[Review] Gong Tau: An Oriental Black Magic

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lovehkfilm's Kozo review

Title: Gong Tau: An Oriental Black Magic

Year: 2007

Producer: Dennis Law Sau-Yiu, Herman Yau Lai-To

Director: Herman Yau Lai-To, Lam Chiu-Yue

Cast: Mark Cheng Ho-Nam, Maggie Shiu Mei-Kei, Lam Suet, Kenny Wong Tak-Bun, Hui Siu-Hung, Kris Gu Yu, Teng Tzu-Hsuan,  Pauline Yam Bo-lam, Lau Kam-Ling, Fung Hak-On

The Skinny: Party like it's 1996! The nifty curses and gleefully over-the-top violence and gore should satiate those jonesing for this hallowed Hong Kong Cinema genre. There have been more compelling Category III films but this should suffice for now.

Full Review:

They really don't make them like this anymore. Herman Yau's Gong Tau is a slick and enjoyable Category III exploitation thriller that's better than similar genre entries in recent years -- though that's largely because there haven't been any similar genre entries in recent years. Mark Cheng stars as tough cop Rockman, who's actually named Lok-Man, but we'll go with his name from the English subtitles because it's just so damn fun. Rockman gets drawn into a doozy of a case when two cops are killed, and his wife Karpi (Maggie Siu) and son terrorized in his home.
     The smart bet on the culprit is at-large criminal Lam Chiu (Kenny Wong Tak-Bun), who once took a bullet to the head from Rockman and can no longer feel any pain. Lam Chiu has a thing against the cops, but he also has skills with "Gong Tau", the eastern variant of voodoo. Gong Tau gets invoked because the cops were killed in disturbingly ritualistic ways, and Karpi seems to be suffering from seemingly psychosomatic injuries and phobias. Rockman is loath to believe it, but his wise partner Sum (Lam Suet) knows the answer: it is Gong Tau. He repeats this numerous times with the stone-faced gravity of a prime-time newscaster: "It is Gong Tau." That's screenwriting for you.
     And boy, is Gong Tau some icky stuff. Basically, it works like voodoo, i.e. you take a little straw doll, enchant it using the victim's hair, and then start sticking some needles into it. However, there's also some other stuff involved, including mashed up centipedes, fresh semen, seared corpse fat, and other nasty ingredients that may make you wish you had skipped your meal prior to seeing the film. With the Gong Tau powers firmly in place, the evil individual can inflict pain and even death on their targets. The initial result involves Karpi not being able to lie down because she always feels as if she's lying on a bed of needles. She ends up spending her days in the hospital hunched over her serving tray, unable to sleep properly.
     However, that's only the beginning of the Gong Tau craziness. Karpi's afflictions are bad enough, but they should be curable with an anti-curse, right? Wrong. There's even more dangerous Gong Tau at work here, namely Flying Head Gong Tau, which -- besides involving someone's hovering noggin -- is far deadlier than your standard Gong Tau. Here's how it works: if the wizard removes his head, he suddenly becomes even more powerful, plus he can fly around and latch onto your neck like an overgrown head-shaped leech. Also, the wizard can't be killed before you work an anti-curse, or you'll spend the rest of your days with Gong Tau hanging over your head. Can Rockman and friends decurse Karpi before the wizard kills her or they kill him?
     Gong Tau is clearly aimed at a specific audience, and not your general audiences who thought Love is Not All Around was actually a good movie. Hong Kong Cinema's unique over-the-top horror genre and its unbelievable excesses earned plenty of fans during the Shaw Brothers era, what with titles like Black Magic (which also possesses the Cantonese title Gong Tau) and The Killer Snakes charming local moviegoers with their sick sensibilities and overdone gore. The genre really went insane in the early nineties with stuff like The Eternal Evil of Asia (which featured plenty of Gong Tau goodness), as well as Herman Yau's own efforts The Untold Story and Ebola Syndrome, both of which served up over-the-top gore with a surprising sense of humor. The general idea behind these sorts of films is cheap, fast, and sometimes sleazy, though Yau added some satire and a sick sense of humor to the mix.
     Yau's return to the genre is more subdued than his earlier efforts, and is directed in an evenly-paced fashion that downplays the over-the-top nature of the story and gore effects. There isn't any satire going on here, as the plot deals with little besides the case and its slowly-revealed backstory. The acting is also rather subdued, with the notable exception of Maggie Siu, who freaks out nearly every other minute of her screen time. Mark Cheng, Lam Suet, and Kenny Wong are all amusing in their square-jawed seriousness, and deliver such zinger lines as "My wife has Gong Tau," and "Lend me your meat," with the gravity of serious thespians. The actors behave super-seriously, but the over-the-top curses, blood, and gore shatter any notion that Gong Tau should be taken seriously. The comedy lies in the deadpan silliness of all the over-the-top depravity and darkness. Basically, Gong Tau is darkly fun stuff, though straight-laced audiences may simply be put off by what's going on.
     But hey, the type of people who like these movies are perfectly comfortable with who they are -- and if that describes you, then you should rejoice, because Gong Tau is the blood-and-semen milkshake that should satiate your Category III lust. Many of the initial Gong Tau curses aren't necessarily gory or gross, but the collateral damage sure is. Gong Tau serves up a full course meal of unnecessary gore, including mutilated babies, a graphic autopsy, centipedes nesting in a person's innards, seared body parts, bludgeoned and bloodied limbs, and even a CGI-enhanced decapitation that involves a willing participant. In addition, there's the appearance of copious nudity from actress Teng Tzu-Hsuan, who appears in numerous grey-toned flashbacks in Thailand, where we learn who, what, and why this whole mess 'o curses is going on.
     Gong Tau us still a step below the classic examples of this genre. The actual storyline doesn't diverge from usual genre conventions, and is ultimately quite forgettable. Also, the CGI is sometimes fake-looking, with the flying Gong Tau head effect being the front-runner for this year's funniest special effect. As a complete motion picture, Gong Tau is lacking. But really, who cares? This isn't a film requiring an ace narrative or storytelling. This film is all about the wild moments and sick anticipation, and Gong Tau has plenty of both. And even if the film isn't that spectacular, the simple fact that they're making it should be a welcome thing for longtime Hong Kong Cinema aficionados. The film really doesn't hold a candle to the sick thrills of Yau's previous efforts, but given the current state of the genre -- which is complete nonexistence -- Gong Tau easily earns a mutilated, freshly-bloodied thumbs up. (Kozo 2007)

