Human Lanterns
1982; directed by Sun Chung

In the Shaw Brothers studio's stable of directors, Sun Chung was known as creating some of the darkest entries in the kung fu genre. Human Lanterns (aka Human Skin Lanterns) is widely considered to be his best work, but unfortunately, it has not been able to be seen by many in its' uncut form due to violent content. Now, with a new release via the Image Entertainment label, US audiences can now easily check out one of the most unique takes in the old-school vein in all of its' bloody glory.

The film revolves around two rivals, Lung (Lau Wing) and Fu (Chen Kuan-Tai). Both are powerful businessmen and seem to have everything at their fingertips, but their hatred of each other causes a game of oneupsmanship. After Fu hires away Lung's favorite hooker, Lung hatches a plan to humiliate Fu at the upcoming New Year's festival by producing a series of grand lanterns. Lung contacts an old foe, Chun (Lo Lieh), to create the lanterns. Chun reluctantly agrees, but doesn't tell Lung his secret -- that the lanterns will be made out of human flesh.

Most people are used to a bit of blood in Shaw Brothers films, most notably the trademark flying blood spurts present in many sword fights. However, Human Lanterns definitely takes things up a notch. The happenings aren't as gory as some later Category III movies, or the more modern "torture porn" pictures by directors like Takashi Miike and Eli Roth. But even though Human Lanterns seems a bit dated now, there are a few truly unsettling scenes.

The violent scenes might have come off as exploitative and cheap if it wasn't for performance of Lo Lieh. Lo always seems to do great work as a villain, and this is one of his better performances. Combined with some very solid cinematography and editing, and buoyed by a good soundtrack that manages to transcend the usual Shaw Brothers stock music route, the horror scenes end up working extremely well.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for many other portions of the movie. Except for Lo Lieh, the actors seem to be phoning in their lines, and that effect isn't helped by a fairly poor dialogue overdub. There's plenty of action, especially towards the end of the film, but it's not co-ordinated with much panache at all -- most damningly, there's lots of obvious and somewhat sloppy wirework.

Also, the ending felt a bit forced and tacked on. Given the dark nature of the proceedings, the ending -- while not exactly upbeat -- didn't really fit in with the movie as a whole. It's not enough to ruin the film though, and given the nearly one-of-a-kind nature of what Sun Chung presents with Human Lanterns, it still very much deserves a viewing by any old-school kung fu fan.

RATING: 7.5

DVD Information

With their "Eastern Masters" line, Image has been doing a good job with their releases of Shaw Brothers films, and this one is no exception. Using Celestial's transfer, the video and sound quality are about as good as you could expect for a movie of this type and age. It should also again be noted that this is the fully uncut version, unlike some previous editions that were trimmed for violence. Extras-wise, the DVD includes an alternate cut of one of the more bloody scenes in the movie, an interview with Shaw Brothers star Shawn Yin Yin, and over thirty trailers, which are presented in their original Chinese versions.

The DVD is available from Amazon.