The Enchanting Ghost (1970) w/ Ian Jane

Shawgust wouldn't be complete without our friend Ian Jane (Rock! Shock! Pop! and Queens Comic Podcast). This week, we're discussing The Enchanting Ghost, which plays out more like a gothic romance than a horror film, but is at a turning point of Shaw Brothers Studios when they were just getting into the horror genre. Hear all of our thoughts and hold onto your butts for Lance's double feature pick!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Prepare yourself for the terror, the prison of madness. We
have few inter and Nonritter.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to Unsung Horrors with Lunes and Denica.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Leave all your sanity behind. It can't help you now.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Unsung Horrors, the
podcast where we review and discuss underseen horror films, specifically
those with less than one thousand views on letterbox.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
I'm Lance and I'm Erica.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
And for this episode, we are closing out the wonderful,
beautiful month of s August, Yes, with the Enchanting Ghost
from nineteen seventy. But before we dive right in, let
me introduce you to our lovely, lovely guest, a person
who's become a staple in Shaugust or.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Not August Without this man.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
It is not And of course we're talking about Ian Jane.
Welcome Ian to the podcast once again.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Thank you, thank you. Always happy to do a guest
spot with you guys. It's always a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
So I think a lot of listeners are familiar with
Ian from Rock Shock Pop, the Queen's comic podcast. Yeah
you provided audio commentaries for a lot of Shop Brothers
films from Shout Factory eighty eight films, Yeah, can you provide?
Can you just let the listeners know some of the
Shaw Brothers, Yeah, as you've handled.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Sure. So I did Black Magic two for eighty eight Films.
That was the first one, and I guess that got
the attention to somebody at Show Factory, so they contacted me.
This was last year. I wound up doing the track
for volume two of their Show Brothers classics, for Lady
of Steel, the Cheng Pey Pay film, and for The

(02:18):
Delightful Forest, which was the Tea Lung movie. It's a
lot of fun. And then they brought me back for
more and on volume three I did the track for
Web of Death. Yeah. Yeah, And then volume three came out,
I'm sorry, Volume four came out and I worked on
what did I work on? On that one man mass Avengers,

(02:39):
which was also a lot of fun, And then on
their Tee Lung David Chang Chang ChEI collection did Duel
of Fists and then coming up in November, worked with
Aero Video on volume three of their Shoscope set. I
wound up writing the film notes book that be included

(03:00):
with that, as well as doing the commentary on Jaye
Tiger which was a lot of fun. Hell, yes, it
was more in the works, more in the works, but
I can't talk about that yet.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Okay, well that's fair.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, our Shaw brothers go to guy Ian Jane.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yeah, this is this is where we just turn it
over to you and just let you talk and then
we just are going to sit here and play fetch
with the dog.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, do you want me? Do you want me to
read the plot synopsis? Well, no, I'll let Lance to
his regular but I have I have a strange artifact
that I have a book I need to read from
briefly when he's done, just because it's kind of kind
of amusing.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yes, please is it?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Is it about than Channing Ghost? Is it based on
the short story? Or is this the short point?

Speaker 1 (03:41):
I don't want to do. You do your thing, and
when you're ready, I will read to you from the
z Eagle.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Oh I like, I like, Okay, I'm gonna hurry up
and do this. Okay, I'm excited. Well again, thanks for
you know, we always love you having you on and
thanks for making the time for us for this.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, of course, is happy to be here.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, and before that too, I know I say it
like every time Ian is here, but Rock Shock Pop
is one of the few corners of the Internet where
people are civil. I highly recommend people going over there
to check out the reviews and the message boards and just.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Not just films, but like music and comics, all sorts
of stuff, great blog style community. It's fun, yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Thank you for that. It is a It's a lot
of work, and I will keep doing it as long
as it remains fun for me to do. I mean,
I don't make any money on it, so it's a
it's not a side hustle. Yeah, yeah, exactly, you know
what it is. It's a side time gobbler. But I
still love doing it and I don't think it's going
anywhere anytime soon.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
That's awesome. Okay, So the Enchanting Ghost. Okay, like I
mentioned this one when announced this in our last episode.
It's a slower pace, it's only eighty minutes. It's light
on the whoror I think it's it sits If somebody
has this on a Shaw Brothers watch list, I think
it's gonna sit on the bottom of thelet watch list
for a long time. Sure, so I feel like let's
shed some light on it. Let's not cut off those lists. Yeah, okay,

(05:00):
what's it about? So? In The Enchanting Ghost, we follow
a young scholar, Master Long, who finds himself evicted from
his home due to the debt his late father owed,
and he decides to move into an abandoned house, which
the town says is haunted. And it's here where he
meets a mysterious woman named ru Yee, who is caring

(05:22):
for her ailing mother. Ruye's mother quickly dies, and Long
and Rue ultimately fall in love while we kind of
all wonder if she's a ghost or a real person,
And everyone and their dog in town think Rue is
a ghost, and they try their hardest to prove it.
By the end they're right, but not in the original
manner that they initially thought. And that's that's my summary.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Let's let's it's not inaccurate.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
I want to what did you have?

Speaker 1 (05:54):
What did you have?

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Well, let me let me do this real quick too.
It can be found on YouTube for our listeners if
you haven't watched it yet. It has an eighty eight
film's release which I think you watched. Ian you have
which I guess the one I have? Yeah, I'm jealous
of that because the YouTube qualities. It seems to progressively
get worse as you watch it, even the subtitles.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Get I skimmed it actually because my eighty eight disc
is around here somewhere, but I think it's like, I
don't know, you should see my apartment. It's insane. I
couldn't find it, so I wanted to rewatch it before
getting on the microphone with you guys. So I did
go through it on YouTube. Yeah. The quality it's not good.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, it's rough. And as of this recording, it only
has two hundred and eighty five views on letterboxed, so
not many people watch it. Yeah, but let's hear. Let's
hear what you have ian from this?

Speaker 1 (06:39):
From this? Okay, So at a little background on this.
So when I was in China for work, like seven
eight years ago, whatever it was, I wound up at
an electronics trade show in Canton Electronics Fair where Creative Labs,
you know, the guy who made the sound Last video
cards back in the day. They were set up there
with a product called the Z Eagle Complete Shaw Brothers

(07:02):
Library Collection. And what this was was basically like a
DVR that you would buy that had every film in
the show Brothers catalog on it.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
It wasn't like eight seven hundred movies or eight hundred movies. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, It's basically a gigantic hard drive with every Showbrother's
movie on it, taken from the same transfers that the
old DVDs were taken from. So you know, they looked okay,
they didn't look mind blowing. But I wasn't gonna buy
it because it was a lot of money, and I
was there for work and I didn't really have time.
But I got talking to the person at the booth
who spoke pretty decent English, and they're like, would you
like a catalog? And I said, what's the catalog? And

(07:38):
so they handashed me and it's it's a book. It's
a full color book. It's like three hundred and eighty
two pages that has plot synopsis and credits in Chinese
and in English for every one of the films that's
on the Z Eagle Box.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah. So the plot synopsis for Enchanting Ghosts from the
Z Eagle Book, it's a little more flowery. It says
lovers to carry their passion beyond the grave is a
regular theme in historical dramas, and the enchanting ghost exploits
the tear jerking story of unrequited love. A young scholar,
escaping his cruel uncle, moves to a house which is haunted.

