Blood Stained Shoes (original title: Xiu Hua Xie) is a 2012 Chinese horror film directed by Raymond Yip. Set in the 1930s, the film tells the tale of a series of strange murders revolving around a pair of embroidered shoes.
“…a so-so smalltown ghost story that’s more interesting for its female cast and its curious structure than anything else.” Derek Elley, Film Business Asia review
trailer:
The Untold Story (Chinese: 八仙飯店之人肉叉燒包) is a 1993 Hong Kong crime-thriller film directed by Herman Yau and starring Anthony Wong and Danny Lee. The film is allegedly based on a true crime that took place in 1985 in Macau.
The film was followed up by two unrelated sequels with The Untold Story 2, featuring Wong returning in a supporting role, and The Untold Story 3 with Lee in another supporting role. The Untold Story won its only nomination, with Anthony Wong winning his first award for Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
The story opens with Wong Chi Hang fleeing the Hong Kong police, who are after him for murder. He winds up in Macau, where he takes a job as a cook at the 8 Immortals restaurant. After getting busted for cheating at a game of Mah Jong, Wong kills the owner and the family, taking over the restaurant himself. Meanwhile, the police, led by officer Lee (Danny Lee: The Killer, Dr. Lamb) are called out to a local beach. It seems that a bag of decomposing body parts has washed ashore.
The police begin to suspect Wong has both something to do with the washed up body parts and the disappearance of the family. Wong continues to gleefully murder any of his employees who suspect what might be going on, disposing of their bodies in a most interesting way…
“Instead of creating a cat-and-mouse chase for the running length of the film in the vein of Silence of the Lambs, The Untold Story’s antagonist is captured about halfway through the story. The writers then took the challenge to continue the story without turning it into a boring courtroom drama. With interesting elements they managed to make the second half of the film just as shocking and violent as the first one, something you would think would be almost impossible to achieve.” DVD Review
“While labeled as one of the most shocking Asian horror films, The Untold Story is surprisingly not as graphically gory as one would expect with such title; the shock and the horror originate not from what’s seen, but from what takes place in off-screen. Directors Danny Lee and Herman Yau build up a disturbing atmosphere, very much in tone with the unbalance mind of Wong. Employing a stylish narrative, directors Yau and Lee cleverly orchestrate the grotesque details of the crimes in such a harrowing, powerful way that, no matter that the actual act takes place off-screen, the horrific effect is still felt.” W-cinema
The Deadly Strands is a 2013 Chinese horror film directed by Zhao Xiaoxi. It stars Leon Dai, Zak Zhai and Kong Qianqian. The film is released in China on 5th July.
A radio talk show host and his family fall on troubled and terror-filled times when the ghost of his suicidal ex-wife finds a mysterious way to seek revenge on her cheating husband and find vindication with the children from his previous marriage. One by one strange accidents begin to occur, and bodies begin to pile up. The only common denominator between the deaths? The talk show host, his daughter, and a long beautiful wig.
Teaser One:
Million Dollar Crocodile (aka Croczilla) is a 2012 Chinese monster movie directed by Lin Lisheng. The film stars Barbie Hsu, Guo Tao, Lam Suet.
First and foremost, Croczilla is a puzzling retitling of Million Dollar Crocodile, apparently China’s first monster movie.
Secondly, when you invoke the suffix of “Zilla,” you’re putting on some big shoes. Zilla, which is God’s last name (and by extension, Jesus Zilla), implies giant monsters crushing eye-full towers. The “monster” in Croczilla is a 24-foot crocodile that gets loose in China’s tea fields and crushes tall grass, vines and market crops.
The DVD cover of Croczilla shows a subway train-sized crocodile with the kicker line, “Japan was just an appetizer.” Not sure how a 24-foot Chinese female crocodile takes down Japan? You’d need a passport to get there for one thing. Secondly, the cover shows a heavily-armed helicopter overhead, waiting to blast Ah-Mel (the croc’s name, spelled phonetically as I can’t write Chinese until I’ve had my morning green tea and Jagermeister™ energy drink). There is no such helicopter – of any type, in this movie.
I could keep going and going about everything that is wrong here. Million Dollar Crocodile, an overly frantic woman’s stylish handbag, is eaten by Ah-Mel, which contains $100,000 Euros, referenced numerous times. Depending on the constantly fluctuating money exchange, this may or may not translate to one million dollars, which suggests the title is wrong again.
Million Dollar Croczilla has no gore, horrible over-acting and is played both dramatically and comedically at the same time. Neither work. The actual crocodile looks convincing enough, but only eats one fat person, which you don’t get to see. I would like to see a person, overweight or not, get eaten by movie crocodile if it isn’t too much to ask. Apparently it is.
Jeff Gilbert, Drinkin’ & Drive-In
Mysterious Island 2 (Chinese: 孤岛惊魂2) is a 2013 Chinese horror film directed by Rico Chung. It stars Deng Jiajia, Deng Jiajia and Leung Wan-yi.
In present day Bangkok Zhou Qing (Deng Jiajia) tells her psychiatrist (Leung Wan-yi) about recurring nightmares involving a female ghost and a killer lorry on a highway. Zhou’s younger sister Zhou Xi (Deng Jiajia) finds Zhou Qing missing and on looking for her finds her house deserted and full of horrific paintings and newspaper clippings about a murder spree. There she meets Zhou Qing’s boyfriend, taxi driver Zhang Lai (Julian Chen), who is also looking for her.
