Black Magic (1975)

The first film immediately lets you know what sort of ride you are in for. Black Magic centres around a wealthy businessman who becomes the target of a terrifying curse. Before long, he finds himself suffering from a series of increasingly bizarre and disturbing ailments, all connected to the work of a powerful sorcerer practising the dark art of Gong Tau.

And this is where the film really comes alive.

Ho Meng-hua doesn’t hold back. The film is filled with grotesque imagery, creepy rituals and some genuinely unpleasant-looking concoctions. There is something wonderfully nasty about the whole thing, particularly when you consider this came from the same studio responsible for some of the greatest martial arts films ever made. This isn’t elegant ghost-story horror. Black Magic wants to make you squirm.

The special effects may show their age, but that is part of the charm. The film has that unmistakable 1970s Shaw Brothers studio look, with colourful sets, dramatic lighting and characters taking everything incredibly seriously, even when the screen is filled with some of the most bizarre horror imagery you are likely to see.

For fans of Asian horror, this is a fascinating film. It is strange, uncomfortable and completely unrestrained. Exactly as a film called Black Magic should be.

Black Magic 2 (1976)

If you thought the first film was going to be the end of the madness, think again. Black Magic 2 takes the concept and turns everything up several notches. This time, a sinister witch doctor uses black magic to prey upon his victims, leading to another collection of curses, rituals and increasingly grotesque moments.

The sequel feels bigger, nastier and even more determined to push the boundaries. Ho Meng-hua clearly knew what audiences enjoyed about the first film and decided there was no reason to hold back. There are more bizarre rituals, more disturbing effects and a sense that absolutely anything could happen next.

What I particularly enjoy about these films is that they are so different from the martial arts and wuxia films most people immediately associate with Shaw Brothers. The studio was clearly capable of producing spectacular action cinema, but releases like this remind you just how broad and adventurous the catalogue could be.

Black Magic 2 might not be for everyone, particularly if you are squeamish, but for fans of cult Hong Kong cinema, this is exactly the sort of wonderfully unhinged sequel you want. It takes the insanity of the original and simply says, let’s make it even crazier and thankfully that is exactly what it does.

The Mighty Peking Man (1977)

Then we come to The Mighty Peking Man and things get even stranger.

Clearly inspired by the enormous success of the 1976 King Kong remake, Shaw Brothers decided to create their own giant monster spectacular. The result is a film about an explorer who discovers a gigantic ape in the Himalayas, along with Samantha, a woman who survived a plane crash years earlier and has been living in the wilderness, Of course, bringing a giant ape back to civilisation is never going to end well.

What follows is a wonderfully entertaining slice of 1970s monster madness, complete with a giant ape, miniature destruction, jungle adventures and eventually plenty of chaos in Hong Kong. Shaw Brothers clearly threw plenty of ambition at the project, making it one of the studio’s most unusual productions.

Is it silly? Absolutely, Does the giant ape look convidcing by modern standards? Let’s just say you probably won’t mistake him for Peter Jackson’s King Kong, but that is completely missing the point.

The Mighty Peking Man is one of those films that is simply impossible not to enjoy if you embrace what it is. It is colourful, ridiculous, ambitious and packed with charm. The special effects and monster action have a wonderfully old-school quality, and the film feels like Shaw Brothers deciding to take on Hollywood’s biggest monster movies in their own completely unique way.

For me, this is probably the most purely entertaining film in the set. You get a giant ape, jungle action, a Tarzan-style heroine, miniature city destruction and the kind of storytelling where logic occasionally takes a back seat to simply giving the audience something spectacular to watch, and you know what? I’m completely fine with that.