1980 ‘鬼打鬼’ Directed by Sammo Hung
Sammo is Courageous Cheung, a pedicab driver in a rural community who is known around town as the man who fears nothing. Well, this is proved false before the opening credits finish when he endures a particularly frightening nightmare of flesh-eating zombies. But, that's just the beginning of his run-ins with the supernatural...
Encuentros en el más allá, L'Exorciste Chinois, Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind, Spooky Encounters, Ghost Against Ghost, Encounter of the Spooky Kind, Gui da gui, Gwai Aau Gwai
1980 In Review - December
Hapless servant Cheung (Sammo Hung) finds out that his wife has been having an affair with his rich master Tam. Wanting to get Cheung out of the way, Tam enlists the services of an unscrupulous priest to do the deed with black magic so that fingers can’t be pointed back to him. But Cheung turns out to be no pushover and he must battle the supernatural and the uncanny with the help of the priest’s more righteous brother.
This is a batshit crazy Kung fu movie that put Sammo Hung on the map, influencing countless movies that came after. It makes me wonder whether it had any effect on Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy, with…
I’m still the bravest man in town
If Looney Tunes were live action kung-fu horror comedies from Hong Kong, this is exactly what they would look like. As I’m watching I can’t help but think Evil Dead owes at least a bit of it’s spirit to this crazy movie.
Spooky Encounters moves along lightning quick with fun ideas, great visuals, and some really nice stunt work. I had a great time and I’ll certainly be back for more.
This was my second Sammo Hung flick and I gotta say this crazy lunatic certainly has my attention.
Are you afraid?
No, just a little scared.
80's Hong Kong Horror, Hopping Vampires, Martial Arts and Comedy what more could you ever want or need in a film!
It rang all my bells and blew all my whistles it was that GOOD!
This movie has legit the most bizarre and possibly the greatest freeze frame ending of all time, like I swear to god.
Should be considered required Halloween viewing in any self-respecting household when October rolls around. Literally nothing puts a bigger smile on my face than watching Sammo Hung duking it out with some martial arts wielding jiangshi in what is like a fucking robot dance off routine between the two contestants or Sammo Hung battling his own possessed hand in one of the many sequences that directly inspired Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness or Sammo Hung *literally* becoming Sun Wukong; all of which happens in this movie.
Sammo reluctantly fights ghosts as Krzysztof Penderecki blares in the background. This is about as seamless a combination of action/horror/comedy as you're likely to see in any realm of cinema. What's the closest American equivalent? Ghostbusters? The Monster Squad? I love them both, but yiiiiiikes.
This also ends with extremely casual wife-beating. Double YIKES.
first sammo hung. great blend of spooky horror, slapstick comedy, & well-choreographed kung fu. ridiculous & entertaining.
This is so much fun.
Poor “courageous” Cheung, not only is his wife cheating on him, the guy she’s sleeping with is also out to kill him! With the help of a witchcraft scorcerer, which may not be the fastest/most efficient way, but definitely makes for a whole bunch of entertaining scenarios.
Influential martial arts filmmaker Sammo Hung stars in this “groundbreaking” kung-fu horror comedy that introduced us to the “jiangshi genre”. Basically just hopping vampires/zombies.
And there’s so much going on. The kung-fu is impressive, the horror is fun, the comedy is borderline slapstick, and somehow it all just works perfectly fine together. Possessed monkey kung-fu is always entertaining, I guess!
Also, best last 10 seconds I’ve seen in any movie in a long time, I sincerely laughed out loud. Plenty reviews here on Letterboxd “spoil” it, but trust me, it’s so much better to see it in action!
That… is my less my drift. I admire the technical craft behind this movie, especially what they accomplished in terms of special effects at the time, but this is yet another example of me not being fully on board with a Sammo Hung joint because every nonaction scene is just so shitty. After a dozen of his movies you’d think I’d get the memo.
Yeah, yeah, I know, he has Eastern Condors under his belt, a classic. But he didn’t write it. He’s still an amazing action director and this movie adds it up to the pile. But as much as I like action...
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Stunts - 91/100 | Okay I do love action and it’s done incredibly well here.…
The VVitch would have been a completely different film if it took its cues from this Witchcraft - there would have been more lasers, monkey kung fu, hopping vampires and mystic mumbling. It also would've ended with Ralph Ineson gut-punching Kate Dickie 6 times before freeze-framing into the credits.
Jokes aside, this is a cracking fun fantasy comedy from a Sammo at the height of his powers as a performer and director. And who knew he had such a gift for the surreal and weird? I certainly didn't
How have I not reviewed or rated this before? I think LETTERBOXD may be eating some of my entries like a hungry ghost.
A grab-bag of everything that would come to define the 'Spooky' era of Hong Kong Cinema (mostly Hopping Vampires) It hangs loosely as a narrative, but when you have so many fun gags and such an action-packed third act, I can't complain.
I can only be scared!
Well, okay, that final shot is...problematic.
Some complaining!
I realized the other day that there's a "kung-fu horror comedy" hole in my portfolio so I decided to fill it with film which started this sub-sub genre. To begin, let me make two things clear: I love Samo Hung and I have no real idea how Chinese voodoo / mysticism works; which makes this the perfect setting for me to fall in love with a movie I absolutely know in my heart but don't really understand at all. This film has everything, lady ghosts that make no sense with the plot, pogo zombie / vampires (the first of it's kind according to IMDB according to Brian), and an actual beheading... via some poor chicken. If you were looking for…
Didn't like as much as the first King Hu movie that i saw. but is nice to watch. Now i pretend to rewatch a Touch of Zen to see in perspective.
С этого фильма, собственно, и началась волна успешных гонконгских хорроров. Отдельно стоит отметить, что это был дебютный проект студии Саммо Хуна (golden harvest в этот раз выступали лишь в роли дистрибьютора). Фильм представляет из себя классическую для Гонконга смесь мистики, слэпстика и боевых искусств (так как в главные роли тут снимается сам Саммо Хун, то и драк тут очень много). По сюжету это, внезапно, вариация на тему гоголевского "Вия", что безусловно сильно повеселит российского зрителя. Также, кажется, здесь впервые появились знаменитые прыгающие вампиры цзянши. В целом, кино довольно неровное, все намеченные здесь штуки доведут до идеала позднее (например, в "Мистере вампире"), что, тем не менее, не отменяет балдежности сего произведения.
Una de las películas más desternillantes y bizarras que he visto en mi vida. Tragedia over 9000 too, no sé cómo es posible esto.
For all it's typical Hong Kong madness, the plot was surprisingly easy to follow. The action, comedy, and witchcraft elements are all blended very effectively, I was having a great time. I know the very last shot is "problematic" but its abruptness was hilarious. Overall a very creative film from Lord Sammo.
I enjoy Mr Vampire more but upon re-watch I still can’t get over the freeze frame ending of this movie. It’s an act of complete insanity.
Proxy kung-fu war! Importante saber que os primeiros drones eram mortos-vivos controlados por magia negra a serviço de talaricos medievais.
This is part of the 30 countries challenge.
Every time you mix a bunch of good things in a movie, you are almost certain it won't be as good as it sounds on paper. Mixing martial arts, horror and comedy should be one of those things that can't live up to expectations. But that's not taking into consideration Sammo Hung, who is to martial arts what bumblebees are to flying.
Of course the horror element is anything but scary, as it is mostly the undead in wacky makeup being involved in funny fights. Why settle for vampires and zombies though, when you can add demonic possession and witchcraft. And quite impressively so, both the visual effects and even more so…
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