Human Lanterns

Sun Chung's 1982 Shaw Brothers film joins martial arts cinema directly to horror. In one town, two rival kung fu masters enter a lantern competition to settle which of them is superior. The craftsman both of them commission has an old score to settle and has lost his mind, and what he makes his lanterns from is hidden in the title. While setting the two masters against each other he pursues his own revenge. The film keeps the wuxia frame but its tone is unusually dark for the genre: a masked killer, underground caverns and violence shown directly push it toward horror. It is among the most cited of the late Shaw Brothers productions. Who it's for: viewers who like the dark end of Hong Kong action and genre hybrids. Who it's not for: anyone approaching gore and torture unprepared; the film does not hold back.