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Sex Beyond the Grave (1984)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1

Prepare yourself for the terror the prison of madness.

We have a few inter and nonrittern.

Speaker 2

Welcome to Unsung Horrus with LUNs and Denica.

Leave all your sanity behind.

It can't help you now.

Speaker 3

Welcome to another episode of Unsung Horrors, the podcast where we discuss underseen horror films, specifically those which have fewer than one thousand views on letterbox.

I'm Erica, I'm Lance, and it's sh August.

Speaker 2

Happy Shaugust, everybody.

Speaker 3

So sh August is a month where we in the past have focused specifically on Shaw Brothers horror films, but.

Speaker 4

We are running.

Speaker 3

You know, our choices are becoming more and more limited with each passing year, so we're going to be a little bit more flexible this year.

I don't know what Lance's pick is yet, but he did hint at maybe needing to go outside of Shaw Brothers and stick with just Hong Kong horror, but with connections to Shaw Brothers.

So we're going to still try to stay sort of in the wheelhouse.

Speaker 2

I am happy to report that I did find a movie that hits all the rules.

Okay, but yeah, I think I think there's a lot of Shaugust movies out there, horror movies that are under a thousand.

But the main thing is finding them available streaming somewhere.

Yeah, that's the most difficult part with these films.

Speaker 4

It is there.

Speaker 3

Yeah, So there's still plenty of Shaw Brothers horror films, some very understand ones we've covered, you know, the bigger ones that at the time were under a thousand.

I think some of the ones we've covered have since gone over a thousand.

And you know, we wouldn't be able to cover things like Boxer, Zoemen or Oily Maniac those are well over one thousand before we got to them.

Speaker 2

Yeah, those would be great picks.

Speaker 3

They would, They would be so much fun.

But yeah, even my pick, I initially thought like, oh, yeah, there's this random website where you can watch it and it's like noodle where you're going to have some porn pop ups if you watched there, I didn't have to download it.

But I'm not sure what happened with the links since then.

But My Pick is also part of an imprint box set that came out earlier this year called Shaw Shock, and that is Sex Beyond the Grave from nineteen eighty four.

So as of this recording, It has two hundred and fifteen views on letterboxed and again that's available.

It was on film one the letter sorry the number one k dot com.

I'm not going to put a link in show notes for it because I don't want to see you have some anime girl pop up asking you know you to make or come.

Speaker 2

My laptop has a virus erica.

Speaker 3

But it is in that box set, so it is technically accessible.

But you know, I don't want to tell people to go out and buy it this up, you know.

So this episode is for the people who have seen it or still want to listen to us, even if they haven't seen the movie.

Speaker 2

Yeah, the imprint Blu ray is gorgeous though I did borrow Ericas and like the quality is great.

The extra features are really good too.

Yeah, so I recommend it.

Speaker 3

But yeah, yeah, I mean it's got The box set also has Oily Maniac and Seeding of a Ghost, so I mean, yeah, it's a win win win box set.

Speaker 4

So sex Mey on the Grave is about well.

Speaker 3

It starts with a family that is murdered by a Japanese soldier, including the wife, Ahua, who she is brutally raped multiple times before she's killed.

Years later, the man who now owns the house has a severe gambling problem, so his wife sells the home to some acquaintances.

Now he's his family owned the house, so it's his ancestral home.

So the family that moves in soon discovers that the screenwriter saw Poltergeist and that they will need some help if they're going to make it out alive of this haunted house.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and any caught wind of Freakin's The Exorcist.

Speaker 3

Too, Yeah, there's some of that.

And I think he went to Catholic or he went to church and maybe he was a Catholic.

Speaker 2

Yeah, there's a lot of gospel hall is going on.

Speaker 3

Yeah, there certainly are, all right, So suckt Me on the Grave was directed by Dennis Chu, Chiang Kyung and Lee ty Hang, So neither the directors have a large filmography.

Both of them were more on the TV side, specifically TVB, and this is a time period where Shaw was getting more into the television side anyway, so that's the connection there.

Chew was actually a director for one of the most popular series that Hong Kong ever had, called The Bunt.

I believe Chow Young Fat was in that one as well, it's one of those TV series that like everybody knew, everyone knew the theme song.

Speaker 4

You know, it'd be like, you know.

Speaker 3

Family ties or whatever for Shure that oh Alex peaking silly, silly man.

But because the directors don't have that extensive of a filmography, especially as it relates to you know, what our audience would probably know, I do want to get into some things that I think are our listeners would know more about.

Speaker 4

And that is the score.

Speaker 3

Now it's mostly library, but there's definitely a lot that was borrowed, and you kind of have to have a keen ear for some of these things.

Speaker 4

These are things that.

Speaker 3

Like, you know, if if John was walking through the room, he'd be like, oh, that's a score.

