chow yun-fat ©P¼íµo
The Witch From Nepal
also known as: The Nepal Affair, Affair From Nepal
year of release: 1985
Principal cast.
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Joe:
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Chow Yun-Fat
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Sheila:
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Emily Chu Bo-Yee
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Messenger of Evil:
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Dick Wei
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Additional info.
version reviewed: DVD (Universal #5116)
Ratings.
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audio:
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7 of 10
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video:
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7 of 10
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subtitles:
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6 of 10
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story:
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3 of 10
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performances:
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4 of 10
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CYF:
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5 of 10
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This is a truly, deeply and sincerely silly movie. Wavering from mildly
interesting to embarrassingly cheesy and back again, it is the kind of thing that you
watch while waiting for the laundry to finish or your nail polish to dry.
Obviously The Witch From Nepal is not one of my favorite CYF films.
It's badly made, sports an intensely
stupid plot, has one of Emily Chu's yawn-inducing performances AND a parade of
HK stars acting so very silly that it just makes one cringe to think of someone who
actually has some talent (namely, CYF) in a piece of pork like this.
CYF goes to Nepal to do some sketches for a book (he's an
artist, or at least fiddles about with pencil and paper now and then while seated in
his fashionable studio). While there Emily Chu, who is some sort of priestess of an
ancient cult, decides he's the great warrior who's been
promised to defeat the local bad guy. Said bad guy has a
habit of changing into a (very cheesy animated) leopard at times.
She keeps following CYF around in an effort to clasp some dessicated enchanted
testicles on a string (I kid you not) around his neck to give him
mystical powers; at first he resists (imagine that!) but then she ends up taking her
clothes off and suddenly the logic of wearing someone else's dried gonads in order
to uphold Truth, Justice and the Hong Kong Way comes to him in a flash. There's one relatively steamy
sex scene in the film (she just sort of lies there, but CYF is good)
which is the only part I found of interest. =) Now that
he has these special powers he takes on heroic tasks like making sugar packets
empty themselves in his coffee, destroying Polaroid window displays and,
oh yeah, fighting the somewhat ho-hum bad guy in a big fight atop
a building in Hong Kong. They crash into big neon signs and lots of
sparks fly around and that's it. Torture - er, I mean, "movie" - over.
The final battle scene isn't bad, but not really enough to pay a lot to
see the movie, and it certainly isn't enough to suffer through watching
some of the absolutely awful horror/fantasy mish-mash.
The Chinese name of the movie is "Qi yuan". It's also called Affair
From Nepal, The Nepal Affair and The Witch From Nepal in English,
depending who released the tape/disc. The DVD I have reads The Witch
From Nepal so that's why I use that title. It was released in 1985.
I think this might be one you would want to rent first, if you can,
before you decide if you like it enough to buy it. Chances are you'll save
yourself a couple of bucks.
This film isn't without its share of admirers. Hey, there are people who like movies
with titles like Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (I did not make that up, incidentally), so you
know someone out there is going to like this movie. If not as entertainment, perhaps as topping for a snack
cracker.
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