(08:13):
At the same time, a beautiful young girl and her
mother take refuge in the dwelling. After the mother dies,
the young couple falls in love and live happily together
for a while. The uncle soon decides to ruin the
couple's piece of blissful happiness. The girl is kidnapped, tortured,
and made to suffer even more hardships. Her despair is
so great she ends up committing suicide. With death comes

(08:34):
revenge as she becomes an enchanting and spooky ghost. I
love that they use the word spooky in there. It's
a little spoilery, honest. No, it's good.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
I mean the tear jerker. I should have included that
in my so because I cried the whole way through. Yeah, yeah,
that's I mean, that's yeah. It does give a lot away.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
I didn't.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
I didn't bring up Master She or anything.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Figure out right, it's actually the same synopsis was used
on the back of the Region three DVD back in
the day too. I've noticed that all the synopsis in
this book match all of the region three DVDs I have,
so they weren't paying anybody to write extra stuff. They
were just recycling it, which you know that's fair. Yeah,
the eighty eight Blu ray, the copy for that one
makes it sound like much more of like a traditional

(09:15):
kind of more in your face horror movie than it
really is. Yeah, they compare it, I think, uh, to House,
but I don't remember if they're referring to House like
the Japanese film that people call House Sue, or if
they're referring it to like the American House film. I
don't really think it matches either one of them. It doesn't.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, I mean, I actually I would think it more.
It more resembles the American House in anything than Howse Sue.
But yeah, yeah, that's a stretch.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
That's awesome. Though. That catalog sounds like really cool thing
to have.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
I'm never I'm never getting rid of it.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
So there's literally like seven hundred, eight hundred films that
are a summaries on its Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Oh, I just found I found the back copy for
the eighty eight films and the actually it says pre
dating the classic jap these Creeper House nineteen seventy seven,
but featuring some thematic similarities. This ghostly Tale is a
vital addition to any collection of Asian cinema, et cetera,
et cetera.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
So yeah, I mean they're right about it predating it.
Other than that, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
It was made first.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Okay, yeah, I'll give you that.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Have you did you see the trailer for it that
Celestial Pictures has up on YouTube?

Speaker 3 (10:22):
No?

Speaker 2 (10:22):
No, for the Enchanting Ghost Yeah no.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
So it's only like when when the DVDs came out.
I guess it was maybe after the DVDs came out,
Celestial uploaded a bunch of the trailers that they created
for the DVD releases. These were not the original theatrical trailers.
These were made in the early to mid two thousands,
and they reflected the time. So they're very flashy, a
lot of like you know, in your face graphics and stuff.

(10:46):
It's only focuses on like spooky ladies with long fingernails
and ghostly stuff. It does not cover the bulk of
the film, which, as you guys know, is a gothic romance. Yeah.
So it's super, super super misleading.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
I'm glad I didn't watch it before watching the film then,
because I even like plans.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, your expectations would have been frustrated it more.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, well, I did learn that this is based on
a short story called The Bookworm. It's a bookworm or
titled chou Chi written by Poo Song Ling, which was
first published in seventeen forty and something called Strange Stories
from a Chinese studio. That's accurate, But it's a fictional
extension of a poem titled I'm Gonna butcher it but

(11:28):
Kwan Choushi, which translates to poem exhorting studying and written
by Emperor chen Chong, which highlights the importance of being
well read and learned. And parts of the poem are
they're cited in The Bookworm, most notably the line they're
in books, Girls as beautiful as jade abound and I

(11:49):
read that. The story revolves around an innocent scholar and
his romantic encounter with a celestial being hidden in his books.
He's a loner in his mid twenties, having devoted his
entire life to studies, and he fantasizes about one day
meeting one of the beauties like those in his books.
And in the story he finds a strange paper cutout
of a mythical character between the pages and one of

(12:10):
his books, which slowly grows and turns into this real woman.
That sounds more interesting. But I read onto and I
have some differences that I'll once we dive into the
film that I kind of wish that they included or
elaborated on. In this it's much more of a nerdy
revenge though there's not a whole lot of haunted house
or anything like that going on in the short story.

(12:31):
But interesting about the book room story. But let's jump
into the crew real quick. So it's directed by Cho
Shu Chung, and other than The Enchanting Ghost, he directed
only one other Shaw Brothers film, which has one of
the coolest titles, the Bride from Hell from nineteen seventy two,
and the title kind of is all it has going

(12:52):
for it.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Unfortunately, I like it better than this one.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
I do too.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I'll have to watch that
because I watched both of these years ago, and I
did the rewatch on A Channing Ghost, and I you know,
I still enjoyed it. For the most part.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
I like this movie. I like Bride from Hell. I
like Bride from Hell slightly better. It's just I feel
like the title, like Lance said, the title Bride from Hell,
you your expectations are a little bit higher. And Channing
Ghost sure like I'm getting like a mostly romance movie
with a little bit of ghost in it. That's fine,
the title fits.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
I agree on both points, and I also agree that
Bride from Hell sells it as a much more kind
of over the top movie than it really is.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yeah, I think if I remember, it does still have
like a very Scooby Doo mystery element going on that
you kind of well, you love at bod I do.
That's why I enjoyed both of these films. Okay, So
director Shu Chung, he really isn't your standard Shaw Brothers director.
He only directed these two Shaw Brothers Bride from Hell
and in Channing Ghost, and he's so he wasn't pumping

(13:55):
out multiple films every year for years on end. He
actually only directed about a dozen films total. Other films
include Black Invitation from nineteen sixty nine, Man Ghost, Fox,
and Crimes Are to Be Paid from nineteen seventy two,
and I watched one film he directed in nineteen seventy
called Vengeance of Snowmade, also known as a Daughter's Vengeance,

(14:18):
which Shu Chung also wrote, and it was just okay,
Like the action wasn't that great. It was about a
woman who flees her asshole husband, and you know, while
she's fighting and while she's escaping, she ends up getting
badly injured, and this deformed woman who goes by Ugly
Snowmade takes her in and raises her and actually delivers

(14:42):
her baby before before this, this lady dies, so the
baby grows up to get revenge on the woman who
killed her mother, who she doesn't know it's also her
real father. It's fine, it's just like a revenge story
that you know. The interesting aspect that kind of hitting song,
kind of enchanting ghosts is the woman. She's not playing

(15:03):
a role of a man, but everybody she takes kind
of this disguise as being a man, and like these
women start following falling in love with her during the movie,
which is fun to watch, but yeah, just kind of
basic stuff. And I kind of get why Hue Chung
didn't direct a whole lot after watching this, because I mean,

(15:23):
all his movies are just kind of they're quaint, they're
just kind of fine.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah you don't. You don't really there's nothing that sticks
out with them, and it doesn't really feel like there's
any love behind them. Like if you're watching I don't
know Cheng che movie, I'm like, oh, I'm going to
see some half naked men in this all right?

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, cover in blood by the end of it.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
So it's like, yeah, it's just his movies are They're fine?

