Director: Kuei Chih-hung
Year: 1980
Country: Hong Kong
Alternate Titles: Che dau che
Genre: Ghosts; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Suffering a run of bad luck, a compulsive gambler falls into debt with a ruthless gangster and tries to flee so as not to pay him, eventually stumbling upon a crazy old man who offers him a way out if he’ll marry the ghost of his daughter for the money he needs, finding the situation crazier than expected.
Review:
This one works incredibly well as a slapstick comedy rather than an overt genre effort, but there’s still a lot to like here. This one is patently designed to offer a series of screwball antics and traditional fast-paced wordplay comedy at the absurdity of the situation more than anything else. The first half here focuses quite well on the exploits of the guy and how he got into this situation, bringing about the different runs of bad luck he suffers from while gambling and putting his friend up for more money when that fails, only to run even further into debt and needing to find a way of his money problems when his attempts at forcing his wife to pay his debts results in their divorce. The escapades here are a clue as to what’s to transpire later on, with the police encounters trying to track him down for his indiscretions or the constant streaking that eventually gets him caught and thrown into the predicament of marrying the ghost daughter for the money he needs to fix everything.
That leaves the rest of the film a series of goofy, immensely silly adventures within the apartment trying to deal with the ghost who has a mischievous streak a mile long. Not only do we get her manipulating objects or trying to communicate with him through outlandish, bizarre methods, there’s a wholly enjoyable series of gags and pranks here involving her trying to possess various women to seduce him and the enthusiasm he shares being directly related to how attractive they are, so the more obnoxious he finds them, the greater his degree of trying to resist them. That she’s content to possess anyone around him, including men or the thugs out to kill him when they find out they’ve been had, provides the great baseline for the running gags to occur throughout here as it becomes over-the-top how unexpected their relationship becomes. Knowing that she’s a ghost and that they remain in the series of situations they do is almost as hilarious as the kinds of conversations and comebacks help to drive the comedy here.
However, that all highlights the lone overriding issue here, where it’s so heavily geared to comedy that the only thing that genuinely presents this as a genuine genre effort is the existence of a ghost in the film. Even though there’s a hilarious running gag about her possessing others to seduce him or even just for her amusement to screw with him, there’s little thrills or tension from any of their encounters and the whole thing is treated for laughs more than anything, especially the final fateful gambling sequence where their future rests on tricking the casino out of money as that comes the closest to having some real thrills here as they engage in a battle of wills using their supernatural powers. The actual possession scenes don’t amount to much, and everything else in the film is treated as a joke outside of the sexual conquests, where the fact that he’s sleeping with women she’s taking control of is supposed to be funny. It’s what ends up lowering this one overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
A madcap mixture of goofy comedy and light horror elements, there’s some really fun stuff here that manages to offer up enough likable factors that overcome the issues on display here. Those with an appreciation for this style of genre fare, who can tolerate the approach taken here, or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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