Give Our Love to the Hong Kong New Wave: Encounters of the Spooky Kind

Give Our Love to the Hong Kong New Wave: Encounters of the Spooky Kind

I ain't scared of no ghost!

For the initial Girls, on Film blog posts, we decided to revisit essays from past issues. We (authors of this essay) opted to return to the Foreign Films issue as an opportunity to amplify the film we sadly couldn’t give more space at the time: Sammo Hung’s Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980). When writing on a hot topic for the zine, it can sometimes be quite difficult to narrow down movie choices; sometimes there are just too many noteworthy titles, good or bad. Originally, we (Janene & Matt) wanted to feature a strange movie that popped up in the Alamo Drafthouse’s preview reel for a screening of the 2024 indie black comedy, Destroy All Neighbors. The trailer seemed like something for a dated horror movie out of maybe late 70s Asia, maybe Thailand or India, and maybe inspired by the Evil Dead. We were, of course, wrong on all counts. Encounters is a Chinese production. And while it does feel very much like the first Evil Dead movie at times, Hung’s movie pre-dates Sam Raimi’s horror comedy.

Encounters only got a brief mention in the Foreign Films issue as we opted instead to feature Wong Kar-Wai’s excellent gangster bromance noir, As Tears Go By (1988). (Fans of Mean Streets and similar films: see it!). Both films were part of the Criterion Channel curated collections of Hong Kong New Wave (HKNW) movies. (Criterion also includes Encounters and Tears in separate collections of Kar-Wai’s and Hung’s work, respectively). Hong Kong’s Western-educated and Western-inspired filmmakers were branching out from the kind of movies that typified the region’s cinema at the time–namely action movies, and more specifically Kung Fu flicks (though unlike other notable Waves, the HKNW also needed to be commercially viable and censor-friendly). (Here’s a brief primer).

Sammo Hung is sometimes included in that roster. (American audiences might recognize Hung from his later runs on CBS’s whole primetime lineup in Marshall Law (1998-2000). Sure, Encounters of the Spooky Kind and its sequels are Kung Fu movies, but they are very different from the traditional “wig and field” movies (as Matt, fan of the genre and especially Hung’s Prodigal Son (1981), refers to them). At first glance, it is one of those movies you watch expecting a complete trainwreck. It’s hard to describe the trailer, except to say that you know it when you see it: cheap effects, bad acting, and strange sound mixing. That it was an older foreign film made it even more puzzling and exotic [1]. Even the VHS box art is wild. What in the hell is this movie, we wanted to know!

Look into my eyes. Tell me what you see.

Of course looks can be–and absolutely were–deceiving (though the box art was still a wild choice). Encounters vaguely feels akin to 1960s American screwball comedies with the hapless dufus at the center of real trouble, paired with some amazing fight choreography and the supernatural, including an Abott & Costello-inspired zombie scene and a few unsettling hopping vampires (jiangshi), inspired by Chinese folklore. 

Hung stars as Bold Cheung, a misnomer since he actually proves to be a bona fide scaredy cat (calling Mr. Men!). Bold is also a brazen gambler who bets his friends that he can stay overnight in haunted houses without so much as batting an eye. They take him up on the challenge, but rig the game, unaware that there are actual spooks afoot. (Unfortunately, the setup to all of this is a confusing opening scene in which two wine casks have a conversation). What follows is a Three Stooges style sequence where the friends mysteriously disappear when backs are turned and the spooks conveniently just miss their targets.

Bold survives the first challenge and goes about his day. He visits his uncle’s sweet tofu shop where his uncle relays a story about chasing away peeping toms from his window only to discover them ogling at his wife and her lover. Something similar immediately happens to Bold after leaving the shop, but the noise from shooing away the onlookers tips off his cheating wife (Suet-Mei Leung) and her lover, Master Tam (Huang Ha), a local politician and Bold’s employer. Tam gets away, and Bold’s wife tries to gaslight Bold into thinking not only is nothing wrong, but that he’s incredibly insensitive for even asking. Nonetheless, Bold is suspicious.

The priest, the bozo, the wife, and her lover.

Tam has a reputation to uphold, so he plots to get rid of Bold, who is kind of dumb, but also very good at kung fu. (Hung’s fight sequences are really amazing, particularly considering the amount of time that probably went into rehearsing the movements to get the timing just right. Also, he lands on his back so much…bless your bones, Sammo, if those were real falls).  But, Tam doesn’t want to get caught with his pants down, nor does he want blood on his hands. So he outsources the latter part to a witch named Chin Hoi (Lung Chan) who has no qualms about committing murder as long as he gets paid. And he certainly works hard for the money–several scenes cut between his intense rituals and the effect of his spells. 

Turns out, Taoist magic is a good cardio workout.

Hoi’s disciple, Priest Tsui (Chung Fat) objects, telling Hoi that it goes against the teachings of their sect. Hoi throws him out with a fool-proof stern warning not to blab about his plans to anyone. Tsui instead sneaks around in the background, keeping an eye on Bold as the dope continues making stupid bets, and quietly protects him from Choi’s antics. 

Meanwhile, as Choi struggles to bump off Bold, Tam seizes on the opportunity to frame Bold for his wife’s murder after police arrive at his ransacked house with their jump to conclusions mat in hand. The situations become even funnier and more ridiculous as the movie goes on. Bold is imprisoned and while trying to escape, faces off with a cheeky zombie. He becomes his own foe when a phantom limb tears up a highly-recommended eatery. And so forth. Eventually, the behind-the-scenes forces manipulating Bold for good and evil drop the charade and battle each other. The final showdown is rife with kung-fu, magic, and, per the rules of Taoist magic, an absurd competition to build the highest platform to fight their opponent. 

Cranking the altar battle to 11.

Encounters is great stuff (and beautifully shot, too) from beginning to end. It’s funny to think that a movie trailer we happened to look up from our popcorn to notice while waiting for a movie to start at the Drafthouse would become a new favorite (and ultimately, lead to another new favorite with the aforementioned War-Kai movie). 

Hung made a huge impact; blending comedy, action, and horror so seamlessly. (It spawned one official sequel in 1990 and one “soft reboot” in 2016). As the Daily Grindhouse blog writes:

“…Following THE EXORCIST, CARRIE, HALLOWEEN and THE OMEN, horror was having a large mainstream impact on the late 70s, but was still – like the humble kung-fu film – seen as a “low” genre by many. The previous attempts at mixing the two genres – most notably the brief partnership between Hammer Studios and the Shaw Brothers – produced mixed results, and didn’t focus heavily on the unique mythical elements which would make ENCOUNTERS OF THE SPOOKY KIND (and the many films it spawned) so fascinating. Pulling from SPIRITUAL BOXING, zombie films, and even the colored filters of the Italian giallos, Sammo created a whole new genre that would serve to take martial arts audiences – who probably didn’t expect moments of outright horror – by storm.”

Encounters (and As Tears Go By) are totally worth the price of a Criterion Channel membership, and we’re glad we didn’t have to wait many more issues of the zine to say so. There are YouTube bootlegs, but we can’t vouch for quality. 

Encounters of the Spook Kind

Release Date: 24 December 1980

Directed by: Sammo Hung

Written by: Sammo Hung and Huang Yiny

Blog by: Janene Scelza & Matt Scelza