Speaker 2

For me, you know, because that's angry.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

But I'm really thankful for the commentary track by Dylan Chung on this, who pointed out, first of all, great commentary, Dylan, but you slow it down just a little bit.

Speaker 2

Can you talk really the fast talkers I get I feel that sometimes I talk quite fast.

Speaker 3

He talks very fast.

But he did point out a few cues that came from Don Coscarelli's phantasm.

Some Bruno Nicolai or Jerry Goldsmith from Alien Invasion of the Body Snatchers from nineteen seventy eight.

Yeah, the opening credits score is performed by a boys choir and the title of that is rec Room Opus five.

And then I think, you know, the most important song in the entire movie is during the sex worker dance scene.

That is the Paradise Express cover of a song called Dance, which I think, you know, everyone will have ingrained into their brain especially after watching that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, great, great lyrics.

Don't you feel the music?

Come on, baby, let's boogie.

That's it.

That's it, that's it.

It's one of my I could have used more of that, honestly, I'm not going to lie.

Speaker 4

It goes on.

Speaker 2

So it does.

Speaker 4

The whole song.

Speaker 3

It's four minutes long.

And so even even Dylan made a joke during the commentary.

He's like, well, I got four minutes here during this scene, so I've got a lot I could talk about.

Speaker 2

That's great.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 3

The screenwriter for this was one of the directors Lee Tai Hang, as well as what is called the Shaw Brothers creative group.

So I mentioned in the last episode that it does feel like there were a lot of fingers in the pie, hands in the cookie jar, or whatever you want to call it.

As far as writing goes, there's a lot going on in this.

But what Chung also pointed out in his commentary is that this idea of and we see this a lot in films, a woman getting revenge you know against specifically against men who wrong them.

There's a lot of general ideas that were adapted from a classic book in Chinese literature, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, first published in seventeen sixty six.

He did point out it's not one particular story, but more so like general ideas and themes, you know, about women being controlled and conquered, some women getting having some sort of invention to get revenge against men who have wronged them.

So I remember, I think I actually put in a request for a copy of this book with a library and they rejected it for some reason.

Really, I think they sometimes they can only purchase from certain places, and it might have just been not a distributor that they work with or something.

Speaker 2

Maybe it's snut doesn't have a whole lot of translated versions, or I don't know.

Speaker 3

I don't know, but I would love to have that for a reference.

I got, you know, I've got one book of like Japanese short stories and tales and stuff like that that I really enjoy.

It's good because some of them are like a paragraph long.

Speaker 2

Oh nice.

Speaker 3

Some of them are like two pages, so I can just read a little bit before I go to bed, and even like I write a paragraph before the bed.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

In this case with the multiple rise writers, usually when you see a like a letterbox or an IMDb with this, it usually kind of suggests bad news, like it was, you know, it was kind of a failed script from the get go, Like look at all the Marvel movies that are always like recycling directors and writers.

But this one's good.

I almost feel like, like you said, it makes sense that it's a collection of stories from you know, tales of horror or whatever.

I feel like somebody came up with the title and they're like, you know, sex beyond the Grave, let's do it.

What do you got, And then all these guys are like, bam bam, bam bam bam.

Yeah, okay, let's.

Speaker 4

Throwing stuff against the wall, and a lot of it stuck.

Speaker 2

So a lot of it is take a lot of it doesn't make sense the shifts are weird tonally, but that's what makes it work.

Wouldn't these type of hors become unhinge like this one?

That's what I love about especially specifically eighties Shaw Brothers, who.

Speaker 4

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3

So I want to get into some of the cast before getting into some of the other points that Cheng brought up in his commentary and our thoughts about the film.

So first is Tony Lou He plays Professor David Yang.

He was in some Bruce Lee movies like The Big Boss and or The Dragon Fist of Fury, some Shaw Brothers films that we love like Human Lanterns, Bloody Parrot, The Enchantress, as well as Bastard Swordsmen and Return of the Bastard Swordsman.

And something that Chung pointed out in his commentary regarding this character in particular was that his whole mushroom thing, which I was like, what is this, I don't understand, it was actually based on a real I learned a new word mycologist, which is a mushroom person, person who studies mushrooms.

But he's based on a real mycologist that was of that time that he was Again, he was talking very fast, So I really apologize if I'm fucking up some of this.

But the audience for this movie would have been like, oh, okay, yeah, that's like that one guy it's based on.

So the character was very topical.

In nineteen eighty four, there was some famous mushroom guy apparently interesting or maybe he was like in the news or something along those lines with some discovery.

But his character, the whole mushroom thing, is based on something contemporary in Hong.

Speaker 4

Kong in nineteen that's.

Speaker 2

Funny, Yeah, I was waiting for something to come from that, either some sort of mushrooms come to life, yeah, but it was just just a weird so oh my.

Speaker 3

God dancing mushrooms and this would have been so fun.