Zhou Xi receives a garbled call from her sister, saying she is on K61. Zhang Lai says the road, which is known as Death Highway because of the large number of casualties on it, is on a deserted offshore island, and the two of them set out to find Zhou Qing. En route, Zhang Lai explains that the house Zhou Qing was living in was the scene of the murder spree. They stop to pick up Black Dragon King (Wei Yuhai), a Buddhist priest friend of Zhang Lai…
The film is largely unrelated to the plot and cast of Mysterious Island (2011), but shares many key crew members including the producer and director. It was released in China on January 26, 2013 but did not perform well at the box office taking approximately a fifth of the receipts of the first movie.
” … as the script abandons any attempt at coherence, and the direction, jazzy camerawork and feverish editing follow suit, the only mystery about this Island is how it ever came to be thrown together in the first place.” Derek Elley, Film Business Asia
The Chrysalis (女蛹之人皮嫁衣) is an 2013 Chinese horror film directed and co-scripted by Qiu Chuji. The film stars Sandrine Pinna, Ren Quan, Lee Wei, Cui Jie, Wendy Gao, Christa Yan and Zhan Chuheng.
Shanghai, Valentine’s Day, 14 Feb 2011. Hairdresser Guan Wenxin (Sandrine Pinna), the illegitimate daughter of a French man and a Chinese woman, is kidnapped by her onetime best friend, rich girl Dai Anni (Christa Yan), immobilised with muscle relaxants, and held prisoner in a flat. Both had fallen for the same man, teacher Luo Jia (Ren Quan), while at university, and An-ni had lived with him for two years in the US; but after Luo Jia chose to propose to Wenxin, Anni has returned from the US to get her revenge.
Anni tries to electrocute Wenxin in a bathtub but the latter escapes; during their subsequent fight, Wenxin is knocked unconscious. She wakes up, exactly three months later, on a road in the rain. After finding Luo Jia, she discovers the flat in which she was held prisoner is now empty and Anni has disappeared. Anni’s father (Cui Jie), the psychiatrist head of Puen Hospital, confirms he last got a message from his daughter on 14 Feb; after putting Wenxin through some tests, he confirms she has amnesia. Staying with Luo Jia, Wenxin keeps getting horrific visions. Wenxin now starts to believe that Anni’s ghost has taken over possession of her body…
“At its best — as in the dark, horrific opening, or a poetic mid-section in a village — The Chrysalis is impressive; elsewhere, the restless, hand-held photography and fantastical plot work against any atmosphere-building in favour of over-cooked psycho-horror.” Derek Elley, Film Business Asia
Lift to Hell (Chinese: 电梯惊魂) is a 2013 Chinese horror film directed by Ning Jingwu from a screenplay by him and Yunpeng Liu. It stars Hongxiang Cai, Chrissie Chow, Cheng-Lung Lan and Robert Lin.
In a hospital in Northern China, a killing spree ensues when an old elevator goes to the 18th floor — underground…
Open up your mind for everyone’s dissection and delectation!
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Centipede Horror (original title: Wu gong zhou) is a 1984 Hong Kong horror film directed by Keith Li (Vampire Kids) from a screenplay by actress Suet Ming Chan (Red Spell Spells Red), who also has a leading role. It stars Hussein Abu Hassan, Chu-kwong Chan, F.C. Chan, Chok Chow Cheung, Szu-ying Chien, Wong Ha-Fei, Li-fen Han.
Plot teaser:
A crazed evil wizard uses his powers to take revenge on beautiful women by making them vomit up live centipedes, which then proceed to eat their victims…
Reviews:
“Centipede Horror isn’t particularly gory or sleazy but it is pretty gross. I mean these are giant ass bugs here. We’re talking over 6 inches long and an inch wide, crawling all over folks. They certainly look nasty to me. We even get a great scene of live centipede vomiting. Seriously, how eager to make a film do you have to be to be willing to put several giant live centipedes in your mouth?!” Toxic Graveyard
“Not for the squeamish. There’s a lot of live centipedes and live scorpions running around in this movie, accompanied by a really over-emphasized skittering sound effect. Above and beyond the screaming myriapod nightmares that crawl unceasingly through this film, it’s none-too-shabby, with a nice little mystery-solving plotline and weird magic going on. Far from the gruesome centipede-fest I’d been expecting, it’s actually a little bland on the grue-front, plus it threw in some surprise gratuitous nudity.” Bill Adcock, Radiation Scarred Reviews
“While far from the nightmarish vision many would have you believe it is, Centipede Horror is a relatively interesting, occasionally successful, and unarguably weird take on the black magic theme popular in the Hong Kong cinema of the time. It’s a pity Keith Li didn’t direct more than the few films he did, as I quite enjoyed myself with this one. While not recommended for the squeamish or bug-fearing, fans of the genre are encouraged to indulge.” Kevin Pyrtle, Wtf-Film
IMDb | Image thanks: Backyard Asia
The entrance to Hell (or more accurately, entrances) has been designated at various locations on the surface of the Earth from ancient times right up to the present day. They have acquired a legendary reputation for being entrances to the underworld due to their remote location, often in regions of unusual geological activity, particularly volcanic areas, or sometimes at lakes, caves or mountains.
Legends from both ancient Greece and Rome record stories of mortals who entered or were abducted into the netherworld through the gates of Hell. The god Hades kidnapped the Goddess Persephone from a field in Sicily and led her to the underworld through a cleft in the earth so he could marry her. Orpheus traveled to the Greek underworld in search of Eurydice by entering a cave at Taenarum or Cape Tenaron on the southern tip of the Peloponnese. Hercules entered the Underworld from this same spot. Both Aeneas andOdysseus also visited the underworld. The former entered the region through a cave at the edge of Lake Avernus on the Bay of Naples; the latter through Lake Acheron (with friendly local ferryman, Charon) in northwest Greece.
