RETURN OF THE EVIL FOX (1991)

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *metaphysical*

Genuiely funny comedies from Hong Kong are so rare that the true collector might want to direct his efforts toward something that offers greater satisfaction—say, looking for hens’ teeth. RETURN OF THE EVIL FOX might not be the worst HK comedy out there, but it’s so mediocre that it will do nothing to disprove the generalization.

A page right out of medieval Chinese history sets up the main storyline. Two medieval exorcists, beautiful Chiang Su-su (Charene Choi) and her wimpy brother, anticipate that their temple will soon be attacked by a female demon, whom the subtitles always style “the Fox Elf.” Chiang, a kung-fu exorcist, goes out to fight the demon, who looks like a human female (Pauline Wang), except that in place of human hands she has oversized furry fox-paws. The brother remains inside so that he can sit by the candlelit altar, praying for their mutual ancestors to send supernatural aid. However, as the candles start going out, it looks like the prayers won’t be answered. The Fox Elf gives Chiang a mortal wound, but just then the ancestors imbue her brother with supernatural power. With that power the possessed exorcist imprisons the spirit of his sister and that of the Fox Elf in a big jar.

Cut to modern times. Despite the imprisonment of Chiang’s spirit, somehow she has a lookalike modern descendant, a lady reporter named Yi (also Choi). Her sister Yu (Sandra Ng) and her goofy father pursue the ancient family business of exorcising ghosts and demons, though they’re not very good at it and Dad owes a lot of money to local gamblers. When the father won’t pay Yu what she thinks she’s worth, she puts together a Hong Kong version of a “Ghostbusters” act with two other women, and they pretend to banish ghosts while dressed in bizarre costumes. Meanwhile, two new arrivals show up on the family’s doorstep. One is Hwa, a hunky young guy who according to the subtitles is either the father’s godson or his foster son. The other is a Tibetan monk who fears that the Fox Elf has been secretly feeding off human victims to build her power. Apparently she managed to do so 107 times without detection, and if she can devour one more, correlating with the mystic Buddhist number 108, she’ll be free to ravage the modern world.

Naturally, the monk is entirely right, though nobody seems to take the threat seriously. The dumb dad is busy fending off his creditors, and Yi is oblivious to Hwa’s blooming passion for her, while sister Yu covets Hwa but can make no headway. There’s also an idiot hotel manager and a few other goofballs, though on the whole Sandra Ng’s character gets most of the comedy-moments. Ng shows herself a good comic actor, but Yu is a one-note character, and the writers seemed to have no idea as to how to have fun with this basic “romantic triangle” trope.

Eventually the monk gets all the buffoons to work toward exorcising the Fox Elf, which makes for the strongest action-scenes of the movie, albeit weakened by yet more alleged moments of humor. Given that the defenders of humanity are so dopey and monotonous, the Fox Elf is at least consistent in her menace, and I judge her to be the central character of this mixed-up mess.