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      The Dead and the Deadly

      1982 1h 37m Comedy List
      Reviews 56% Audience Score 250+ Ratings This kung fu-ghost comedy, headed by Wu Ma and Sammo Hung, sets forth a tale of treasure-looting and transferring of soul from physical body. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

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      Anton Bitel Little White Lies features several funerals, but also a marriage..., and while mortality may be a prominent theme, here death is not the end, making the message not just a grim memento mori but also a charming reminder to love, laugh and live while you can. Nov 28, 2022 Full Review Jacob Walker Starburst An interesting film that shows off Sammo’s comedic ability with aplomb... Long live Hong Kong cinema. Rated: 3/5 Nov 29, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member One of the more weird horror comedies, The Dead and the Deadly combines a bit of martial arts action with ghosts and lots of supernatural elements. The first hour is comedy, there's a bit of fighting in the middle, and then a supernatural battle at the end that makes up for the lack of fighting. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member Not particularly funny, but it's interesting to learn about Chinese beliefs about the afterlife. Rudimentary effects, few fights. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Quite a different type of horror/action. Sammo Hung bump into a pair of adulteress couple. The dead husband kills them all to prevent the truth. Turns out to be nightmare. Lam Ching Ying is his uncle and a priest. Cherie Chung sew a handkerchief for him with love birds but he don't like. It's an arrange marriage. Chung Fat is a priest transporting the corpse of Wu Ma. Leung Mei Hui is Wu wife and pregnant. Sammo flashback to the time he and Wu go to brothel and know he is impotent. Sammo want to investigate and he pretend to be paper maid for offering in the funeral. Wu is not dead and is in cahoot with Chung, the real husband of Leung. After everyone left, Sammo strip Wu to check how he died but can't find anything. A villager climb in want to steal money. He can't find anything and want to pluck out Wu gold teeth. Sammo frighten him off but accidentally hook the string and pull out the gold teeth. Wu act as ghost to tell Sammo give up but he refuse. Sammo nearly cut him open to check. Chung do the needle poison test for him. Leung say she was rape and Wu is willing to marry her. Sammo believe the story and left. Wu plan to sell the burying antiques after the funeral. Leung get to know the antiques are cheapo and Wu late father had left $10,000 for his wife if she give birth. Leung plan to get that money for their own and kill Wu for real. Chung and 2 helpers fight him without knowledge his kungfu is good but they still manage to kill him. Wu become ghost but can't get near Chung. Wu find Sammo and told the truth. He is angry and don't want to help so Wu keep disturb him. Lam use power to see Wu and believe he is murdered. Wu want to borrow Sammo body for revenge. He kill Chung. Leung remove her panties and put on the body, forcing Wu out. Wu and Sammo carry Lam to the place before dawn. Leung bury the bodies and she's bleeding then she also died. Daylight came and Sammo disappear. Lam tell Cherie if she is his wife, he might be able to revive him. The wedding proceed. On the 14th day the spirit will return with the hell guards. They prepare wine for the guards and they got drunk. The spirit will be in insect form and must be guarded with female napkin. When they awaken, they force Cherie to give up his soul. She put up a fight and trap them in the chimney. Sammo swallow the insect and is alive. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review sarfaraz a The Dead and the Deadly (Ren xia ren) directed by Ma Wu. Starring, Sammo Hung as Fatboy and Ma Wu as Ma Lunchio. Fatboy (Sammo Hung) is a naïve, and target of jokes for everyone - Lam Ching Ying is a Taoist priest. Fatboy voluntarily becomes stubborn to help investigate sudden death of his buddy Wu Ma - as a matter of fact Ma is pretending to be dead so that his pregnant wife can claim from his will, although the baby in his wife's womb is not his own, since only Fatboy knows he was an impotent. Ma eventually does get murdered in the process. Priest under whose supervision Fatboy works; agrees to helps exchange body to Lunchio's spirit to get his revenge. This is not a serious ghost-story film but one interlaced with comedy and mythology. I reckon some of this could have been either plagiarized by other local films beyond Hong Kong/China. The action choreography on the film is worth praising here, for mid-fights with goons disguised and flying. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Fun kung-fu horror comedy. Sammo Hung is, as always, fun to watch. Romance, intrigue, slapstick, light horror (more supernatural hi-jinks than anything), and - of course - fun kung-fu fights (mixed mostly w/ the slapstick). Good stuff. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member What we have here is a comedy ghost story that's basically a vehicle for Sammo Hung's slapstick kung fu humor. If you're familiar with this sub-genre, you probably already expect to laugh at characters that have been beat with an ugly stick since birth, and The Dead and the Deadly is no exception. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      The Dead and the Deadly

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis This kung fu-ghost comedy, headed by Wu Ma and Sammo Hung, sets forth a tale of treasure-looting and transferring of soul from physical body.
      Director
      Wu Ma
      Genre
      Comedy
      Runtime
      1h 37m