Speaker 2

What's that movie My Tango, My Tongo, yeah, or the mushroom People or the funny guy people like get a Last of Us type creature popping up God out of his board of tiny little mushrooms dissect What wasn't what.

Speaker 4

I watched for.

Speaker 3

I think it was Horror Gives Back, where it's like the Jin Singh monster.

Thought that was fun too.

Anyway, So Professor David Yang based on a real mycologist from that time.

His wife, Mae Yang, is played by Winnie Chin.

Only film that I recognized that she was in.

She wasn't in very many Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars.

I think she was in a lot more like television.

I believe Chung said that she was like a lot of actresses like Samuel Hung's wife and a few others, were a winner of a beauty contest and that generally was like kind of those were run by the television stations, and so getting into those kind of led to your film or television career.

Then we have Mabel Kwang, who played Ahua, which is the woman from the beginning and the subsequent ghost.

She was also in Possessed Too feteen eighty four.

Speaker 4

Have you seen this?

Speaker 3

I have not, absolute fucking banger.

There's a family that moves into an apartment, a mother and a son died earlier before the events of the movie.

Speaker 4

They possess.

Speaker 3

The people in the home, and shenanigans ensue.

I don't want to get too far into it, I want to.

Speaker 2

Spoil it so far that sounds just like sex beyond the grate.

Speaker 3

I mean, yeah, it's but they're actually possessing the people who live in it.

So not necessarily kidnapped, but it's super fun.

I will say that much.

She was also in He Lives by Night from nineteen eighty two.

There's a killer who's wearing women's clothing and stalking women that wear whitefish nets stockings.

I watch this one fairly recently.

Very Dressed to Kill.

I know a lot of the reviews throw out the G word jallo whenever there's a murder mystery happening, but it does have that flavor.

Speaker 4

I won't.

Speaker 3

I'll give it that, but I think it's a little stretch to a little bit of a stretch to call it that.

Speaker 4

Definitely would say very.

Speaker 2

Dressed to kill though nice.

Speaker 3

Then Ku Kwan Chung played Tao Ming a lot of Shaw movies.

My recommendations for the ones that he's been in would be Buddha's Palm Opium and The Kung Fu Master where t Long gets gets addicted to opium.

Speaker 4

It's super fun, not opium.

Speaker 2

Don't do drugs, guy.

Speaker 3

The Web of Death Shaolin Prince, which I brought up in our June'sploitation episode Black Lizard Descendant of the Sun.

That's like Shaw Brothers Superman movie.

It's that One's a lot of fun too.

Speaker 4

So yeah, he's in a ton.

Speaker 3

So it's hard to just, you know, obviously go through his entire filmography, but I think a lot of those those are some of my rex from him.

Speaker 2

He's got a great look in this too, with this little mustache and like eighties hairdoo.

Speaker 4

Oh yeah, good look.

Absolutely.

Speaker 3

Then we have Old Tao, who is played by Gampu.

He's in a couple of our favorites and we've covered He's in Bewitched and he plays Beard nine Corpse Mania Hell yes, and then last in the cast that I wanted to bring up, he's only in the opening of the film.

He plays the Japanese soldier, the rapist and murderer.

That's Philip Coe.

He's one of the most recognizable faces in Hong Kong cinema.

He's in Boxer Zone and Eastern Condors, a Diagram, Pull Fighter, Seating of a Ghost, Fatal Termination, Magic Crystal.

He's I mean, he's got over two hundred credits on Letterboxed alone.

He's definitely that guy of Hong Kong cinema.

I mean, I'm never surprised to see him show up because he always shows up.

Speaker 4

I guess.

Speaker 2

Yeah, his role though is brutal.

It's he's complete evil.

Yeah, I mean slowly on zipping his pants and it's like his scene is it's a stealer.

But it's very uncomfortable, it is.

Speaker 3

I mean the opening is extremely rough to watch.

You think that's the movie that you're going to be watching.

Especially on top of that you have the title and then the cover image of the woman seeming the ripping her face on her.

Speaker 2

I wanted that where was that erazor moment?

Speaker 3

It wasn't there, but it because it turns into a completely different movie, well, a few different movies after that opening scene.

But one of the things that was pointed out, not only in Chung's commentary but also in the interview sort of video essay by Victor Fan was the historical significance of when this took place.

So a couple of things.

You know, it opens the film opens during a Christmas dinner.

Ahua and her husband and son come to the house looking for somewhere to hide their running from the Japanese Army.

They get put up in the in the barn.

And the fact that it's taking place during Christmas, the Hong Kong audience would have known, oh this is and there and they're running from Japanese.

Speaker 4

Oh, okay.

Speaker 3

This is taking place during what is considered what they call Black Christmas.

So the Battle of Hong Kong from December December nineteen forty one, the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbor, forces of the Empire of Japan attacked the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong.

And I think it was like two weeks until Hong Kong actually surrendered and was under control of Japan for a number of years, and a lot of atrocities were going on during that time.

