Holy Virgin Versus the Evil Dead, The (1991) Review

“The Holy Virgin Versus the Evil Dead” Theatrical Poster

Director: Tony Lou Chun-Ku
Cast: Donnie Yen, Pauline Yeung, Ben Lam Kwok-Bun, Chui Hei-Man, Kathy Chow, Ken Lo, Robert Mak Tak-Law, Hsu Hsia, Sibelle Hu Hui-Chung, Lee Ho-Kwan
Running Time: 92 min. 

By Paul Bramhall

When people ask what it is about Donnie Yen that sets him apart from his peers, you’re likely to get a multitude of answers. Some may refer to the way he’s stayed relevant as an action actor for almost 4 decades. Others may mention his ever-evolving style of choreography, fusing the grappling techniques of MMA with the traditional Hong Kong action aesthetic. Some may even say it’s because he’s an arrogant jerk, but hey, you can’t please everyone. For me though, my answer would be – what other iconic kung fu star can say they starred in a Cat III flick full of gratuitous full-frontal nudity, bodily dismemberment, and moustached goddesses? The likes of Jet Li and Jackie Chan don’t even come close, but Donnie Yen, he embraced the opportunity with both hands, and because of that we’ll always have 1991’s The Holy Virgin Versus the Evil Dead.

 A protégé of Yuen Woo-Ping, Yen burst onto the scene in 1984’s Drunken Tai Chi, a production which many argue to be the last old school kung fu movie, before succumbing to the contemporary settings that would come to dominate the 80’s. Yen would continue to exclusively work with Woo-Ping throughout the decade, taking starring roles in Mismatched Couples, In the Line of Duty 4, and Tiger Cage II (notably he also had a small role in the first one). However in 1991 he began to explore working with other directors, first with Hsu Hsia on Crystal Hunt, and later in the year with Tony Lou Chun-Ku for The Holy Virgin Versus the Evil Dead.

Chun-Ku worked almost exclusively with Moon Lee in the Girls with Guns genre during the late 80’s and early 90’s, cranking out Killer Angels, Devil Hunters, Dreaming the Reality, Mission of Justice, The Big Deal, and Angel Terminators 2 together. Taking a detour into Cat III supernatural sexiness with a side of kung fu may seem like an odd one, but a look further back into Chun-Ku’s filmography creates a clearer picture. Active since the 70’s, during which time he directed such classic Hwang Jang Lee joints like Hell’s Windstaff and Tiger Over Wall, Chun-Ku really came into his own when he joined Shaw Brothers during their latter-day era in the early 80’s. The studio may have been winding down, but Chun-Ku helped them to crank out some of their craziest kung fu flicks, helming the likes of The Lady Assassin, Holy Flame of the Martial World, Secret Service of the Imperial Court, and Bastard Swordsman along with its sequel.

When the Cat III label was introduced in 1988, taking into consideration his previous dabbling in the wild and wacky, perhaps the biggest surprise should be that it took Chun-Ku 3 years to make a flick that got stamped with the infamous rating. In THVVtED (as I’ll refer to it from here on in) Yen plays a university teacher. As his acting wasn’t particularly hot in the early 90’s (some would argue it still isn’t), his intellectual abilities are indicated by him wearing glasses, a look he’d return to both in 1996’s Satan Returns and 1998’s Ballistic Kiss. When we first meet Yen for reasons never explained, he appears to be on some kind of overnight camping trip with his all-female class members, one which is abruptly interrupted by the arrival of the Moon Monster, prefaced by the moon turning red and everything being filmed through a red filter.

Rivalling the likes of Godzilla, the Moon Monster is in fact a long-haired Ken Lo (Fighting Fist, Drunken Master 2) looking like he just auditioned to be in a Pearl Jam tribute band. Decked out in a trench coat, ripped jeans, and black boots, Lo flies about manically laughing while ripping off the girl’s limbs and clothes in equally enthusiastic fashion. Unfortunately Yen misses Lo’s grand entrance thanks to a bathroom break, and only has the opportunity to interrupt when it’s too late, briefly confronting Lo amongst his students scattered naked bodies and limbs. As the only witness to what unfolded, when cops Ben Lam (Seven Warriors, Raging Fire) and Sibelle Hu (My Lucky Stars, Lethal Panther) arrive on the scene, Yen is the primary suspect, but is he able to convince them that the real killer was a denim adorned super kicker!?

