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Review
by Kozo: |
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 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. It appears the filmmakers were really
thinking of audience needs when they made this picture.
Gong Tau is 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) |
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