Speaker 4

So it certainly it's implied that that.

Speaker 3

Is when this event took place, but the fact that this movie is made in nineteen eighty four.

Another interesting point that was brought up in the commentary was that this scene is connected to an incident in nineteen eighty two where the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan decided to make changes to their history books where they would stop using the word invasion in World War II in reference to this in particular, so they didn't call what they did to Hong Kong and in Asian and so this you know where we think it's just like a sleazy, you know, exploitation rape scene where that is kind of like touching on yes, this happened in the past, there's a little bit more significance going on there.

Certainly what COO's character was doing was a war crime, but the Japanese never admitted to any war crimes at all in that respect.

So a lot going on in that opening scene, aside from a Huah getting raped multiple times, the second time on top of her dead son.

Speaker 2

Yeah, just that the old man Beard nine just totally taken advantage, obviously wanting to steal the jewelry box.

That scene ends in my favorite image of the entire movie, where it's a shot from the ceiling down of all the family dead and their pull blood and it's such like a powerful scene and it's very it's very jarring what you just witnessed happen into this family.

Speaker 3

And for you know, people who are squeamish about childkills, this is actually a pretty pretty rough one as well.

The kids getting strangled by Philip Co's character and then he gets cut down by a sword and then thrown across the room.

So one thing that Victor Fann talked about as well in his interview was how Shaw Brothers borrowed a lot for their films during this time in their sort of later years from Toho and Toey Pink films, not nearly as much sex though, like it's still fairly rough, you know.

Obviously the opening scene speaks to this, but films like this were generally considered erotic and pretty much were for a male only audience, So you wouldn't see a lot of housewives going to see the new Shaw brothers.

Oh sex beyond the gravest planning, I just check that out.

Speaker 2

Although it does kind of you know, obviously, women are treated terribly in this movie, but the vengeance aspect is always rewarding to watch.

Speaker 3

Yeah, for sure, which I think, you know, I wasn't when I was thinking about my double feature pick.

Obviously, you know, Poltergeist came up, but I was thinking about, like, Okay, you know what, this would work well with a lot of women seeking vengeance type of movies, so there's a lot more possibilities in that respect.

Speaker 2

So Miss forty five popped like into my brain.

Yeah, I love that movie so much.

Speaker 3

Yes, one other thing I wanted to point out before we get into like just more of the things happening in the film is the setting.

The mansion itself is also in Seeding of a Ghost.

The design is based on a real mansion, and that I believe, he said, was used in another horror movie, Shaw brother horror movie called Fearful Interlude.

It's an early Western style villa.

It's not typical of what you would normally see in Shaw Brothers.

Also the fact that we're in the countryside normally where you know, things are taking place in the city, except when we have to venture out to find you know, a monk or black magic or something like that, then we have to go out into the woods or outside the city into more rural areas.

But you know, having this sort of Western style villa combined with the ecclesiastical music, there's a lot of Western elements that come into play.

You've got the Catholic priest, You've got the Hallelujah, You've got the Western style mansion that they they're living in.

So I thought all that was very interesting.

Speaker 2

Yeah, you have the stripper too, who is just some random They look like baby German actors.

I don't know.

I couldn't find their credits.

Speaker 3

No, even the commentary said, like, I have no idea who this actress is.

She was probably just some sex worker that Shaw Brothers hired for this scene.

Speaker 2

She was a dancer, I mean her moves were wow.

Speaker 3

Like He did also say she could have possibly been one of like Shaw Studios, like dance troup people for her tvb sorry, like a television dancer.

So either sex worker or dancer or both, you know, right, maybe night job, day job, who knows.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it was interesting because, yeah, what popped into my mind too, especially when I saw her seeing and like you said, all the Western aspects and then the priest popped up.

I thought of, you know, the legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, when the Shaw Brothers tried to do this partnership with Hammer Horror that I arguably in my opinion, didn't work so well.

But yeah, it was like, it's you don't see this in many of at all Shaw Brothers movies.

Is where these Western actors are popping up.

It's very interesting.

Speaker 3

And then just a couple of other miscellaneous notes from the commentary that I wanted to bring up that don't really I mean, I guess they sort of fit in with the overall discussion.

There's a random scene in the middle where there's like a fire on top of a yes fire.

Speaker 2

And then like the the dummy explodes.

Speaker 3

The dummy explodes, and then you see like the ghosts in there.

That's taken from Boxer z Oemen.

Oh okay, And like I recognized it after he pointed that out.

Speaker 4

I looked at it.

Speaker 3

I was like, oh, yeah, even though I've seen that a few times, you know, or he doesn't work, but he theorized that something else was actually going on in that scene that had to be cut, and then that just got put in for whatever reason because he's like, yeah, the audio didn't match up.

Speaker 4

It's just a weird scene.

Speaker 3

And he's like, yeah, that actual visual is from Boxer film in itself.