The short answer is – of course! Thankfully one of the victims is found still clutching strands of the Moon Monsters hair, and we’re treated to a pseudo gweilo scientist explain to us how there are 3 types of hair – black people have curly hair, Caucasian people have wavy hair, and Asian people have straight hair. But the hair here is “screwy” which – wait for it – indicates a sexual maniac. You can’t argue with science. After Yen consults his religion expert colleague, it turns out the Moon Monster is connected to a tribe in Cambodia, so naturally Yen, Ben Lam, Chui Hei-Man (we’ll get to her in a minute), and a private detective played by Robert Mak (My Young Auntie, Martial Club) jump on a plane to set things straight. It’s while there that they meet the ‘Holy Virgin’ – the princess of the tribe played by Pauline Yeung (Dragons Forever, Dream of Desire) – and together the 5 of them look to destroy the Moon Monster once and for all.

Frankly THVVtED is a delirious mess of a movie. Chui Hei-Man, who only has one other movie to her name, Temptation Summary from the previous year, is there seemingly only to show up nude in various scenes. To give some idea of the craziness, she plays Yen’s separated wife, who’s now dating Ben Lam! That means that Yen teams up both with his (presumably) soon to be ex-wife, and her new boyfriend. Perhaps it’s a credit to Yen’s performance that somehow the scenario doesn’t feel awkward at all. When we first meet Hei-Man she’s completely nude and about to jump into a swimming pool, an erotically lensed scene which is only somewhat spoilt by her ungraceful belly flop into the pool itself. Surprisingly though, when she’s called into action she moves convincingly, showing a talent for screen fighting that I would have liked to have seen more of (it certainly isn’t possible to see any more of her in any other way!).

It’s worth noting that there’s 2 versions of THVVtED, the Hong Kong version which contains a whole heap of full-frontal female nudity (and Ken Lo’s butt, if you’re so inclined), and the international version, which has exactly the same scenes, but re-filmed with the actresses wearing swimsuits or tastefully covered up. Needless to say you’ll quickly be able to figure out which one you’re watching. Sibelle Hu’s role is equally baffling, confined entirely to the interrogation room we see her in during so many of the Girls with Guns flicks she turned up in. It almost feels like she was wrapping up her scenes in Dreaming the Reality, and Chun-Ku just told her to stick around and film a few more minutes for this one, which may well explain why she also looks so grumpy in every scene she’s in.

Of course, with the martial arts talent onboard the fight action is just the icing on the cake. Choreographed by the trifecta of Chui Fat, Fan Chin-Hung, and Lung Sang, who all worked together on the previous years Fire Phoenix, everyone gets a chance to strut their stuff. The likes of Yen, Lam, and Lo are all at their physical peaks and get to show off their impressive bootwork, which includes a great 2 versus 1 encounter which pits Yen and Lam against Lo. Being shot in South East Asia, as an added bonus we naturally get a gratuitous amount of machine gun fire and hapless lackeys running into streams of bullets for good measure, which includes Lam letting rip with a mounted machine gun like Rambo, and even a flame thrower, all within the same scene!

While hardly high art, and far from being the Donnie Yen movie to recommend someone watch next if they’ve just been switched onto him in the likes of an Ip Man flick or Rogue One, THVVtED serves its purpose of being schlocky entertainment that unashamedly ticks all of the boxes. What other movie out there can claim to include scenes of Ken Lo disembowelling someone, lackeys being devoured by flesh eating fish, a tribe leader with a massive cartoon turd tattooed on his back, and a battle scene in which all of the female participants are stark naked!? The Holy Virgin Versus the Evil Dead is it, and even if it doesn’t contain any of the latter part of its title, when you have all of the above, who needs it!?

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7/10