The Eternal Evil of Asia

Four friends that had a trip to Thailand to get laid goes wrong. Instead they get involved with wizards which goes further wrong and end up on one wizard's bad side. The wizard goes after each of the four, one at a time to try to give each a gruesome death.

This is one of the many ghost/occult themed Cat III Hong Kong horror movies made in the 1990's. There is some moderately gory scenes with a few more intense in the beginning.

There also is some nudity but not much. Mostly bare breasts. Plus when there is nudity it is obscured by weird or dark lighting, a view thru a steamy shower or just short cuts where if you blink you will miss it. The couple of sex scenes are not even softcore.

Unfortunately, at times the story moves very slow, not quite doing anything. They could have cut at least 20 minutes and had a much better movie. The last scene was 15 minutes and could have been 5 without losing anything.

I would like to recommend this movie even just to fans of HK Cat III films but this one comes up short. There are much better.

To those who are familiar with the Category III genre, the Eternal Evil of Asia will come across as a surprisingly mild entry in the category, with very little graphic gore, and relatively little sex. The basic premise is that a group of Hong Kong tourists in Thailand encounter a wizard, whom they initially befriend. When a love spell goes wrong, however, all hell breaks loose.

The film's main problem is that for fans of the Cat III genre, who are the main westerners that would seek this film out, the film itself is nothing memorable. As a horror movie, it is nowhere near gory enough, and the sex is nothing beyond what you would see on late night Cinemax. (Indeed, if not for one extended sex scene toward the end, it might not have even qualified as a Category III.)

Furthermore, the funny moments are few and far between, with some clearly ripped off from other, better Category III films. In particular, a well known scene from A Chinese Torture Chamber Story is effectively plagiarized, right down to the actress involved.

The film does have some good production values, particularly in its make up, but is not really worth your time.

This was just a little too campy and played for laughs for me. A little more of the sinister element in this tale of battling wizards and competing hex would have been more to my liking. There is no doubting its full throttle pace though and there is barely a moments pause between one set of swooping ghosts and another bunch of recently returned undead. Plenty of nudity sprinkled throughout and if we wonder how a gang bang is to be played for laughs, what chance have we to work out the humour in rape by spirit? Curious effect in this sequence for as we do not see the invisible rapist all we get are nipples moving from side to side and fleshy indentations to indicate where the bad spirit's hands are. Very odd but then that just about sums up this gory and colourful romp.

When Thai girl Shui-Mei falls for nice-guy Hong Kong tourist Bon (Kwok-Pong Chan), she gets her wizard brother Laimi (Ben Ng) to use his powerful magic to help her get her man; Shui-Mei's plan backfires, however, when the spell is accidentally intercepted by Bon's three sex-mad pals, and she finds herself participating in an unexpected all-night-long foursome. After the magic wears off, Shui-Mei realises her terrible mistake, panics, and falls on a knife. Understandably upset, Laimi swears revenge...

With the majority of its sex and violence played for laughs, The Eternal Evil of Asia is far from the raunchiest or the most mean-spirited effort that the Cat III genre has to offer; that said, it still manages to be a very entertaining movie, delivering several decidedly warped scenes of a sexual nature and a reasonable smattering of cartoonish gore, all shot in typically stylish 80s/90s HK fashion (lots of neon lighting and slowly-tilting camera-work).

As the film progresses, viewers get to enjoy such silly sights as a ghost impaled on fluorescent lighting, a man so hungry that he eats his own arm, and airborne sex magic, but of all of the supernatural craziness in The Eternal Evil of Asia, the most memorable moments have got to be Cat III legend Elvis Tsui having his head turned into a huge bell-end (that even squirts urine), and an invisible Laimi receiving oral sex from Bon's sexy girlfriend May (Ellen Chan) via astral projection.

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

Eternal Evil of Asia (1995) was a bizarre film filled with a lot of sex and violence. It was part of the category III craze that made producers a lot of money. The films were cheap to make and a lot of them were cranked out to make as much money as they can before 1997 arrived. Because they knew when Hong Kong was handed back to China, there would be a few changes made in what kind of films they could produce. While the genre lasted for five years, it was a great time for category III fans.

The movie is about the battle between white and black magic. A group of friends go to Thailand and fool around with a local girl. They do something real bad to her. The girl's brother vows to make their lives a living hell and any one around them. How much trouble can a three guys get on holiday? If you want to find out and experience some of the most wildness fun you'll ever see on video then you need to grab a copy of ETERNAL EVIL OF ASIA! Stars Ben Ng, Lily Cheung and category III stalwart Elvis Tsui.

Highly recommended.