Speaker 2

That's interesting because that is such that's the weirdest shift in the entire movie where it starts turning into the Exorcist.

Speaker 3

Yeah, we're going to do what, like what's happening here?

And then you bring the Catholic priest in and he's trying to you know, power of Christ the ghost out, and then you get the first cartoon video game, Santo looking deep.

Speaker 2

Well, she pops out of the video game early on when he's like playing, but yeah, like she she looked like Carol speed from Abby from William Girdler's Abbey.

Yeah, the animation was flowed.

I'm like, oh my god, it's fucking abby.

This is It's like that's my double feature pick, but it isn't.

Yeah, Now I love the animated cartoon ghosts.

It's again, you always see kind of animation with the magic and stuff, but never like an actual entity like that, kind of floating around and playing a big part.

Yeah.

Speaker 3

I'm used to, like in like the Black Magic movies and then you have the inevitable battle of the Wizards or the Wizards and like, you know, they got lasers coming out of their fingers or that kind of stuff.

But this is like full on, you know, ghost cartoon video game aspect.

Speaker 4

It's fun.

Speaker 2

It's next level.

Yeah, I love I love that part of this movie.

Speaker 3

And then one other point, random point from the commentary, when the gambling husband comes home on his wife's birthday even though he forgot her birthday, so the paper dolls he brought home were actually gifts for his gambling spirit, which is, you know that person is dead obviously, so birthdays are supposed to be our ying celebrations of life, but these dolls are offerings to the dead and death is yang.

So she thought these g were for her, and that was basically like a way of him saying telling her to go to hell, an ultimate insult on the birthday.

That's why she was super mad, like not only did he forget, but he brought her death dolls offering.

Speaker 2

Another interesting thing that popped up and I had to look it up, is they said it numerous times that couple, the gambling couple and his wife.

One of them would yell touch wood, or at least I don't know if that's some broken translation, And to me it came across as an insult like touchwood, but I guess it's just a knock on wood, like let's get lucky with this gambling type thing.

Speaker 3

I think that that's how I interpreted it.

I was like, touch grass, like what's happening?

Speaker 2

Yeah, it was interesting, and they did it a couple of times, and again I was like, this might be a translation subtitle issue, but touchwood.

Yeah, I mean I say it all the time, but I mean, you know, have good luck.

I'm warding off bad luck when I tell anybody to touch wood.

Speaker 3

So we talked about the sex worker dancer scene kind of at length, already.

What are some of your sort of favorite scenes or moments in.

Speaker 2

This Immediately after that stripping scene, she's like, I'm gonna take a shower, and she goes into the shower and he leans back and it's I fucking lost it.

Like a bucket of waters poured on her, and it's supposed to be sexy.

It's all awkward and she's practically getting waterboarded, and I'm like, okay, the disco dancing scene was my favorite scene to that point.

Now her getting dunked in water is my favorite scene.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it's supposed to be like this flash dance type thing and it's not sexy.

And it's also like, that's not how water comes out of a shower.

It's clearly just someone just like you said, throwing a bucket of water on her.

Speaker 4

Fucking great.

Speaker 3

I love it.

Speaker 2

It was the eye what is it called the ice bucket challenge or whatever.

I was waiting for like a like a cooler to fall on her or something.

Yeah, I mean I have so many favorite moments.

Again, this thing is just unhinged, the weird tonal shifts, the collection of all these ideas coming together at once.

Yeah, and it works because that's what it is.

It's the collection of just crazy images and weird subplots.

As soon as the family enters the house and the kid sees the doll in the doll scooting in a way, I was like, Okay, here we go, Like this is They're in the hunted house.

This is when shit's getting weird.

And from then on it's completely you don't know what you're gonna expect.

So I was just kind of sitting on the edge of my seat the whole time.

Speaker 3

Yeah, that doll or that puppet.

Yeah, I mean that's their Poltergeis clown for this movie stand in.

But this one, you know, takes little Nikki.

No, Little Nikki made me think of Adham Sandler Cross takes Little Nikky on like some like he just picks them up and flies them around and.

Speaker 2

Like into the way, like it's very Peewee's playhouse.

It's like somebody on a strings holding like these these two like tiny little i don't know, felt dummies, like of the kid around this little model house, spinning it.

Yeah, that is the best.

When he's first playing, when the animation the ghost cartoon first pops out of the video game screen, that he's playing and lifts him up and starts spitting him around in a circle.

Very evil dead vibes because where everything is kind of sped up.

But it's there's so many moments, the rice cooker scene when she puts, I mean, you can't have a shaw Brother's whore without maggots and puke, and they are mad.

Respect they they throw in the scene of the wife puking, when the husband is possessed, when the professor's possessed and he's scratching there, him and his son a scratching each other's faces, which is very unsettling to watch.

But when she pukes, I'm all there it is shaw Brothers horror coming through.

Speaker 3

And it's also a very Poltergeist because you know that scene in the bathroom in Poltergeis's.

