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THE ASIAN VALUES VCD REVIEW

For many years, Yang Chuan's Seeding Of A Ghost (1983) stood alongside Ho Meng-hua's Black Magic (1975) and Kuei Chih-hung's The Boxer's Omen (1983) as among the best within Shaw Brothers' black magic movies. While fans talked and wrote about the film, not many got to watch it. Finally reissued in all its glory, fans will now find that it is actually a much better movie than Black Magic though it is on par with The Boxer's Omen.

Philip Ko Fei (who also starred in The Boxer's Omen) is a taxi driver and married to attractive Maria Yuen Chi Wai who works as a croupier in a casino. Maria catches the attention of Norman Tsui Siu Keung, a rich man who frequents the casino, and the two soon start an affair. Needless to say, this calls for lots of shots of Yuen in the nude - in the shower, having sex and a topless chase on the beach in slow motion.

Attracted by the luxurious life she expects to lead with Tsui, Yuen tells Tsui during an evening drive that the two should get married, a suggestion which Tsui turns down. In a fit of anger, Yuen gets out of the car while Tsui drives off. After calling Philip Ko to pick her up, Yuen runs into two ruffians, one of whom rapes her, and she is killed while trying to fend them off.

While the police question everyone involved, they suspect Philip Ko to be the murderer. Seeking justice for his dead wife, Ko turns to a black magician who had earlier taken a ride in his cab. To carry out his revenge, the spell cast is the ghost seeding spell.

First they dig up Yuen's grave to get her dead body. Next the magician turns her into a sex demon. Using various spells, one of the ruffians, besides vomitting worms, ends up being seduced by his sister (who is possessed by Yuen's spirit) before being pushed to his death. The other ruffian and also the rapist suffers a worst fate. Thinking he's eating a coconut, he scoops brains into his mouth; water gushes out all over his home; and while having sex with a prostitute, his back breaks open (imagine Alien's chestbuster bursting out from the back) and the man is summoned to the magician's home for the culmination of the ghost seeding process where the dessicated corpse, which is suspended in air, has sex (call it spiritual or animated sex) with the man's spirit, a scene some might find either outrageous or utterly hilarious.

Meanwhile, under a spell, Tsui's wife (Tin Mat) buggers Tsui with a giant match stick! Tsui's wife is found to be pregnant and during a mahjong session, her stomach bursts open to release a creature (with a nod to John Carpenter's The Thing) with snapping jaws filled with razor sharp teeth and which shoots out tendrils to trap and kill its victims.

Where the nudity and sex is concerned, it must be said that all the actresses were very game - compared to Black Magic and Boxer's Omen, there is far more flesh seen here. Extra points go to actress Tin Mat who had to undergo an exorcism scene in the nude and credit to Taoist priest Che Hung for keeping a straight face and not blinking!

But what fans remembered about Seeding Of A Ghost was the over-the-top gore - bodies and backs bursting open with blood and gore splattering all over; arms being chomped off; and that mid-air sex scene. Many of Shaw's horror movies tended to be morality plays. Fortunately, Seeding Of A Ghost does not bear that burden. As what fans remembered, it is an entertaining rush filled with sex, nudity, action, black magic and gore.

Note: The Seeding Of A Ghost DVD (IVL/Celestial) is banned in $ingapore.