Black Magic (1975)

[Andrew]

Haven't been posting as much of these lately, largely because any free time I've had for movie pursuits has been dedicated to writing reviews for the site.

"Black Magic" is a Shaw Brothers (yes, the kung fu masters) film about an evil wizard who casts spells for a price.  It is set in Asia in the 1970s.  The evil wizard gets involved in an involuntary love triangle.  There is a hoodlum who wants a rich woman to love him, the rich woman wants an upstanding young man (who is engaged to a nice young girl) to love her, and the wizard just wants money, and sometimes carnality.

The magic aspect was pretty wild, with the wizard packing a girl's booty full of rice so he could make a rice ball out of it for a love spell (the object of the spell had to eat the booty-flavored rice ball).  Clay figures are shaped from dirt the target of a spell had walked on.  The rich woman drinks a potion that makes her lactate, because her milk was needed for the love potion the wizard brews her - along with juice from a dead girl.

An amusing part happens after a good wizard enters the story.  To counteract a spell cast on the upstanding young man, the good wizard instructs the new wife (the boy and girl did get married) to feed the young man cream of centipede soup.  It is a touching scene, with her carefully spooning big spoonfuls of centipede and broth into her husband's mouth.

I liked it that the magic almost always required the person being affected to eat, drink, or otherwise take possession of something.  The object of the spell did not need to understand, or even accept the tainted gifts.  If you were drunk and took a drink from the wizard, he had you.  It was also amusing to watch the rich woman dealing with all the unsavory aspects of black magic.

The ending was a rather disappointing battle between the two wizards, but this still ended up being a very weak 3 slime movie, or a middle to strong 2.

Oh, and there was no kung fu.  Lots of 70's, especially 70's fashion, but no kung fu.

[lester1/2jr]

possibly my favorite movie of all time.  it just shows how cool these guys are that they could pull it off without any martial arts.

[Jack]

the wizard packing a girl's booty full of rice so he could make a rice ball out of it for a love spell (the object of the spell had to eat the booty-flavored rice ball).

You always find good stuff like this!  All I get is movies with women dressed in potato sacks.   

[Rev. Powell]

I'm definitely a fan of this movie.  I'd consider giving it 4 slimes for being totally unique, but 3 is fair.

[Torgo]

I saw this one years ago on a crappy cropped VHS tape but I think that it was cut and not the complete film. 

[Andrew]

the wizard packing a girl's booty full of rice so he could make a rice ball out of it for a love spell (the object of the spell had to eat the booty-flavored rice ball).

You always find good stuff like this!  All I get is movies with women dressed in potato sacks.   

To completely flesh out the description, I should also let you know that blood and hair from the man (that the girl wanted to fall in love with her) was added to the rice ball sauce.  So it was a booty-flavored hairy rice ball tartar.

I saw this one years ago on a crappy cropped VHS tape but I think that it was cut and not the complete film. 

The previous VHS tape that I had encountered was cut.  It's possible the source was a tv broadcast, been too long to remember much else.  The film definitely caught me by surprise a few times.  "Whoa!  Didn't remember that!"

[Fausto]

I loved this movie. I particularly like the fact that I was able to get the dvd for five bucks at gamestop.