Ghost Busting (1989) User Reviews

Ghostbusters, Hong Kong style.

[OllieSuave-007 · 5/10 · 2 June 2015]

This is a ghost comedy from Hong Kong that features groups of men and women taking lessons from Taoist masters in order to learn how to vanquish of bunch of poltergeists inhabiting a high-rise where they work.

The movie begins with several haunts by the demons of unsuspecting guests in the building. Then, the haunting takes you to a mansion where a couple of the film's protagonists get caught in a creepy but funny ghost chase. It's pretty fun stuff and the ghosts were freaky-looking, but when it comes times to the ghost-busting lessons scenes, the horror plot downgraded to boring comedy & romance scenes involving the men and women students. This consumes much of the middle of the movie, and the ghost action does not resume until much later in the movie.

While the ghost special effects weren't bad and it serves up quite a few scary scenes, the movie's goofy-romance subplot really distracts the audience from the main horror plot (something a lot of Hong Kong films notoriously contains). The acting was very average and you will get quite a few chuckles here and there. But overall, it's not one of the best Hong Kong ghost comedies out there.

Grade C-

Ghost Busting (1989)

[horseboxingkiller · 23 January 2022]

Ghosts are wreaking havoc in a corporate office building where Sharon Kwok runs a family business. Two Taoist masters (one male, the other female) are enlisted to rid the office block of the undead with the help of their newly recruited (and horny!) students.

After a strong first half hour, the film gives way to familiar Police Academy / Porky's type shenanigans with much of the running time focussing on the two separate male/female ghost-busting student groups trying to hop into bed with one another (there are some parallels here with Devil's Vendetta which was released in 1991). They eventually graduate and set out to use their wizardry against the undead in a colourful finale.

Ghost Busting is lot better than films of similar nature due to the solid ensemble cast who all possess some great comic acting and timing. The film also benefits from some creative visuals throughout (e.g. A ghost flattened by a door inflates himself again, a severed hand creeps up a trouser leg Evil Dead style) and everything moves along at a fairly brisk pace, despite a slightly lagging middle section. It's ridiculous (Sandra Ng appears dressed as Marilyn Monroe, Nat Chan as Bruce Lee and Jesus), it's un-PC as you'd expect from the genre (characters named 'Gay Vampire', and an attempted arse-rape by a ghost) - but it's all good fun and as mentioned, that quality cast helps keep everything afloat.

3 out of 5

Review source: Star Entertainment, Laserdisc (Hong Kong) (Cantonese language)