Shaw Brothers‘ prolific director Ho Meng Hua was better known for his “Journey to the West” series and sword fighting adventures like “Killer Darts”, “The Lady Hermit” and the bloodthirsty “Flying Guillotines”. “Black Magic” was his first attempt at the horror genre which became popular in the early 1970s.
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The countries in South East Asia are renowned for the practicing of Gong Tou or black magic; therefore it’s not a surprise that Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was selected as the location. Anyhow, the story concerns an evil sorcerer, Shan Jian Mei (Ku Feng) who uses his craft to benefit himself and he even kills his poor victims during the process. Luckily, there’s also a good and capable wizard, Master Fu Youg (Ku Wen Chung) who’s determined to take him down and eventually it leads to a showdown on top of tall building where they fight for their lives.
Caught between all this commotion is the tall, reasonably dark and handsome construction engineer Xu Nuo (Ti Lung) who, during his wedding reception left his wife, Wang Chu Ying (Lili Li) for a rich widow Luo Yin (Tanny Tien Ni). Consequently, the scheming Luo has asked Shan to cast a love spell on Xu because she finds him irresistible and besides she’s sick of her current boyfriend Liang Chia Chieh (Lo Lieh). In order to win him back, Wang decides to enlist the help of the good wizard and accordingly putting her in danger because widow Lou in return puts a death spell on her.
The real attractions of this production are the magic spells and the gross ingredients needed to make those deadly magic potions which include human breast milk (a good excuse to show women in the nude), snake venom, hair, blood, worms and for more shock value, drool from corpses. Furthermore, there’s always a corpse ready to be cut up and used. During the final confrontations between the two sorcerers, a skull that shoots out laser beams and lightning flashes are put to great use. Even though dated and poorly executed, these special effects are nevertheless charming and still fun to watch.
In a standout role as the slimy and calculating sorcerer, Ku Feng puts in a great performance and he’s pure evil at work here, manipulating and exploiting those desperate people seeking their desire. Ti Lung’s role is pretty much a window dressing since his character is mostly in a trance during the movie’s run time and that renders him like a zombie. Both he and Lo Lieh are here mostly to get the plot going; conversely, they look kind of cool in their sharp 70s fashion. Apparently, because of his shaved head required for his role in Li Han Hsiang’s “The Empress Dowager” Ti Lung has to wear a wig when filming this movie which explains his weird looking hair.
Tanny Tien Ni’s a natural as the horny widow who lusts for the handsome construction engineer Xu and she’s a total contrast to Lily Li‘s wholesome and kind housewife. Elsewhere, Yueh Hua and Chen Ping cameo as a rich young couple and Norman Chu also has a very brief appearance.
Asia, and in this case, Malaysia, was a well-chosen location to film “Black Magic”, as the location helped to capture the required atmosphere and the nature of the theme. Moreover, giving the local fans the thrill to see their idols in their home town, the overall exercise also worked as a good all round publicity. Consequently, most of the well-known spots around Kuala Lumpur are brought to life on the wide screen; a delight and a nice nostalgic trip down memory lane for local audiences. The head gear and sarongs worn by the two sorcerers are also a welcome and authentic touch.
However, after a sleazily and gruesome start, this macabre tale somehow loses a bit of momentum in the middle section, but, ortunately, it picks up speed towards the end in a spectacular but outrageous showdown. Overall, apart from the poor special effects, this supernatural gross-out horror is still a blast of sincere and fun entertainment from Shaw Brothers.
