AutCuddly
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
Voxitype
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Allison Davies
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Geraldine
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Leofwine_draca
SEEDING OF A GHOST is another incredibly visceral slice of Hong Kong horror that comes to us courtesy of the Shaw Brothers studio. It's a film that might as well be called BLACK MAGIC 3 as it feels very much like the previous films in that series as opposed to something like HEX or THE BOXER'S OMEN, more contemporary fare. The film's protagonist is the excellent and under-appreciated Phillip Ko, who plays a taxi driver whose life falls apart when he accidentally interrupts a black magic spell by knocking over the wizard busy casting it.The film then slows down a gear to depict Ko's wife, busy having an affair with co-star Norman Chu. This goes on for a while and there's plenty of sex and nudity for those who enjoy that stuff. Eventually, Ko's wife is accidentally killed after being raped by a couple of street thugs, and he brings her back from the dead for revenge. You know the score here: there's a whole bunch of icky ritual scenes with a dead body, some outlandish and pioneering special effects work, and lots of weird deaths and decaying scenes.This film's major sources of inspiration seem to be THE THING, DEATH WISH 2, ALIEN, and THE EVIL DEAD. The FX are wacky and gross in the extreme and also very good. Ko and Chu are seasoned professionals and help to ground the movie; they play off nicely against each other too. There's a little action here and there although the main emphasis is on displaying the female form in its unclothed glory. The usual worm-spewing gross-out scenes are present. Things build to a mini monster movie climax which really does have to be seen to be believed; it's something else, that's for sure.
Shawn McKenna
I have been putting this off for a few years (I have had the DVD since 2009) mainly because I thought it was going to be shockfest that outdid The Boxer's Omen in gonzo-style horror. Well it was not even close to The Boxer's Omen which still holds a place deep in the suppressed subconscious of my cranium (actually it is more weird and gross than actually scary). In fact this has to be one of the most overstated and over-hyped horror films of Hong Kong though this is not a horrible film.Chow (Phillip Ko: The Boxer's Omen, Shaolin Intruders) interrupts black magic by inadvertently saving the life of a black magic priest who is being chased down by an angry mob. Because of this the priest says at best he will get very sick and at worst his whole family will die. Since this is a horror film we know which scenario is going to take place. A film with him just being sick would not be as fun. But it is especially hilarious that it seems that the angry mob gets off clean and that he picked up the priest far from where the incantation went awry. I am probably over-thinking this.Chow's wife Irene has been cheating on him because of his lowly taxi driver job, taxi drivers are a deranged lot (ask Anthony Wong), and his hair (seriously one of the worst wigs I have seen, worse than a Sammo Hung haircut). She is enticed by playboy Anthony Fong Ming (Norman Chu Siu-Keung: Bastard Swordsman) who visits her job of dealing cards and showers her with money, gifts, better hair (to be fair to Phillip check out Norman's perm in Hong Kong Godfather) and affection. One night those two adulterers have a fight and she gets out of the car and goes off by herself. Never good to be alone late at night when ruffians are about. She is confronted by two young hooligans who chase her down, one rapes her and ultimately she gets killed (why she runs into an abandoned house I do not know, why there would be an abandoned house in an abandoned area Hong Kong I also do not know).When Chow finds out she is dead, he is ultimately a suspect for about 15 seconds. Fong is another suspect and despondent Chow finds out about the affair. He gets bad ideas in his head and wants revenge at all costs for those involved and goes to the black magic priest (still dressed like a shirtless jungle native; I wonder if he goes to the store like that) to seek revenge. This requires that they dig out his wife's corpse and he is warned that his monomaniacal revenge will likely result in his demise as well. The corpse is used quite effectively and it is creepy, the most scary aspect of the film. You can see it on the cover of the DVD and poster.Fans of horror could do worse by seeking this out. I do not think it is as unique/interesting/gratuitous as Black Magic or The Boxer's Omen out of the Shaw Brothers horror oeuvre and I would suggest seeking those out first. This film overdoes the sleazy exploitation aspect of it, elongates the nudity and the film comes off more as a voyeuristic exercise especially in the