Yuen Chun Hap yu Wai See Lee

The Seventh Curse (German title) can easily be the Hongkong Version of Indiana Jones.That means more crazy fun and splatter. Have you ever seen a blood-sucking monster embryo fighting against an other old monster?If not, than take a look!

THE SEVENTH CURSE is an unusual little film from Hong Kong, set in Thailand for the most part and featuring plenty of action and very little plot. It's a dark horror/fantasy that has its basis in the queasy Hong Kong horrors like BLACK MAGIC and HEX, as the central character discovers that he's been put under a 'blood spell' which spells imminent death unless he can kill the evil wizard who put him under it.

This is the most popular of the Chinese film series featuring the character of 'Wisely', a pipe-smoking professor who fights evil in his spare time. Chow Yun-Fat essays the role here, but as this was before he really hit the big time, he doesn't have a great deal of screen time, although he does make the most of when he appears and that bit at the climax is a hoot.

Chin Siu-Ho is a rather stolid lead, and the storyline gets saddled with an ultra-irritating Maggie Cheung as a reporter who tags along for the ride. But the supporting cast is much better: Joyce Godenzi (EASTERN CONDORS) shows up alongside Sibelle Hu, Kara Hui, Yasuaki Kurata, and best of all one of my favourite Hong Kong stars, Dick Wei, who ISN'T cast as the bad guy for a change! Seeing Wei rip up the screen on the side of good is a real treat, and makes this a film impossible to dislike.

Elsewhere, THE SEVENTH CURSE is a film fuelled by effects-enhanced mayhem, featuring all manner of bizarre creations. There's the usual army of black-clad cult members, some acrobatic Buddhist monks, a couple of living skeleton monsters, and creatures that look like the alien from ALIEN in both baby and adult form. The effects are rubbery but fun, and there's plenty of artery-spraying gore for the horror fans to enjoy. Alongside ALIEN, a big inspiration here seems to be RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, as THE SEVENTH CURSE has the same kind of madcap, action-heavy exotic adventure. It may not be high art, but it is a lot of fun.

Hong Kong film maker Ngai Kai Lam (aka Laam Naai Choi aka Simon Nam) is one crazy fellow and I really admire his work. His filmography includes films like the truly over-the-top ultra violent hellhole prison spectacle STORY OF RICKY (1991), EROTIC GHOST STORY (1990) and THE PEACOCK KING (1989) to name just a few. His style is very hysterical and he easily belongs to the most interesting HK "genre directors" I know.

THE SEVENTH CURSE (1986) is a Hong Kong version of the traditional fantasy adventure films like Indiana Jones and Wisely films in Hong Kong (BURY ME HIGH and LEGEND OF WISELY.) CURSE stars Chow Yun-Fat (!) in a little role as Wisely who starts to help the hapless blood cursed protagonist Dr. Yuan played by the veteran Chin Siu Ho. He is a kung fu martial artist doctor who was cursed in Thailand as he visited it about a year ago. Now he's having some VERY severe symptoms of something very dangerous in his body: his body starts to "explode" in gory manner bit by bit and soon it turns out that the seventh "explosion" will be the deadly one. So he goes back to Thailand with an irritatingly curious and noisy reporter woman (Maggie Cheung) to search for the Worm tribe that cursed him. What follows is over-the-top continuous series of HK insanity in the gore, amazement, worms, black magic and so on departments! Definitely beware the blood curse while you visit Thailand next time!

The film is based on the original script by I Kuang who has written an incredible amount of HK films including some of the "dark horror" classics like BLACK MAGIC (1975) and BLACK MAGIC, PART II (1976) both directed by Hoh Mung Wa aka Ho Meng Hua. I Kuang also plays the little role of the narrator in the beginning of THE SEVENTH CURSE and he seems like a very nice guy. I'm pretty sure I Kuang has also written Yeung Kuen's incredible SEEDING OF A GHOST (1983) but I'm not 100% sure about this. Still SEEDING and CURSE have many things in common and have similar gross out moments and scenes of black magic carnage. SEEDING goes even farther in the dark horror department and that is also why it's so great film. CURSE has plenty of comical moments, too, and humor and also has some day time exteriors unlike SEEDING.

