Directed By: Richard Yeung Keun AKA Chaun Yang
MVP’s: Phillip Ko Fei, Norman Tsui Siu-Keung, Hyeon Ji-Hye, Wai Ka-Man, Hussein Abu Hassan, Hung San-Nam, Foo Ling-Kei, Yee Muk Kwan San
Plot: When his wife is raped and murdered, a grieving cabbie turns to black magic for revenge. Soon Taoist shamans and Jainist shamans are battling Malaysian voodoo wizards, ghosts are impregnating corpses, and tentacular beasties are on the rise!
Response: The sax plays, the topless woman runs in the surf. We cut to slo-mo. Hair fanning up mid-coitus. “Your wife’s spirit will now have sex with him.” The black magic wizard sounds like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Green smoke tendrils. Purple smoke tendrils. Blue smoke tendrils. The movies can remind you that you are alive.
Review: There are images in the thing that you won’t find anywhere else. This is why I keep coming back to the Hong Kong Wizard Battle genre. The flights of imagination (grotesque and disgusting though they may be).
There’s a moment when a traditional animated blue ghost (looking like a Marcel Jankovics creation) makes love to a Henson studiosesque mummy puppet and it’s everything that human-made art can be. Later on, the film-makers due their best to rival Alien and The Thing for weird Lovecraftian beast creation.
Is it mysoginst? It’s certainly male-gazey as fuck. Tons of nudity and what’s worse, an extended rape scene that mostly plays out like a long martial arts fight but is still super unpleasant. So it’s very gross and sleazy and not-everyone’s cup of tea. But Hong Kong exploitation is an undeniably limber kind of exploitation. If you’re intrigued I’d rank this above Black Magic but below Centipede Horror and The Boxer’s Omen (which is still the pinnacle of this kind of stuff). If you’d like something a little less disgusting and a little more friendly but still visually inventive and brimming with super-natural ideas, I’d recommend our Day 1 picture or Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain. Lots more in the world of cinema to discover!
Can Kid’s Watch It?
I don’t believe so.
Second Opinions:
“From the most memorable mahjong party in movie history to the show-stopping sequence that gives the film its title, this is a wild ride with a hefty mean streak that shifts gears drastically multiple times over an hour and a half. In keeping with the trend at the time, that trademark Shawscope look was cast aside here for a more claustrophobic 1.85:1 framing decision that makes it feel far more in your face and disreputable. It still has tons of that adorable black magic color lighting and crazy rituals, albeit pushed into even crazier territory than usual here, along with a hefty amount of nudity that pushes this into softcore territory several times.” - Mondo Digital
“What raises Seeding of a Ghost above being a mere exploitation howler is the fact that it is actually well made, with Yeung Kuen proving himself to be a more than capable genre director.” - James Mudge, Easternkicks.com
“..this is one of the rare Hong Kong horror films, and likely the only Shaw Brothers production, to offer up as many prosthetic monsters as it does.” - Shawscope Volume 4 Blu-ray Copy
Halloween Score:
Autumn Vibes: 3/5
Scares & Chills: 2/5
Cultural & Cinematic Importance: 4/5
Monster Action: 5/5
Where to Peep: Eternal Family has it if you wanna pay (they got a lotta other wold stuff too including a big Latvian animation collection.) Laura bought me the Shaw Collection as my big Birthday present over the summer. Shudder also streams it but if you wanna get it for nothing, go to Dailymotion.
Hint for Tomorrow’s Movie:
It’s got multiple legendary horror actors in it.
