Ghost
Punting
Welcome
to the second in our 2013 Halloween special reviews. For our second
film we chose a 1992 Hong Kong classic starring one of the most
famous groups of actors and actresses, yes it's the Lucky Stars.
Here
our group of friends are on holiday and get involved in ghostly
adventures when their holiday cabin just happens to be near a haunted
house.
The
film opens with a young couple on the run from gangsters, there
caught and the male of the couple ( Natalis Chan) is killed by the
gangster's henchmen.
It
then cuts to the credits and the introduction of the lucky stars who
are arriving for their holiday on Lantau Island.
As
always Kidstuff ( Sammo Hung ) is treated like a servant by the group
and ends up carrying all the bags. As with all the group there all
crazy about pulling every girl that walks past.
Richard
Ng plays Sandy, who believes he can use spiritual forces to control
people and gain through this. While Eric Tsang is the baby of the
group, Roundhead.
Along
with the others, your feel right at home as all will make you feel at
home.
The
fun starts when the group here noises from a house near their cabin,
Sandy decides to investigate and brings Kidstuff along for support.
It
becomes apparent early on that spiritual forces are at work and Sandy
gets photographic evidence. They decide to report this to Kidstuff's
love interest in the previous films, yes the delightful Sibelle Hu
reprises her role as Barbara the police officer.
Barbara
sends a group of highly trained and very beautiful Police Women led
by Leung Lai Ti ( Elaine Lui), this of course leads to the guys
getting up their usual tricks of trying to grope the girls using some
of the most absurd ideas possible.
When
it comes to investigating the haunted house the guys decide to don
sheets and Halloween masks to scare the girls into their arms, but of
course, when they actually run into real ghosts the experience gets
all the more serious when Lai Ti gets possessed by a male ghost which
just happens to be the ghost of the guy we saw killed before the
opening credits.
Once
the ghost has explained his reasons for the possession the group
decides to help him find his girlfriend and exact revenge on the mob
boss that killed him.
Now,
this was made in 1992 and by now the Lucky Stars films were quite
well known, but unlike the first few in the series the comedy is not
as funny, I think maybe finding new ways for the guys to get their
feel so to speak has been thin on the ground.
It's
not to say that it's not entertaining, but I remember in the first
few films scenes where I fell on the floor laughing. It's a funny
thing with slapstick style comedy there's a line where it stays funny
and a line where it loses the punch it needs to make you laugh.
But
with this entry into the serious, the inclusion of the ghostly
storyline adds something fresh to the series and something which at
the time was very popular in Hong Kong cinema.
But
it's the action that you're be concerned about, and even though
Sammo's role is not as large as in previous installments he's on hand
for the all-important fight scenes though not blistering in offering
anything new, they do prove just how competent Sammo and his team are
at delivering hard-hitting action with a comical element at the same
time.
Elaine
Lui ( a firm favourite of K.I.T.G.) also gets to show her moves in a
great girl-on-girl fight.
One
thing is for sure this ghostly adventure for the boys offers up some
real entertainment in the action stakes whilst maintaining its
light-hearted side.
It
always amazes me how Hong Kong films from this time are exciting to
watch, no matter how often you may have seen them. It really does
show the golden age of Hong Kong cinema and one which many miss.
Score
out of Ten = 7
Review
Date: November 2nd,
2013
Reviewer:
Sertes Nake
Page update : October 2021
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