In Israel, The Twins Cave in the Judean hills outside Jerusalem have revealed evidence of pagan rituals linked to the underworld and may have been thought to be an access point for Persephone’s journey to the underworld.
In the medieval period, Mount Etna on Sicily was considered to be an entryway to Hell, understandably perhaps considering the regular eruptions and in a similar vein during this period, Icelanders believed their own Mount Hekla was also a gateway, beginning in the 12th century, after its 1104 eruption. Benedeit’s 1120 Anglo-Norman poem Voyage of St. Brendan mentions the volcano as the prison of Judas.That reputation continued with further eruptions; after the 1341 eruption, there was a report that people saw birds flying amidst the fire—birds, some thought, that must really be swarming souls. Even in more recent times, Hekla has maintained its diabolic status, as some superstitious folk have claimed that it’s a spot where witches meet with the devil.
The most famous of medieval gateways, however, was St Patrick’s Purgatory in Lough Derg, Co. Donegal, Ireland. Here, it is said, St. Patrick spent time contemplating his doubting flock when a vision of Christ appeared, pointing out the entrance to Hell (Purgatory) and the doom and anguish that awaited such folk. Over the coming decades, Catholic pilgrims sought out Purgatory on Station Island to such an extent that by the 17th Century, local officials sealed off the Satanic cave to prevent it from attracting the wrong sort of visitor. Such was the lure, this did little to dissuade pilgrims and even today, religious types will enter the cave for up to three days at a time, performing their vigil alongside a fast to atone for their sins as close to their potential agony as possible.
Away from Europe there are many examples of people pointing the accusatory finger at various local places of interest. In China, Fengdu has a long history in the Taoist tradition of being a portal to Hell. The 2,000-year-old City of Ghosts, located in Chongqing municipality, has a particularly charming route to everlasting misery; firstly, the soul of the recently departed must cross the Bridges of Helplessness to have their virtue judged, then face the Mirror of Retribution at the Ghost Torturing Pass and either become immediately reincarnated or face a series of torments before reaching the Wheel of Rebirth. Those who are undecided can take a moment to take in the vastness of the largest image carved into rock, the 138 metre-high and 217 metres across, Ghost King. In truth, much of the mythology surrounding this area is very much based in tourism (who’d have thought?)
Staying in Asia, Japan had its own volcano which ushered souls into the fire eternal, Mount Osore, a region filled with volcanic cauldrons located on the remote Shimokita Peninsula of Japan’s Honshu island, is literally named “Mount Fear”. With a small brook running to the neighbouring Lake Usori that is equated to the Sanzu River, a river that deceased souls needed to cross of their way to the afterlife. The Sanzu River, or “River of Three Crossings,” is believed to be the boundary between the realms of the living and the dead. Local fungi known as “skull mushrooms” add to the gloomy tone of the place. On the island of Kyushu, Japan, another area has a similar reputation, the blood-red sulphurous Pools of Beppu. Several of these pools have such hot water within them that they were used for torture purposes in past years.
The cave systems of Belize have been described in Popol Vuh, the Mayan text, as Xibalba, the entrance to Hell for newly lost souls. These texts described rivers of blood and scorpions, and a vast subterranean labyrinth ruled over by the Mayan death gods, the demonic “Lords of Xibalba.” Since their rediscovery in 1989, the caves of Actun Tunichil Muknal have become a popular destination for explorers. There are numerous landmarks that make this network particularly interesting, including a vast chamber of stalactites known as the “Cathedral.” Amongst scattered fragments of pottery and bone, one of the more notable discoveries is the skeleton of an 18-year-old girl. Believed to have been ritualistically murdered in the cave as a sacrifice to the Death Gods, she has been nicknamed the “Crystal Maiden”; over the 1,000 years since her death, her bones have calcified to create a shimmering, crystal effect. Although riverboats full of tourists now regularly explore these grottos, they are advised not to touch any of the relics for fear of reawakening the restless dead.
Over in America, local legend tells of Hellam Township, Pennsylvania, sitting upon the Seven Gates of Hell. No fewer than two local legends attempt to explain the “Seven Gates” of Hellam Township. One of the better-known myths ties them to an insane asylum on the town’s outskirts, which supposedly burnt to the ground in the 19th century. According to this particular legend, the inmates – most of them criminally insane, of course – escaped, only to be recaptured using a series of tall fences and secure gates. Many were beaten to death by guards in the process. This story falls down somewhat at the stage where it is discovered there was never an asylum in this area. The other tale sees a local doctor who once lived in the town. This man (by some accounts a Satanist, by others merely eccentric) was said to have designed a series of strange gates on his land, which followed a winding path running deeper and deeper into the forest. Where stories agree, is that those who pass through the gates in order will find themselves transported straight to the underworld.
Even as recently as this year, in the ancient Phrygian city of Hierapolis, now Pamukkale in southwestern Turkey, an area has roused suspicion amongst locals (and the Daily Mail) that the Devil’s lounge is closer than you might think .The evidence for this points the finger at an archaeological dig which uncovered statues of Pluto and Kore, the diabolical Gods, as well as the carcasses of dead birds, allegedly killed instantly by noxious carbon dioxide fumes. This echoes ancient accounts from the Greek geographer Strabo (64/63 BC — about 24 A.D.), who said: ‘This space is full of a vapour so misty and dense that one can scarcely see the ground. ‘Any animal that passes inside meets instant death. I threw in sparrows and they immediately breathed their last and fell.’
Equally modern is the breathtaking fiery pit known as The Door to Hell at Derweze, Ahal Province, Turkmenistan.The Door to Hell is noted for its natural gas fire which has been burning continuously since it was lit by Soviet petrochemical engineers in 1971. The fire is fed by the rich natural gas deposits in the area. The pungent smell of burning sulphur pervades the area for some distance. The fire, boiling mud, and orange flames in Derweze’s large crater (with a diameter of 70 metres) attracts many onlookers, though the President of the country has demanded the hole be filled in, lest it drain any of his nation’s lucrative natural resource. Regardless, over 40 years on, the flames show no sign of receding.
