The Imp (1981)Keung's run of misfortune begins when he shows up for a job interview one day. Passing through the commotion outside the would-be employer's office, a body is wheeled past on a stretcher. It's the boss; murdered. Some blood gets caught on Keung's flares. That night while he's eating dinner with his heavily pregnant wife, Keung spots a newspaper on the living room floor. The daily blows open to reveal a job ad - it's for security work in a new commercial building. He gets the job. On his first night working in the building, the lights turn off and on suddenly. It's creepy but co-worker Old Uncle Han and other guards Mr Hong Kong, Little Ting and Fatty think little of it. A week into the job Keung takes an elevator down far further than the basement. Water gushes into the lift, the doors open, there's a red stick figure on the wall and something's giggling. The Imp. Terrified, Keung gets out of there fast and his co-workers think he's seeing things. But soon they're mighty scared too after a staff hotpot night. Mr Hong Kong displays his cooking talent with a hearty dog stew only to choke on a bone and then spook out the surgeons something shocking before dying. As it happens, reveals Fatty, nothing spooky had happened in the building before Keung turned up. He's right - following another death in the security crew a geomancer hits the scene and gives his expert lowdown. It turns out that Keung's overwhelming yin, as opposed to yang, has left him with little control over what goes on around him. The geomancer promptly hits the building and Keung's apartment for some investigations of his own. What he finds isn't good for Keung; it turns out the poor guy's household fell into the trap of an unappeased spirit from the moment he started the new job. And his wife is now possessed and she's about to give birth to that evil spirit any day now. The Imp was revived in 1999 by the Hong Kong International Film Festival to represent director Dennis Yu's work. It screened to a packed house and soon enough was reissued on video. Though nowhere near as chilling on the small screen, The Imp remains a solid horror affair and certainly not for the squeamish. Green-lit frights come thick and fast in the final reel, capping off a succession of gruesome, though quite spectacular, deaths beforehand. The camerawork is never flashy; instead just giving straight up shots of whatever badness is happening and no time is wasted on fillers. The sound is suitably harsh, the make up is suitably overblown and the language is suitably crude. If you're new to this director's work, or just new to the Hong Kong horror genre, The Imp is a great starting point. DVD information: The Mei Ah disc offers a nicely letterboxed transfer of this film. The blacks are somewhat faded and the print's a little speckly but it's still an improvement on the worn print screened at the 1999 HKIFF. The subtitles (English, Thai, and Chinese traditional and simplified) are easy on the eyes but the opportunity that DVD offers to clean up the English translation has been woefully overlooked. The subtitles are a significant improvement on the originals during the final scene, however. The original burned-in subtitles were drastically out of synch from the closing dialogue but all is now as it should be on the DVD. In another change, the original theatrical print's credits (in burned-in white, scrolling over a freeze frame) are replaced with video generated credits on a black background. The sound is available in 5.1 surround and the originals are provided too. Played on my stereo setup, the default Cantonese 5.1 Dolby track had far too much reverb for my tastes but the plain Cantonese track sounds delightfully crisp and harsh. A Data Bank feature is included on the disc, as too is the Bullets Over Summer trailer in the Best Buy plug section. |
Credits: Directed by Dennis Yu Wan-kwong |
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