Speaker 2 (15:52):
You know, Yeah, he just doesn't have flair. I mean,
you're not gonna get what you like everything else we've
covered during Shaugus. This is in ninety seven, Like, this
is a completely different movie than anything we've ever covered, Yeah,
which I respect, and I kind of like this slow
pace of it.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
It's a super transitional period for the studio. Like when
this was made, yeah, about like what came before it
and what came after it, right, Like if the air
this was made, they were still making basically like the
traditional old school wils film Wusha films and the opera
films and the more over the top stuff that cult
film fans know and love, and the horror films you know,
and the martial arts films and the drenk J films

(16:29):
and all that bloody goodness and insanity. It didn't come
for a few more years, so I think it's interesting
from that perspective, and that it's it's, I guess, sort
of a bridge between like the opera films that were
they were making, because it does sort of have the
same vibe as some of the opera films. I haven't
seen tons of those, but it sort of works on
that level. But it does also connect to the more

(16:51):
I guess extreme horror films that would come later in
the decade. It's just it's not there. It doesn't have
the energy, it doesn't have the insanity. And to me,
it feels, like I said earlier, more like a Gothic
romance than a gothic horror. The horror elements are there
in the last twenty minutes, they're just right, they're diled down.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, yeah, no, I think you're absolutely right. It's a
gothic romance pretty much with you know, like the comparing
these to what comes later with all the crazy lighting
and all the effects and boxer z oemen or bloody shirt.
Yeah this, Yeah, that's a good point. You can kind
of see where they're heading. Like in the last twenty
minutes of this film, and you're like, Okay, yeah, I

(17:28):
want more of this, and then they.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Really, yeah, that's it. The good stuff is in the
last twenty minutes. It really is. And I mean that's
typical of a lot of movies from many genres. Obviously,
you want to you want to finish strong, but getting
to the last twenty minutes can be a little bit
of a slog.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, so you mentioned like opera movies, so we're gonna
I'm gonna quickly go through the cast. There's only a
few key characters and the Enchanting ghosts, so I'm going
to highlight just a few here and then you guys
can jump in if y'all have notes on anybody. But
Yong li Hua plays Master Long Yuzu, the young protagonist
scholar who falls in love with that mysterious woman. Again,

(18:03):
something we see quite often in Hong Kong and Taiwanese
films where a woman plays the role of a man,
which is what Lehua does here in The Enchanting Ghost.
And I mean my favorite example of a woman in
a man's role is the Child Child of Peach movies.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, I have not seen those.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
Lynn Shaolou. I think she's also in Kung Fu Kung
Fu Wonder Child. Have you seen that one? No?

Speaker 3 (18:28):
No, Sam just watched that one too though. That was
on my watch lists.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, the director. I mean I watched both of those. Well,
I just watched the last Child of Peach film, Magic Warriors,
which has Lynn Shaolu playing usually a young boy who's
just kind of saving the day. But I've noticed too
when watching these movies, it seems like the eyebrows is
an indicator of male and female characters. I don't know
if this is just me, so yeah, the male to

(18:54):
go straight up.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, yep, it's not just you, okay. I don't know
why that is. There's probably a cultural maybe a cultural
reason for it. I don't know. Maybe they just thought
it looked cool, or maybe they thought it made the
actresses look more masculine. It's probably that probably thought it
made the actress look more masculine. But I've definitely noticed
it too. It's strange.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, I was trying to like figure more on that,
but just something I noticed, especially watching those the Child
of Peach films. So yeah, Yong Lehua, she didn't act
in too many films, but she was like a very
very famous Taiwanese opera performer for most of her career.
She performed in hundreds of productions for over thirty years decades,

(19:36):
and it was a little unusual for Chinese opera, but
she played a wide variety of male roles when performing
due to her quote handsome appearance. I read that during
tours of Taiwan or abroad, she was completely idolized by
fans who would often place gold pendants around her neck,
even throw money on the stage with in red envelopes.
So she had this huge following, winning all sorts of

(19:58):
accolades for hererformances during her lifetime. She was also the
founder of radio opera and television Opera and Taiwan and
produced an extremely successful TV program concerning opera, and she
continues to this day to devote her life to opera.
She has an autobiography where she said she was born

(20:19):
and raised on the stage, and I've lived my whole
life with Taiwanese opera. Perhaps I've made opera more brilliant,
but opera has enriched my existence, and so I've always
felt responsible for its sustainable development, and she continuously works.
She created an opera actor training class at Still Running.
She improved the way opera was broadcast on television. She

(20:41):
opened the door for opera to in her modern theaters.
She did prime time television at eight pm in Taiwanese households. Yeah,
I mean she's like a huge, huge pioneer of opera
performances and just the opera in general in Taiwan, I
want in other countries. I found it interesting too. I

(21:03):
looked her up and she's closing in on like eighty
years old, but she looks like even better than she
did when she was like twenty five or twenty six
when she filmed and Chanting Ghost.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
I mean, she looks better than us.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
She's stunning.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yes, she's aged really well. I've seen some. I found
some recent pictures of her online while doing a bit
of research for this today, and I don't know, there's
some sort of that she made a deal with the
devil or something that it's ridiculous we should all be
so lucky.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
Yeah, no kidding.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, she's an interesting performer. She doesn't have too many films,
but I did watch one of her starring roles in
a film called Vengeance of the Phoenix Sisters from nineteen
sixty eight. I absolutely loved it. I mean, it could
be on one of my favorite lists for the year.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
It's about a father who was hunted down, who was
once a sheriff. He was hunted down and murdered by
these bandits and as he's fighting, his three young daughters
are taken by their assigned caretakers. They're separated to keep
them out of danger. Fifteen years later, the oldest sister
played by young Lehua, she wants to leave the carectaker
to get revenge for her parents' murder. And you know,

(22:10):
all the people she encounters that she thinks she's a man,
and women are falling in love with her, so she
does she you know, she plays to this to keep
her true identity hidden. And then when she locates one
of the men to kill him, she runs into her
two other sisters who are also there, who also think
she's a man, so they kind of fall for her.
It's very awkward, but it's this beautifully shot in the

(22:34):
black and white film. The bloody fights kind of happen
at night, so it's like black blood on white clothing
with like complete black It just really captivating to watch,
very dreamy revenge flick. But I recommend it I forget
where I watched. I think I might have watched it
on U ten collection, but on Wu Tang collection, but
don't remember.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Oh that the YouTube chant Oh it's on YouTube a
Wu Tang collection. It was actually like an early Blue
Ara release that but it wasn't like high def content.
It was like some fly by Night label that crammed
like thirty low quality standard definition.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
No, this was definitely on films. Yeah, that sounds amazing,
now this was this was a YouTube channel. Yeah, I
watched a few few on YouTube, so I don't okay
which once was which I haven't seen.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Vengeance the Phoenix Sisters. That sounds pretty rad.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
It's really good. I do recommend it. It's out there somewhere.
I forgot exactly where I watched it.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
I got a question for both of you, though, do
you think she's effective playing a male character or does
it take you out of the movie because I don't
see a male in the movie. I see a female
in I didn't see Crag.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
I never see a male character honestly, and even in
like the Child of Peach And the first time I
watched Channing Ghost Tired was really like, what's going on here? Right?
Why are they calling him mask? Like what's It took
me a minute to realize, Okay, he is she is
playing a male character.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yeah. Same. I had the same problem, to be blunt
like it. I never bought into it, so it in
the back of my mind. I was like, I'm not
buying the story one hundred percent because the casting choice
here as well. Her performance isn't bad. I mean, she's
a decent enough actress and she's got some screen presence,
but like, it's it's not a lesbian love story. Had
it been that way and they just cast two women,