There is one more place of interest which perhaps came closer than any to being proven to be the entrance to Hell. Around 1990, it was reported on various internet sites that whilst digging a putative borehole in Russia which was purportedly drilled so deep that it broke through into Hell, or at least close to it. The legend holds that a team of Russian engineers purportedly led by an individual named “Mr. Azzacov” in an unnamed place in Siberia had drilled a hole that was 9 miles (14 km) deep before breaking through to a cavity. Intrigued by this unexpected discovery, they lowered an extremely heat tolerant microphone, along with other sensory equipment, into the well. The temperature deep within was 2,000 °F (1,090 °C) — heat from a chamber of fire from which (purportedly) the tormented screams of the damned could be heard. That recording, however, was later revealed to have been a cleverly remixed portion of the soundtrack of the 1972 Mario Bava movie, Baron Blood, with various effects added. Warning – the following Youtube clip contains some attempted Christian brainwashing towards the end.
Alas, the so-called “Well to Hell” has since been debunked but not before various spin-offs appeared – these included a 1992, US tabloid Weekly World News published article which was set in Alaska where 13 miners were killed after Satan came roaring out of Hell. Other alternative stories included an alleged story where Jacques Cousteau quit diving after hearing “screams of people in pain” underwater. Another story told of one of Cousteau’s men fainting in terror after hearing screaming voices in a trench in the Bermuda Triangle.
Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia, round the corner from Hell.
http://www.entrances2hell.co.uk/
Related: The Hierarchy of Hell (article)
Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century. The character was also featured extensively in cinema, television, radio, comic strips and comic books for over 90 years, and has become an archetype of the evil criminal genius while lending the name to the Fu Manchu moustache. He is by far Rohmer’s most famous character, though he wrote many other stories including murder-mysteries, several novels of supernatural horror, including Brood of the Witch-Queen, described by Adrian as “Rohmer’s masterpiece” and The Romance of Sorcery, the mystery-solving magician character Bazarada based on his friend, the famed magician and escapologist, Houdini.
A master criminal, Fu Manchu’s murderous plots are marked by the extensive use of arcane methods; he disdains guns or explosives, preferring dacoits, Thuggee, and members of other secret societies as his agents armed with knives, or using “pythons and cobras … fungi and my tiny allies, the bacilli … my black spiders” and other peculiar animals or natural chemical weapons.
In the 1933 novel, The Bride of Fu Manchu, Fu Manchu claims to hold doctorates from four Western universities. In the 1959 novel, Emperor Fu Manchu, he reveals he attended Heidelberg, the Sorbonne, and Edinburgh. At the time of their first encounter (1911), Dr. Petrie believed that Fu Manchu was around 70 years old. This would have placed Fu Manchu in the West studying for his first doctorate in the 1860s or 1870s.
According to Cay Van Ash, Rohmer’s biographer and former assistant who became the first author to continue the series after Rohmer’s death, “Fu Manchu” was a title of honour, which meant “the Warlike Manchu.” Van Ash speculates that Fu Manchu had been a member of the Imperial family who backed the losing side in the Boxer Rebellion. In the earliest books, Fu Manchu is an agent of the secret society, the Si-Fan and acts as the mastermind behind a wave of assassinations targeting Western imperialists. In later books, he vies for control of the Si-Fan which is more concerned with routing Fascist dictators and halting the spread of Communism. The Si-Fan is largely funded through criminal activities, particularly the drug trade and white slavery. Dr. Fu Manchu has extended his already considerable lifespan by use of the elixir vitae, a formula he spent decades trying to perfect.
Opposing Fu Manchu in the early stories are Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie. They are in the Holmes and Watson tradition, with Dr. Petrie narrating the stories while Nayland Smith carries the fight, combating Fu Manchu more by dogged determination than intellectual brilliance (except in extremis). Nayland Smith and Fu Manchu share a grudging respect for one another, as each believes a man must keep his word even to an enemy.
Fu Manchu’s daughter, Fah lo Suee, is a devious mastermind in her own right, frequently plotting to usurp her father’s position in the Si-Fan and aiding his enemies within and outside of the organisation. Her real name is unknown; Fah lo Suee was a childhood term of endearment. She was introduced anonymously while still a teenager in the third book in the series and plays a larger role in several of the titles of the 1930s and 1940s. She was known for a time as Koreani after being brainwashed by her father, but her memory was later restored. She is infamous for taking on false identities, like her father, among them Madame Ingomar and Queen Mamaloi. In film, she has been portrayed by numerous actresses over the years. Her character is usually renamed in film adaptations because of difficulties with pronunciation.
After the 1932 release of MGM’s adaptation of The Mask of Fu Manchu, which featured the Asian villain telling an assembled group of “Asians” (consisting of caricatural Indians, Persians and Arabs) that they must “kill the white men and take their women”, the Chinese embassy in Washington issued a formal complaint against the film.
Following the 1940 release of Republic Pictures’ serial adaptation of Drums of Fu Manchu, the US State Department requested the studio make no further films with the character as China was an ally against Japan. Likewise Rohmer’s publisher, Doubleday, refused to publish further additions to the best-selling series for the duration of the Second World War once the United States entered the conflict. BBC Radio and Broadway investors subsequently rejected Rohmer’s proposals for an original Fu Manchu radio serial and stage show during the 1940s.
The re-release of The Mask of Fu Manchu in 1972 was met with protest from the Japanese American Citizens League, who stated that “the movie was offensive and demeaning to Asian-Americans.”
