| Not the first or last time John Woo featured religious imagery but no other movie of his has proven to be as weird in that regard as To Hell With The Devil. Unfortunately it's again proved though that Ricky Hui sans his fellow brothers, and under the direction of Woo, isn't exactly prime comedic material. The comedy designed around pratfalls of the severely low class kind shows Woo was perhaps still a bit too infatuated with his work on Laughing Times (starring Dean Shek as the Chinese Charlie Chaplin). "Borrowing" his main plot from the likes of Bedazzled and moments from The Exorcist does eventually turn the film into a dark, goofy delight on the minor scale. We enjoy watching Nat Chan get punished and the finale mixes grave darkness with a man vs. devil battle in computer game format. It's therefore more distinguishable than most of Woo's comedy output so a little thanks is in order. Stanley Fung, Chui Git, Paul Chun and Chung Faat as the devil also stars. |
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