Macabre comedy, chart blazer

Press, 6 January 1987, Page 18

Macabre comedy, chart blazer

By

DAVID WILSON

If your taste is for the macabre with a comical vein, Cannon Screen Entertainment’s new release, “The Return of the Living Dead” (M) — will help you start the new year right. Do you remember “Night of the Living Dead,” the film about mutant corpses reanimated by a chemical seepage near a cemetery? Well, Frank and Freddy do. The corpses were recaptured but due to an administrative error, they were sent for storage at the Uneeda Medical Supply company — the very building where the boys work.

Frank accidentally fractures one of the cylinders in which the mutant corpses are stored, and the menace of the braineating bodies is unleashed all over again.

“The Return of the Living Dead” runs for 90 minutes and is directed by Dan O’Banhon. Also from Cannon:— “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” (PG) — in which David Bowie performs as Ziggy. The story of the rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust, .as told in . the songs, is that of an extraordinary pop singer who rose to stardom only to be killed by his fans. When you see the audience reaction to this magnificent farewell concert, you can see exactly why. Filmed live at the famed Hammersmith ’ Odeon, Ziggy gives his final rendering of the chart-blazing songs that forged his sensational career.

“The 36th Chamber of Kaolin” (M) — Few Kung-fu films have dealt in such exciting detail with the secrets of the Shaolin Monastery centre for the martial arts in medieval China, as this colourful Shaw Brothers production. Directed with a wry sense of humour by the celebrated Liu Chialiang, the film shows the progress of the young Liu Tute (Liu Chiahui) through his eight-year training course to become

a fully-fledged Shaolin pupil.

Outside the monastery gates, however, the Manchu authorities, led by Tien Ta (Lo Lieh), are becoming increasingly suspicious of Shaolin’s “subversive” activities — forcing Liu to test his powers in a climactic struggle against the evil Tien.

“The 36th Chamber of Kaolin” cuts, thrusts and kicks its way through 90 minutes of busy viewing.