Speaker 2

Yeah, ripping off his face.

Speaker 3

I love the So when they bring the woman Shawman Yes.

Speaker 2

To the house, what does she called at nine or something that she's credited as.

Speaker 3

So another interesting point from the commentary.

So for a woman to become one of these shaman or spiritualists or mediums, whatever we want to call them, they themselves must have suffered a traumatic event like the death of several children so having little ghosts under her command usually includes, you know, the medium's own dead children.

So that fetus, okay with the lights, the eyes that light up, that's implied to be her only that's implied to be her own dead child either lost her childbirth or fingers crossed aborted, which she controls with that little bone that she's hold.

Speaker 2

Yeah wow, because yeah, that thing.

As soon as that popped up, I was immediately like awestruck.

I was, what the fuck is that?

I want that display in my office at home.

Yeah, and yeah it's a tiny fetus with the umbilic accord.

Still, that's interesting.

I didn't realize that that's a good it's a good vaxtine.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Some of my other favorite sort of like horror elements are Gore when the corpse family is at the door and they all look like brundlefly.

Speaker 2

Yeah, because they're literally like they're puppets themselves the first time they're presented.

Yeah, later on they look great.

They look more like the crete like the ted Dance and something to Tide you Over, monsters from Creep Show, the makeup and they're all kind of swampy looking.

Yeah, but that is one of my favorites when they open the door and it's like these shit monsters.

They're like made out of clay, all bug eyed, very seating of a ghost looking to creepy, creepy looking.

Speaker 3

And oily maniacs.

So there's a connection with the whole box set right there.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that's probably I wonder if that's brought up on like one of the other commentaries.

But yeah, yeah, I know that that that's so good.

Speaker 3

Yeah, so what else the Yeah, the rice cooker with the blood and the worms, the majong table spinning and the woman getting flown across the room or pants split.

Speaker 2

There's a lot of silly moments and there's a lot of physical comedy from these from these actors in it, and I that's kind of what I don't know.

Some there's always like this humorous undertone to some Shaw Brothers movies, mostly like the Martial Arts.

Some of the horrors can be straight up just dark, like Seating of a Ghost and corpse Mania.

This one, I feel like, is more funny than it is creepy and scary.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I think you you know, when you brought up Raymy's Evil Dead, I think it definitely has a lot of that with it because I don't consider, you know what, the main if we're going to go with source material for this of Poltergeist, I don't consider that you know, funny, like it has a few jokes like oh when they're the parents are smoking pot, you know whatever, Right, Okay, but yeah, I think there's definitely a lot of humor in this.

You know, the boy little Nikki getting kidnapped by the puppet and spinning around constantly.

Eat the flying fridge, oh yeah, in there, and like the ghost boy in there, like trying to beat his way out of the out of the fridge.

What was the movie that we covered that the There's a Haunted House.

Heather was our guest and it had a fridge too that.

Speaker 2

Let's scare jestsic at a day.

Speaker 3

No, no, no, that's that's too high.

We wouldn't been able to cover at the meeting of Joyous Death.

Speaker 2

Yeah that's right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got the titles all this stuff.

Speaker 4

Yeah, and reminded me of that.

I was like, oh, possessed fridge.

Speaker 2

Yeah yeah, I know.

You like appliances too.

Speaker 3

I love a good like appliance, you know, causing pain or like dismemberment or if like just flying appliances, you know, just you know, if you can't kill someone, at least caused some havoc.

Speaker 2

I mean that's where we just did the Lost Souls with the dryer.

I see a theme building up here.

Speaker 4

I do.

Speaker 3

I do love good appliance murders.

So what else did you like?

What else you got in your notes?

Speaker 2

You get some of the classic Saw Brothers images that you find in most of their wares, the worm on the hands that we've already talked about, her puking.

There's a lot of blue lights at night, which I always love, and the green lighting great score, although all stolen and repurposed.

Yeah, and then the unhinged ending that you were always expecting from these type of specifically eighties Shaw Brothers Horse the ending itself though, where the gambler and the ghost comes back and they start having sex.

For quite I was like, Okay, this is the sex beyond the grave.

This is what I was waiting for.

You know, I wanted some sort of like Ray from Ghostbusters getting like oral sex or something ghost Oral set.

But that scene has went on too long.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but that sex scene went on too long for me.

That's one thing I did was like speed it up.

We know what's going to happen.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I mean I yeah, I like that scene too, but also like it takes them way too long to discover like what's actually happening and to finally get to the true revenge at the end of it.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 3

But at the very end of it, though, we've got the family who moved in.

They're back in the city, which means like, oh, they're back to safety because they're not in you know, out in the countryside anymore where it's dangerous and we're ghosts and you know, black magic, you know, shamans and witches and all that stuff are outside of the city.

But then the you know, the lady in red aha makes her a little appearance.

