Master Lung Shu Ai (Lau Wing) and Master Tan Fu (Chen Kuan Tai) are well to do men who have nothing better to do than annoy each other with one-up-manships and aggravate the local constable, Sgt. Poon (Sun Chien), who's a bit of a Barney Fife type character. The upcoming Lantern Festival is another chance for the affluent rivals to go at each other. Shu Ai looks up an old Swordsman rival, Chao Chun Fang (Lieh Lo), who is now a lantern designer. Fang agrees to create lanterns on the condition Shu Ai stays away until their completion.Shu Ai's paramour at the local brothel disappears. She has been abducted by someone wearing a costume reminiscent of the Voodoo Doctor on Scooby Doo. The Voodoo creature even does a dance similar to the one on the cartoon. It's hard to take this creature seriously as a "scary" entity. The disappearance prompts Shu Ai and Tan Fu to point fingers at each other. Sgt. Poon's investigation is incredibly poor and he simply shrugs and calls it a mystery. He doesn't give up on the investigation, but it seems to done with the intensity of a child cleaning their bedroom.Tan Fu's sister disappears the following day by the Voodoo creature. Tan Fu blames Shu Ai, prompting a juvenile contest at the local inn that put upon Sgt. Poon tries to halt with disastrous results. Shu Ai and Tan Fu are instructed to go home and wait for the police to finish their investigation. Neither is about to do as instructed.A botched attempt on Shu Ai's life by hired assassin Kwai Sze Yin (Lo Meng), is a convenient distraction for the Voodoo creature to kidnap Shu Ai's wife. Shu Ai is enraged he was assaulted and his wife taken while Sgt Poon's men were mere feet from the front door of his home. Sgt Poon admits no one was guarding the back of the house.Kwai Sze Yin's failure to kill Shu Ai, results in his own death at the hands of his employer, Tan Fu. Tan Fu doesn't want witnesses who can connect him to the hit on Shu Ai. Tan fu instructs his staff to take Kwai Sze Yin's body far from the estate to bury it. The staff are set upon by the Voodoo creature while carrying out Tan Fu's orders. They and Kwai Sze Yin are decapitated and their heads are hung in the Lantern District in town.The Voodoo creature reveals himself to Su AI's wife to be Chao Chun Fang. he is out to avenge his disgrace in the swordsman's world at the hands of Shu Ai years earlier. He is abducting those close to Shu Ai and using their skin for the lanterns. There is an old tale that human skin makes the best material due to its elasticity. Shu Ai suspects Chao Chun Fang is behind the abductions but says nothing to either Tan Fu or Sgt. Poon. He instead goes after Tan Fu in other of their ego driven challenges. Cha Chun Fang makes an appearance during the challenge and severely wounds Tan Fu. Shu Ai follows Chao Chun Fang back to his workshop where fight and talk about Chao Chun Fang's need for revenge. A severely depleted Tan Fu arrives in a wheelbarrow to aid in the fight. He dies shortly after the arrival of Sgt. Poon and other constables.The finale fight is reminiscent of The House of Wax. The building collapses. A fire is started, which traps Shu Ai and Chao Chun Fang in the basement with no possible exit. Chao Chun Fang become engulfed in flames and grabs Shu Ai, igniting him into a fireball as well. Sgt. Poon and other constables are struggling to dig out an escape for Shu Ai.The final scene is implausible given the events at the workshop. It seemed a "Happy Ending" was required to counter all the death and "horror". Shu Ai is sitting in his now nearly empty home. He has burns only on his left hand and left side of his face. Incredible considering how long his body was on fire. He instructs Sgt Poon to sell the house and contents to provide for the local poor. Shu Ai will spend the rest of his life roaming the countryside helping those in need. I gave it a 7 more due to the cast than plot and fight scenes. Based on other reviews, I have seen the censured version of the story. Someday, I hope to see the full version.

Hammer horror meets wuxia. It makes about as much sense tonally as it sounds. Storywise, it's a barely coherent morality play about pride and greed that comes across like an excuse to string together some swordplay, some reasonably nasty flaying scenes, and very pretty setpieces. It is a great looking movie, I have to admit--the use of lighting is otherworldly. Sun Chung was easily one of the best directors Shaw Bros ever had, but when he wasn't doing cookie cutter martial arts stuff, he was seriously wasted on misguided crap (let's face it) like this.There's something really "off" about how simultaneously Asian and European this movie feels. My instincts tell me it's not supposed to exist. Dramatically it never really takes off, but it's interesting enough in the context of "what were they thinking?" curio.

Chung Sun, who directed, amongst many other films, the superb "The Sexy Killer" (see review), is unable to make the elements gel in "Human Lanterns" aka "Human Skin Lanterns". Personally, I have always loved the idea of using human skin to make lanterns, so this film was an eagerly awaited one by me. Unfortunately, there's too little skinning and too much martial arts in this. In fact, the skinning scenes (there are two), while well done, feel like they belong in a different movie altogether. This is a strange effort to make a martial arts fantasy and cross it with a Hammer-style horror plot. It doesn't work. That said, "Human Lanterns" is still a sumptuously photographed and designed period piece. The Shaw's certainly spent big on its sets, cast and special effects. It's a shame they didn't focus more on the horror promised in the title. Disappointing horror. Satisfactory period-fu epic.

HUMAN LANTERNS (Ren Pi Deng Long)Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Shawscope)Sound format: MonoA vengeful craftsman (Lo Lieh) sets two warring noblemen (Lau Wing and Chen Kuan-tai) against each other by abducting their loved ones and peeling their skin, which he uses to embellish a series of prize-winning lanterns.Old-fashioned kung fu thriller with horror asides, distinguished by balletic fight scenes and expansive widescreen cinematography, in typical Shaw Brothers style. Ni Kuang's screenplay (co-written with director Suen Chung) is fairly detailed, and the pace is fast and furious throughout. But the film is weakened by pantomime performances and generic post-sync dialogue, and by an uneasy combination of martial arts mayhem and Hammer-style horror. Beautiful sets and costumes.NB. The film played uncut on its original theatrical release, though most subsequent video prints have been censored, eliminating nudity and graphic violence. However, the UK DVD (issued by Momentum Asia in 2005) appears to be intact.(Mandarin dialogue)