(24:20):
then I'd be into it. I'd be like, Okay, fine,
this is convincing, but I just I couldn't buy her
as a male character. I had trouble getting past that part.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
It took me out a little. I was when it
first started. I thought that she was pretending to be
male and had everyone else confused.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
And which happens. It happens in a few Shop Brothers films,
Like if you think about some of the Chang Pay
Pay movies, right, yeah, I would say more often than not,
she just guises herself as a man to stop whatever
evil do or you want her name, and that's not
necessarily convincing either. But you know, it's just a disguise.
It's still this, you know, it's still pretty chank pay pay.
It makes you rest in peace under the male clothing,
but it works in the context of the story. I

(25:01):
had a problem with it.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
I think a.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
Big part of it too, is there was something I read.
There was this article or maybe it was an interview
from Taiwan Panorama or something like that, and it was
talking about how, you know, she was known for playing
these young male roles that she sang beautifully. She moved
with tremendous grace and had a very expressive face. And

(25:25):
that piece about her moving with tremendous grace like that
lends itself very well if you're in opera, of course,
but if you're playing a male like those aren't the
words you would generally use to describe.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Unless it's like Child of Peach, where there's a lot
of choreography and a lot of fighting sequences, right.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
But this isn't like her playing and some sort of
like even like a Wu Sho role where it's like,
you know, there's a lot of movement involved. This is
just like a pretty straightforward, you know, moving from place
to place or within the house, right, she's.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Just kind of standing around looking sad most of the time.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, so yeah, it didn't take me out of it
a little bit. I do think that. Yeah, I wish.
As much as I like her and like what she's done,
I'm like, why didn't you just you know what, I
don't I didn't understand the casting choice.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
I'm assuming also when I read the backstory of her career,
you know, she was in opera for long before she
started doing these little act these acting roles, and she
didn't act in a whole lot of movies. But I'm
assuming it was a big draw. Like Shaw brothers are like, oh,
if we can get Yong li Hua to star in
this film, sure, I think that might have driven audience
audiences to the movie. But yeah, it doesn't work entirely.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
She's top build on the one sheet. I don't know
if you've seen the one sheet for that.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, it's beautiful and it's gorgeous.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
I would love to get one, Yeah, proudly hanging on
my wall. Even if I don't completely love the movie.
I just I love the imagery behind it.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
Oh yeah, I got plenty of those sisters where I'm like,
this movie's not great, but this, you know, the movie
is not great. This poster is a banger though.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Yeah, the Doctor Eckel and mister Hyde.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
No, not that one, so we'll stop it.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yeah. No, what's funny too. Her role in Vengeance of
the Phoenix Sisters when she does finally meet her sisters
and like, you know, again, she's kind of undercover as
a man. To prove that she's her sister. She just
lets her hair down and they're like, oh, sister, there
you go, Like you should be able to tell right away.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
It's like the modern equivalent of like, oh, she took
off her glasses, now she's hot, like kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Yeah it is, and I couldn't tell, you know, obviously
from the quality on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
I don't know if you remember from the eighty eight
films or any other films that she might be in,
but apparently she had a scar on the left side
of her forehead in real life that she got when
she was practicing martial arts at the theater, and she
recalled quote, while I was rehearsing a battle scene, my
forehead was pierced by my opponent's sword. This mark has
become part of my identification. I don't know if that's

(27:59):
like for some of her male roles, Like I don't
know what she's referring to exactly, but I couldn't notice
any That's interesting.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
I wonder what year that happened in, because if you
go onto the HKMDB website and you look at the
there's a collection of like sixty pictures of her on there,
and I'm scrolling through them right now looking to see
if I could see a scar, and I'm not. But
a lot of these pictures are well, no, we're going
up in the seventies here. I was going to say,
these are all from the sixties. But even in the seventies,
I don't see a scar on it. And I don't

(28:26):
remember when I watched the eighty eight disc, which again
looks a million times better than the YouTube rip, I
don't remember seeing a scar on there. So it's possible
what happened after the movie was made.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, I mean maybe it happened well, you know, like
two years ago or something. She's practice for martial arts, right,
But no, I was curious about that, ian like, if
anybody's noticed that. No, Okay, so the other actor, the
other actress in here Chung Mayau. She plays the mysterious
woman Young Ru Yee. That's how I say it. And

(28:57):
she was also a well known time when he star
during her acting career, especially in the sixties and seventies,
where she acted alongside her husband Chung Sing Coe, who
was a well known actor and director. Both of them
did a lot of romantic dramas that I found, including
a Shaw Brothers film called Fallen Pedals from nineteen sixty eight.
Most of her films that were difficult to find I

(29:18):
couldn't really find any online. I found one called The
Eight Bandits or the Eight Robbers, where she plays a
character named Susu. Again another basic Eight Bandits kill someone's
father and it's a basic revenge story. It was okay,
nothing special. It was Angela Mao's first film credit, though,
which was interesting to read in nineteen sixty eight, and

(29:40):
it did have a nice some pretty good bloody battles,
but one memorable scene with a great decapitation which was great.
This one was on Wu Tang collection. I do have
that one noted. And then The Eight Bandits also starred
Lou Ming who plays Master She in The Enchanting Ghost,
who's Master Long's uncle who's working to take over the house.

(30:01):
He has close to two hundred film credits. He acted
in a ton of Shaw Brothers films, including The Bride
from Hell, Sons of the Good Earth, and The Magnificent Trio.
In nineteen sixty six, and I watched one of his
movies called The Boxer's Last Stand where he stars. He's
the main guy. He's playing the son of a father
who was killed by a bunch of bandits. There's definitely

(30:23):
a theme here and he goes, you know, on revenge
after them. Very basic. I respected that almost every character
had mustaches. It was nineteen seventy six. There's a lot
of mustaches going on. I was like, this is this
is making the movie for me.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
That can make a difference. I'm with you on that.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, it does. It's like sudden furity, Like I'm sold
right away as soon as I see everybody's mustache.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Have you seen The Instructor?

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yes, I haven't seen that.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Very good mustache film.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yeah, Ivan played that. You need to get out more lance.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
Wow. Yeah, I guess it's on Blue right now.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
You can It is on Blue right now too.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
There we go.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, I can watch it at home.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
It has. It has more people getting punched in the
dick than any other movie I can think of.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
I think you're right. I think it does have the
highest lot.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
A lot is zoom in on mustaches, where they're all, oh.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Not constantly, but like every other character in this movie
has a pretty solid mustache.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Oh yeah, yeah, see, I'm sold. That's my book. Well
that's all mustaches.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
So that's really the only three characters I have for
cast members. And but you guys want to talk about
or have notes on, I.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Got one that that you missed. There's the token fat guy.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yes, there is always.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
He's the token fat guy, either the token fat guy,
as we mentioned I think either last year or the
year before, kind of a staple of Hong Kong films,
not just Sho Brothers films, but like Hong Kong films
in general. And still don't necessarily know why that is.
He's there for kind of for comic relief pretty much.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Yeah, he's the guy that's really, you know, really sticking
to the it's haunted, don't go to the house.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
It's honk right, right, And I mean this guy was
prolific three hundred and twenty eight films between nineteen fifty
nine and nineteen ninety six. He died in twenty sixty
one years old. So he made three hundred and twenty
eight movies in forty years. Wow. Yeah, And it was
almost always bit parts and the ones that I have
seen him in. Obviously I haven't seen all three hundred

