Starring Lo Meng, Lily Chan, Lau Dan and Ma Chao. Directed by Kuei Chih-Hung for Shaw Brothers.

A ghost (Chan) purposefully causes a car crash so that she can inhabit the body of the dead neighbour of Ma Su (Meng). Calling herself Pok Pok, she begins a relationship with the muscly Ma Su, who is at first unaware of her supernatural origins.

HEX AFTER HEX begins immediately after the events of HEX VS WITCHCRAFT (1980), which was itself a sequel to the much better, much more serious first film HEX (1980).

HEX AFTER HEX contains the same kind of broad humour, slapstick and silly, jumbled, undisciplined storyline as the previous movie in the series. Cross-eyed actor Ma Chao, who is never one to knowingly underact, returns for a third time, playing an arsonist who has the Shaw Brothers logo branded on his backside!

Other briefly diverting moments involve Pok Pok taking on the likeness of a lo-fi Yoda, then invoking a Darth Vader lookalike called Black Knight, who strikes at demolition workers with his green lightsabre, magically making their clothing vanish!

The film’s main subplot focuses on the heartless, stingy boss of a property business, who Pok Pok sets out to bankrupt after he evicts everyone from the building that she and Ma Su were living in. Pok Pok’s scheme involves becoming the company secretary, hanging out with the boss when he gambles, then making him think the worthless horse statuettes he is purchasing are actually made of solid gold. This storyline, unfortunately, is protracted, not particularly interesting or funny, and sidelines the Ma Su character for a big portion of the running time.

Matters become more engaging after Ma Su discovers that Pok Pok is a ghost, studies skills to allow the Tai Sheung God to enter his body, and tries to banish his spirit girlfriend.

Ultimately, Ma Su retains feelings for Pok Pok and saves her from a ritual which causes a statue of Thomas Jefferson to become animated, controlled by a priest’s movements, forcing Ma Su to invoke the Monkey God into his body so that he can fight the automaton.

This scene, using a quite impressive statue costume, is way more professional looking than the special makeup effects seen earlier in the movie, such as Pok Pok’s cheap ghost mask and the crummy Yoda puppet.

To cap off this man-vs-statue encounter, the Thomas Jefferson statue, bizarrely, reveals itself to be a kind of slot machine and starts spitting gold Krugerrand coins out of its mouth?!

Everyone gets rich! Hooray! The end!