Kick'em In The Ghoulies

 Hong Kong Classics

In the 80's and 90's Hong Kong action cinema was at it's peak and the films being produced where nothing short of outstanding in all departments where stuntmen nearly died ,got set alight,stars got battered and bruised and in a lot of cases broken bones,

so this page is dedicated to those films from a bygone age ,but they can't be described as Old School ,hence the reason for this dedicated page .Because don't forget that a traditional  Kung Fu craze started up again in the Nineties and these where classed as New Wave Kung Fu. 

Mr Vampire 2 - Spooky Encounters 2- Eastern Condors - Black Sheep Affair - Police Story 3 - and many others.

Copyright© 1993 STAR TV Filmed Entertainment(HK) Limited & Star Filmed Entertainment Limited

In this sequel to the original Mr Vampire Lam Ching-Ying reprises his role as the Taoist priest that fights evil.But this time we are in Modern day and Lam plays a his character as a owner of a Herbal medicine shop.And claims that he has the experience to deal with Vampires from the many films and books he has read

Replacing the role filled by Chin Siu Ho is the Brilliant Yuen Biao who plays a reporter who is dating Lam's daughter played by Moon Lee who starred also in the original.

The film starts off with a Archeologist along with his helpers stumbling on 3 coffins which contain the three corpses which will be the entertainment for the film.Not knowing to much they take them back to there lab .

Now the corpses are tagged with a spell to stop them walking or waking.But when these tags are removed the corpses awake and attack the Archeologists and in the confusion one of the corpses get away (that of a small boy).

On top of that one of the Archeologists  gets bitten and this is not a good thing as these are Vampires.

Now once they get them laid to rest and wrapped for inspection by a friend they head out to find the young Vampire.Now the one that has been bitten goes to Lam's medicine shop for treatment and when Lam see the bite He knows somethings up so he decides to follow him and tagging along behind following is his daughter and Boyfriend the reporter.

Now Lam has forgotten his Vampire busting equipment and sends Yuen and Moon to follow ,But when they get there Yuen decides to enter the Lab by himself and what ensues is most hilarious as Yuen discovers the corpses and in the process of taking pictures of himself with them awakens them and a fight begins.In a bid to stop them he finds some liquid called retarder which he pours down them and everything begins to slow down to a slow motion fight.

Not forgetting the Young Vampire who has found friends in the form of a young girl and her buddies ,the girl decides to hide the boy from her father as he would tell the police .

 Now without giving to much f the story away ,what we have here is a very comedic film which in places are quite funny,but some scenes do drag on a bit to long (like the slow motion scene ).

The scenario with the young Vampire is quite soppy in places and fails to give the spark that made the original so great.Also there are not enough scenes with of Lam and Yuen fighting the Vampires,as this is the entertainment value of these films .

So all in all though not a top scoring film it does have entertainment value ,just that it's not consistent in the way that with the original you could quite easily watch it again straight after the first viewing and enjoy scenes you may have missed or scenes you did not for that matter.With this you may want to wait six months before watching again.That's the difference

Score out of Ten = 6

The Snake

Copyright © 1998 Mei Ah laser disc co Ltd

This is a classic from 1991 though the DVD was only released in 1998 ,but there was a VCD  release before that .

This film is one of those films that showcase Hong Kong action at it's best even though it may not be a film everyone's heard of ,and does not have a big budget.The story goes that Wai and his friend Nam on a evening out have a barney with some Triad members that gets them in to trouble to a point that the Fish Farm where they work (which is run by their Uncle ) is set upon and destroyed.

This leads them to try and find out who is responsible and they are fooled in to believing Traid leader Li (here played by Alex Man) is the culprit but when they infiltrate Li's home they in-sue in a fight which in the end results in them being led to the real trouble makers. Thing is they are beaten by these other triads when they confront them and it is Li who saves them .

Now Li is impressed by them and their fighting skills that he hires them to work in his nightclub.Now Li is in partner ship with his friend who is from Japan but when he dies the control of the Business goes to his son Kuyama (here played by Ken Lo ).Li tries to buy Kuyama's share and gets his friends to raise cash for the transaction ,but when Li's friend Tung (Dick Wei)gathers his cash and everybody else s and does a runner Wai and Li's Feisty Daughter (played by Yukari Oshima) track him down .

Yes the story is a bit Choppy in that there is a lot going on and many sub plots ,But this was the way with these films from this time .What makes it a top film is the action is top  notch with fighting from all protagonists .

Add on top of this some brilliant stunt work which looks quite painful and you have 90 minutes of very enjoyable entertainment.Then you have a cast that will make you sit up and look with Mark Cheng and Benny Lai Wai giving it large alongside the ever reliable Yukari Oshima.Then add Ken Lo and Dick Wei who are power house fighters in to the mix and you know this will be good.  So all in all  Top Fighter that deserves your inspection.                             Score out of Ten= 8. The Snake.    

Here's a film that escaped me until now ,This classic Sammo Hung flick from 1988 is a fun thrilled thrill ride with many laughs along the way.

                         Copyright ©Star TV filmed entertainment 2001

In this film Sammo Hung plays a officer in the Royal Hong Kong police force ,who is actually part of the police band and has no intention of doing real police work.

