BLACK MAGIC 2 (1976)
Label: 88 FilmsRegion Code: B
Duration: 88 Minutes
Rating: 18
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: English and Chinse LPCM Dual Mono 2.0 with Optional English and Chinese Subtitles
Director: Ho Meng Hua
Cast: Ti Lung, Lo Lieh, Liu Hui-Ju, Lily Li, Lin Wei-Tu
The Shaw Bros supernatural kung-fu opus Black Magic 2 (1976) is (surprise!) a sequel to Black Magic (1975), both film were directed by Ho Meng Hua (The Flying Guillotine), who must have been something special because I know some of his film, and spoiler alert, I'm not all well that well versed in kung fu cinema. While it might be a sequel but it has little do do with the first film other than the evil magic premise, opening quite pleasurably with a a gaggle of young Asian women swimming nude in a muddy river. They're having fun until one of them swims off alone and is attacked and killed by a alligator! In the aftermath a white magician captures the killer gator and cuts it him open on a dock, pulling a bracelet out of its stomach and returning it to the victim's friends... and cue the opening credits! This tasty bit of hybrid exploitation is merely an introduction to the good magician who will turn up much later in the film to battle evil.
Evil comes to us by way of a black magician (black meaning bad, not African American) named Kang Cong (Lieh Lo),a sorcerer who loves the ladies, and his Siamese cat, he reminded me of Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, or Austin Powers nemesis Dr. Evil for you youngins, the way his cat was ever-present. Cong cruises bars and grocery stores looking for a women with a bloody finger or an open wound, hoping to mix their blood with his voodoo-style wax figures, thereby ensnaring them in his black magic wackiness. The magician sells his dark skills to lonely men who want him to cast love spells on women they adore, which has some unintended side effects, like the rapid aging of a gorgeous woman into a hideous old hag with festering sores while he's having sex with her. The magician also has some unorthodox methods, making an elixir whose main ingredient seems to be burnt pubic hair, and drinking fresh titty-milk to maintain his youth, and that's just the beginning of the strangeness.
His black magic ways are causing an epidemic of puss-oozing illnesses around the city, enter three goodly doctors who are looking to get to the bottom of the strange illnesses, with symptoms that include oddly worm-infested wounds! The docs begin by looking for legit medical causes but when faced with the inescapable truth they come to believe in the local black magic superstitions.
This one goes way over-the-top with gore for the period, it might seem old-hat watching it now but for '76 (pre-Dawn of the Dead) this was powerful stuff! Gore and grossness comes by way of the docs desecrating graves, dead cats, a magician plucking out his own eyes and gifting them to one of the docs who later eats them to gain his power, and the black magician drives nine-inch spikes into the skulls of cadavers to reanimate them as his zombie minions, also using his sorcery to make people faces melt and their fingernails fall off, which never fails to make me cringe, even when it looks cheesy as Hell like it does here.
The gore is gooey and gross and comes at a steady clip, but not all of it looks great onscreen, but the festering puss-filled sores, blood-spitting, melting faces and worm-infested wounds are pretty great, a few optical effects like a fight on top of a cable car above the city not so great. The kung-fu elements don't show up till the final few minutes, which suited me just fine, I'm just not that big into martial arts films and I more than enjoyed the supernatural oddity of this one, a real WTF slive of kung-fu cinema that has a lot for horror fans to gorge their eyes on.
The one is plenty creepy with some odd sexual situations and leering looks, all the characters seem to have inherent bizarreness, and watching the bad magician follow women around and pricking them with rose thorns and broken glass to get a sample of their blood is voyeuristic fun. This Shaw Bros. production has plenty of good atmosphere and production values, with a fun score that makes it a good watch, even if the middle half slows down a bit, it all comes back around in the final third with a sprint of supernatural weirdness and sorcerer battle-action.
Audio/Video: Black Magic 2 (1976) arrives on Blu-ray from 88 Films as part of their 88 Asia Collection, presented in 1080p HD and framed in 2.35:1 widescreen, advertised as being remastered from the original negative. The image looks quite nice with some good fine detail and saturated colors, occasionally it can look a tiny bit soft but the black levels are good and the abundance of nude skin look natural. Audio comes by way of uncompressed Mandarin or dubbed-English with optional Chinese and English subtitles.
The only extra on the disc is a great commentary from Ian Jane of Rock! Shock! Pop! review site who offers up a wealth of knowledge about the production, touching on the locations, which rappers sampled which songs on the soundtrack, and the cast and crew. As I don't know a ton about the the Shaw Bros, or kung fu cinema in general, the commentary was a serious bit of schooling for me, which I appreciated.
The single-disc release comes housed in a clear oversized Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork that offers three artwork options. The initial limited edition release also includes a matte finish slipcover featuring the artwork that I know from the American alternate title of Revenge of the Zombies, but with the Black Magic 2 logo, the LE version also comes with a booklet with new writings from Dr. Calum Waddell, speaking about it's American distribution and re titling, espousing the under sung legacy of distributor Albert Schwartz and noting the over-the-top gore which pre-dated Fulci and Romero. The disc itself features a scene from the film.
Special Features:
- Limited Edition First Pressing Matt Finish Slipcase and Booklet Notes by Dr. Calum Waddell
- Remastered in 2.35:1 from the Original Negative
- Uncompressed English Soundtrack
- Uncompressed Mandarin Soundtrack with English Subtitles
- Audio Commentary by Film Journalist and webmaster at Rock! Shock! Pop!, Ian Jane
- Reverse Sleeve featuring Original Hong Kong Poster Art
Black Magic 2 (1976) is an insane kunf-fu horror sequel loaded with sorcery, nudity, cloaked minions, phantoms and voodoo-controlled zombies - what's not to love? The presentation from 88 Films is top-notch and the new commentary from Ian Jane was a great listen, and this is coming from someone who's just not that into kung-fu cinema, I had a blast with this one.
