Human Lanterns

You will have to wade pretty deep into the Shaw Brothers' Human Lanterns to find the expected action movie histrionics. First there is a network of grudges and rivalries to establish, before the characters can be let loose with their swords and ludicrous wirework stunts to resolve. When that tipping point comes, the wait will prove to have been worth it - but in fact the wait is worth it on its own merits, packed as it is with wild images of torture and grisly horror. (I assume here this is your bag, but if it is not... then why are you looking at a Shaw Brothers horror flick called Human Lanterns?)

Tony Liu stars as selfish prick Lung, whose longstanding battle of oneupsmanship with Tan (Kuan Tai Chen) has overtaken their village. Both prideful men are determined to outdo the other with gaudy displays of wealth and ostentatious sexual conquests. Their endless competition has infected the annual New Year's Day lantern festival, now just another venue for Lung and Tan to show off. Lung seeks out master lantern-maker Chun-fang (Lieh Lo) to help ensure he win at any cost. Problem is, Chun-fang lives a life of bitter solitude thanks to disfiguring he scars he got in a losing duel with Lung years earlier. Lung is too self-absorbed to even notice the raging cauldron of revenge inside his putative ally, and he really ought to have considered just what he meant by "win at any cost."

Almost immediately, Lung's nearest and dearest start to go missing, kidnapped by a monster that strips the skin from their screaming bodies and uses that delicate human leather to fashion the most exquisite lanterns. It shouldn't take a genius to realize the "monster" is Chun-fang, even if he is wearing a disguise (think of a skull-faced werewolf. That can fly. And laughs constantly) Luckily for the movie's running time, Lung is no genius, and he gets to endure quite a comeuppance before he finally confronts the evil he himself unleashed in the name of vanity.

This is a movie about delicate beauty, and the horror that lies underneath it, a beauty to literally die for. Put another way, this is a movie about hard, brutal men who are prepared to kill and kill again in order to create the most lovely little frilly lanterns. There is a touch of the Grand Guignol to this, but it is first and foremost a beautiful movie, fragile and colorful like its subject. Image's anamorphically enhanced transfer does these images justice, and provides only the Mandarin track with optional subtitles. For those who felt the skin-off sequence was too tame, an even more horrific alternate take is offered as a bonus - what a world we live in!

For more information about Human Lanterns, visit Image Entertainment.

by David Kalat