Director: Lau Hung-chuen
Year: 1983
Country: Hong Kong
Alternate Titles: Mo tai
Genre: Possession
Plot:
After buying a strange vase at an auction, a woman finds a strange demonic being inside and quickly gets the being out of the house, but years later when her sons accidentally release the creature again they turn to a Taoist priest and his teachings to get the demon under control.
Review:
Generally, this one is a pretty straightforward offering. This wastes no time in getting to the point of the film, which is unleashing wild and over-the-top moments at every chance possible. The opening arrival of the demon and his seduction of the wife where her husband arrives and attempts to interfere only to be turned into a hideous worm-faced figure who then kills himself by jumping out a nearby window in a matter of a few minutes allows for a taste of what's on display throughout here. With later scenes featuring a flying cat knocking a person off a balcony ledge and a funeral being interrupted by the sight of a woman's belly swelling up and about to erupt into a giant pulsating fetus, there's a strong start to a fantastic series of gross-out attacks. With a birthday cake filled with worms, disemboweling a dog to eat its uncooked remains, and scenes of the possessed family member playing with the body of a victim all give this a series of shocking and somewhat obvious sense that something's going on, there's a great foundation for the crazier action here. With a standout wizard battle that's become the norm for these movies, attacks by levitating furniture, and teleporting bodies flying around the room, the film packs in plenty of fun action just as much as the over-the-top elements.
Still, even with the wildness out of the way, there's more to like here. The idea of incorporating elements from outside the usual sphere of influence for these kinds of films adds hints of class that shouldn't be here in a sleazy gore-fest like this, such as the rather impressive suspenseful camerawork featured here for some of the attacks by the possessed individuals. A night-time stroll through the courtyard of the family house showing the spirit floating along waiting for the opportunity to strike is quite creepy, much like the use of the dog's point-of-view walking through the house into the bedroom before attacking the girlfriend. Also quite impressive is a nighttime drive home from the hospital which includes the car coming under attack by supernatural means as the lights go out and is afflicted with a supernatural storm before meeting an unexpected end with a possessed body, making this quite enjoyable in that sense when it tries. As well, this one really goes overboard with the pacing and tempo here, featuring these frantic scenes and ideas at such a frantic pace that there's little stopping this one once it gets going which takes place incredibly early. The boundless energy and momentum this carries is infectious at a point, making for such a wholly engrossing effort with plenty to like about it.
That said, there are some issues here. The most obvious flaw is a chaotic and discordant storyline that fails spectacularly at making cohesive sense. Very rarely does anything happen within rational means, as the impetus for how the demon is trapped inside the vase to start with or how the creature’s release affects the family once it’s been released, which are important parts of the initial setup to get into the story. That this just bounds from one scene to the other with little regard to how anything makes sense, ranging from how the possession travels from animal to person and how the basic idea of the actions presented doesn’t cause any concern in the family to leave the house quicker. How they end up defeating the demon makes no sense and the general idea of figuring out we’re even in the future after the initial attack has to be inferred making for a truly confusing mess of a storyline. Lastly, it’s hard to overlook the abysmal special effects work, utilizing hand-drawn animation for laser beams and energy weapons that resemble third-tier video-game work and the wizard battle is so laughably filled with wire-work, frame-skipping, and immobile puppets that all look out-of-date the moment they were filmed. Combined, these elements are enough to really hold it down.
Overview: ***.5/5
As there's so much wild and chaotic action featured here to the complete dismissal of storyline coherence and technical competence, this one is a simplistic tale that is fun in the right mindset. Give the film a watch only if you're willing to delve into the wackiness without worrying too much about the flaws, while those looking for more than just an onslaught of incompetent gross-out effects should avoid this one.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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