Bewitched (1981)
Chinese Title: 蠱
Translation: To Bewitch[1]
Starring:
Ai Fei, Melvin Wong Gam-San, Fan Lei, Lily Chan Lee-Lee, Wu Pei-Chin, Choi
Kwok-Hing, Wong Siu-Ming, Leung Seung-Wan, Hussein Hassan, Jenny Leung Jan-Lei
Director:
Kuei Chih-Hung
Bewitched
is certainly an interesting film, with a pseudo-documentary approach to its
subject matter, which is black magic/witchcraft. It is not the first
film from Hong Kong to do that—the Shaw Brothers had already produced the
legendary Black Magic as early as 1975. And much like that movie, at
least part of the story involves a jilted lover seeking revenge against the man
who exploited her. But Bewitched almost feels less interested in telling
a story per se and more about informing us how black magic is
performed.
The movie opens with a dad and his
children having a picnic at a park. The fun and games is interrupted by the
discovery of a dead body belonging to a little girl. The police, led by Bobby Wong
King-Sun (Melvin Wong, of Descendant of Wing Chun and Righting Wrongs),
immediately step in to investigate who the victim is. She is ultimately identified
as the daughter of a businessman named Stephen Lam Wai (Ai Fei, of Clans of
Intrigue and The Sentimental Swordsman). Lam is arrested for the murder
of his daughter—the method of which involved driving a freakishly long nail
into her skull—and sentenced to death. End of story.
But is it? During his trial, Lam claimed
to be under the power of a magical spell when he committed the crime, although (obviously)
nobody took him seriously. While in jail, Lam requests an audience with Bobby
to tell him his story. Earlier that year, Lam had gone to Thailand on a
business trip, but apparently had some days off for some leisure—by which I
mean he wanted to “sample the local cuisine.” Considering that Thailand is one
of the sex tourism capitals of the world, that is not surprising. He meets a
pretty young lady named Bon Brown (Brutal Sorcery’s Lily Chan Lee-Lee,
not to be confused with Lily Li Li-Li, or Lily Lee Lee-Lee). Although both can communicate
in broken English, when Bobby asks about her profession, he misreads her hand
gestures to assume she’s a masseuse-cum-prostitute (she’s actually a typist).
His initial attempt to woo her on the spot—or at least purchase her “services”—is
rejected, making him think that he’ll have to try a lot harder to be deemed a
worthy client.
To this end, Lam buys her a necklace
with the word “Love” to try to charm his way into her panties. He also offers
her money to take him to the city of Pattaya and show him a good time. She accepts
the faux-tourist guide job and off they go. However, one topless jaunt at the
beach later, the two are getting intimate. Ultimately, Stephen has to go home
to work and family. Bon Brown meets him at the airport and gives him a special
necklace, reminding him that he needs to come back to see her in Thailand on
June 30th, although she doesn’t explain why. Stephen goes back to
Hong Kong and, as you would expect, talks to his colleagues with the mentality
of, “Bros, look who I banged while in Thailand!”
June thirtieth comes and goes without
Lam giving it the slightest of thought. But the next evening, when he’s trying
to get frisky with his girlfriend (Jenny Leung, of Hong Kong Emmanuelle
and Hex vs Witchcraft), he finds out that he can’t get it up anymore.
And then the necklace bleeds a strange brown liquid onto his chest, which
stains it completely. And then he starts to hallucinating that his daughter is
trying to kill him. And that is ultimately what drives him to kill her. Stephen
Lam still believe that he is cursed and asks Bobby Wong to investigate the case
in his stead.
Bobby Wong ultimately agrees and takes a
holiday in Thailand. Wong’s wife, Mary (Fan Lei, of Escort Girls and Empress
Wu), is originally from the Yunnan province, which borders on a few SE Asian
countries, and is home to the Miao people, whose belief system includes
Shamanism. This isn’t discussed overtly in the film, but it goes some way to
explain why Mary has a natural belief in black magic and witchcraft. She arranges
for a cousin of hers, who lives in Thailand, to meet Bobby at the airport and
take him around. Bobby tries to talk to Bon Brown, but she refuses to see him. He
then goes to see a witch (or medium) to find out what spell was used on Stephen
Lam. He finds out that it was the “Carcass Oil Spell” that drove him mad and
the “Coffin Spell” that made him impotent.
The medium says she isn’t strong enough
to undo the spells, but points him in the direction of a Buddhist Temple in the
countryside where the monks might be able to help. Once there, Bobby and Mary’s
cousin explain Stephen’s situation to Master Dah-mor (Choi Kwok-Hing, of Godfather
from Canton and The Prince of Temple Street). The monk agrees to
help and almost manages to undo the spell. But now Bobby has a problem:
the sorcerer (Hussein Hassan, of Centipede Horror and Red Spell
Spells Red) now knows that someone is onto him. And that will put
Bobby and his family in grave danger…
The last act of the movie consists of
the sorcerer using one spell after another on Bobby, trying to torture him as
much as possible before finally closing the book on the poor policeman. We get
to see the procedures for performing hexes like the “Lime Spell,” which
involves putting the picture of the intended victim inside a lime and piercing
it with needles that have been dipped in a concoction made of snake bile and
chicken blood. The lime becomes a proxy for the victim’s heart and is placed in
a location where people are likely to walk over it. There is a “Demon Child Spell”
that involves the blood of a holy man—a Taoist priest in this case--mixed with
the blood of a sorcerer, invoking an invisible demon that can possess people to
kill the target.
We also a get to witness the Thai black
magic equivalent to a séance in its entirety and a magical battle between a Buddhist
Monk and the evil sorcerer. In one gross scene, the sorcerer drinks the blood
from a vat of what appears to be aborted third trimester baby fetuses, which
makes him strong enough to face down the monk during their initial encounter.
Stephen Lam eventually does bite the dust, as the final spell enacted on him
causes him to vomit up maggots and disembowel himself trying to rid his body of
them.
Shaw Brothers horror films, in addition
to their unflinching graphic portrayal, are also known for being quite sensual,
too. That actually goes for horror movies in most markets, in which transgressing
with regards to sex was just as important as doing so with violence. This isn’t
the sleaziest of these sorts of movies ever made, but it does feature Lily Chan
running topless in slow motion toward the camera for a good thirty seconds. My,
my. And Jenny Leung as Stephen’s impatient girlfriend leaves us no question about
her body in her one scene—after a few more years of these sorts of roles, she
quit acting altogether.
Bewitched
isn’t the best of the Shaw Brothers horror films, or the entire sub-genre of “Hong
Kong people go to Southeast Asia and pay dearly for it.” But it does make good
on its promise of disgusting images and cheesecake nudity, which is why most
people watch these thing anyway. And the matter-of-fact, research-oriented approach to the magic makes me think of Bewitched as the adults-only alternative to Harry Potter.
[1] - The Character 蠱 (“Gǔ”) can be translated as “To Bewitch”, “To Drive Insane”, “To Poison”,
or “To Harm with Witchcraft.”
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