The Seventh Curse

Title: The Seventh Curse
Director: Nam Lai Choi 
Released: 1986
Starring: Chow Yun Fat, Chin Siu-ho, Dick Wei, Maggie Cheung, Sibelle Hu, Elvis Tsui, Ken Boyle, Ni Kuang, Chui Sau-Lai

Plot: After he rescued a beautiful young girl from being sacrificed by her tribe in Thailand adventurer and cop Dr. Yuen finds himself suffering a blood curse which threatens to kill him unless he can find a cure. 

Review: Another dose of Kung fu weird from Nam Lai Choi the director of Erotic Ghost Story, The Cat and of course Ricki-O: The Story of Ricky the live action manga so over the top and comedically violent it earned a CAT III rating for its violence alone. He would also give Takashi Miike an early credit who served as his assistant director on Peacock King before he retired to become a food critic as highlighted in the Eli Roth documentary Fin. Here though he once again throws as many cool / nutty things at the screen as he can with Chin Su-ho playing a doctor suffering a blood curse as he rescues a beautiful girl from being sacrificed by her tribe in Thailand.

Based on the Dr. Yuen series of books by Ni Kwang who also shows up in the film as himself while also serving as the narrator. Chow Yun Fat meanwhile is also on hand to bring another of Ni’s characters to life as he plays Wisely who not only shows up as a supporting character in the Dr. Yuen books but also 160 of his own stories which have been adapted into films and series like The Legend of the Wesley and Nam Lai Choi’s The Cat. However despite the fact that he gets top billing Chow Yun Fat is hardly in the film only showing up to show off his pipe smoking skills and to send Dr. Yuen on his quest before turning up seemingly out of nowhere for welding finale a rocket launcher.

The character of Dr. Yuen much Nam Lai Choi’s style of film making really hits alot of bases as not only is he a doctor and an adventurer who is introduced flirting with a group of Miss Asia constants but he’s also a cop with some very impressive martial arts skills; Somthing we get to see demonstrated at the start of the film as he infiltrates a group of terrorists as a doctor to provide a distraction with a flashbang to allow the SWAT team to enter the building only for reporter and soon to be constant thorn in his side Tsui-Hung (Cheung) to throw the whole plan into chaos when she sneaks onto the operation and leaving Dr. Yuen to kick a whole bunch of terrorist ass himself inside knocking the leader out of the window so he hangs by his feet a scene which also appears to have been shot without a safety cable…gotta love Hong Kong health and safety. 

However when he starts suffering the effects of his blood curse which causes his veins to rise and spectacularly burst he is forced to head back to Thailand were one year earlier while trying to find a cure for AID’s he saved a tribal girl Betsy (Sau-Lai) from being sacrificed by an evil sorcerer (Tsui) also has the ability to throw a killer fetus at his enemies which appear from his side bringing back memories of Evil Dead Trap and the classic X Files episode Humbug. 

As I mentioned already Nam Lai Choi’s style of directing generally consists of throwing interesting ideas at the screen and certainly this also the case here which also is what makes this film so much fun as not only do you get some great martial arts action, but also John Woo style heroic gunplay, a kung fu skeleton which morphs into an Alien knock off when it consumes blood not to mention tribal girl Betsy who seems to constantly be in some state of undress. Throw in some over the top gore which includes one of Dr. Yuens party being consumed by man eating worms all while the tone of the film never for one second tries to take itself seriously and inturn only adds to the fun. 

Unquestionably I really had a blast with this one and if your fan of Big Trouble In Little China which this would certainly make a great double feature alongside and sure the plot might be pulpy, but the fun action set pieces and jaw dropping randomness making it an entertaining and certainly memorable watch.