It was Rohmer’s contention that he based Fu Manchu and other “Yellow Peril” (!) mysteries on real Chinese crime figures he knew during his time as a newspaper reporter covering Limehouse activities.
In May 2013, this again received media’s attention as General Motors pulled an advertisement after receiving complaints that it included a song containing reference to “the land of Fu Manchu”.
The character of Fu Manchu became a stereotype often associated with the threat from Eastern Asia. Fu Manchu has inspired numerous other characters, and is the model for most villains in other Oriental crime thrillers. Examples include Pao Tcheou, Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon, Dr Goo-Fee from Fearless Fly, L’Ombre Jaune/ Monsieur Ming from Bob Morane, Li Chang Yen from The Big Four, James Bond adversary Dr No, The Celestial Toymaker from the Doctor Who story of the same name, Dr Benton Quest’s archenemy Dr Zin from the Jonny Quest television series, Dr Yen-Lo from The Manchurian Candidate, Lo-Pan from Big Trouble in Little China, Marvel Comics foes the Mandarin and the Yellow Claw, DC Comics’ Rā’s al Ghūl, Wo Fat from the CBS TV series Hawaii Five-O, “The Craw” in more than one episode of Get Smart, Ancient Wu from the video game True Crime: Streets of LA, and “Fu Fang” in The Real Ghostbusters NOW Comics. Fu Manchu and his daughter are the inspiration for the character Hark and his daughter Anna Hark in the comic book series Planetary. Interestingly, though the style of facial hair associated with him in film adaptations has become known as the Fu Manchu moustache, Rohmer’s writings described the character as wearing no such adornment.
Fu Manchu also made appearances in the following non-Fu Manchu books:
Fu Manchu first appeared on the big screen in the 1923 British silent film serial The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu starring Harry Agar Lyons. Lyons returned to the role the next year in The Further Mysteries of Dr. Fu Manchu.
In 1929 Fu Manchu made his American film début in Paramount’s early talkie, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu starring Warner Oland, best known for his later portrayal of Charlie Chan in the 1930s. Oland repeated the role in 1930’s The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu and 1931’s Daughter of the Dragon as well as in the short, Murder Will Out as part of the omnibus film, Paramount on Parade where the Devil Doctor confronts both Philo Vance and Sherlock Holmes.
The most infamous incarnation of the character was MGM’s The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) starring Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy. The film’s tone has long been considered racist and offensive, but that only added to its cult status alongside its campy humour and Grand Guignol sets and torture sequences. The film was suppressed for many years, but has since received critical re-evaluation and been released on DVD uncut.
Fu Manchu returned to the serial format in 1940 in Republic Pictures’ Drums of Fu Manchu, a 15-episode serial considered to be one of the best the studio ever made. It was later edited and released as a feature film in 1943.
Other than an obscure, unauthorised 1946 Spanish spoof El Otro Fu Manchu, the Devil Doctor was absent from the big screen for 25 years, until producer Harry Alan Towers began a series starring Christopher Lee in 1965. Towers and Lee would make five Fu Manchu film through the end of the decade: The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966), The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967), The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), and finally The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969).
The character’s last authorised film appearance was in the 1980 Peter Sellers spoof, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu with Sellers featured in a double role as both Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith. The film bore little resemblance to any prior film or the original books. In the film, Fu Manchu claims he was known as “Fred” at public school, a reference to the character of “Fred Fu Manchu” from The Goon Show which had co-starred Sellers.
Jess Franco, who had directed The Blood of Fu Manchu and The Castle of Fu Manchu, also directed The Girl From Rio the second of three Harry Alan Towers films based on Rohmer’s female Fu Manchu character, Sumuru. He later directed an unauthorised 1986 Spanish film featuring Fu Manchu’s daughter, Esclavas del Crimen.
In 1956, the television arm of Republic Pictures produced a 13-episode syndicated series, The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu starring Glen Gordon as Dr. Fu Manchu, Lester Matthews as Sir Denis Nayland Smith, and Clark Howat as Dr. John Petrie. The title sequence depicted Smith and Fu Manchu in a game of chess as the announcer stated that “the Devil is said to play for men’s souls. So does Dr. Fu Manchu, Evil Incarnate.” At the conclusion of each episode, after Nayland Smith and Petrie had foiled Fu Manchu’s latest fiendish scheme, he would be seen breaking a black chess piece as the closing credits rolled. It was directed by noted serial director Franklin Adreon as well as William Witney. Unlike the Holmes/Watson type relationship of the films, the series featured Smith as a law enforcement officer and Petrie as a staff member for the Surgeon General.
In 1990, TeleMundo broadcast an affectionate spoof, The Daughter of Fu Manchu featuring Paul Naschy as the Devil Doctor and starring the Hispanic comedy troupe, The Yellow Squad.
Although now seemingly out of favour after a lifetime of accusations of racial stereotyping, Fu Manchu, still appears in the ‘safer’ environment of comics and graphics novels and also the musical world, lending his name to the stoner rock band and the Frank Black song of the same title.
Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia
Bugs 3D – also known as Bugs (Chinese: 食人虫) – is a 2014 Chinese horror film directed by Yan Jia. Its stars Xia Zitong, Zhang Zilin, Eric Wang, Sphinx Ting.
It was released on October 10, 2014 and by the following day had earned ¥7.74 million at the Chinese box office
Official plot teaser:
In the near future, due to huge demand for protein, synthetic protein is rapidly developed around the world. Jams, a fanatic geneticist, has managed to raise super bugs that can provide high-quality protein at low-cost. But the reproduction of the bugs goes out of control because of men’s excessive greed. They break out of the tubes, devour scientists, and turn into giant monsters. Numerous monster bugs hankering after men’s flesh and blood swarm into the sea, and wait to rage a holocaust.