 

[此贴子已经被作者于2007-5-29 23:32:36编辑过]

charmed

Well, I'm not sure I want to watch this anymore! Can't say the gorey horror is really my thing...but then again, I prefer disgusting over scary..

Kozo writes the best reviews! I love them.

[此贴子已经被作者于2007-5-28 3:43:49编辑过]

shaw_mag

http://hk.bcmagazine.net/hk.bcmagazine.issues/bcmagazine_webissue233/17cinema.html

Gong Tau: An Oriental Black Magic

review by Yvonne Teh

Once upon a time, Category III movies flooded out from Hong Kong in much the same volume centipedes and other creepy crawlies would pour out of luckless corpses of Hong Kongers who had crossed South-East Asian black-magic experts in over-the-top cult movies like Eternal Evil of Asia and Exodus from Afar. Although those days may not be back entirely, this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) Director-in-Focus, Herman Yau, seems to be doing his utmost to make it appear that way with two Category III films out in quick succession in local theatres.

One of these, Whispers and Moans, had its local premiere at the HKIFF. This one, the ominously titled Gong Tau: An Oriental Black Magic didn’t. And after viewing it, one can understand why – this supernatural horror-laden crime drama is definitely one of helmer Yau’s more outrageous and populist offerings; the kind of movie meant to elicit loud reactions (screams, groans and “wah!”-type exclamations, as well as laughter) that would shock more rarified cinema-goers.

But, boy, do you get a lot of Category III bang for your bucks in this here movie! Full frontal female nudity, two points, pubic hair and all? You got it! Gruesome baby death? Check! Male masturbation and semen as part of a gong tau spell-casting ritual? Oh, most definitely! Additionally, throw in some flattened fauna, violent cop deaths, a couple of gross autopsies, corpse desecration and lots of flowing blood – and much of all that bursts from the screen within 15 to 20 minutes of the start of the film!

Then there’s the gong tau…You want needle gong tau? Yeah, it’s there in this offering which centres on OCTB detective Rockman Cheung (Mark Cheung playing it straight, serious and intense) who discovers that spells have been cast on his wife Karpi (Maggie Siu in a thankless role that calls on her to be hysterical for much of the movie) and baby for his sins.
Early on in the story, suspicion falls squarely on Lam Chiu (Kenneth Wong in sinister mode), a cop-killer cum black-magic expert from Malaysia who had been shot and arrested by Rockman and consequently hates him, along with all police in general, with a vengeance. Chiu was released from prison a year previously but his whereabouts are now seemingly unknown to everyone bar a friend, Fat Wah (character actor Hui Siu Hung), who consequently gets repeatedly hauled in for harsh questioning by Rockman and his buddy, Brother Sum (Lam Suet).

Unwilling to put all their eggs into one basket, however, Brother Sum, a man far more perceptive than he looks, decides to explore other possibilities. One of which leads to a meeting with Master Clear Sea (Fung Har On), a secret Buddhist sect master able to provide philosophical insights and black-magic exorcism services.

After the master successfully convinces Rockman that Karpi, suffering greatly from the delusion of needles being jabbed into her, and their now dead son were afflicted by gong tau, the cop is forced to also consider that an extra-marital fling with a sexy lap dancer (a Mandarin-speaking Teng Tzu Tsuan) while investigating a case in Thailand may be coming back to haunt him in ways he couldn’t have previously imagined…

As a friend with whom I watched the movie said afterwards, this is one of those Hong Kong films that may get men thinking twice before indulging in any hanky panky in places like Thailand or Malaysia. That notwithstanding, my own sense is that viewers are more likely to come out entertained, and feeling that director Yau, producer Dennis Law and co had a wild ball thinking up and creating this fun offering, rather than feeling inclined to make changes to their moral compass!

 

[此贴子已经被作者于2007-6-3 2:48:01编辑过]