Ghost Nursing (1982)

Jackie travels to Thailand after a run of bad luck in Hong Kong, but when her luck continues to be bad there her friend takes her to a shaman, who tells her that it is the result of bad karma. To turn her luck around she must adopt the spirit of a dead child, and perform certain rituals at specific times.

Her luck does indeed seem to change, as does that of several men who try to harm her. However, she is eventually distracted by a romance with Norman Tsui and fails to perform a ritual on time. The spirit does not take it well.

GHOST NURSING is a low budget entry in the Gong Tau genre started - as far as I know - by the Shaw Brothers film Black Magic, which went through a spell of popularity in the early 1980's. It was produced by Seasonal Films and directed by Wilson Tong - villain or henchman in any number of kung fu films and director of the unsung classic Ghostly Bus.

Shot in large part on location in Thailand, the film doesn't lean into exploitation as much as some of its peers - the ladies all keep their kit on throughout, anyway, but there is some gleeful gore towards the end.

Looking at the cast and crew you might be expecting a martial arts film, but it's certainly not - there is some supernaturally enhanced violence but it's more stunts than fights. Chin Yuet-Sang does some acrobatic rituals, but this is no Encounters Of The Spooky Kind, and nor is it trying to be. The film avoids humour (though Melvin Wong having a diploma in Esoteric Studies from M.I.T. is hilarious) and plays it straight as a horror.

Suet Lee is a bit underwhelming as the female lead, and Norman Tsui must have fancied a holiday in Thailand as this seems like a step down from the calibre of films he was leading at this time (or perhaps he owed Wilson Tong a favour).

Despite the low budget, or perhaps even because of it, the film has style and atmosphere, with assured camera work that helps it overcome its other limitations - of which it has no shortage. A passable enough time waster that fans of films like HEX and BOXER'S OMEN should moderately enjoy.