(32:21):
and twenty eight, but I've seen like, let's say a
dozen or so. He is unfortunately always typecast as the
funny fat guy.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
So yeah, I mean they all have. Usually they're they're
credited as Fatty like that's yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
This one he's credited as fat Villager, so it's not
too far off the market.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
I was, yes, always The only one I had was
the cinematographer chen C Lou And so I tried to
watch The Ghost from nineteen seventy six, which he also shot.
There's an absolutely awful copy on YouTube, so I didn't
finish it. It's cropped, so a lot of the subtitles

(32:59):
are cut off, so I just I gave up. But
it has a really great title card, so I can
say that about it. And he also shot The Deadly
Silver Spear from nineteen seventy seven, starring Jimmy Wong. You
John loves this movie. He went through a huge whine
U was it. I think it was last year or

(33:19):
the year before. He was trying to make him his
most watched director or most watched actor, and he I
think this is the one that stood out for him.
So it's been on my watch list. I didn't get
around to it this time because of my trip and everything,
but I think I would. If John likes it that much,
then I can kind of stand behind a recommendation for

(33:39):
other folks to watch it.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
He's the star of the show. The cinematography and this
is solid. I think it was really good looking film,
even if the narrative doesn't necessarily grab me by the throat.
He also shot Wolf Devil Woman from nineteen eighty two.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
Oh I love that one.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, which was you know, Ronnie, you
clearly saw that before making Bride with White Hair. Definitely
definitely influenced that movie. I think Bridal Light Hair is
the better film. It's just such a gorgeous movie. But
I love Wolf Devil Woman so much. Yeah, I think
the cinematography is the best part of the movie. To
be honest, there's interestingly enough. And I saw this because

(34:15):
it's it's in the modern trailer that I mentioned earlier,
as there's a scene where we see a dead woman,
fully clothed, lying in some water with like some some
lush green vegetation around her. And as soon as I
saw that, I was like, oh my god, did Nick
Cave see this when he made Where the Wild Roses Grow,
the video where Kyley Minaut lies dead in the water

(34:35):
surrounded by vegetation. He probably didn't, as just a weird coincidence,
but as soon as I saw that sequence, I was like,
my mind went straight to that music video from nineteen
ninety eight or whatever it was showing my age.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
No, not at all, and Lances what I do.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
And I agree with you on the cinematography. I mean, again,
we've already discussed how there's not a lot of flare.
There's not much going on this movie. There's a lot
of panting shots. It's a Shaw Brother, so we know
we're going to get amazing sets. And yeah, I love
how it continuously shows kind of that overgrown exterior with
the little pavilion in the water under that walkway bridge.
Those are like my favorite shots out there, that's when

(35:16):
it's outside. And you mentioned the title card of the Ghost. Yeah,
I think I like the cold open in The Enchanting Ghost,
where you know, Long's getting evicted from his home and
a few minutes later he says, I'll move into this
this house and the friend's like, no, that's haunted, and
Long replies, is it really haunted? And you cut to

(35:37):
the Enchanting Ghost title card with this spooky I didn't
talk about the original score. The composer Wang Fu Lun,
who did the music for Big Boss starring Bruce Lee.
He did tons hundreds of Shaw Brothers films too, One Armed,
the guy was Chinese Mark Boxer, The Flying Guillotine, Bamboo,

(35:59):
House of Dogs. So many good scores in films, and
when that title card comes up, it's them kind of
you know, kind of spooking along the outside of the house,
just kind of tiptoeing. And the score is very comedic
to me if it feels like we're about to watch
a haunted house movie, like a silly haunted house movie
from the fifties or sixties, something like from House on

(36:20):
Haunted Hill or thirteen goes like Von Dexter scores, like
it's very silly sounding, you know, it has the whole
you know, there's definitely a theremin in there, right, Yeah,
it's got to be if.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yeah, that's what I thought too when I was rewatching it,
and I was like, I have theremine flag. Anytime I
hear a theram and I have weird flashbacks to Uh,
I'm going way off topic here, but when Black Flag
reunited a few years back for the first time, they
played in Brooklyn and I went to the show and
Greg Ginn in the middle of the set busted out,
Oh wow, I did a theorem in solo in the
middle of a black Leg show. So that was bizarre

(36:54):
and that will be permanently etched on my brain until
the day I died. Anytime I hear a therem and
I'm back at the brook wondering what the hell's going on.
But he also no, I.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Was gonna say, I've seen Wayne Cone do it a
lot with flaming lips, which.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Kind that makes more sense.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, it's expected they're gonna.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Pull the thereman right now. There's no theremin like on
like damaged or anything like that. Like this was just
Greg gin ego tripping, I think. But going back to
some of the other films that he scored, he did
score Vengeance, which is my all time favorite Shop Brothers movie,
so I will always love him for that. But you're
totally right, Like there's the score is I guess silly
is the right word, Like that's the word you used,
and I was trying to think of a different way

(37:30):
to describe it, but now silly nails it. Like it does.
It goes back to like that Scooby Doo comparisonly made earlier,
or the House on Hunted Hill. Like you said, it's
it just sounds like it came out of like an
old William Castle film. It's yeah, doesn't it does? It
clashes a little bit with like the more serious elements
of the story. I think I think got in context,
I would really like this score, but I think in context,
I don't know. You're saying it enhances it, and I'm

(37:52):
not sure that I agree.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
I think it makes the humor because there's there's a
lot of like we already talked about the Fat Villager
and either even Master She Like, I think there's a
lot of funny characters in this and the music kind
of I really latched on to. You know, you said
the cinematography and Jay, which I agree, But the music

(38:14):
like the music. Really, I really latched onto the music,
and I felt more comfortable watching it as kind of
a silly comedy horror, and it worked better for me
personally to just sit back and enjoy it instead of
like wanting like a true horror or some sort of
gothic romantic.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
I remember when you first emailed me about doing an
episode on this movie. You said you found it the
movie very relaxing. I got a kick out of that,
but I could see why. I can definitely see why.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Because I fall asleep.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, well, it's a fine line to be relaxing and boring,
I guess, right, right, But.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
No, I think it's a good especially when because we
celebrate Shaugust. This is our what fourth year, and it's
very action packed and you know, there's a lot of
that's what you expect from sh August. And even when
we throw on a horror, a Shaw Brothers horror, like
the best of those are so fast paced and kind
of in your face with some of the great practical effects,
this just kind of breaks up the whole month. And

(39:13):
I don't know, like after Bloody Parrot, like you said, Erica,
this is kind of a good little wind down it's just, yeah,
I found it relaxing.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
I found it very It's a palate cleanser.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
It certainly is a pala That's.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
A good way to put it.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
I think for me when the score hits and the
credits roll and he's at the house, because the opening
gives no indication of this being remotely a horror film,
because if you didn't know what you were watching, right,
because the title card comes afterwards, you're watching this film
and it's just about some guy getting evicted from his

(39:50):
home and deciding, well, I'll just go stay in this
house and being told that it's haunted. And the next
scene he's walking through this overgrown garden, this abandoned residents
or spider webs everywhere, and now it's nighttime and you
have this kind of goofy spooky score going on that
you know, this is what nineteen seventy right, And so

(40:12):
maybe the composer was taking a cue from some of
those silly haunted house movies, because, like Ian said, we
are in a transition period, So do they know how
to score movies like this? Are they just like trying
to take cues from somewhere else? And it took me
out a little bit. I did enjoy what I was
seeing because I was like, oh, okay, and I thought