There’s a rave party going on by the beach, and the participants have no idea the bugs are coming. The bugs keep reproducing and eventually cause a tsunami. Those hot guys and ladies enjoying the party suddenly get ripped up and eaten. The bugs turn the beautiful beaches into a horrible sea of blood. Some guys are bold enough to jump onto the ship where the bug queen is at, hope to end the war by killing it. They know – if they don’t succeed, mankind will be doomed…
Wikipedia | IMDb
Dumplings (Chinese: 餃子; Pinyin: Jiǎozi; Jyutping: Gaau2zi2) is a 2004 Hong Kong horror film, directed by Fruit Chan (Tales from the Dark 1; The Midnight After). It was expanded from a short segment in the horror compilation, Three… Extremes. The film was rated as Category III in Hong Kong. It premiered in Germany during the Berlin International Film Festival, on 4 August 2005, as part of the Panorama section.
Plot teaser:
A rich woman and former actress named Mrs. Li is losing her good looks and longs for passion with her husband, who is revealed to be having an affair with his younger and more attractive masseuse. In order to boost her image, she seeks the help of Aunt Mei, a local chef. Mei cooks her some special dumplings which she claims to be effective for rejuvenation. From the very beginning, Mrs. Li was aware that Mei used unborn fetuses imported from the abortion clinic in Shenzhen, where Mei used to work.
She keeps seeking more potent remedies, until one day she is in luck: Mei had just performed a black market abortion on a girl five months pregnant (Kate) who has been impregnated by her father. After Mrs. Li sneaks a look in the kitchen and sees the fetus, she is initially disgusted and runs away, but later comes back. Mei makes the fetus into dumplings, which Mrs. Li devours. This has a wondrous effect on her libido as she goes into the hospital and has sex with her husband…
Buy Dumplings on Asia Extreme DVD from Amazon.co.uk
Reviews:
” … it’s still a strange and entertaining little movie. The baby-eating is treated so casually that you almost never really find it as sickening as it really is, which is impressive in a terrible sort of way. And like I said in the review for the short version, it’s nice to see Bai Ling playing someone with a little more depth and realism to her … Also, she keeps a poodle on her counter nearly at all times. You’d think that the weirdest part of a movie with baby eating would be baby eating, but no – I was continually weirded out by this little pooch sitting on a counter for no reason.” Horror Movie a Day
“Dumplings 2004 is brilliant and is the complete opposite of a Hollywood horror film in where order is unsurprisingly restored at the end and patriarchal order is put back into place. Here, an Asian horror film refuses to give the audience a fake, unrealistic and happy ending, instead it is gritty, pulsating and incredibly real. Not only is Dumplings 2004 an epic film simply because of the narrative and the acting, it is also filmed brilliantly and is overflowing with colour thanks to the work of the genius that is Christopher Doyle.” Daniel Vesey, Looking to the East
“The psychological horror that Fruit Chan creates with his work goes deep down and seems to be taken right out of the abyss of human soul – a nightmare. Yet, the movie lacks a surprising twist or some nice resolving. You always have the feeling that something will happen, but in fact it somehow doesn’t. Those who made it until the end of the movie, will already have such a twisted brain, that the end is actually in no way surprising.” Asian Movie Web
Buy Spooky Encounters: A Gwailo’s Guide to Hong Kong Horror from Amazon.co.uk
[Spoiler] “At the end of the film, both Auntie Mei (now displaced from Hong Kong) and Ching are the true survivors, with their trajectory a parodical mirror-image of Hong Kong’s own capitalistic drive. It’s the particular success of Dumplings that Fruit Chan, with a larger budget, higher production values, and a cast of movie stars, has still maintained the incisive social critical stance of his earlier, rougher independent films.” Ian Johnston, Bright Lights Film Journal
Cast:
Crocodile Evil is a very obscure 1986 Hong Kong horror fantasy film directed by actor Hon Gwok Choi. It stars Lau Chi-Wing, Kwan Hoi San and Siu Yuk-Lung.
Plot teaser [paraphrased from VHS sleeve]:
Cha Dick violated the doctrine of his denomination and was punished by his master with the evil spirit of the crocodile. Cha Dick killed his master when he failed to snatch a jade bracelet from him, which could relieve the crocodile evil.
Wo Tin travels from Hong Kong to Thailand for business, having been invited by his brother. A young Thai woman, Lala, accompanies him and they pick up a wounded young woman before being embroiled in crocodile evil…
Reviews:
‘Anyway, since this film is in Chinese sans subtitles, we’re only guessing here… Family Curse. A crocodile stunt show run by a nefarious Shaman. Lots of possessed sex. Lots more croc killing… a plot to breed possessed humans and crocs… hey, you got us… it was hard enough trying to nail down the release date on this… we had a blast watching it though, even if its weird vibe is off the scale precisely because we were pretty lost overall.’ Cosmic Hex
Clip:
In Chinese tradition, a ghost marriage (Chinese: 冥婚; pinyin: mínghūn; literally: “spirit marriage”) is a marriage in which one or both parties are deceased. Other forms of ghost marriage are practiced worldwide, from Sudan, to India, to France since 1959. The origins of Chinese ghost marriage are largely unknown, though reports of it being practiced in the present day have become more frequent. Whilst Sudanese and French ‘posthumous’ marriage largely revolves around a bereaved widow marrying one of the groom’s brothers or a partner killed in war, the Chinese variant regularly sees the joining in matrimony of a living person and a corpse.
