie Lui and Ng Suet-Man.

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KENNETH'S REVIEW: You've seen this story filmed before AND for exploitation reasons only before as well! So it's teenage girls drifting away from sunny life to shady life thanks to their own stupidity. No, there's no grand statements about the world around steering them into the wrong crowd and eventually prostitution. Just filmmakers behind the wheel wanting to squeeze as much out of the adult material as they can via bottom of the barrel material at hand (including the "talent"). At a few times quite effectively bleak actually thanks to the low budget but that's just a minor gasp of air the movie takes before drowning in its own crap again.

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To the catchy sounds of Canto-pop with the English verse "I, I, I was born in Beijing", we're lead into a John Chong scripted, cheap Category III drama. John is now at Media Asia, usually getting executive producer credits on movies not at all like The Girls From China. The on-screen treatment by director Barry Lee concerns the rise of a naive Mainlander (Isabelle Chow - Sex And Zen), financially and career-wise. She learns to use the city, leaving a trail of men behind. Many of them perverts and one a bit on the insane side...

Incredibly obvious with his intent of featuring jokes for Chow's character usually reserved for Amy Yip, Barry Lee goes goofy and unpleasant on us as he paints the picture of Hong Kong's perverse men getting in the way of a determined Mainlander. Certainly on the lower end of the moviemaking scale, I give director Lee credit for showing an intent to tell his story more often than not straight but the execution of it is a fair bit from ok despite. It's just flat material, made a little bit more colourful by some elaborate sex scenes. Lead Chow also shows some signs of acting chops but looking at her filmography (that also included eye catching titles such as Sleeping With Two Sisters and Peach Sex Noxious Star), that potential well of talent probably never got a chance to shine. Pauline Chan's participation was played up when promoting the film but it's barely a supporting role.

Eastern Heroes re-titled the film to Whores From China when released on video in the UK.

Released in 1995 but with a 1993 copyright on the print, Peter Ngor's brutal drama raises eyebrows from time to time but isn't much of an effective portrayal of the four girls. With the usual written arcs about coming from abusive homes, you can't and Ngor also refuses to root for any of these numb teenagers. Numb in a sense that they've never been programmed with traits such as respect, humanity or knowledge of when they're being duped. So they're all going to hell, willingly early on even and ultimately Ngor doesn't make this much of an interesting cinematic exploration. Admittedly the cast of unknowns (Ngor is the most prolific of the performers!) have a certain fresh energy that lends itself well to the parts and Girls Gang is certainly an effective, tough watch when it concerns itself with being a bloodbath. Watch Spacked Out instead however.

It indeed was a time in the mid 90s where films about disillusioned youth, preferably girls, hanging out on the streets, doing drugs and having casual sex was a profitable moviemaking (Fruit Chan's Made In Hong Kong and Lawrence Lau's Spacked Out later displayed quality in this regard but not for the masses). Coupled with the fact that the Category III rating was well in use (although audio censoring could run rampant throughout a film), movies like Girls In The Hood could easily be made. Having said easily, I also mean cheaply and without much directorial focus, as evident by director Alan Lo's work here.

The template as per usual deals with youths coming from broken or abusive homes, knowing nothing but the street behaviour around them and as a consequence of that, they grow highly unsympathetic when projected on-screen. Which is fine and Girls In The Hood is indeed structured as a drama/social commentary...and as a softcore porn film. But Alan Lo doesn't rise above the drama genre trappings or the exploitation ones and delivers one shoddy product. It's barely sincere attempts at themes, depth or plot so this is just one downward spiral from beginning to end, referring mainly to the quality of the filmmaking.

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