Speaker 2

So so assuming that, I mean, obviously she's out of the house, is she gonna haunt this family?

Speaker 4

I don't think so.

I think.

Speaker 2

Just a wife did what was asked, remodel the home and.

Speaker 3

Yeah, which you know, I'm not going to get into like the whole like feminist domesticity and you know domestic you know all that shit, like.

Speaker 4

Oh why you got to ask the fucking woman model?

Speaker 2

Though there is a funny ass montage as soon as they move into the house where it's like music and they're all cleaning the house and stuff, the kids pushing his little rabbit on the swing.

Yeah, it's very that was a great scene.

Speaker 1

To thank you.

Speaker 3

Yeah, but yeah, she did everything that was asked, and she made a good point and she's like, we didn't do anything to you, Like well, you know, I restored the house, like go get your vengeance on that family whose responsibility it is.

She's like, I know we had your your jewelry box, but like we found it, like we didn't steal it, you know.

Speaker 2

So yeah, I like the ending with little Nikki y'all, like, you know, creaked out because he sees the lady.

Yeah, the ghost.

But I'm just wondering what's next.

Speaker 3

I would like to think she's just gonna go get more vengeance on other men.

Speaker 1

And you know what.

Speaker 3

Another thing that Chung said in his commentary was he had a family member who was alive during this time and he actually had a really gnarly scar on his back, and that that family member to that day still refused to use any Japanese products whatsoever.

Like it was, you know, he didn't want anything to do with Japanese.

So it could be if we're going to keep on that theme of like how it opened and maybe closing it out, she's gonna maybe find some other ancestors or some other you know, people that were involved with that somehow and get her vengeance on them, so you can have sequels.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean she's a little series.

She was a famous singer, right that was hinted at.

Speaker 3

So yeah, there's she could hit the underworld nightclub scene.

You know, she could do her.

She could put her on her own dance scene.

She could put that other girl out of business because you know, the little tiptoeing dance.

I don't know how how far that woman's going to get.

Speaker 2

Oh she's going to go far.

She has a very very successful career ahead.

All right, double feature pick, Okay, So the obvious choice is Poltergeist, the Exorcist.

Faulty's how why the cemetery came to mind with the weirdness in a single location, particularly the little kid though little Nikky, his voice dub was obviously some sort of adult type and I know Bob though right, but there they got these kind of annoying but cute kids.

But I'm going to go with the silly pick about a couple who die and in the afterlife they're stuck in their home, and when people purchase their house, pretty much all they want to do is get rid of them.

I'm going Beetlejuice nineteen eighty A.

Come on, yeah, it's it's a classic.

I still haven't seen Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice, but I will sometimes.

Speaker 3

I'm good.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

So there's moments throughout Sex Beyond the Gray that we've already said reminds you of, reminds us of evil dead and the kind of the silliness.

But I thought of Beetlejuice quite a bit when a lot of these scenes were happening.

Like I said, the physical performances by some of these actors, Yeah, a lot of the practical effects, you know, like those ship monsters, the pup a tree, the kid flying around, Little Niki flying around with the doll puppet.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Yeah, So I'm going with the kind of haunted, you know, get out of my house type of thing.

I like, its what's yours?

Speaker 3

So besides the ones that you mentioned that it could also pair with.

I think Adam also brought this one up in his review of it, but Lendsi's ghost House would work too.

You've also got the creepy puppet and the possessed dust house and all that happened.

But I'm going to stick with the woman getting vengeance, and I want to stick with having another Shaw Brothers film in that respect.

Not necessarily a horror film at all by any means, but it is.

It does have an extremely brtal rape in it and about a woman getting her vengeance afterwards.

And that's homan qua nineteen seventy three film, The Kiss of Death.

So it's about a I think she's like a textile worker, or maybe she's a waitress.

I don't remember, but she is assaulted by five men when she's going home home, and you know she's having a hard time getting over it.

She goes to meet with like she gets a new job as a as like a bar girl or something like that, and the owner of the bar is low Lay, but he's he's injured, like he's walks with a cane.

Now he's not doing so hot.

But she learns that he was actually like a kung fu master, So she's like, hey, can you teach me kung fu?

I want to get vengeance, and so low Lay teaches her deadly fight techniques.

I think one of my favorite one is was called like the growing what is it?

I'm want to make sure I get it right growing crunching blow and not the fun blow guys.

So yeah, this one's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2

This isn't a touchwood situation.

Speaker 3

No, it's not a touchwood situation.

I mean she is touching it, but like not in the fun way.

Again, So I like this one a lot.

It's I think it's another great, you know, rape revenge type movie, which I feel like you could technically classify this movie as a rape revenge movie.

It's just by way of Poltergeist kind of thing.

Speaker 2

I agree, Yeah, just a supernatural element.

I love it all right.

Speaker 4

Next Shaugust movie.

Speaker 2

Shaugust is still going strong.

