Gui tai (1975)

... aka: ครรภ์ผี
... aka: 鬼胎
... aka: Fetal Ghost
... aka: Kun phee
... aka: Kun pi
... aka: Possessed, The
... aka: Pregnant by a Ghost

Directed by:
"Loong Shiao" (Lung Hsiao)
Li Wei

After credits and a Chinese scroll I couldn't understand, we meet up with a pair of young lovers out for a nighttime motorcycle drive through the country. He, Kuang Ta Pan (Lieh Lo), and she, Lei Ting Chou (Runglawan Sripatimakul), end up stranded after the bike mysteriously quits and then topples over. Unable to get it started, they decide to walk home but are forced to duck into a cave once it starts to rain. Since this is a 1970s movie cave, it's not only filled with old artifacts and skeletons but also with blue, purple, yellow, orange, red and green colored lighting for no apparent reason other than it looks cool. Only slightly creeped out by all of the scary-looking statues and human bones scattered about, the two decide to do another kind of boning that manages to disturb an ancient evil spirit hidden inside the largest of the statues. Unbeknownst to them, the invisible spirit then decides to join in on the action!

After their strange night in the cave, Kuang Ta and Lei Ting return to the city just in time to visit Lei Ting's wealthy father (Chao Klaewklong) on his deathbed. Lawyer Shek Chiao (Krung Srivilai), who used to date Lei Ting himself and is still in love with her, even reads the will while the father is just minutes away from dying. Pops wants to make sure it's clearly conveyed that he disapproves of his daughter's relationship to Kuang Ta, as he finds him lazy, unambitious, stubborn and his motives suspicious. Still, he leaves his home, his money, his lucrative property business and everything else to his daughter in hopes she'll ultimately make the right decision. Long story short: She doesn't.

Despite having a nice, loyal, kind, handsome, responsible lawyer who'd gladly marry her, Lei Ting breaks his heart and opts for the bad boy instead. The two marry and then, to the surprise of no one, things immediately turn sour. On their wedding eve, their first intimate night since the whole cave incident, Lei Ting finds herself revolted by the idea of sex with her new hubby and is unable to follow through with consummating their marriage. Kuang Ta calls her "disgusting!" and goes to sleep on the couch. He's also not particularly interested in filling in for his late father-in-law as managing director of his company either and is just fine with the business going down the tubes. He is, however, interested in his new personal assistant; the aptly named Secretary Ho. Frustrated by lack of sex, Kuang Ta goes to a "Turkish Bath and Massage" parlor and finds Ms. Ho also working there. The two become lovers.

Lei Ting, who's been suffering from debilitating stomach cramps and dizzy spells, goes to see her physician, Dr. Wu (Kun Li), and finds out she's three months pregnant. Strangely, she can't feel the baby moving. After having been pregnant for 14 months (!) Wu tells her it's "strange" but not to worry (!!) By this point, Kuang Ta has taken off for Hong Kong and abandoned Lei Ting, forcing her to make amends with people he has wronged. She has her father's loyal employee Mr. Mai (Ni Liu), who'd resigned due to Kuang Ta's behavior, start running the business and gets back in touch with Shek Chiao. But then the baby finally arrives to screw everything up again.

After going through a strenuous labor, Lei Ting gives birth to a baby that the doctor describes as a "fat daughter" but is about the size of a one year old. The baby girl also has a full set of teeth. She names her Sze Ta. Being the upstanding guy that he is, Shek Chiao steps up and offers to help raise the girl but Lei Ting refuses as she, God knows why, still pines for the asshole she was dumb enough to marry. Four years pass and the baby is now a bratty little girl being partially raised by a bespectacled new nanny named Miss Chan. After he unsuccessfully tries to rape Lei Ting, chauffeur Ah Wang (Luechai Natnat), is lured outside by a beautiful young woman wearing a sheer nightgown. She seduces him, turns into a clawed, fanged vampire and kills him. Police, led by Inspector Liu (Yau Fong), swing by long enough to collect the corpse but that's about it. Little Sze Ta asks mommy if his death has made her happy afterward.