(40:34):
a lot of the rest of the movie was going
to be like that on my first watch, and then
it's just a romance drama for the next hour or so,
and then we get to the ghost parts of it.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
That's an interesting thought about the score. You could very
well be right Erica and that like, yeah, maybe they
were trying to like kind of mimick like old William
Castle films and old American be great horror films, because
I mean, Run Run Show is pretty open about the
fact that, like, if there's a trend, we're going to
follow it, right. That was a big part of the
reason why they were so successful is because they were
paying attention to what was working in other countries and

(41:08):
importing it to Asia. And maybe you're right, maybe it
was kind of like, all right, let's feel this out,
because it was. It's definitely one of the earliest shove
quote unquote horror films, So maybe they are just like
trying to cut their teeth on something and see seeing
what works. I hadn't thought about that. That's interesting.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, I think that that does make sense because like
Fooling's other scores, you're not going to find a goofy
there man or anything like that in there.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
So No, his score for Vengeance is great and totally
works within the context of the film. And I think
he did some of the one of them, was it
the first of the one Armed Swordsman squels? I think
he did that one as well.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
I don't know, Yeah, he did one Arm Swordsmen.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Yeah, yeah, so and again the score for that it's
pretty much perfect and it suits the movie totally. So
clearly he had talent and he had a good year
and knew how to compose things to set the mood
for a scene. So I don't know, maybe maybe there's hey,
this was spooky to American audiences, let's see if it
works in China, sure, Hong Kong.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
Yeah, that's what That's what I kind of get from
the when I watched the movie, and I think, again,
the movie, the score does it. Maybe Fooling had the
same or run me Shaw or whoever's producing this one
had the same idea like this is a this is
a silly William Castle esque like.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
But even throwing a random skeleton.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Yeah later in the film too, well, yeah, when they're
carrying the skeleton down this That's one of my favorite scenes.
It's very like Blake Edward's pink panther. The guy's like
looking at it. Like, so, I found a lot of
humor in this movie. But you're right, I would say,
what forty five minutes of this movie is ru Yee
and Long just kind of falling in love and us

(42:39):
trying to figure out if if we's a ghost or not.
It's it's there's just a lot of talking, a lot
of romantic build up. Yeah, which like, yeah, differences in
that book worm short story. So in the short story,
I read that Young is very upset in himself for
being such a bookworm and he doesn't know much about

(43:01):
sex at all, and rue Yee and every time he
steps away from the relationship and starts reading more becoming
that scholar his whole life he's been, ru Yee starts disappearing.
So whenever he stops reading, she appears and they end
up having a son together and having this long relationship
in the book and then master she believes that she's

(43:21):
actually some sort of demon ghost, and when he goes
to look for her, but she disappears because she's like
our relationship can't last forever, and she disappears, and when
Master She can't find him, he torches all of Long's books,
and Long devotes his entire life becoming a civil servant
and earning the post of censor to successfully indict Master She.

(43:44):
So it's like this nerdy revenge story. Okay, there's no
real haunted house or murder element going on. It's just like,
I'm going to become a successful lawyer and I'm going
to take you down she. But yeah, it's interesting how
rue Ye's character and Longs in this Bookworm that the
short that the movies based on, have this really long

(44:07):
established relationship where in this I feel like they immediately
fall in love and it's kind of goofy and fast,
and you're like, okay, this is weird. Yeah, you know,
does a pickup line work where it's like, hey, I
read a poem and it says I was going to
fall in love with ru Yee.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
That doesn't work.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
It doesn't work. Okay, I'll scratch that form. But yeah,
there's there's just not much to the story itself of
the movie in The Enchanting Ghosts, but things get weird.
Things take a turn like they start coming out of
left field when you start getting mister Masters, She's wife involved,

(44:43):
and they kind of take over the whole story. I
found that very intriguing. I found that interesting.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
Yeah, I do like where it finally takes that turn.
We finally step away from the romance and start getting
an actual, what feels like a real conflict, because up
until that point, the conflict in quotes is is she
or is she not a ghost? And so, yeah, it
the turn that it takes too. Does she They didn't

(45:12):
show it, but I'm assuming that she did. She gets
raped by the uncle, correct, she.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Gets raped by the uncle. Yeah, and then then poisoned.
But yeah, then Masters, then his wife, I guess, is
like kind of all upset about it, and she's like,
we're gonna have to kill this bitch, like and she
gets peacock blatter and poisons her food and successfully poisons
her because at that point, okay, yeah, then well we'll

(45:36):
just talk about it. Because Ruyi then is walked back
to the house where she ultimately kills herself in the
pond outside. She's losing her hair and stuff, so she's poisoned.
Like it feels like it's taken effect was she a
ghost the whole time, No, because at this point she
kind of rises and she's a true ghost form at
this point, right, okay with her goofy mom.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
I'm sorry, it's been like two weeks since I watched it.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
No, no, no, it's a movie you can forget. I mean,
I don't know, apology. I'm not going to remember this
in two weeks. So, yeah, Ruyi was never a ghost
in the very beginning, right, She was just hanging out
at this house with her her mom, who just happened
to die when Master Long showed up. That's not right

(46:23):
to you, yan, Yeah, no, I think that's that's accurate.
At least that's you know, pretty much my interpretation as well. Yeah, okay, yeah,
I find it completely strange though. How Long is kind
of removed entirely from the film. When these yeah three
and these three women kind of battle it out and
they ultimately get the revenge on Masters she it's his

(46:43):
it's his wife, and what her kind of servant, Chung Tao.
They both kill him, which is weird because they're kind
of asshole's characters because they killed Ruyi. So it's it's
a weird dynamic where they get the revenge and just
like that.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
He slept with her, but then she kills her, and
then they all unite together as ghosts. There's like the
ceremony sort of at the end, all the women ghosts
are tormenting him, right, Sorry, I'm trying to remember. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Most of them have really long fingernails, Yes they have.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
Yeah, man, I need to die because seriously, my nails
are the fucking worst. Like, is that how you get
long nails? You become a ghost.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
I'll do that.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
My nails grow like crazy, clip them like once a week.
I hate it.

Speaker 3 (47:40):
Damn I don't do that mine, Like, if they grow,
they're just super weak. I mean, I'm sure somebody would
be like, you need to eat more of.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Something something, Just buy those little creepy Halloween packs.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
Nails and hey, there's there's still around. I know ansel around,
But I see people in my neighborhood all the time
with bake nails on.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
Okay, So I want to know this at the very end,
because this I feel like this is the one thing
that's sort of left up in the air and we
never get an answer to it. Because I'm so used
to like Sean Brothers movies that are like villain defeated
the end right jumping up here? Though, is Yang going

(48:27):
to get his house back now because his uncle took
it from him by lying about the taxes or whatever
or the gambling debts that his father owed, right, so,
but they never resolved whether he's going to get the
house back, and he only moved into the Haunted house
because of that. But does now does he want to
stay in the haunted house because it's like that's.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Where yeah and his mom, that's where they walk, don't
they walk back into the house or Afriget at the end,
Like I feel like he's staying in this haunted place
because master she was involved in the in taking over
the house, the finances, but it had somebody else I thought,
like an official.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
Yeah, an official was like in on it too. But
like if he's dead, and I mean Yang should get
his house back in the first place anyway, because it
was taken from him.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
I mean, the city's gonna keep it. They're gonna turn
into a brothel or something, government.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
Tear it down, build condos, Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
And then it's Poltergeist and you got your on top
of all these deads there you go, So yeah, I mean,
I already said I did find this relaxing. If you
can find a clean, nice copy, I mean probably the
fuzzier the coffee. The copy that we watched on YouTube
might put you more in a lull and some sort
of weird trance. But I appreciated the slowness and silliness

(49:42):
of it all and considered it a nice break from
action packed shaugus. Sure, I mean, would you guys recommend
this to anyone?