Like I said, I'm picking one that hits all the rules.

This is a Shaw Brothers produced tour.

It currently has not six hundred and ninety nine logs on letterbox and it's called Hell has No Boundary from nineteen eighty two.

Speaker 4

Yes, this one's so fun.

Speaker 2

It is, and I just watched it.

I mean a lot of our listening audience might have might be watching it.

A lot.

A lot of the might be watching it recently because Adam.

Thanks to Adam, we posted in our discord where you can find it.

It's on Oka dot ru.

And there may be some trepidation about using this site, but it's essentially.

Speaker 4

I have used it many many times.

Speaker 2

Same I've been watching movies, especially very difficult or you know not you can't find at all streaming films.

I go straight here for the last ten years.

Speaker 4

Yeah.

Speaker 3

The guy who runs Kiva Faron Films, he sources a lot of his movies from this site.

Speaker 2

It's a Russian YouTube, is what it is.

Yeah, so YouTube safe.

If you feel good watching YouTube, you should watch movies from Oka dot ru.

And this is the only like I found.

Hell has no boundary on Internet archive and maybe even daily Motion, but none of it's subtitled.

So I watched it here.

Like Erica said, it fucking rules.

Speaker 3

This one's mean.

Speaker 4

I love it.

Speaker 2

It is.

It is means.

The subtitles in this version can be a little rough, but it's good enough to know what they're saying and getting you through what's happening.

This is a Shaw Brother's horror from the eighties, so I think providing the summary would kind of be pointless.

It's a supernatural Shaw Brother's horse.

If we sit back, pretty much everything you want expect from a Shaw Brother's horror movie pops up and hell has no boundary.

Speaker 3

Yeah, there's like a whole subplot about something that happens to a child.

Speaker 2

And yes there is child death too as well.

Speaker 4

And here it's rough.

Speaker 2

It starts off strong, like as soon as you get to these the opening credits, you're in for a treat.

I mean it's eye candy from the get go.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I totally forgot that this was like even like tagged as a horror film.

I mean it makes sense because.

Speaker 2

Oh yeah, at the end it becomes one hundred percent what you expect from Shaw Brothers horror.

Speaker 3

Yeah, but like leading up to that, like it's definitely more of a possession film, and it does have I think it has some like political elements going on with it too, with like you know, immigration and things like that happening.

Speaker 2

Yeah, there's a lot of kind of there's some like police procedural stuff too.

It gets kind of action, ye, Marshall.

It how it starts and where it ends is I mean, I wasn't expecting it, and that's what I love so much about this.

Yeah, and it's gonna be fun talking about it.

Speaker 4

Oh, I'm excited.

Great fucking pick.

Speaker 2

And of course we can't celebrate Saugust without having our good friend and annual guest, Ian Jane.

Yeah, so Ian's going to be joining us for this episode.

I think most of our listeners who have listened to us for a while know who Ian is.

From Rock Shock Pop.

He does his own podcast periodically from time to time as Comics Queen Queen's Comics Podcast.

He's contributed auto commentaries secial features to a ton of Shaw Brothers Blue Raye releases the last couple of years.

So this is gonna be fun.

I uh, you know, emailed him.

We talked a little bit about him coming on for this show or for this episode, and he has never seen Hell has no boundary.

Yee, it's gonna be fun.

It's gonna be a good time.

Speaker 4

One of these days, we're gonna break Ian.

Speaker 3

No, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 4

We could.

We can never, we can never.

Speaker 2

I'm gonna invite him.

Fuck No, it's just gonna.

Speaker 4

What's going on, Like, Hey, we're gonna cover Salo.

Speaker 2

You want to come?

Speaker 3

He would, he would Ian's a trooper.

He would watch anything like.

We love Ian.

So happy to have him back again for sh August and uh if you're not already Who can follow this podcast on Instagram at unsoung Horrors.

I'm on Instagram and letterboxed at Hex Massacre.

Speaker 2

I'm on letterbox and Instagram at l Ship.

Speaker 3

Thanks everyone for listening.

We'll see you back next episode and happy sh August.

Speaker 1

Bye.

Speaker 3

Don't you feel the music.

Speaker 2

Makes you want to?

Speaker 3

Just let go?

Speaker 2

Let's move, Let's move.

Speaker 4

I gotta say my show.

Speaker 2

I gotta move.

Speaker 1

I gotta you, don't gooveles, I can don't fuck my.

Speaker 4

Sea.

Speaker 3

Let's know my.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that's.

Speaker 3

You, don't I wanna dance?

Speaker 2

Ready you.

Speaker 4

Let yourself?

It's Jones yet ready rot.

Speaker 5

You?

Speaker 2

Yeah?

That no?

Young to the machine?

Speaker 3

Un should.

Speaker 5

Will you know?

Speaker 1

Just don't.

Speaker 5

Guilty?

Speaker 3

Thank you for listening.

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Speaker 5

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