Hung mau

Here we go again with another look at those off the wall films that are out there in the world. Boy do I have one for you today. It is a Chinese film titled Evil Cat. With a name like this your thinking what is it Morris the Cat going crazy killing people. Actually no in fact its more or less about a Demon that looks like a Thundercat (really cheap Thundercat) that needs to kill enough people as it jumps into human bodies to do this. The more kills the stronger it gets and it eventually will be able to take its true form and destroy the world...or something like that.

The movie starts off showing us a discovery of the chamber where the demon has been hidden then we flash to a man who we find out later is chartered to destroy the beast. His family has been doing it for centuries and have killed it 8 times one more kill is the last and the beast will be destroyed forever (note 9 lives like a cat). From there we have a "cat and mouse" game between the old man, the demon and a guy he has chosen to help him defeat the demon.

The problem I had with this film is it tries to be too many genres at once. One minute its a comedy, next it is action then in the finale tries to shift back to horror. For the most part it does not work and the few cool scenes that are in it become diminished when it goes Helter Skelter and tries to be one of the other genres mentioned again. The sad thing is it does not do any of the things it tries to do very well and despite what could have been a very interesting premise turns into a barely recommendable outing.

Lastly the ending itself would have been interesting if it would not have been for the tone set earlier in this film. What can I say, I wanted to like this film but cannot recommend this as a movie to run out and get a copy of. Instead it is mildly entertaining due to a few cool set pieces but otherwise falls a little flat.

5/10 Mildly recommend. If you know someone who has a copy or you can get it rather easily give it a look, otherwise if it seems like a feudal quest to find this film don't worry your not missing greatness just mediocrity.

To my knowledge this has not had a stateside release so finding it outside of importing or booting may be your only option. The copy I watched appeared to be from a foreign DVD. The subs were OK as far as translation but they ran by the screen so fast at times it gave me a headache. Unless you can speed read the subs you may have to pause the movie every couple seconds to read the screen which is annoying. I however cannot do that as it breaks up the flow of the film to me.

You will get the general idea if you can at least read a few words in the sub at a time but otherwise if you cannot read quickly, may get lost. Whoever put the subs on this film obviously did not have to worry about reading them that is for sure! That's it for now pygmies until next time PEACE!!

Dennis Yu's filmography includes films like the pretty unknown (and rare in its fully uncut version) rape and revenge shocker THE BEASTS aka FLESH AND THE BLOODY TERROR (1980) and the more traditional ghost story THE IMP (1981). His EVIL CAT (1986) is written by the exploitation king and money maker Wong Jing and fortunately he hasn't managed to destroy the film and it is easily among the better films of Yu.

The veteran Hong Kong director and actor Lau Kar Leung plays Master Cheung who suffers from cancer. His ancestors have told him that a deadly and evil cat demon possesses their family and the world and that it has nine lives and has to be killed by every new son in the generation until all the "lives" have been killed. The demon is now some 400 years old. Cheung however doesn't have a son, just a beautiful reporter daughter played by Lai-Ying Tang. She gets to know Long (played by Mark Cheng, the psychopath in Ivan Lai's sleaze fest PEEPING TOM (1997)) and soon her father decides to teach Long how to kill the cat once and for all. They get also a police inspector Wu's interest because their magic spells and other strange goings-on don't necessarily obey the law and be completely harmless all the time. Wu is played by Wong Jing himself and he is also the only irritating character in the film and still he could be much worse. What I'm trying to say is that the film isn't nearly as "comical" and full of slapstick it could be when Wong was involved in it and that is a huge positive thing.

The film is nicely atmospheric and has great and simple effects that work the better the more viewer understands the genre and its merits. The film also has surprisingly strong lead characters (Long and the daughter) and so they are closer to real and feeling people, not just empty characters. The dialogue is pretty bad like usually in these films, but it is easy to be forgiven since the real merits can be found elsewhere in the film. Still these films would be so much more if they just wanted to make better scripts and concentrate more on the dialogue and characters in general, too.

