i must have seen a different film!!

Blistering performances.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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 movie was funny at times and the few fight scenes were actually well-done. one of the things i really liked about this movie was its strange and original story line. if you are into strange comedy movies, check this one out.

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.

What the hell is this all about? Here's a choice cut of dialogue "you have to catch him, then wrap him in, turn around, (whispers) a sanitary towel!" What? I think that they make these things up as they go along!