Naughty nanny Miss Chan offers to massage and then makes a lesbian pass at an outraged Lei Ting, who responds by shrieking, "You are shameless! Unscrupulous!" But Nanny gets her way after blackmailing Lei Ting with a piece of torn nightgown found at the murder scene. Later, when Nanny Chan, who shares a room with Sze Ta, starts having an erotic dream about her mommy, the little girl starts having a seizure, lies on the floor and suddenly transforms into a fully grown adult woman i.e. the same vampire who killed the driver. She slips into bed with Miss Chan, starts feeling her up and then kills her. Police come to investigate her death, too, but leave empty handed yet again. They finally become more active in their investigation after the vampire pays the nice guy lawyer a visit and attempts to kill him.

Having become a success in Hong Kong as a "manager," Kuang Ta finally decides to bring his sorry ass back home. Instead of laughing and slamming the door in his face as most of us would likely do, Lei Ting welcomes him with open arms and is overjoyed her family is finally back together again. But Kuang Ta's back at a bad time as the police have tracked their possessed little girl to the same cave where she was conceived. As she's impervious to bullets, being a ghost / vampire and all, they call in a group of a Buddhist monks to pray.

Clearly made in response to the success of The Exorcist (1973), this title is seldom included on lists of Exorcist copycats made during the 1974 to 1975 possession movie heyday, though perhaps it should be. There's also some clear ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968) influence going on, too, as well as a few elements that sort of predate the following year's The Omen (1976). This was a lot trashier than I was anticipating and there's just enough cheese and sleaze and fun elements to give it a passing grade. The actress playing the seductive ghost is วันทนา บุญบันเทิง. I don't have her Roman name (the translator gives back Wantana Boonpanang) but she was supposedly notorious back then for being the first Thai actress to do "erotic nudity" and was married to actor Lak Apichat, who also appears here playing a police officer.

A Hong Kong / Thailand co-production with top actors from each country in lead roles, many sources list this as being two different films. The first listing says it's a Thai film originally titled Kun pi (given the English title Pregnant by a Ghost) and released in 1975. The second listing is for a Hong Kong film titled Gui tai (given then English title The Possessed) and released in 1976. Nope, same exact film. The Thai language version is missing but thankfully the HK version in Mandarin received a VHS release (using the Possessed title) by Finest Productions. Even better, their release has English subtitles! Sure, some of those subs get cut off the screen but we should at least be thankful this wasn't an entirely Thai production or else it may have gotten destroyed like many of their other movies from this same time.

★★1/2

Shan kou (1980)

... aka: 山狗
... aka: Beasts
... aka: Beasts, The
... aka: Flesh and Bloody Show, The
... aka: Flesh and the Bloody Terror
... aka: Mountain Dog
... aka: Survive

Directed by:
Dennis Yu

Five teenagers; outgoing Wah (Eddie Chan), his shy and innocent kid sister Ling (Patricia Chong), Pauline (Siu-Ling Wong), her lazy / cowardly boyfriend Ken (Cheun-Man Ko) and third wheel Louis (Paul Chung), who has a crush on Ling, head by bus to the mountains for a summer weekend camping trip. After switching to a lorry, they're dropped off in the middle of nowhere then hike to the valley of Kau Wah Shan, where only a tiny village rests. Something immediately seems off with the unfriendly locals. The bus driver refuses to speak to them and when they stop at a small general store, the owner lies about having a telephone and sends them on their way. The five find a nice place to set up camp not too far from the store and near a waterfall, ignoring a "No Camping" warning as they do and instead using the sign as firewood.

A couple of obnoxious redneck locals, Fu (Man-Bo Kwok) and Ko (Chor-Fai Kwong), who spied on the girls from a shack behind the store, show up to menace Ling and demand some of the soup they're cooking. You see, in this village there isn't much in the way of law and order. There's also no opportunity and little hope for the impoverished younger villagers, who've resorted to semi-savagery and stealing whatever they can in order to survive while they fantasize about running away to live in the Netherlands. The two men are chased off by Wah, but they'll soon be back... only there will be more of them, including constantly-snarling Snake (Ming Kam), who has rotten teeth, hisses, drinks snake venom and has a cobra for a pet, the big, bald and slow Mo (Kent Cheng) and the sadistic ringleader Holland Man (Ching Wong).