EVIL CAT is also surprisingly straight forward film and never becomes boring or slow. It has plenty of action, spells and other horror mayhem and also some gore that gets also nearly surrealistic in some cases. The "lift massacre" is a good example of that and looks little like the similar effect in Kubrick's THE SHINING (1980). EVIL CAT is a sympathetic and pretty likeable horror film that knows its limits and never tries to reach too high goal. 8/10

Evil Cat isn't the sleaziest of HK horror movies, nor is it one of the nastiest, but it sure is one of the more enjoyable examples of the genre.

Written by prolific film-maker Wong Jing, the film begins with the uncovering of a strange hole in a quarry, where, decades earlier, a cat demon was imprisoned. The evil released, it is up to Master Cheung (Chia-Liang Liu) to defeat the malevolent feline force once more, as his ancestors have done for generations. After the demon possesses businessman Mr. Fan (Sai-Kit Yung), his chauffeur Lo (Mark Cheng) joins Master Cheung in the battle to prevent the cat from sucking the life-force out of innocent people (or from simply mutilating them).

It's the crazy cat attacks that make this one such a blast, the possessed Mr. Fan leaping great distances, striking kung fu stances and making wild cat noises. In the first of many crazy scenes, Fan attacks Lo, leaping in the roof of the car as the chauffeur speeds away. Fan is dragged under the car, but grabs hold of the rear of the vehicle. Lo crashes into an electricity station, leaping clear before the car explodes. Evil cat demon defeated, you might think... but when Lo goes to his mother's apartment, who do you think is waiting for him?

Narrowly avoiding being killed, Lo goes to Master Cheung, and the pair try to destroy feline Fan by shooting a sacred arrow into his heart. Cheung gets in a fight with several security guards (a very entertaining scene that allows Chia-Liang Liu to show off his martial arts moves) while Lo tackles Fan, electrocuting his boss and then shooting him with the arrow. His shot isn't accurate enough, and Fan explodes, the cat demon escaping to possess Fan's tasty secretary Tina.

After being bailed out of jail by Cheung's daughter, the pair try to track down the demon again, which leads to all manner of craziness. The film gets really bonkers after Cheung and Lo succeed in shooting Tina with the arrow: taken into surgery, Tina wakes up mid operation and slaughters all of the doctors. She then proceeds to shove her hand right through a cop, after which she gets shot in the head. That doesn't stop her, though, and she continues the carnage, despite being riddled with machine gun fire.

In the entertaining finalé, Cheung uses magic against Tina and punches through her torso, so she detaches her arms and fires them at him. Then the old man is possessed by the cat demon and explodes, and his daughter is taken over by the evil entity, going 'full cat' (complete with pointy ears and fur). I haven't had so much fun with a Hong Kong horror since The Seventh Curse and it's hilarious 'blood ghosts' (that film was also written by Wong Jing - he might have quite a few stinkers in his resumé, but there's some good stuff in there too).

7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

Every 50 years a cat demon has to be killed by a Cheung family member until the body-hopping feline demon's 9 lives are up. This time it falls on the shoulders of Master Cheung (Chia-Liang Liu). He is afraid of cancer killing him before he can stop the demonic force, so when Long (Mark Cheng) comes to him after his boss (Staurt Ong) gets possessed, he tries teaching him his family's Mao Shan magic hoping to pass it onto him since Cheung's bloodline stops with himself. "Evil Cat" is just pure schlocky fun and a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon. A lot of people seem to have issues with Writer Jing Wong and accuse him of just being a hack, recycling Hollywood films, and blah blah blah. Who cares he makes pretty good films ("Magnificent Butcher", "Seventh Curse", "Ghost Snathers", "Royal Tramp", "The Duel" as well as numerous others are still all highly enjoyable) I could give a toss if they're derivative.

My Grade: B-

DVD Extras: Just a Theatrical Trailer (that gives away WAY too much DON'T watch it before the film itself)