The Seventh Curse

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.

I have seen many a horror film in my day; Americain, Canadian, European, Japanese, Korean and Hong Kong. The Seven Curses brings cheesey eighties horror to new heights for gore and blood. Not to say that this is anything remotely scary, but a couple of scenes are brutally gory. Best part of the film: check it out in slow-motion in the scene where they drive the jeep through the worm-tribe's hut and up the steps of the temple. Just after they drive the jeep through the hut, one of the extras is a little slow on his feet and gets PLOWED by the jeep! I can't believe they used that take! OUCH! Anyways, if you're a fan of cheesey horror, and like gore and splatter-fests, check it out. If you like doing the whole MST3000 thing, check it out. If you're a big fan of horror, check it out. Otherwise, find something else to watch...

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

THE SEVENTH CURSE (1986) is something of a companion feature to WITCH FROM NEPAL (1986) a similarly themed Hong Kong supernatural thriller which also features Chow Yun-Fat. CURSE is the more entertaining of the two, thanks to its frequent action and impressive gore effects, although WITCH had a more interesting premise and would have made a better film with more imaginative direction. CURSE has plenty of imagination, but not enough of a story to keep us involved in the twists and turns of the convoluted plot about a Hong Kong doctor seeking to rid himself of a blood curse by going back to Thailand to confront the sorcerer who cursed him. (WITCH was about characters from Nepal who come to Hong Kong to follow the central character.)

SEVENTH CURSE is a film in the `Wisely' series about a young expert in the occult, played by a different actor in each of the films (the others include LEGEND OF WISELY and BURY ME HIGH). Wisely, here called `Wesley' in the subtitles, is played by Chow Yun-Fat, who has only a supporting role as he is called on to help out his friend, the doctor, at various points. Chin Siu Ho plays the kung fu-fighting doctor and may be known to kung fu fans for his roles in the Jet Li films TAI CHI MASTER and FIST OF LEGEND. Maggie Cheung plays a nosy lady reporter, the kind that barges into every dangerous situation imaginable. Dick Wei, the Nepalese sorcerer in WITCH FROM NEPAL, plays a good guy here, a Thai warrior who helps the doctor in Thailand.

There are lots of action scenes involving kung fu combat or shootouts in which the heroes face down dozens of anonymous Thais. The white-faced sorcerer, Aquala, played by Elvis Tsui Kam-Kong, makes quite a formidable villain and has a pack of monsters at his disposal, all created with make-up effects similar to those used in the ALIEN series and numerous Hollywood monster films of the time. Given the lower HK budgets, the effects here are quite good. There is a Crypt-Keeper-style living skeleton called `Old Ancestor' who, at one point, sucks what appears to be the spinal cord from a man's back.

The problem with the gore effects is that no one really takes the monsters very seriously. Chow stands around smoking a pipe incessantly, even in the midst of peril. We're never actually scared by the over-the-top effects. Only Maggie reacts with fright and emotion, although her character is so quick to scream, like so many old monster movie heroines, that we don't really feel any tension. Still, HK fans will be hard-pressed not to drop their jaws at the sight of two of HK's greatest stars, Chow Yun-Fat and Maggie Cheung, battling bloodthirsty reptilian monsters in a giant cave in the film's finale.

There are cameo appearances by kung fu vets Wang Lung Wei, Yasuaki Kurata, and Kara Hui Ying Hung in the opening action scene, a terrorist/hostage/SWAT team standoff in an office building.

In this collection of three horror stories, Chow Yun Fat is one of two storytellers at a dinner party, recounting his experiences. The last story, dealing with a gruesome creature that attacks him and the group he is with, has some scarey moments. This story goes over the top as the creature is killed in an explosive splatter of blood and flesh. The first story of the three involves a police siege at a hospital. It has a few tense moments but ends up going nowhere. The frame work of the stories, a party that goes on between episodes, is strange. People laughing and having a good time as either Chow or his associate discuss death, horrible creatures and gruesome events. This Golden Harvest production does nothing to enhance Chow Yun Fat's reputation. Not to end this review on a negative note, the special effects are well done.