The film revolves around Chu (Sammo Hung), who is an assistant in a funeral home run by his uncle, Ko (Lam Ching-Ying). After Chu's friend Cheung (Wu Ma) dies suddenly, Chu begins to suspect foul play, and he's right to an extent. Cheung has teamed up with a hooker and her brother to fake his death, so that he can get into his family's tomb to steal some precious antiques. However, when the hooker finds out that the antiques in the tomb are actually worthless, she sends her brother to kill Cheung, so she can collect Cheung's estate via the baby she is about to give birth to.

Now a ghost for real, Cheung tries to get Chu to help by "donating" his body, so Cheung can take revenge. Chu reluctantly agrees, since Ko says he can put his soul back into his body if they are reunited soon enough. However, the plan goes awry, and Chu's body and soul cannot be put back together. Enlisting the aid of Chu's wife (Cherie Cheung), Ko comes up with a desperate plan to bring Chu back to life.

The above plot might seem goofy to some, but for those well-versed in Hong Kong films, it's not really all that strange, and actually might have provided the means to producing a solid movie. That is, if the film-makers didn't seem intent on squandering the talent they had to work with. Way too much time is spent on dopey comedy, most notably an over-long scene where Chu takes an aphrodisiac in a brothel and walks around with an erection. Sammo looks painfully embarrassed doing this type of toilet humor, and that sort of feeling certainly doesn't translate into laughs for the viewer.

Things do solidify in the last half-hour or so, which is kicked off by a very good fight sequence, and finished off with Cherie's confrontation with three demons (who strangely look like E.T.) guarding Sammo's soul. These scenes show off some great moves from the actors -- it's the sort of action that long-time Hong Kong film fans have come to know and love from movies of this period. If there was more emphasis on this kind of stuff versus lame dick jokes, The Dead and the Deadly could have been something really special, instead of the relatively minor entry in Sammo Hung's filmography it ends up being.

REVIEW:
Sammo Hung and Wu Ma star in this cornball, horror comedy that features low-budget special effects, lowbrow humor and a smidgeon of excellent kung fu. Falling somewhere between similar horror comedies "Spooky Encounters" (1980) and "Mr. Vampire" (1985), "The Dead and the Deadly" has a lot of great elements going into it but doesn't quite match the other two films.

Hung, who directed and starred in the superior "Spooky Encounters" finds himself in similar circumstances in this film. In both roles he is portrayed as the bungling commoner who ends up possessed which imbues him with greater kung fu skills. Even the opening sequences both involve a situation involving infidelity. Yet, "The Dead" frequently cultivates more black or base humor that doesn't mind taking a stab at death, sexual dysfunction, miscarriage, and woman's undergarments (used to ward off the supernatural). Although the film is rarely blatantly funny, there are moments worth savoring. For instance, there is a great extended scene where Hung dresses as a life-size paper doll (used in funerals) and attempts to perform an autopsy on his friend who is still playing dead.

One of the broader aspects of the film to be appreciated is that all of the characters are portrayed in a humorously unfavorable light with the exception of Fatboy's girlfriend who, coincidently ends up saving the day. Hung is a callus and cowardly oaf, while Wu Ma plays a sexually impotent and greedy opportunist, sporting a rather large and unflattering fake nose. Lam Ching-ying, who co-starred with Hung in "The Prodigal Son," plays an aging Taoist priest who can barely walk straight. This, of course was the role he was best remembered for and destined to play in "Mr. Vampire" as well as in several sequels and spin-offs (minus the old man guise).

The B-rated special effects and a limited number of fights are made up for by competent direction by Wu Ma and the quality of the fight choreography, something Sammo Hung is master of. Besides, the old-school feel of the effects like the final scene involving ghosts looking like they stepped out of Jabba the Hut's palace before morphing into Slimer's primitive cousins is pure genius. The keywords here are "campy" and "fun," elements most of today's low budget, computer effects films sadly lack.