The Dead and the Deadly (1982)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good start, but then it gets ruined

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

This is a fun and captivating horror-comedy from Hong Kong that stars martial arts legend Sammo Hung as Wah Li, who helps run a funeral service with his colleagues and his great-uncle, Yee. When the body of his friend, Ma Lun Chio, is brought back in the village, Wah Li is suspicious of his supposed death at such a young age and the intentions of his supposed pregnant wife.This movie has a good balance of horror and comedy that keeps the plot's momentum going strong, and showcases many impressive martial arts moves from the actors, including that of Sammo Hung and director Ma Wu, who also plays the part of Ma Lun Chio. The plot of Wah Li investigating the supposed death of his friend is an attention grabber that leads to even more intriguing stuff when the plot delves into creepy scenes involving wicked priests, ghosts and the hell police.This movie also stars actor Lam Ching-Ying in his first ever role playing the "Vampire-Busting" Tao Priest, which he would go on to reprise in many different character incarnations in later horror-comedies, most notably in the Mr. Vampire film series. Rounding up the main cast is actress Cherie Chung, who plays the kind yet ferocious fiancée of Sammo Hung's character.Overall, it's one of the best ghost comedies from Hong Kong and is one I would watch repeatedly. It has just the right amount of horror, comedy and drama blended in together to make a very entertaining film.Grade A

Because it's never made clear in the print I saw, I'm assuming that director Ma Wu is the guy playing "Lucho" (listed here as Ma Lun Chio) in THE DEAD AND THE DEADLY. (It's a common failing of "Americanized" versions of Chinese films that titles are often changed, scenes deleted, and credits cast to the wind.) Whoever the guy is, he's absolutely hilarious: he sports an obvious large prosthetic nose and his lower lip protrudes as if he's always pouting- and it doesn't end there: the English voice used to dub his dialogue is spot on (a rarity in imports) (check out the English-dubbed version of RUN LOLA RUN if you really want to know just how bad dubbing can get). Sammo as Wah Li is- as usual- great. When the lecherous Lucho "dies" and his pregnant wife shows up to collect on his "life insurance," Wah Li can't help but be suspicious: in a flashback, showing Wah Li and Lucho in a brothel, we learn that Lucho was impotent. The conniving Lucho, laid out for burial, must try to figure out a way to convince Wah Li not to perform an autopsy on him before it's too late. THE DEAD AND THE DEADLY boasts some excellent fx and is beautifully directed. There are also some great fight scenes, although this technically isn't a "kung fu movie." It's superior to every other movie of its type I've seen, from KUNG FU FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE to MR. VAMPIRE I & II to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE SPOOKY KIND, etc. A solid ten.

This film is just hilarious and definitely worth the two times me and my little sister have stayed up to watch it at three in the morning (or whatever daft time Channel 4 - UK tv channel - have put it on at). My only wish is that I could get a couple of copies of it on video so that me and my sister could watch it whenever we wanted for the rest of our lives. This film is excellent and if it's on a tv near you...WATCH IT!!!!

Bonkers chop-socky that is part satire of ludicrous Hong Kong supernatural martial arts films, and part brilliant example of how it should be done. A rare wheeze that actually does have something for everyone:Excellent slapstick comedy - the hero is pompous and fat, not lithe and Jackie Chan-like; getting into daft, self-generated scrapes, he is kicked about by every one, and guards a dead friend who isn't really dead in an hilarious scene that has him fending off curious gold thieves. He is repeatedly buffeted by otherworldly menaces, first his mischievous friend, then Satan's minions, who turn him into a lime-covered bug.Action - Choreographed with great skill, played mostly for laughs, but there is one sequence - the friend's murder - that is filmed with rare beauty.Horror - Again, mostly comic, with a remarkable use of somewhat cheap special effects.Historical costume drama - not very precise, but the costumes and set-design are an immense, guilty, Orientalist pleasure.Satire - under all the laughs is a serious study of repressive social and gender codes, and the last scene is spectacularly subversive in its implications.