Succubare (1982) is a profoundly odd Asian horror/Kung Fu hybrid that rabidly earns its status of being one of the most eccentric HK flicks available; due primarily to a plethora of grisly scenes featuring crazed epicurean, Cho King furiously munching on all manner of still-living animal tissues. Happily the frequent sight of, Carter Wong's familiar stoic visage lends a brief sense of normalcy to an otherwise confounding and stomach-churning affair. Even within the richly bizarre canon of Asian cinema Succubare sticks out like the proverbial cock in a nunnery. Which, of course, is precisely why you should see it. Enjoy!

If, like me, you actively seek out the rarest and weirdest (and often most awful) that world cinema has to offer, then you should look no further than the supernatural horror output of Hong Kong in the early 80s. Often mixing bizarre black magic with kung fu and silly comedy, and usually packed with plenty of creepy crawlies (snakes, worms, eels, centipedes etc.), these movies are about as bizarre as it gets.Succubare is definitely a case in point: featuring a mountain tribe whose women keep their men from straying by casting nasty spells over them (that, should they leave, cause them to fill up with writhing creatures and die an agonising death), some so-so martial arts, and lots of real life animal killing (much of which is perpetrated by a geek who has absolutely no bearing on the story), this film is just plain strange.A prolonged scene in which the tribeswomen hunt for snakes and insects, casually throwing the creatures into the baskets on their backs, is quite fascinating; a tribal feast that sees a poor ox bashed on the head and then torn apart is totally disgusting; and the moments that show worms crawling in open wounds and being vomited onto the floor will have the squeamish losing their appetite for a while.However, it's the live animal munching that really qualifies Succubare for legendary status amongst fans of out-there movie-making. It's thoroughly vile to watch and yet strangely compelling: the geek chomps on a snake, woofs down a fat, juicy toad (nasty!), and hungrily devours a mouse (biting off its head and then shoving the rest in afterwards).Not a great movie (hell, it's not really even a mediocre movie), Succubare is recommended only to people who think they've seen it all. This one gets 4 out of 10 from me, which is probably more than it deserves, but I begrudgingly respect it for being able to make me feel slightly ill.

I rented this one based on nothing more than a blurb about Asian horror films.There was horror, kung-fu, action, and a bit of sex mixed in the wok to serve up this one. The stabbings were more graphic than a film of this nature usually drags out. The nudity was a bit OTT (and a tad unrealistic.) But the feminist undertones were a welcome addition.The mondo style scenes probably shook a few people up, but this is a mainstay of most Asian horror. And mondo fans would probably be disappointed. The disembowelment scene was a gross-out. The live worms helped.Chinese female vampires? Use you imagination guys. Or see the film.And fans of Johnny Carpenter's "Big Trouble In Little China" will spot big Carter Wong as a horseman.

"Succubare" was recognized by Wai-Yip Wong himself as his most important film of his late period along with "Shaolin Head Waiter" (1982). While generally the later is accepted as his masterpiece "Succubare" is misunderstood as Wong's "misfire", as a "flop", an opinion toward which I tend to gravitate. What we have here is a good drama whose story is totally overshadowed by a certain scene-stealing extra whose diet consists chiefly of live animals, usually small rodents or finches, which he consumes by the jarful. Before the opening credits roll we are treated to the sight of his character eating boxes of headless canary torsos and sea-cucumbers, and washing them down with yak's blood. Sometimes during the film he tries to hold back, proclaiming that henceforth he will bite the heads off no living creature, but then he loses his willpower, and eats huge breakfasts consisting of badgers, partridges, shrews, cuttlefish, duckbill-platipusses, baby spiney anteater eggs, and spoonfulls of lice, and a huge stack of skates drenched in kelp. Wai-Yip Wong himself was detailed by producers to drag this fellow out of pet shops. He claimed that, during the first day of shooting Cho King (for such is his name) devoured two octopusses, some gerbils, two horse shoe crabs, and a pile of sanddollars for brunch, necessitating constant altering of his costumes.During his birthday party on the set, Wai-Yip Wong gave him a belt with a card reading "Hope it fits." A sign was placed below the birthday cake saying: "No Mammels Were Harmed." He reportedly ate at least fourteen live tape worms that day. His second wife who had a lock put on their incubator to stop pilfering by what she thought was the household staff, awoke one morning to find the lock broken and teeth marks on a baby chick's remains. The house maid told her that her husband nightly raided the incubator. She also related how He often drove down to the local pound late at night, wolfing down as many as six kittens at a time. Costumer Chiang Hung claimed that this fellow split the seat on 34 pairs of pants during the shooting of the film, necessitating that stretch fabric be sewn into his replacement duds. He split those too. Animal fat was the culprit: This guy would purloin a 10-gallon tub of the fattening desert, row himself out into the lagoon, and indulge. On the set his double often had to be used for shooting after lunch, and filming could only proceed in long shots, as this poor sap could no longer fit into his costumes. Dick Carter Wong, who was married to this guy's sister Fanny, said that he used to eat five wildebeests at a sitting, and (go) through bags of gila monsters." It was reported that during filming that, being environmentally sensitive, this guy fished a frog out of a pond, took a huge bite out of the hapless amphibian, and threw it back into the drink. He also created what he called "real-life peeps" by cracking open a baby hen's skull, melting some snail hides in the sun, then stirring them in with the brains for a tasty treat. By the end of shooting, there were reports that his wife had left him because he failed to keep his promise of losing weight. He seemed to be dieting, but to her astonishment, he never lost weight. She found out that his buddies had been throwing bags containing anethesized weasels over the gates of his Macau Drive estate late at night to relieve the hunger pangs of their famished friend. Furthermore, he was spotted regularly buying lard from a Hong Kong butchers shop: ten gallons at a time. He supposedly confessed that he was eating it all himself. Finally, a reported favorite snack was a living spider monkey and some raw bacon shoved into a Portugese Man-O-War Jellyfish. When he became ill, he seriously cut back and lost 70 lbs. on a vegetable diet, but he never lost his love of living tissues and especially those of rodents and primates.Animal rights activists will object to the butchering of a full grown ox on screen, (which goes uneaten) and, indeed, the unnecessary consumption of so many animals can get very distracting at times, as it has no bearing on the script. While not in the top ranks of 80's gross-out horror, SUCCUBARE remains, however, revolting yet diverting and boasts a mainly dependable cast.