The film has one incredible scene after another. There is some martial arts and gunplay but what's the most memorable in this film is of course the black magic/voodoo related theme that is practised among the Worm tribe. This results of course some truly grossing gore scenes like human body turning into a bag full of living worms (very nasty!) as the hapless victim rips his own flesh off while worms come out everywhere. No need to say but if you fear of slithery creatures and worms, do not try to watch this motion picture; otherwise you'll have nightmares for the rest of your life. The alien creature (called "little ghost") the head villain/sorcerer uses is also a jaw dropping thing and very lethal. It goes inside the victim and then explodes through its stomach in the tradition of ALIEN (1979). There's also buckets of blood in various other scenes that will make the film too much for some. SEEDING OF A GHOST has some ultra fierce gore geysirs and scenes of carnage from the beyond and CURSE comes close to that occasionally but still never quite reaches the same level, and maybe it's because CURSE is produced by the "businessman film maker" Wong Jing who probably thought the film would have been too much for audiences if it was too dark and explicit and thus wouldn't make enough money. Even now the film is way beyond what Hollywood would ever dare to even think about.

The atmosphere and cinematography is also very great in the film and so the effects add to the real atmopshere and horror elements of the film. The scenes in the jungle are almost gorgeous in their lightning and menacing mist coming through and between the trees and rocks. Also the cheap but impressive effects used in the worm tribe scenes are fine and never dull. Also the finale battle between the sorcerer and the "little ghost" is again something outrageous.

Perhaps only thing that is an obvious negative point in the film is Maggie Cheung's character which is way too noisy and stupid in the film. But then again it is nice and interesting to see her in a film like this! Also a film that includes a bazooka wielding Chow Yun-Fat in its climax can't really be without its merits, I think. Overall, THE SEVENTH CURSE was more than I had expected and naturally it makes me even more interested in the work of Ngai Kai Lam. This film is among the things that make Hong Kong cinema so unique and special and also among the reasons that make me use word "insane" so often depicting these films, because they are, but in a very positive and innovative way! 8/10

This Eastern movie has it all: Indiana Jones-like action, martial arts-performances, naked chicks, splatter, gore and monsters which look like if they were taken from an old Godzilla-movie. Don´t take this flick too serious in any way, folks! It´s the purest stupidity but great fun to watch! John Woo-star Chow Yun Fat is in, but his role is small and not very important for the film. Just another movie to laugh your head off! Highly recommended for your next trash video party!!!

If this had been the first Hong Kong action-horror film I'd seen, it would've stuck with me for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, The Seventh Curse comes on the coattails of some of the most crazy, awesome movies I have ever seen from the director Kuei Chih-Hung. Do you want a movie about a character that has a curse that causes wounds to appear on their body, and with gross worms? Watch Bewitched (Gu), which came out five years earlier.

And I know what you're saying, this movie is an adventure, not a Shaw Brothers film-which is definitely true. Seventh Curse often feels like the craziest Spielberg film you've never heard of. But I find it hard to keep thinking that when watching the more graphic and gross-out scenes, reminiscent of something from The Boxer's Omen.

All that being said, I still think it's at least a 6. The effects are great, the sets are particularly great, and Old Ancestor is probably my favorite movie skeleton. He's got that perfect mix of goofy, 80's glowy-eyes, and impressive editing hiding the transition from puppet to stunt actor.

So, is The Seventh Curse worth a watch?

If not for the fantastic skeleton (I seriously cannot state enough how great it is), I'd say no. I think there are other films that accomplish the same things this does with more interesting plots AND more fun. However, you guys gotta see the skeleton. You HAVE to see the skeleton. So yes, watch it.