While Wah and Louis are busy chopping wood and Pauline and Ken are busy messing around in some weeds, Ling finds herself alone washing dishes at the base of the waterfall. The five thugs arrive, hold her down, rip off all her clothes and brutally gang rape her. After finding her nude and unconscious, Wah chases after them and is pushed into a boar trap dug in the ground, where he's impaled on sharpened bamboo sticks. Snake even drops his cobra into the hole just to make sure Wah's finished off for good.

While most of the locals defend the thugs responsible and say the teens were not welcome there, the CID show up to investigate matters and haul four of the five killers in. A local drunk identifies them as the culprits always stealing his chickens and harassing him, but he's written off as an unreliable witness. Ling is of no help as she's gone crazy from her attack and does things like brushing her teeth bloody after (gah!) using her toothbrush to clean a toilet. The rapists / killers are then set free and return to the village. But there's someone who's not about to let them get away with what they did: Ling and Wah's father, Mr. Chan (Sing Chen); a woodworker in good physical condition for a his age. Chan goes to the same area where his children were attacked, camps out and waits for the right moment to strike.

After burying the drunk farmer up to his neck, the "Disco Boys" steal his money, which they use to go into the city, get drunk and pick up hookers. They're rejected by most due to their poor hygiene and one even farts in Fu's face in a scene that would be repeated about 1000 times in various Troma movies. When they return home with a bar girl, they attempt to gang rape her but she manages to run off. They then start disappearing one by one, all falling victim to the vengeful father, who puts his carpentry skills to use making various booby traps he hides in the woods. The weapons used include a jagged sickle blade, a metal mouse trap (which is so big it could probably also catch a bear), a nail lined box and, my personal favorite, snakes.

Fairly well-made on a low budget, this ugly, gritty, mostly humorless film has clearly been heavily inspired by a number of U.S. backwoods terror tales and revenge flicks like Deliverance (1972), THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977) and I Spit on Your Grave (1978). The bad guys are truly disgusting cretins and, while they're certainly adequately loathsome and the actors (some of whom never appeared in anything else) are well cast, they also go a bit over the top with it. The goons yell, behave idiotically, drool, act obnoxious, pick their noses, lick blood, smell bad and constantly bicker and fight amongst themselves. The victims and the father character are given far less screen time when this would have benefited from a bit more balance in that department.

If you've seen your fair share of exploitation films, you've probably already seen most of this before. It's neither the best of its kind nor the worst and it's neither the most graphic of its kind nor the least. It merely falls somewhere in the middle. The outdoor scenery is nice and there's plenty of violence, fighting and blood, plus some full frontal female nudity in the uncut version. I actually found the first half of build-up with the teens hiking / camping, which tries to be atmospheric with a lot of added fog and eerie Theremin-sounding music, stronger than the actual revenge portion, which is supposed to be the big pay off. Those not interested in seeing violence inflicted upon real animals should also be warned that a pig, a chicken, a rat and snakes are killed. And the same folks probably won't appreciate the bits where a monkey is yanked around on a chain and a dog is thrown on the ground.

Numerous cuts of this title exist, some of which are missing violence, bits of the rape scene and the full nudity of the bar girl. The HK theatrical release ran 83 minutes and was cut and these cuts are maintained on both the Pearl City VCD and DVD release. The pre cert English-dubbed video released in the UK on the Mercury International label (under the title The Beasts), plus the Dutch VHS (also with the English dub) are said to be the uncut versions. In the U.S., mail order bootleggers Video Search of Miami offered a shortened 72-minute version with hardcore sex insert shots added, which was released under the titles Flesh and the Bloody Terror or The Flesh and Bloody Show. Someone (unofficially) also put together an 86 minute composite, splicing in some of the cut footage into the best quality available print. It's mostly in Chinese with English subtitles but with bits of the dubbed version wedged in here and there.

The soundtrack features songs from The Police and Genesis and a disco version of Ace's 'How Long' (I think by Lipps Inc.), most likely used without permission. This may also be why this film was not officially released here in America. Director Yu (credited as Dennis W.K. Yu on the print I viewed) also made THE IMP (1981) and Evil Cat (1987).

★★1/2