Encounters of the Spooky Kind [Gui da gui] (1980) Review

Five years before the fantastic Mr Vampire, Sammo Hung took Kung Fu, comedy and horror and combined them into what would become a whole new sub-genre of Asian cinema inventing the Jiangshi film with his hugely imaginative and insanely entertaining Encounters of the Spooky Kind.

Appearing like a combination of a zombie and a vampire, Jiangshi are reanimated corpses often controlled by Taoist priests identified by their iconic look and silly yet sinister hopping. Although the highly successful Mr Vampire defined Jiangshi films, spawning a slew of sequels and a generation of copy cats, it was Hung’s amazing movie that actually originated the idea of bringing the Chinese folklore monster to life with special effects, filling his hilarious film with equal parts action, intrigue, mysticism and mayhem.

Directing, co-writing and staring in Encounters of the Spooky Kind Sammo Kam-Bo Hung is, in my opinion, massively underrated in terms of his importance to cinema seeing as he made his feature film debut as an actor at the age of 12, has directed over 30 movies and has over 190 acting credits to his name from 1961 to 2019.

Able to turn his hand as easily to traditional martial arts movies like The Magnificent Butcher as he is to comedic crime capers like Winners And Sinners, Hung’s vast experience and aptitude came together with Encounters of the Spooky Kind which allowed him to showcase not only his mastery of multiple genre’s but his talents as a comedy actor and Kung-Fu master.

Playing Courageous Cheung, a man known for never backing down from a dare, Hung is a coachman who is happily married or so he thinks. Unaware that his number one client Master Tam (Drunken Master’s Ha Huang) is actually making out with his beloved behind his back Cheung becomes paranoid when a tofu seller tells a tale about a promiscuous wife.

Sensing Cheung could cause him trouble Master Tam hires a Mao Shan witch, Priest Chin Hoi (Lung Chan) who is happy to summon all sorts of menacing monsters using his superior sorcery in an attempt to end the unwitting cuckold’s life.

With one of Master Tam’s underlings challenging Cheung to stay a night in an ancestral hall full of coffins and cobwebs the over confident idiot fortunately runs into Priest Tsui (Fat Chung) another manipulator of the mystic arts and the displeased disciple of Chin Hoi.

Eager to aid Cheung against his malicious ex-master Tsui offers him advice on how to survive the night. But with the team of Tam and his spell casting cohort against him Cheung ends up needing a lot more supernatural assistance then he could ever imagine.

The make-up and special effects are excellent for the time and the film makes the most of what it has turning out some truly unsettling scenes from the chilling opening featuring some jar bound spooks who assault Cheung in a vivid and visually stunning dream sequence to a prank turned petrifying, involving a scary dare and a mirror bound menace.

With Jiangshi encounters, where our hero must battle a host of hopping vampires to the mimicking zombies and possessed police guards the film is full of surprisingly novel supernatural thrills. In fact the main strength of Encounters of the Spooky Kind is that for an action comedy it takes its scares very seriously, knowing just the right elements to play for a laugh and which to make deadly sincere.

Elevating the proceedings is the inclusion of plenty of comedy and Kung-Fu with some sensational fight choreography and stunning stunts alongside farcical moments and physical clowning from Hung.

Unexpectedly the most excitement comes from the magical rituals and otherworldly powers wielded against Cheung by Priest Chin Hoi and used to aid him by Priest Tsui. The epic final battle between the wacky wizards out does any fantasy film as the former friends turned foes erect crazily tall alters, hurl fireballs, use invisible shields and pull out every other paranormal trick they can in order to triumph.

The scene sees them even summon ancient legendary Chinese figures and deities like The Monkey King to possess Cheung and Tam who fight to the death with the spirits inside of them. As far as spectacle goes it outdoes any Marvel movie and somehow manages to end in the most shocking way possible.

Fantastic fun and mind blowingly original Encounter Of The Spooky Kind is pure entertainment offering up thrills and fights alongside chills and chortles. Coupled with Mr Vampire it showcases horror comedy and the Jiangshi genre at its very best so if you haven’t encountered this awesome movie already make sure you do soon.

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