Witch From Nepal

Starring:Dick Wei, Kit Ying Lam, Emily Chu, Yun-Fat Chow
Director: Siu-Tung Ching
Studio: Tai Seng
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

There's some spectacular airborne fantasy action in the style of director Ching Sui-tung's A Chinese Ghost Story, and effective shape-changing special effects, in this otherwise ludicrous supernatural romp about the evil that dwells in the deepest, darkest heart of Southeast Asia. Chow Yun-fat is an advertising man vacationing in Nepal who is drawn into a conflict between a princess (a native shaman with prodigious magical gifts) and a vicious local warlord. Chow has supernormal abilities thrust upon him by an amulet known as "The Testicles of Power." There is some mildly steamy sex, but the fight's the thing, especially when the forces of primitive evil follow the ad man back home to Hong Kong. Showing off a cornucopia of supernatural ickiness against a backdrop of high-tech architecture and throbbing neon produces some engaging eye candy, especially in a final showdown that rages in (and in between) two high-rise office buildings. The antagonists keep slamming each other into exposed electrical wires, to the accompaniment of many sparks. --David Chute

Customer Reviews:

Babelicious B movie!.......2002-07-27

Yes this movie is incredibly cheesy, and campy, and so obviously B grade with more than your average plot and character pot holes. But, the presence of the always magnificent Chow Yun Fat is enough to make this enjoyable eyecandy!

Better than people say.......2002-03-29

This has some flaws and is camp in places but worth the watch! Buy it! See these early directors and stars do movie magic on a shoe string budget.

Chow Yun-Fat meets a beguiling witch.......2001-05-29

WITCH FROM NEPAL (1986) starts out as a charming, humorous tale of Joe, a Hong Kong artist who suddenly finds himself saddled with the title character, Sheila, an attractive Nepalese princess with supernatural powers who dubs him her master (think "Bewitched" crossed with "I Dream of Jeannie"). A little over an hour into it, the film takes on horror elements as Joe, his Hong Kong girlfriend Ida, and four of her little ballet students are all trapped in a car in a cemetery overrun by rotting corpses newly brought to life. The final section has Joe, armed with a mystical dagger, battling a wild Nepalese warrior in a deserted downtown Hong Kong business district in a war of sorcery that has them flying, blasting and hurling each other through elevator shafts, office windows, and massive electrical generators.

The overall inconsistency is less troubling than the fact that none of the ideas introduced is ever fully explored. Joe's development of telekinetic powers, for instance, is only glimpsed in one scene. Although the special effects are beautifully done, there's a lack of imagination in the way they're used. The final battle spends way too much time in an elevator that speeds up and down several times. The best use of skyscrapers and rooftops in a fantastic action climax in a Hong Kong film is still to be found in the Tsui Hark-produced sci-fi thriller WICKED CITY (1992).

Chow Yun-Fat (Joe) is a thoroughly appealing actor and is very good in his scenes with the two actresses (Emily Chu and Yammie Nam Kit-Ying). But the attempt to turn him into a supernatural action hero at the end falls flat. Chow is at his action-packed best in Hong Kong films when he gets to wear a trenchcoat and wield a .45 automatic in each hand (A BETTER TOMORROW, THE KILLER, HARD-BOILED, etc.). Considering that this film's director, Ching Siu Tung, was also responsible for the wildly imaginative CHINESE GHOST STORY trilogy and the last two films in the SWORDSMAN trilogy (SWORDSMAN II and THE EAST IS RED), all produced by Tsui Hark, WITCH FROM NEPAL ranks as a major disappointment.

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