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Yeah? Casually, I would say at times it's a good movie.
At times it's even a very good movie. I think
the last two minutes of it are really strong. But
I don't think it's a great movie. I don't think
it's an essential shop Brother's horror film. It's certainly an
interesting historical artifact. It's a period of its time. Like
we mentioned earlier, it's transitional, so for that reason, people

(50:13):
with an interest in the studio genre output should give
it a look, just to see, you know, where it
kind of started and how it evolved. But again, good,
not great. I'll leave it at that.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
I'm saying what Ian said.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
Yeah, I'm right there with y'all. I think learning the
history of it, like you pointed out, Ian with the
you know, the transition period. I think it makes it
more interesting. But yeah, it's there's a lot of other
Shop Brothers movies to watch.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
Yeah, get to Rood eventually, folks. It's fine.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Yeah, yeah, you don't need to bump it up to
the top of your list. But uh, it's not It's
not bad.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
You know, it's only eighty minutes too, which is always
ap plout.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Eighty minutes watching it on like a rainy Sunday afternoon
exactly your feeling, you know, you want something kind of calm.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
Yeah, well, well, what are we going to pair this
with double feature picks see? And what would make this
viewing experience.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
I'm glad you asked me first, because I'm suspicious that
one of you may also choose this one. But I'm
going with Castle of Blood.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Okay, very good.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
Yeah, thematically it's pretty similar. I do wonder, if we
mentioned earlier, if some of the Italian Gothics could have
possibly been an influence on this. It's really tough to say.
I have no idea what the distribution for something like
Castle of Blood would have been in Hong Kong, if
there was any certainly possible that there was, but I
think thematically pretty similar. Got a guy fall in love

(51:35):
with a female ghost in this bookie house, and I
think they would work well together.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
What about you, Erica?

Speaker 3 (51:41):
So originally I started watching that movie The Ghost, but
I didn't finish it because I was thinking like that
might make a good double feature, just it sounded like
a sort of romance with a ghost type movie. But
didn't finish it, so I went back to one that
I watched earlier this year that kind of like The
Enchanted Ghost. It's good but not great. This one is

(52:02):
so close to being a banger, and it would have
been if an Italian directed it. And this is called
The Forgotten One from nineteen eighty nine. I can't remember
what episode I brought this up on before, but it's
about Terry O'Quinn moves into a house in the suburbs
that is being haunted by the ghost of a woman

(52:23):
who died there one hundred years ago, and he falls
in love with her and he fucks the ghost. I'm
sorry to spoil it, but y'all want to see Terry
O'Quinn fuck a ghost. This is your movie.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
I absolutely want to see Terry O'Quinn. Everyone did lie,
thank you.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
It's a little weird, gothic suburban I love Terry. It's
enough for me, even though it's not great. If an
Italian directed this man, it would have just been like
the best thing ever.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
But I've never seen it. But isn't Christy mcnicholan that too?

Speaker 3 (52:53):
She is, Yes, she's a neighbor.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
Oh wow, So she's not Terry O'Quinn doesn't get it
on with her.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
No, no, no, she's not the ghost all right. Yeah,
it's a whole other relationship he's got going. It's a
little bit of a love triangle, to be honest. But
you know he's he's more interested in fucking the ghost
at first, So that one I believe. I watch it
on YouTube, probably still there. I don't think anyone's trying
to copyright straight claim this movie. What about you, Lance?

Speaker 2 (53:23):
Okay, So yeah, there's another Shaw Brothers horror film that
I had watched a couple of years ago, I think,
right around the time I first watched in Chanting Ghosts.
That was called Evil Seducers from nineteen seventy five, and
it was you know, it's about a man who, well
everyone but him thinks is falling in love with the Ghost,
so it could work kind of as another Shaw brother's

(53:43):
haunted love story. But I kept going back to the
humor that I found in The Enchanting Ghost, the silly music,
those pink Panther moments, the silly master she and I'm
gonna go with the goofy comedy The Ghost and Mister
Chicken from nineteen sixty six.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
I didn't see that coming.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
No, yeah, that's what. That's all I thought of the
whole time I'm watch Have y'all seen this? So? It
stars Don Notts as this type. He's a typesetter turned
reporter who sort who runs with a story about a
local haunted house that he hears about. So he's like, well,

(54:23):
I'll stay at it and I'm not going to do
tom but he's like, I'll write a story about it,
and pretty much the entire movie is just him trying
to convince everyone that the house is actually haunted. Okay, okay,
and it's it's it's obviously light on the horror, as
you'd expect, super silly stuff. I haven't seen it in

(54:45):
probably ten years, but it did pop into my head
while I rewatched The Enchanting Ghost.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
I had a friend who was obsessed with that movie
really like almost a disturbing degree. Yeah, you collected all
the memorabilia for it. I've seen it a few times.
It's a funny movie. But he had multiple one sheets
from like not just domestic ones, but like foreign ones.
He had a full set of lobby cards like anything
to do. It's amazing, ghost mister Chicken. He would he
would buy it up. He had an extensive collection. I

(55:12):
won't name him my name. He wants to be by this,
but he lives in Portland, Oregon. I'll leave it at that.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
He's going to be our next guest. No, I think
this would make a silly night double feature of just
like Haunted goofy. Yeah, it's just silly. It's just bad. Yeah, silly.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
One word for that, all right, next pick?

Speaker 2 (55:41):
That's it for s August.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
Yeah, oh happy August everybody.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
Yeah, thank you for closing?

Speaker 1 (55:47):
Well, oh happy too, Like I said anytime.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
Well, so you picked what in Channing Ghost was? What
an eighty minute movie? I'm here to beat that.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
Oh with your next pick seventy minutes? Wow?

Speaker 3 (55:59):
Yeah, okay, So I wanted something short and moody before
we kick it into high gear in October for Horror
gives back. We'll talk about the challenge and this year's
categories in this upcoming episode as well. That'll be our
first episode of September Discord. Folks, you will get the
calendar early, so if you're interested, it's done. It is done.

(56:21):
I've seen it, I know what's on it. You will
know what the categories are ahead of the episode, but
we'll share what We'll kind of go through the categories
real quick in case anyone needs an explainer on any
of them. But I think it's as usual. It's pretty
self explanatory and it's also free to interpret how you want.
But slowing it down even more with a seventy minute

(56:42):
movie by someone who really who only has one horror
movie that they've directed and the rest of their films
are sex films.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Hell yeah, those are check fincit.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
Here we go. I love it. Yep.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
So we're gonna be We're gonna be watching some porn
because we're gonna be covering a movie by Jeri Domiano
who did Deep Throat the Devil and Miss Jones. We're
going to be covering the Legacy of Satan from nineteen
seventy four.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
Oh hell yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:09):
So Maya doesn't know it yet, but a satanic cult
has chosen her to be their new queen.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (57:14):
That's the plot, and that's all I'm going to say
about it. It's on two B seven hundred and fifty
one views on Letterboxed seventy minutes.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Here we go. There was a code red Blu Ray
double feature at one point too.

