Moh go yat jeung

This is a ghost comedy from Hong Kong where three treasure hunters inadvertently awaken a sleeping demon in a Chinese village, who then goes on a rampage aiming to obtain the souls of 49 people born in the "Hoi" times in order to gain immortality.

The plot outline sounds exciting enough, but the film suffers from an unremarkable cast of characters who couldn't act seriously enough to make their roles believable and captivating. The main story about the Taoist priest master and his disciple attempting to subdue the demon is overshadowed by the boring and unnecessary subplot about the bumbling police chief, who scenes dragged the movie to no end.

The pacing of the plot mixed with multiple subplots go all over the place, making the film uninteresting, and its attempts at comedy (especially the egg-throwing scene) falls flat.

There are plenty of ghost comedies out there worth watching, especially those in the Mr. Vampire series, but this one is not one of them!

Grade D---

Hong Kong made quite a few comedic fantasies in the 1980s and 1990s. The best of these is the original Mr. Vampire. Return of the Demon is a less successful example.

The plot has three ruthless treasure seekers accidentally freeing an imprisoned evil being who now must kill the three who set him free. I am not quite sure why since the English subtitles on my copy are not always clear in the translation. A master of martial arts (also the brother of the supernatural entity) and his young student have to stop the freed entity and save the treasure seekers.

That is the basic plot, but the film travels a detour filled route to resolve it. There are several slapstick digressions along the way. Most of these comedy scenes are not very funny. For example, in one scene, dog urine is mistaken for cola by several characters.

However, there is one wild and funny sequence. The heroes get mistaken for killers and are locked up by a sadistic jailer who loves to torture the inmates. While in jail, one of the heroes turns into a werewolf (technically, a were-dog) and begins to create havoc. Much chaos ensues. This scene makes a viewer wish for more like it. Unfortunately, there isn't. Even the final showdown is pretty forgettable.

Hong Kong comedy is something of an acquired taste. Those with a taste for it might enjoy Return of the Demon more than I did.

Return Of The Demon was scribed by Wong Ying who also wrote the first classic Mr. Vampire!

In his last directorial project, we are flooded with similar territory, only this time, exchanging vampires for werewolves and ghosts.

At times the film is hilarious, with some great action scenes with the awesome Dick Wei as the demon everyone is out to get. Big Silly Head, Shing Fui On is hilarious in the role of the hero much like his stint in Blue Jeaned Monster which I love!

Other greats to look out for are the hilarious Nat Chan (Magic Crystal) who gets a great role as a sadistic cop, and the late Wu Ma who is great as always as a vet which some very strange work ethics.

The only small problem I had with it, was that certain comedic scenes tended to drag on a little when they would have been more effective shorter.

That said, it was all about switching off and being entertained which it did wholeheartedly.

Return Of The Demon may not been known as a classic, but it is most definitely worth the watch!

Apr 2021

Return of the Demon, great fun, features Nat Chan, Charlie Cho and Shing Fui On.

Horror, comedy, action, a bit of everything really.

A couple of great unique comedy scenes, i don't know how they come up with some of these ideas.

9ish out of 10.