Tag Archives: Hong Kong horror-comedy

Operation Pink Squad II (1989)

A ghost's severed head prepares to explode!
A ghost’s severed head prepares to explode!

Directed and written by Jeffrey Lau, starring Sandra Ng, Billy Lau, Man Cheung, Fung Woo, Ann Bridgewater, Suki Kwan, Fui-On Shing, Hsiao-Mei Chang and Cheung-Yan Yuen.

poster
Poster

Female cops go undercover to crack a forgery case and, while they wait to meet up with the counterfeiter bad guy Maddy (Shing), they stay at an almost deserted apartment block that is haunted by ghosts.

The undead body of the haunted apartment block's landlady is found in a barrel...
The undead body of the haunted apartment block’s landlady is found in a barrel…

Aka THUNDER COPS, this sequel is crammed with very broad, farcical humour, much of it centred around a buffoonish, newlywed policeman (Lau) believing that his cop wife (Ng) is having a fling with her boss, Inspector Shin (Woo).

Ghosts in Hong Kong movies just love blue lighting
Ghosts in Hong Kong movies just love blue lighting

Meanwhile, in the ghost-infested building, a monk (Yuen) captures the various spirits and stores them in drawstring bags covered in Buddhist swastika symbols. These bags are then placed behind a sealed ‘Door of Hell’, but one of the bags is accidentally dropped, enabling the blue-lit female ghost (Chang) to escape, kill the landlady and begin to terrorise the place. Oh, this ghost can definitely be nasty, but she also likes to have her toes sucked!


The scared landlady holds a bunch of ghost-filled drawstring bags
The scared landlady holds a bunch of ghost-filled drawstring bags

The overly slapstick film gives us such silliness as Inspector Shin posing as a cross-dressing pimp, a parody of the slo-mo Chow Yun-Fat corridor moment from A BETTER TOMORROW and a scene where two of the guys take part in a literal pissing contest. The flick properly kicks into gear, however, once the monk returns and everyone teams-up to tackle the nasty girl ghost, who eventually gets beheaded.

Inspector Shin goes undercover
Inspector Shin goes undercover
The dumbass cop dude dreams he is Chow Yun-Fat
The dumbass cop dude dreams he is Chow Yun-Fat
The headless body is behind you!
The headless body is behind you!

But now matters really become strange, as the headless body chases after everyone, as does the ghost’s floating severed head!

The detached ghost's head lurks by the door
The detached ghost’s head lurks by the door
The severed ghost head watches as the bad guy threatens the monk
The severed ghost head watches as bad guy Maddy threatens the monk
It takes teamwork to tackle this floating head!
It takes teamwork to tackle this floating head!
I, personally, wouldn't stick my finger into the mouth of an angry ghost's severed head. But that's just me...
I, personally, wouldn’t stick my finger into the mouth of an angry ghost’s severed head. But that’s just me…

To tackle this flying fiend, the heroes use remote control toy helicopters, equipped with mini-rockets, to chase the gliding head! Yes, you heard that right: we now get a fun action sequence as the yellow helicopters pursue the flying head through corridors and rooms, firing missiles at it!

Everyone has a controller to fly their toy helicopters!
Everyone has a controller to fly their toy helicopters!
Close-up of the yellow helicopters
Close-up of the yellow helicopters…
...and each toy is equipped with rockets!
…and each toy is equipped with rockets!
Remote-control helicopters pursue the flying head!
Remote-control helicopters pursue the flying head!

The female ghost’s floating cranium is finally cornered by the helicopters as it rests on a table… so the head decides to self-destruct: it explodes!

The ghost's head lands onto a table and it is soon surrounded by the 'copters...
The ghost’s head lands onto a table and it is soon surrounded by the ‘copters…
...so the ghost head decides to self-destruct, beginning to bleed profusely...
…so the ghost head decides to self-destruct, beginning to bleed profusely…
...and the head explodes!
…and the head explodes!

The blood from the head splatters onto the characters, which attracts even more ghosts, who storm into the building, resembling shambling, long-haired zombies. 

Maddy helps out the cops at the end, but is killed by the zombie-ghosts
Maddy helps out the cops at the end, but is killed by the zombie-ghosts

After a farcical sequence involving the monk suggesting that one of the men should be castrated to save the day, the situation is finally solved with the invocation of Buddhist mythological characters, who magically deal with the spirits.

Yes, it’s very weird.

Also known as THUNDER COPS
Also known as THUNDER COPS
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Ghost Busting (1989)

Zap!
Zap!

