KENNETH'S REVIEW: A Chinese Ghost Story-clone/full on copy with additional sex and no setup! Yep, why waste time when you're not doing your own thing anyway so into the classic man/ghost atmosphere we go, only done with less elegance (despite trying elegance) and care that travels to an audience. Austin Wai plays the scholar trying to reincarnate Emily Chu's Siu Chui. Helping along is an actor made up to look and act like like Wu Ma while other parts of the cast, far away from the leads engages in the bonk-a-thon, sometimes with supernatural tendencies. Boring and indeed being the clone of the classic + a Category III rating equals drab times at the movies. It's only when energy is injected via battles with the underworld straight out of mentioned classic that Ghostly Love has a pace worth following. Problem is, it's still not its own.

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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Himself part of a genre of movies riffing on a famous cinematic image (Bruce Lee), as director this time around Bruce Le tackles A Chinese Ghost Story. Not sort of similar but VERY similar down to plot beats, scenes, set pieces, character design and drama. Which would've been fine had Le brought an energy to the proceedings and emotional component to the core romance but this production goes about its business rather slowly and has trouble also escaping the shadow of the low budget. Effects are functional at best but had there been genre-energy, Ghost Of The Fox could've been an enjoyable rip-off. As it stands now, it's just a bad rip-off. Starring Sibelle Hu.

Young Noble (Shih Jun - A Touch Of Zen) is seeking a quiet locale to copy scriptures but the surroundings are haunted. More specifically the well in the yard has claimed and is claiming victims. Young Noble himself sees the alluring girl at the bottom and almost falls victim to her spell but instead the girl Su Su (Brigitte Lin) comes out and explains herself. Being under the dominance of a dragon, she is in fact innocent and tries to serve Young Noble while the scriptures protect the two from the dragon. But for how long?

Yet another story from the often referenced "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" by Pu Songliong (also see A Chinese Ghost Story for a similar take), Ghost Of The Mirror is a nice break from Taiwan romance considering Brigitte Lin is being directed by one of the makers behind her debut Outside The Window. Techniques employed very much brings an unsettling and creepy nature to scenes involving the well somehow luring in victims. It's heavy sounds on the soundtrack coupled with this recurring image but the effect is undeniably real. So is the back and forth commitment by the audience as we don't know what harm or if harm will come to Shih Jun's character. It's only when director Sung employs more crude techniques such as a green light hitting Brigitte Lin whenever Young Noble is in danger and the big special effects ending involving the dragon takes you out of the movie. It's entirely understandable Sung wanted to show and not only tell but despite an emotional hook still being present in the film, it no doubts detracts from a valiant effort technically.

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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.

Hong Kong adheres to the cinema tradition of slasher- and ghost movies, making sure we recognize the youths are silly, horny, stupid, mean and therefore expendable. It's not done with much finesse (the Evil Dead roaming force-cam is poorly ripped off for instance) and the switch into the terror- and cheap gore ride isn't particularly riveting but director Lai Kai-Keung (Love, Guns & Glass) does startle a few times with a few fairly unsettling rape scenes by the ghost in the house and during the final 30 minute stretch of an already short movie, the experience isn't boring at least. Cast is useless though and so is most of the movie.

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The broad, wacky and lecherous Lucky Stars gang (Sammo Hung, Eric Tsang, Charlie Chin, Richard Ng and Stanley Fung) go on unscripted, skit-like adventures and the end result is lacking in all areas except the eventual action-area. Helmed by FOUR directors (Sammo Hung, Corey Yuen, Ricky Lau and Chang Chi-Wai), we get a mix of the gang trying to manipulate themselves into the arms of beautiful women but also dealing with ghosts. While the latter content sounds fresh and energetic on paper, since Ghost Punting is strung together in a thin and poor manner, there's no comedic or supernatural energy of note. Sammo Hung and Corey Yuen's action choreography does provide a good mixture of power, intricacy and comedic interplay but it's not enough to elevate a lazy product. Also with Nat Chan, Chin Ho, Mondi Yau and Sibelle Hu.

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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