Shuai pi gui

This is a ghost flick from Hong Kong, called "Skin Striperess" in English. It features Lam Ching-Ying as Taoism Lam, where he performs all his Taoist magic in a resort, where its owner bribes girls for sex and when things go wrong, people are killed and their spirits roam free. And, caught in the mist are a bunch of frolicking teenagers.

There is the usual Taoist magic but, like many ghost movies of the 1990s, this genre has been losing steam and this movie was no exception, even with Lam Ching-Ying in it. Even though he is the only saving grace in the movie, there were very few charms, suspense and intrigue that are usually found in the earlier horror and ghost comedies. The plot goes all over the place and the adult-oriented material just wasn't right for this type of film.

It won't hurt to give this one a pass.

Grade D-

I had found a copy of SKIN STRIPERESS (aka SEXY GHOST) back in the days when I was very into CAT III black magic flicks from Hong Kong (i.e. BLACK MAGIC, BOXER'S OMEN), but I quickly fell out of favor with the genre due to most entries' monotonous, paint-by-numbers nature. Expecting the same from this almost completely forgotten 1992 entry, I avoided watching it for years. Well, I finally watched it, and color me pleasantly surprised!

The flick works mostly due to its "anything goes" plot: it's part CAT III possession flick, part MR. VAMPIRE living-dead comedy, part lurid sexploitation, and part raunchy sex comedy. You never really know where the story will go next, because it feels like the filmmakers didn't either.

This leads to a decent amount of laughs. Early in the flick, two teenage boys are randomly possessed by an ancestor, then cured by a Taoist priest on a boat, but nobody finds it strange or ever mentions it again. There's an endless sex scene with a waterfall a decade before THE ROOM. The most '80s musical score of all time plays in the background over endless scenes of lame physical comedy and teen hijinks. A lot of people scream the name "Wancy" over and over again. Say what you will about SKIN STRIPERESS, but it's never boring.

Basically, it all plays out like a B-grade '80s sex comedy in a world where possession and black magic are plain-as-day normal. An '80s sex comedy that just happens to have the legendary Lam Ching-Ying and a ghost that likes sex of the lethal variety. If that sounds fun, give it a shot. You could do worse.