Film Review: The Spooky Bunch (1980) by Ann Hui

Hong Kong New Wave directress Ann Hui’s sophomore work – after a foray into “Giallo” territory with “The Secret” – is an unusual mix of comedy, horror and Cantonese Opera. “Unusual” at the time of the release but not for longer, as her film, together with Sammo Hung’s “Encounters of the Spooky Kind” of the same year, started off and contributed to define a genre that proved extremely successful and dominated the box office for many years, peaking with “Mr. Vampire” and the huge legacy that spawned from it. “The Spooky Bunch” was screened in 1981 at the Berlin International Film Festival

A rickety, travelling Cantonese Opera group is employed by the wealthy patriarch Ma to perform for him on the island of Cheung Chau. He has a special request though; the support actress Ah Chi (Josephine Siao) must perform in the leading role this time. All this is organised for a precise reason. Mr. Mahas had invited his nephew Dick (Kenny Bee) to the performance and wants him to meet Ah Chi. Few generations earlier in fact, Ah Chi’s grandfather had placed a terrible curse on Dick’s and Ma’s family; the curse that they would not bear any descendants. Uncle Ma is therefore convinced that the only way to overrule the jinx and carry on the family name is to make Dick and Ah Chi marry, but Dick – who is a bit of a heart-breaker – is not really interested in what he considers old fashion superstitions.

But veteran troupe member Uncle Deng (Lau Hak-Suen) can see ghosts and soon realises that the place is infested by them. There is – in the literal sense – an army of ghosts, seeking revenge for some evil committed by Dick’s and Ah Chi’s ancestors. Their grandfathers, in fact, had made lots of profits selling ineffective medicines to a military platoon in the middle of an epidemic, causing its total wipeout. Now the ghosts are killing and possessing their way through Dick and Ah Chi, their intended victims. However, some of the ghosts are just being naughty and playing childish tricks, like Cat Shit, a pesky female soul with the bad habit of possessing the Opera’s leading actor nicknamed No. One. (Kwan Chung)

Written with dramatic awareness and sense of humour by Joyce Chan, “The Spooky Bunch” is a lighthearted and entertaining reminder of the weight that the past casts over our actions. The oblivious young leading characters are asked to pay a dear price for something they didn’t commit, and part of the irony comes from this “curse”. Especially contrasting with the burdensome past sins is the frivolous giddiness of Ah Chi who seems to fly unscathed through perils and vengeful presences only thanks to her absent mind, in typical comedy manner.

The Cantonese Opera offers few references and occasions of laugh that Western audience will probably miss, like an actor trying to wear the costume of Guan Yu characters (a notorious ghostbuster of the Opera) to defeat a ghost, or the Opera tradition of not talking behind the scenes during the opening act for good luck, and also the comical situations generated by the bad acting or the role-swapping in the performances. However, the comedy is not totally lost, as it is aided by a good dose of slapstick humour. Don’t expect anything as childishly funny as Sammo’s “Encounters” though. “The Spooky Bunch” has some pretty dark and violent scenes, like for example when Uncle Deng is executed by a platoon of invisible soldiers to allow them to possess and use his body. At the same time, one of the most charming scenes is when Ah Chi engages in a witty “mirror dance” with the possessed body of Uncle Deng to smartly free Dick from the barrel where he is imprisoned. In that choreography there are traces of the traditional humorous fights of the jiangshi comedies and of the similar “voodoo” spell in “Mr. Vampire”.

Filmed in a detached documentary style in the scenic island of Cheung Chau, “The Spooky Bunch” feels visually closer to Hui’s Vietnam films, than her previous “The Secret”. Despite being lesser in numbers, the female characters and the feminine “presences” of “The Spooky Bunch” are the more interesting one; the frivolous Ah Chi, played by an effervescent Josephine Siao; Belle the vengeful prostitute ghost; Cat Shit, the capricious ghost who never appears but keeps possessing No. One. – interpreted by a hilarious womanly Kwan Chung – or Ah Chi. In one scene she even demands to watch television and soon some of the troupe burn a TV-shaped paper offer to transfer it into the otherworld, where it arrives broadcasting a bizarre English lesson.

All in all, with its unique and experimental combination of flavours, “The Spooky Bunch” is a brave rework in a modern key of two genres – the ghost tales and the Cantonese Opera – that had been in decline for a while, injecting them with fresh life and a renewed commercial appeal.