The Devil (1981)

So are you one of those that enjoy watching movies where people are vomiting worms and snakes over and over again? Well, then The Devil is something for you! From a time when Asian horrors was really extreme and happily crossed the borders of taste and morality, here's a classic that I haven't seen before. Directed by Taiwanese master Ren-chieh Chang, this might not deliver anything original, and is far from perfect. Still it delivers good entertainment and a very straight-forward story.

A charming, handsome man is arriving to a small town and checks in at the local hotel. The youngest son works his matchmaking-magic and sets him up with sister and everything goes so well that they actually marries! Everyone is happy... until they realize who the devil is, him. He's just a rude and violent con-man who wants to make a quick buck with selling the hotel and taking the family money. But an older woman who practices black magic puts a terrible curse on him as a revenge. But he's not the last, because one after another of the local thugs are being killed off in this brutal fashion: being eaten alive from the inside by snakes and worms!

The Devil is, like many of these movies, a bit confusing and the final twists just made me even more confused. What's clear is that someone is killing off men in the village, who is it? Because our con-man is just interested in the hotel? Is someone taking revenge on the woman that gets beaten to death with a stone in the beginning? I'm not sure, but it's still nasty little Taiwanese horror movie with some very gruesome scenes of people having these creatures crawling out from the mouth, belly and other parts of the body that might be unprotected at the moment. It's more black and green slime than gore and blood, even if it's quite graphic and not for the sensitive viewer. For example, in the beginning we see the witch save one man with opening his belly and removing the snakes in Andreas Schnaas-esque close up's!

What I really like with the story is how the con-man very skillfully transforms from a nice hunk to a greedy and sleazy bastards, and how the family reacts to this. I'm not sure, but it seems like our heroine's cousin think she's hot and wants to marry her before the con-man takes his place. This is a fun detail, and I guess - like in Sweden - that marrying a cousin is very legal in Hong Kong also. Why the f**k am I writing about the cousin-thing? I have no idea, but I need to fill this review with, as we say in Sweden: Ordbajs.

The Devil is not out on any official DVD, but I got myself a widescreen bootleg dubbed to English. Worked fine for me and a movie the deserves a good, quality release. Maybe one day we'll see snake-vomiting in HD? I hope so!

Invitation Only (2009)

Oh, what can I write? Invitation Only is a very brutal Taiwanese slasher with some very nasty gore and graphic nudity. It’s basically an excuse for showing beautiful people getting killed in various terrible ways. Bryant Chang is a nobody, he works in the office building of a huge company. One day the big boss himself gives him an invitation to a party for rich people. “Tell them you are my cousin”, so our hero takes his advice and do that.

What he does not expect is that the party is arranged to kill and torture poor people, in front of an audience of very rich, bored people. They’re tired of the lower class complaining and trying to steal their money, so now they’re doing something about it… Trapped in a big warehouse our young victims have to try to stay alive and not get caught and butchered…

Invitation Only is a nice production, well-shot and with OK acting. Bryant Chang gets a graphic nude scene together with Japanese adult star Maria Ozawa, which brings nudity for everyone. The rest of the actors are good, but never steps outside of the safety zone of unique and interesting acting. It’s shot on HD, but still looks a bit cheap here and there, even if the production value is good.

The first half feel more like a normal slasher, a guy with a white mask stabbing people to death in gory fashion, but then it takes a torture-turn and becomes even more sadistic. The gore and blood is very graphic and the effects are well-made and quite shocking.

The political message is quite strong, maybe a bit too much written clearly on the nose of the audience. It’s a revenge movie for what the rich, the capitalists of the world has done to the poor people, but hidden as a Hostel-style gore-movie. It’s interesting, because the message could be from a Chinese movie – but as we all know, Taiwan tries to be as separate as possible from the “dirty old man” in the north (as I heard some Taiwanese describe China). But don’t think so much about that, this is mainly a gory horror movie aimed at teens in Taiwan, much more than a political movie about class-struggle.

Anyway, nothing new, but still kinda entertaining.

The Super Ninja (1984)

It was a long time since the Ninjas had any respect in the western world, and that's probably because the asians themselves treated the Ninjas with so much disrespect that they've become more silly than cool during the years. The Super Ninja isn't any expection, but that's alright - because there's more fun with a silly Ninja-movie than with a serious one (in most cases anyway). Alexander Lou was a semi-famous star in Taiwan during the eighties, a former Tae Kwan-master and a man with zero self-distance. 

Here he plays John, a cool cop with a secret persona: The Super Ninja! His partner is a black guy dressed like Axel Foley, no other than Eugene Thomas. His name here is Spencer. As usual in buddy-movies they are in total conflict with the chief of police, and this time they go to far. John is set-up and accused of being a drug pusher! But behind everything is The Five Element Ninjas, who want to take control over the... world? I'm not sure. John now has to prove he's innocent and fight both the corrupt police and the multi-colored Ninjas!

Yes, this is one of those movies that has ninjas with different colors. There's a golden ninja, a black one, a white one, a camouflage-ninja and so one. One has burning hands, another one is an expert in traveling underground! The surprise is that this isn't a Godfrey Ho-movie. Except a few location-shots there's not stockfootage from other movies, and the same actors are interacting together the whole movie! Amazing! The director must suffer from being hyperactive, because the editing and action is so frantic that it's hard to relax while watching this movie. Crazy camera angles, weird noises, stolen music, blood and some good fighting is mixed with extremely bad dialogue and one of the oddest First Blood rip-off's I've see: first John escapes from a house, a fast cut and then it's day and he's dressed in a Rambo-outfit and trapped the whole forest with... slapstick-booby traps! Yes, it's true.

But when the bad guys don't do as he tells them, he start killing them for real!

The Super Ninja is a crazy, crazy movie with tons of action and silly special effects. The fighting isn't bad at all and there's some nice and painful stunts to. Alexander Lau probably took a chance here, and included a borderline softporn sex-scene with him and his love interest! It get's really weird with the climax comes and the soundtrack is filled with really trippy sound effects!

There's a lot to love with this movie and I recommend a purchase. The UK dvd is interesting. I don't know if it's cut or not, but it's pretty violent and bloody. The picture quality is good vhs, but is stretched out - which means if you change the settings on the TV or have a 16:9 TV, you will be able to see the movie in 1.85:1 widescreen! It's shot in 2.35:1 though, so it's a bit cropped on the sides. But it's close enough for a better viewing experience.