beginning which starts to drag on. The slow motion topless running scene becomes almost absurd in its length and its use of the zoom lens. But you do get the benefit of a few fight scenes decently done involving Phillip Ko (still mad about the outcome with Norman Chu) who proves once again that you should not mess with taxi drivers or Phillip Ko. You also get a variety of gross out moments, Taoist priests, scares all done better in a variety of Hong Kong films. However, when the ghost is seeded there are plenty of horror elements, while keeping the exploitation element alive, especially towards the finale that will be of interest to viewers. There you get to witness a creature that seems inspired by John Carpenter's The Thing while a segment from the soundtrack from Alien is played.I have the R1 Image release and it has English and Spanish subtitles. It comes with the Mandarin mono dub only. The R3 IVL release comes with both the Cantonese and Mandarin dub. At the time of the Hong Kong audience would have heard the Cantonese soundtrack, but most of the transnational audience would have heard it in Mandarin. Since at the time post dubbing was the norm and multiple dialects were often used on set it does not matter as much to me. However, this is a controversial topic where some have to have the "preferred" dub. I personally would like a release from this time period to have both the Cantonese and Mandarin language, but I will take what I can get. There are plenty of the Image released Shaw Brothers trailers (not the original trailers) on this release, but no trailer for the movie.
ElijahCSkuggs
This weirdo tale revolves around lies and deception, lots of revenge, and even more black magic.When our leading star's wife is killed he seeks revenge by acquiring the local Voodoo dude. Who for some weird reason, was played by two dudes, which they tried hiding up that fact by loading the second player with tons of make-up....pretty weird/funny. Anyways, when Mr. Voodoo comes into play all the people who were bad to the wife prior to her death "will never know peace again", or something like that. And ain't that the truth.When you Seed a Ghost, you better know the results, because they're f@cked up. Just like this movie. And that's a good thing! With a high amount of nudity, some sex and even a fight scene for good measure, the movie delivers loads of entertaining qualities. It's like an action/horror/fantasy/comedy flick rolled into one. And when the end comes you're only treated to a sorcery fight with one of the most fun and silliest ending I've seen in a long time. There's a lotta blood flying.I've gotta mention the direction and cinematography, for a flick like this (and I say that with love), it had some pretty inventive shots. Definitely surprising.The flick unfortunately kinda dragged at parts though. You once in a while will realize that something entertaining hasn't happened in a little bit. But don't dismay, since the movie does entertain pretty consistently. And also, maybe fault to the writing, you just never really care for any character. But with a movie like this, I only came into it looking for the "goods" and that's what I got.Seeding of a Ghost is a truly weirdo hybrid of a flick that should be watched if you like to watch different movies. It's really a recommendable flick just because it seems to be one of the best this whacky genre of action/horror/fantasty/comedy combo flick has to offer. Definitely one of the most bizarre times I've had in a while watching a movie.
BA_Harrison
A taxi driver is warned that he will experience bad luck, after his path crosses with that of a strange practitioner of black magic. Sure enough, his beautiful young wife soon embarks on an affair with a suave gambler. Shortly after, he is accused of murder when his spouse is raped and killed by two thugs. And if that wasn't enough, the poor bloke is crippled after trying to beat up his dead wife's lover.Suitably upset, he decides to enlist the help of the strange sorcerer who first foretold his run of ill fortune, and, by using the dark powers of witchcraft, attempts to exact revenge on the man who stole his woman, and the two responsible for her death.As 80s Hong Kong horror goes, this movie from the Shaw Brothers studio is a fairly typical example: the story is bizarre, there are plenty of moments that defy logic and it is loaded with shonky creatures and OTT gore. Throw in some gritty fight scenes, a brutal rape, and quite a bit of female nudity (including full frontal) from cute Asian women, and the result is an enjoyable slice of Eastern sleaze that never bores, and even sometimes surprises.This is perhaps the only film where one might witness a man being sodomised with a giant match-stick, a spirit impregnate a putrefying corpse in mid-air, and a finalé in which a multi-tentacled foetus creature erupts bloodily from its 'mother' and attacks guests at a party.