Now his buddy who lives with him played by Jacky Cheung is a Cadet who has just passed to being a fully fledged officer.Now Jacky is up for getting in the thick of it and when he assigned a filing job he is most disgruntled.Now it just happens that a rich business man is being blackmailed by some hoodlums and the Officer on the job'' Magnum'' played here by legendary actor David Chiang decides when Jacky intervenes.That they should get some one who does not look like a policeman to deliver the money the blackmailers are asking for.Sammo ''officer Tuba ''is put forward for the job.

But when Magnum fools Tuba in to delivering the money by telling him it's to get a girlfriends lover of his back Tuba agrees.

Of course it's just so that Tuba can be used as bait so Magnum can catch the Crooks.But when the deal goes sour and Tuba is confronted by a bunch of guys he freezes and hides.In to the fray Magnum steps. He ends up battling the bad guys only to be Murdered by them while Tuba looks on.But before he dies He makes Tuba promise him to catch the bad guys and bring them to justice.

Now Tuba being Tuba he has no intention of doing so because he feels he is not cut out for this and is only interested in playing the Tuba.What in-sues is Magnum coming back to haunt Tuba to convince him to face his fears and bring the bad guys to justice.Now Jacky is all for nabbing the crooks wants to help Tuba do the right thing.What happens is Tuba is transferred from the band after making a mockery of Magnums Remembrance service 'which is caused by Magnums Ghost''.Tuba is also in a relationship with his new girlfriend played by Joey Wong.

But when MAGNUM makes a fool of Tuba in front of Joey's parents he has to decide to confront his fears and catch the crooks so that he can live a ghost free life.

 What we have here is classic 80's action from the golden age of Hong Kong cinema .

What is also amazing is the all star cast apart from our main crew we have the likes of Melvin Wong,Lam Ching Ying in cameo roles and Hwang Jang Lee as one of the hoods Sammo has to battle.This for me was wonderful to see Sammo and Hwang go at it foot to fist.Along with a good helping of comedy to break up the action,some which had me in hysteria.I can not recommend  this title enough because as a helping of Hong Kong action you won't be disappointed.

The film was directed by Lau Koon Wai & Phillip Chan ,produced by Sammo Hung,Dickson Poon and Melvin Wong.and released on the D&B label.Which was a company set up by Sammo with Dickson Poon.Riveting entertainment all round.The Snake.        

  Score out of Ten = 8

                                 Sammo takes cover as the helpless officer Tuba

Copyright2001© Medusa Communications/1993©Star TV Filmed Entertainment

Some People say to me Why is the spelling of Ghoulies  the way it is in the site title and not written Goolies.Well although a bit thin my reasons could be this review and others like it to follow as many martial art films from the East dealt with Ghosts and Ghouls in the Eighties and Nineties and the other reason i did not want the site solely associated with kicking people in the goolies and i felt i would get better exposure in search engines if i went with our Ghostly friend version.

Any way that's my explanation.

So on with the review of what is truly a landmark piece of film from Boho films and Golden Harvest and starring the late and great Lam Ching Ying 'who we will cover in the Legends pages shortly ' Moon Lee also stars with Ricky Hui ,Chin Siu-Ho in a film directed by Ricky Lau.

Although not the first film of it's kind Mr Vampire started a craze with these type of films in Hong Kong .The Story of a Taoist priest who can vanquish demons lost souls and Vampires using his form of magical spells , rituals and Feng Shiu  (they don't teach these things in the Catholic Church )   

 So the film shot in 1985 was the brainchild of Sammo Hung who created the whole genre with his Encounters of the Spooky Kind and Dead and Deadly ,

Here Lam Ching-Ying plays priest Kau who in a attempt to Rebury a rich mans fathers corpse which is buried in poor ground ( The Chinese believe that if bodies are buried in poor or evil ground where maybe bad things have happened that bad luck will befall the following generations) is amazed to find the body still intact and is taken back to his place of worship so he may prepare for reburial to stop the body from rising ,but these attempts fail and the body becomes a Jiang-shi ( hopping Vampire) .

Now this Vampire hops around  killing people and in the fight to stop it one of Kau's disciples Man Choi (here played by Ricky Hui) gets infected and is on vampire watch to stop him turning in to one himself,on top of this his other disciple Tsau Tsang (played by Chin Siu Ho) gets possessed by a ghost of a woman who wants to take his soul.So along with these problems Kau must fight to save the community from the Vampire ,but is accused himself by the police who is after having a relationship with the Vampire's sons Daughter here  played by Moon Lee .

What ensues is  a action packed  90 minutes where Tsau is confronting his own feelings for a ghost, Man Choi falling for Yan (Moon Lee) & not obeying Priest Kau and is slowly turning Vampish.All in all this film is packed to the gills with Spot on effects some amazing real life stunts with dramatic falls , martial arts people on fire and more .Top this with some brilliant comedy you can see why this film was such a hit that spawned 4 sequels as well as many spin off movies.So here goes it's not that often you will see this on kick'em in the Ghoulies .               Score out of Ten = 10 . The Snake