The Cat

This movie has one of the best plots I've ever witnessed especially since its a low budget film. Incredible character development despite not knowing anyone's name besides Mr. Wang. The peak of the movie is during the fight scene between the dog and cat which puts shame to any marvel movie ever made. The plot is extremely unpredictable which keeps you at the edge of your seat throughout the entire movie. The whole movie is just incredible. A must see for all movie buffs. Special effects are insane for 1991. Just a phenomenal movie I wish the director made more films honestly. Just pure brilliance in a VHS. Loved it.

From the team that brought us the outrageous prison drama STORY OF RICKY comes an equally bizarre science-fiction movie. It isn't ashamed to "borrow" ideas from sources as diverse as CALTIKI, THE TERMINATOR, THE BLOB and THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT. The result is certainly lively and - if you're in the right frame of mind - quite entertaining.

The story concerns three visitors from another solar system whose mission on earth is to destroy "the star-killer", an amorphous Lovecraftian creature that absorbs and can re-animate its human victims. The trio is seeking two relics displayed in terrestrial museums. When joined together, the relics create an amplification device for a ray beamed from their home planet. Bathed in the amplified ray, one of the visitors - a black cat called The General - will be powerful enough to vanquish the monster.

The film's main attractions are its comely female cast members and some over-the-top action sequences. These include a junk yard battle between The General and a huge black mastiff that must be seen to be believed. There are also some quite graphic horror scenes, but the poor quality of the make-up effects mutes their impact.

Although it never attains the quality of the films it emulates, THE CAT is sufficiently fast-paced to hold our attention even while we laugh at its absurdities.

The Cat isn't necessarily a good film, but I do have to award it points for originality. If I were to bring the film up in conversation with a friend, they would probably think I hadn't been taking my meds. It's that insane.

It took me a good half-an-hour to get a handle on the plot, the film opening in full-on crazy mode, and staying there for the whole of its run-time. The story concerns an old man, a young woman (the lovely Gloria Yip) and a cat - all extraterrestrials - who are trying to prevent an evil creature called the 'star-killer' from doing bad stuff. The good aliens need to get hold of two precious octagons (which look nothing like octagons) before the star killer does. Cop Wisely (Waise Lee) tries to stop the cat by borrowing a big dog called Lao Pu, which leads to a hilarious canine vs. feline fight in a junkyard. Meanwhile, the star killer takes over the body of a guy called Wang (Philip Kwok), who gets himself a load of guns and launches an attack on the friendly aliens. Or something like that.

The film ends with a fun battle against the star killer, which turns into a huge amorphous monstrosity that looks like the offspring of The Thing and The Blob. It really doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's never boring, frequently ridiculous, and quite unlike anything else that I've seen.

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for the cat-shaped hole left in a window by the alien moggy.

From the team who made "Ricky-O" comes...well i don't know what this is, to tell you the truth. The closest thing i can relate this film to is "the Hidden"... for cats!! If that sounds bizarre, that's because it IS. In the right frame of mind (ie. drunk), it's not half bad. The problem is, with the caliber of acting & special effects, it's not half good either.

My grade: C-

THE CAT is a nearly indescribable exploration in to ultra-weird HK cinema. Made by the people who did THE STORY OF RICKY, THE CAT is a film that pretty much defies categorization - but I'll try to give the basic idea:

We start off with a writer who begins to tell the story of a friend's weird encounters with some neighbors. Turns out the neighbors are space-people who along with their trusty cat/leader, General, are on a mission to destroy some guy who's pretty much like a funny HK caricature of the Terminator. Throw in some convoluted mess about some "octagons" that are both weapons and the space-peoples transportation device, and some weird, poorly crafted monster effects somewhat reminiscent to THE BLOB or perhaps THE THING, and there ya have it...

This one was utterly ridiculous. I hope to God that THE CAT was meant to be a comedy or I really missed the point on this one. There are some truly great (if you consider completely asinine and pretty much retarded, "great"...)scenes, including a junkyard Kung-Fu battle between General (the cat) and a big dog. This scene alone is worth at least trying to find a copy of this film to borrow from somebody. The end "climax" sequence atop a rooftop is so strange and goes from mildly weird to just all-out bizarre, that I had convinced myself that I had somehow unknowingly ingested about 14 hits of primo window-pane. Not really my cup of tea as far as Asian film goes - but worth a look if you're into Sci-Fi/Kung-Fu/Horror/Comedy/Action-hybrids. And let's face it - who's not into that...well...honestly...I guess I'm not so much...A pretty generous 5/10 for Kung-Fu cat fights and tripped out weirdness.