China
Chinese ghost marriage was usually set up by the family of the deceased and performed for a number of reasons, including the marriage of an engaged couple before one member’s death, to integrate an unmarried daughter into a patrilineage, to ensure the family line is continued, or to maintain that no younger brother is married before an elder brother. Upon the death of her fiancé, a bride could choose to go through with the wedding, in which the groom was represented by a white cockerel at the ceremony. However, some women were hesitant since this form of ghost marriage required her to participate in the funeral ritual, mourning customs (including strict dress and conduct standards), take a vow of celibacy, and immediately take up residence with his family. A groom had the option of marrying his late fiancée, with no disadvantages, but there have been no records of such weddings.
Chinese tradition looked very unfavourably on unmarried women, in part due to the deceased woman leaving no surviving male descendants who could pay tribute to her memory, whilst also causing a burden to her family, resulting her being no longer welcome in the family home. For a son to find himself unmarried and hence being unable to carry on the family name, a similar rejection takes place, both genders sometimes resorting to ‘ghost marriage’, very occasionally a living bride taking a dead groom, more often a woman disinterred to be with her new living spouse. The cadaver is not always required, the ceremony, performed by a psychic or a priest, sometimes transferring the spirit from the grave.
Ghost marriages are often set up by request of the spirit of the deceased, who, upon “finding itself without a spouse in the other world, causes misfortune for its natal family, the family of its betrothed, or for the family of the deceased’s married sisters. This usually takes the form of sickness by one or more family members. When the sickness is not cured by ordinary means, the family turns to divination and learns of the plight of the ghost through a séance. More benignly, a spirit may appear to a family member in a dream and request a spouse.
If a family wishes to arrange a ghost marriage, they may consult with a matchmaker of sorts: In a Cantonese area of Singapore there is in fact a ghost marriage broker’s sign hung up in a doorway of a Taoist priest’s home. The broker announces that he is willing to undertake the search for a family which has a suitable deceased member with a favourable horoscope.”
Others do not use the aid of any priest or diviner and believe that the groom the ghost-bride has chosen “[will] somehow identify himself.” Typically, the family lays a red envelope (usually used for gifts of money) as bait in the middle of the road. They then take to hiding, and when the envelope is picked up by a passer-by, they come out and announce his status of being the chosen bridegroom. In a ghost marriage, many of the typical marriage rites are observed. However, since one or more parties is deceased, they are otherwise represented, most often by effigies made of paper, bamboo or cloth.
For instance, a ghost couple at their marriage feast, the bride and groom may be constructed of paper bodies over a bamboo frame with a papier-mâché head. On either side of them stands their respective paper servants, and the room contains many other paper effigies of products they would use in their home, such as a dressing table (complete with a mirror), a table and six stools, a money safe, a refrigerator, and trunks of paper clothes and cloth. After the marriage ceremony is complete, all of the paper belongings are burned to be sent to the spirit world to be used by the couple.
In another ceremony that married a living groom to a ghost bride, the effigy was similar, but instead constructed with a wooden backbone, arms made from newspaper, and the head of “a smiling young girl clipped from a wall calendar.” Similarly, after the marriage festivities, the dummy is burned.
In both cases, the effigies wore real clothing, similar to that which is typically used in marriage ceremonies. This includes a pair of trousers, a white skirt, a red dress, with a lace outer dress. Additionally, they were adorned with jewellery; though similar in fashion to that of a typical bride’s, it was not made of real gold. If a living groom is marrying a ghost bride, he will wear black gloves instead of the typical white.
Most of the marriage ceremony and rites are performed true to Chinese custom. In fact, the bride was always treated as though she was alive and participating in the proceedings, from being fed at the wedding feast in the morning, to being invited in and out of the cab, to being told of her arrival at the groom’s house. One observable difference in a ghost marriage is that the ancestral tablet of the deceased is placed inside the effigy, so that “the bride’s dummy [is] animated with the ghost that [is] to be married”, and then placed with the groom’s family’s tablets at the end of the marriage festivities.
France
The primary reason for the posthumous marriage in France is to allow for bereaved widows to marry their lost partners, usually as a result of death during war. It is also used to legitimize children that a woman might have, though it is also done for emotional reasons. After a posthumous marriage the living spouse inherently becomes a widow or widower. Posthumous marriage will also bring the surviving spouse into the family of the deceased spouse, which can create an alliance or moral satisfaction. The surviving spouse is also subject to impediments of marriage that result. Posthumous marriage also shows the strength of an individual to overcome a fiancé’s death.
The proliferation of post-life weddings prompted the French government to clarify the law in 1950. The resultant law decreed that marriage between a living person and a dead person was legal but required the approval of both the country’s President and Justice Minister. Wedding services which are allowed omit the line “til death do us part” and amend another line from “I do” to “I did”. The ‘missing’ partner is represented by a photograph at the ceremony. As recently as 2014, a posthumous wedding was granted to a woman whose husband-to-be had expired of a heart attack just one monthbefore their wedding was due to take place.
Europe and Beyond
Ghost marriages in the United States are very rare indeed, although examples do exist, where a planned wedding has had to be aborted due to an untimely death. These instances have gone ahead on a locally authorised basis rather than a national decree. A law unto themselves are the members of The Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons), who often refer to marriage as ‘sealings’ and do not differentiate between the joining of a couple before or after death. Their justification rests in an interpreted passage in the bible in which in Matthew 16:19:
“And I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Such wild imaginings also allow members of the church to partake in the somehow even more ghoulish practice of ‘dead baptisms’.
In Sudan, a ghost marriage is a marriage where a deceased groom is replaced by his brother. The brother serves as a stand in to the bride, and any resulting children are considered children of the deceased spouse. This unusual type of marriage is nearly exclusive to the Dinka (Jieng) and Nuer tribes of Southern Sudan, although instances of such marriages have also occurred in France.
