Night of the Devil Bride
Director: Chang Il-ho
1975
Rating: 6.0
A.K.A Devil Bride
A.K.A Female Ghost
If you watch many Shaw Brother's films you know better than to mess around
with Chen Ping. It never ends well. She always gets her pound of flesh whether
alive or dead. In Vengeful Beauty she revenges her husband; in The Kiss of
Death she kills all the men who raped her; in Big Bad Sis she takes on a
gang and leaves a trail of blood; in Sexy Killer she takes on the spirit
of Coffy and revenges her sister - and here she gets hers from beyond the
grave in this erotic supernatural revenge film.
This is a bit of a shoddy affair (lasting only 73 minutes) with lots of nudity
thrown in and a long lead up to the finale but when we get there it is rather
fun. Lo Lieh (star of about a million kung fu films) isn't really a bad sort
married to a woman (Chen Ping) who he loves but she has TB and coughs blood
whenever they get amorous - so he needs money to take care of her. This leads
to an ever increasing willingness on his part to break the law. First he
and his friend (Chan Shen) come across a mudered man and steal his money
- ok he is dead so no big deal - next he comes across a group of three men
raping a young woman and forces them to leave. Turns out she is the nubile
daughter of a local crooked bigwig who tells Lo Lieh that since he saw his
daughter naked he has to marry her. But I am already married. Yes, but she
has TB and look at all this gold I will give you if you get her out of the
way.
From the point he decides to kill his wife with an assist from his buddy
the film turns into high gear as she - her ghost - is really pissed at everyone
who had anything to do with this and rips off heads, arms, pulls people underground,
strangles them with her hair and so forth. You know. Ghost stuff. As a side
note, there is a rather pointless sub-plot in which Ping's friend played
by Ai Ti is tricked into working in a brothel to service Ku Feng- ok not
pointless because it is Ai Ti, one of Shaw's more lovely exploitation actresses.