Speaker 3 (57:26):
I believe, yes, it does. Yeah, I think that one's
out of print. I've been looking.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
It's all the code red stuff is. Yeah, I had it.
It's I love that movie. Good.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
I'm glad to see I did you?

Speaker 2 (57:36):
I saw it. I think it a Terra Tuesday many
many years.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
So this is my pre letterbox days. This was at
a Terror Tuesday when it was the Ritz. Yeah, and
I remember just being like in a trance watching this movie.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
It's just probably before we even knew each other.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
Before we were in the same theater, but we didn't
know each other. Can you think of the horror of
the days before we were friends.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
This is just it was terrible.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
I mean, my life was incomplete. It's okay, sorry, we fixed.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
I won't go into detail on it because obviously you
guys are going to do that on your next episode.
But Domiana should have made more horror films. You could say,
Devil in This Jones is a horror film, but he
should have made more.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
Yeah I would.

Speaker 3 (58:15):
I would say devil in Miss Jones like you could
if I didn't look at it to see if it
had the horror tag on it. But I mean I
I would make a case for it for sure.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:25):
Yeah, but yeah, I've got the big box of that
up up on my physical media shelf, so time to
break out the VCR rewatch that awesome, all right, Ian, Yes,
you do all the good things. You've got a website,
you've got a podcast, you're doing special features stuff, tell

(58:48):
all the folks where they can find you, and all
the good things you do.

Speaker 1 (58:52):
So if you want to read movie reviews and join
in on the forum, which is mostly asshole free, you
can go to rockshock pop dot com. It's generally updated
daily except yesterday. I forgot for the first time in
like ten years, so I'm kind of hating myself for that.
But no, it's updated daily except when I forget. It

(59:13):
has a reasonably active message board, not as busy as
like bluewight dot com or somewhere like that, but it's
a different vibe and no pop up ads ha ha ha,
so different vibe. But yeah, it's called exploitation horror genre stuff.
You're not going to go there for the latest romantic
comedies to be reviewed. But if you want an Alpha
Blue Archives triple feature, a vintage smut or some martial

(59:36):
arts films or some horror films, I think a good
spot to find it. Comic book stuff. I do a
podcast that is typically weekly with my friend Billy called
The Queen's Comic Podcast. We are on YouTube, which is
a better way to do it because we can actually
see the books we're talking about, but we're also on Spotify,

(59:56):
Apple Podcasts, all the major podcast platforms. And yeah, special
features the show Factory stuff I mentioned earlier, and the
Arrow box set that is coming out in I think
it's the end of November. It's up for pre order
on the Errow website. If you want to go there
and just search for Shop Brothers Volume three, it's you're
gonna find it. It's a beautiful giant green box and I,

(01:00:18):
like I said earlier, I did the booklet on that
and one of the commentary tracks for that excellent.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
And You're still on Twitter, and that's the rock shot pop.

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
But then Instagram, Instagram is e in Jane seventy five,
that's mostly just pictures of beer and comic books. But yeah, Twitter,
rock shock pop is to handle there until I get
fed up, which is getting closer and closer.

Speaker 3 (01:00:38):
Oh day, I'm with you there, I'm getting there too.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Yeah, yeah, you know, I honestly I want to be gone.
But it's still it's a good.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
Yeah, it's a good it's good avenue to share things
and people, and.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
That's for I go on and I make like one
tweeted day for a review, and then I log off
because I can't handle the cesspool.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Yeah, I don't scroll anymore. I go on to post.
I see like if I look at notifications, if someone
commented or had a question, or I checked check my messages,
get rid of all the fucking you know, you know,
want to bride dms and yeh, then I yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Maybe I should get back up.

Speaker 3 (01:01:12):
No, yeah, it's it's successful over there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
I can't wait to I scrolled for like five minutes
today and saw three separate ads for Trump bobbleheads with
blood running down his zero and his fist up and
I was like, I'm off good.

Speaker 3 (01:01:25):
Yeah, we're done.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Yeah awesome. Yeah. I think everybody can follow me on
letterbox and Instagram at l shiby.

Speaker 3 (01:01:34):
Oh yeah, that's too our that's.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
To our plug.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
Yeah, we're over there, We're on We're on places. Where's
our podcast? Is on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Unsung Whores,
letterboxed and Instagram and Twitter. I'm at Hex Massacre. This
episode is coming out on August twenty eighth. As of
the day of recording, I have two four, six eight

(01:02:00):
ten regular books left and about twenty twenty five Dinged
books left. If you've been waiting, the Dinged books I'm
selling in a discount. Those are twenty five. The regular
books are thirty five. If you've been waiting, now's the
time because I don't have any plans to reprint unless
someone throws a fucking truckload of money at me, which

(01:02:21):
I don't think is going to happen for a book
about dead kids.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
So buy them up, sell it out this before the weekend. Everybody,
let's make it happen.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
It turned out so well though I love it. It did.
I mean everything from the graphic design, your writing style
is great. It's scholarly enough that you can take it seriously,
but there's still like a sense of humor to it. It
was a fun read. I really enjoyed it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
Thank you. It means a lot coming from you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
No, you're welcome. I mean, and I mean it. I'm
not just you know, I wouldn't say it if I didn't,
If I didn't mean it, I can oh, I know,
sit here, be quiet.

Speaker 3 (01:02:48):
Oh no, no, I know, because we brought you on for
an episode and you're like, yeah, this movie's okay. You
didn't like through.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
I hope you're very proud of it because it turned
out really well.

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
Thank you. Yeah I am. I'm I'm excited to have
it done though. That's the thing. It's like, it's not
even taking up half of my living room anymore. It's like,
you know, there's just like one pile of books over
in the corner now, but I'm like, I just want
them to be gone, and I just want to be
done and not have to like keep telling people in Europe.
I'm like, I'm sorry, I don't. I can't ship you

(01:03:20):
any books unless you want to pay fifty dollars. I'm sorry, though, No,
no one should pay that much for shipping for anything.
It's absurd, all right, Ian, thank you once again for
joining us. We look forward to having you every every
time we.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
Do that my pleasure. This was actually I wasn't dreading
coming on and talk about the movie. That's the wrong
way to phrase it. I was like a little trepidacious
because it was like, how's it going to go? But no,
this was fun and now I kind of want to
rewatch it and think of it as a comedy.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
Yes, it's the only way to enjoy.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
People watch it on two time speed and put on
yackety sacks in the background and that happens.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
And then follow up follow it up with the Ghost
and mister Chick.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
Thanks once again, Ian for joining us, and thanks to
everyone for listening. We'll see you back next episode for
Legacy of Satan.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Bye bye bye.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
I watch you leave.

Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
That's how I know you're going. But this heart of
man keeps telling me I'm wrong. I've seen your face
before every night in this home it house. When I

(01:04:40):
turn off the line, sometimes I hear you all across
the floor and my arms reach out to follow before

(01:05:04):
I live. For all the things weeks to do in
this home. It has I filled with love for you.
This home it has I'm living in. Its killing me

(01:05:32):
and the ghost of your love.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
Long, let me.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
Break each morning.

Speaker 4 (01:05:43):
Five me, crime and the long. In this home it
has we to call our car each morning, basic cry

(01:06:04):
and the lone. In this home, it house, we used
to call our ball.