This Hong Kong horror-comedy was directed by Lau Sze-Yue,  stars Sandra Ng, Sharon Kwok and Danny Chan, and features a school for learning magic that is threatened by a bunch of evil beings.

Thai poster for the movie
Thai poster for the movie
It's rude to dribble blood out of your mouth
It’s rude to dribble blood out of your mouth

Together with lots of (quite puerile and dated) gags and pratfalls, there are some novel fantasy elements. For instance, a group of the students attempt to beat the supernatural foes by reincarnating into various ‘foreign gods’. So, one by one, they turn into Chinese versions of Elvis, Charlie Chaplin and Jesus… with the tune ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ playing in the background! The hero also transforms into ‘Bruce Lee’, complete with GAME OF DEATH orange tracksuit. The most imaginative reincarnation occurs when four of the students merge into one being… a multi-faced Hindu god. Neat idea!

She's angry!
She’s angry!
A vampire locks the office door, then swallows the key!
A vampire locks the office door, then swallows the key!

One of the villains bares his torso to reveal a chest covered with screaming visages à la Freddy Krueger and another antagonist turns into a particularly nice cell-animated bat/ghost.

Hong Kong poster
Hong Kong poster

In one scene guaranteed to make you grimace, a guy in a bunk bed dreams of branding a chained up girl whilst dressed up like Hitler… and as he enjoys his dream he begins to dribble pints of spittle, which drips down into the mouth of the man sleeping in the bunk below him. Subtle humour at its best!

Poster

Vampire Vs Vampire (1989)

Lam Ching-Ying and undead friend
Lam Ching-Ying and undead friend

The local priest, played by Lam Ching-Ying (who also directed the movie), has his hands full with bat infestations, ghosts and vampires in his neighbourhood.

The Taoist priest hero and his two disciples
The Taoist priest hero and his two disciples

Okay, there isn’t really a central plot-line to VAMPIRE VS VAMPIRE. Rather, it presents us with a series of occult happenings for our hero Lam to deal with.

She's a vamp!
She’s a vamp!
You can always rely on Lam Ching-Ying to play a stoic, no-nonsense priest
You can always rely on Lam Ching-Ying to play a stoic, no-nonsense priest

An early set piece involves a ‘palm tree spirit’, which is enticed from it’s green-leafed abode by tying some string to the toe of one of the priest’s disciples.
Once attracted to the disciple’s room, the spirit is revealed to be a red-garbed woman, who can become an animated red shadow. The spirit is dealt with, but more headaches lie ahead for the one-eyebrow Taoist priest.

A ‘palm tree spirit’ hovers over one of the priest's disciples
A ‘palm tree spirit’ hovers over one of the priest’s disciples
So Yip plays the ghost in red
So Yip plays the ghost in red
Don't mess with this priest...
Don’t mess with this priest…

A withered corpse becomes a western-style bloodsucker once the ruby hilt of a sword that transfixes it is removed. Gulping down the blood of a girl (there’s a close-up shot of the corpse’s Adam’s apple bobbing up and down that is a novel-looking special makeup effect), the dried-up cadaver rapidly transforms into a fanged, caped European vampire. Lam gets involved, of course, and gives the undead dude a battering. He jams a coin sword into its eye socket, burns it with a flaming log, boots it… and then lobs a large nun onto the bloodsucker, so that it will get forced under the surface of some oily quicksand!

The long-haired resurrected vampire
The long-haired resurrected vampire
This dude obviously doesn't floss
This dude obviously doesn’t floss

Together with the westernised vampire (played by Frank Juhas), this Hong Kong picture adds several other Hammer-esque elements. For instance, a group of Christian nuns are introduced, living in a church. There are bats too, of the Hammer hanging-on-a-wire variety. 

Nuns!
Nuns!

Actually, though most of the bats are obviously fake, there is a well-mounted bat siege on the nuns in the old church. Trapped in the room, the nuns must block off a doorway with planks, as the flying fiends attempt to bite their way in. Individually, the set pieces are actually quite novel and enjoyable but, as stated earlier, the film is too haphazard, lacking a central focus to the story.

Nuns in peril!
Nuns in peril!
Sandra Ng
Sandra Ng

About the only on-going narrative thread is the continuing reappearance of a ‘good’ hopping vampire child, who regularly helps out Lam and his two pupils, although this kiddy-corpse only really serves as light relief.

Hopping vampire kid
Hopping vampire kid
Jing Wang Lam plays the little vampire
Jing Wang Lam plays the little vampire

Watchable fun while it’s on, VAMPIRE VS VAMPIRE is not in the same league as other Hong Kong vampire flicks, such as MR. VAMPIRE (1985).

Thai poster
Thai poster