Nuer women do not marry deceased men only to continue the man’s bloodline. In accordance to Nuer tradition, any wealth owned by the woman becomes property of the man after the marriage. Thus, a wealthy woman may marry a deceased man to retain her wealth, instead of giving it up after marrying. Among the Nuer, a ghost marriage is nearly as common as a marriage to a live man.
The Sudanese tradition is related to ‘levirate marriage’ [derived from the Latin, ‘levir’, meaning ‘husband’s brother’]. Levirate marriages have been performed around the world and by many cultures, from Africa to Europe to throughout Asia, famous examples even taking place in England, such as Catherine of Aragon’s marriage to Henry VIII, brother to her previous husband, Arthur, Prince of Wales.
A turn in the economy of China has resulted in a black market trade evolving since the turn of the millennium, the trafficking of corpses for needy lonely hearts becoming a booming business. Although outlawed in the country since 1949, groups have taken to digging up corpses for the purpose of ghost marriage, selling the cadavers to desperate families for up to £3700 each. In 2014, 4 men were jailed for attempting to sell 10 corpses for the princely combined sum of £25,000. Less wealthy ‘customers’ often make do with statuettes or even baked effigies with black beans for eyes.
Telegraph report of recent corpse harvesting
Daz Lawrence
Midnight Garage – original title: 三更车库 – is a 2015 Chinese horror film written and directed by Zhou Yaowu (Harpoon). It stars Alex Fong, Yoon So-yi and Gordon Lam (Tales from the Dark 2).
Plot synopsis:
Luo Kun (Alex Fong) becomes responsible for night duty security at a Hong Kong underground garage in downtown Kowloon, shortly after the death of a colleague. It transpires that a bizarre curse, known as “mortuary parking”, has swallowed up dozens of lives…
Cast:
WH
Terror Hotel – aka Love Hotel; Dread Hotel and Horrible Hotel – is a 2012 Chinese horror film written and directed by Laizhi Zheng (and he has a cameo role as a taxi driver). The YanYan Bros Media production’s original title is 恐怖旅馆.
Cast:
Victor Chen Sze Hon, Xi Lai, Yudi Sun, An. Ya, Mi Gong, Lifan Dong, Fengqian Li, Xiao Yang, Ming Zhao.
Plot teaser:
A series of murders occur at a supposedly haunted motel. Two television journalists investigate but find themselves in danger when people around them start dying…
kl
Bloody Doll – also known as Bloody Doll 3D and original title: 怨灵人偶 – is a 2014 Chinese supernatural horror film directed by Teruyoshi Ishii. It stars Jiro Wang, Zhou Qiqi, Don Li, Jiang Jing and Shen Xinong.
The film was released on December 31, 2014. By January 7, 2015, Bloody Doll had earned ¥21.35 million ($3,343,512) at the Chinese box office.
Plot:
A bank employee attends a university reunion gathering. There, he meets his old flame, Lin Xi. The two had been a golden couple, the envy of every student at their university. However, grim reality broke them apart, and Lin Xi ended up marrying a rich young man after graduation.
At the reunion, Yifeng and Lin Xi accidentally get locked in a secret chamber, unleashing a string of supernatural and frightening consequences…
Trailer:
The Haunted Cinema – original title: 恐怖电影院 aka Kong Bu Dian Ying Yuan – is a 2014 Chinese supernatural horror film directed by Yuan Jie.
The film was released on October 30, 2014. By November 3rd, the film had earned ¥9.22 million at the Chinese box office.
Cast:
Liu Yanxi, Luo Xiang, Wei Xingyu, Yu Miao, Tang Chengjing, Zhang Qiyan, Ren Peng, Jiang Yuxi, Dai Chao.
Plot:
An actress is killed on the set of a horror movie, and her ghost begins to haunt the director, a former lover and her colleagues. In order to get rid of the curse, they organise a midnight movie showing in honour of her memory, not knowing what awaits them in the cinema trap…
Trailer:
Evil Cat – original title: 凶貓 aka Xiong mao – is a 1986 Hong Kong supernatural horror film produced and directed by Dennis Yu (The Beasts; The Imp; Sketch of a Psycho) from a screenplay by Wong Jing. It was released on 1st January 1987.
Main cast:
Lau Kar-leung, Tang Lai Ying, Mark Cheng, Ping Ha, Shu-Yuan Hsu, Tom Poon, Ho Ying Sin, Hon Sang So.
Plot:
The Cheung Family has been feuding with the supernatural Evil Cat for eight generations. This time, the Evil Cat reincarnates and possesses a tycoon’s body. Severe fights ensue in order to eliminate the supernatural presence…
Review:
” … there are some nice twists to the plot, a benefit of it being coherent for once, and the “anyone can be possessed” thing allows for a fairly fast pace – whenever someone is “killed”, the spirit just takes another body, limiting the down time. There’s even some surprising gore; at least two people get arms through their chests…” Horror Movie a Day
“Dennis Yu’s inventive angles and energetic editing coupled with Arthur Wong’s skillful lighting tricks lend an ominous atmosphere to an otherwise silly premise. Wong Jing’s script is a familiar hodgepodge of sex, schlock horror clichés, slapstick tomfoolery and themes shamelessly lifted from other better known HK horror films…” Andrew Pragasm, The Spinning Image
“With so much going on, the film is hardly ever dull, but that does not necessarily mean it is good. The violence and gore safely pushes the story into horror film territory, but the whole thing is too silly to take seriously, so no real thrills emerge. The cast of characters is rather generic, and the obligatory twist ending is so perfunctory it barely has any impact at all.” Steve Biodrowski, Cinefantastique
