Seeding of a Ghost is a neat little film produced by the infamous Shaw Brothers Studio in their last few years of existence while the company was falling apart from the inside. It's an interesting artifact from a time when the studio was trying to re-establish relevancy with the film-going public in Hong Kong in the face of stiff competition from the newer, hipper studios that were at the time dominating the box office while Shaw was bleeding financially and struggling to keep their actors and directors from jumping ship. So how does an old-fashioned Hong Kong film company make a movie that speaks to the audience of China circa 1983? Why, by making a sleazy exploitation movie about ghosts, sex, and voodoo, of course...
I don't like to go into too much plot synopsis, as quite frankly it's really boring, but luckily for me there isn't too much of a plot going on here, so this part will be pretty short. Basically our hero's girlfriend is raped and murdered by some thugs, and he goes about getting his revenge with the help of a crazy-looking voodoo priest. And that's pretty much it. Violence, nudity, sex scenes, reanimated corpses, and general chaos ensue.
Personally I think Seeding of a Ghost is a pretty good little movie, but probably only if you're into this sort of thing - This is a straight-up black magic vengeance and really angry Chinese ghost skin flick from Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers circa 1983, after all. You either enjoy this kind of stuff or you don't. And it gives you pretty much whatever you would reasonably expect from such a film: possessions, witchcraft showdowns, steamy shower scenes featuring full frontal nudity and painfully terrible elevator music, baseball bat chop-socky, and some hot necrophilia.
As awesome as that sounds though, I do think this flick is missing that certain something to push it over the top. It has a very slow and deliberate pace (not necessarily a bad thing, but it definitely could have gotten to the point a bit faster than it does), and if you're looking for some good old fashioned monster-smashing or lots of gore you're better off looking elsewhere. Despite having a little bit of magical bloody violence and a pretty cool latex baby monster at the end, this is more of a mystical crime procedural drama.
Still, it's a good film for a very specific audience, which I guess includes me as I enjoyed it. Highlights include some solid Grade-A 80's nudity and creative special effects scenes. Seeding of a Ghost isn't something to go out of your way to see, but with the right mood and appropriate amount of booze, it's a good way to add some spice to a boring weekday night when you're home alone...
Here's an incredibly non-erotic clip from the movie featuring a cartoon ghost making sweet love to the badly decomposed, animated corpse of the main character's wife. Enjoy!
