We're Going to Eat You
We're Going to Eat You | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | |||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 地獄無門 | ||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 地狱无门 | ||||||||||
Literal meaning | No door to hell | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Directed by | Tsui Hark | ||||||||||
Written by | Tsui Hark Roy Szeto | ||||||||||
Produced by | Ng See Yuen | ||||||||||
Starring |
| ||||||||||
Music by | Goblin | ||||||||||
Release date |
| ||||||||||
Running time | 92 minutes | ||||||||||
Country | Hong Kong | ||||||||||
Language | Cantonese | ||||||||||
Box office | HK$1,054,985.50 |
We're Going to Eat You (Chinese: 地獄無門) is a 1980 Hong Kong horror comedy film directed by Tsui Hark. The film is about a secret agent, Agent 999, who is attempting to capture a thief named Rolex. Agent 999's hunt leads him to a village that is inhabited by cannibals. The film was not as big a success in Hong Kong as Tsui's later 1980 film Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind.
Plot
A secret agent named Agent 999 is in trying to apprehend a thief named Rolex. His hunt leads him to a village where residents routinely capture visitors and eat them. Although the cannibalistic ritual has been initiated by the town chief, the villagers feel close to rebelling against him as more of their food has been given to his soldiers than the townspeople.
Agent 999 is rescued from the villagers by Rolex, who has been posing as the village chief's assistant. He rescues Agent 999 as an act to help redeem his career. Soon after, Rolex is caught by the village chief and eaten. This leads to Agent 999 escaping from several different villagers along with a newfound love in his life named Eileen.
Themes
We're Going to Eat You contains anti-communist themes. This is shown through the village chief's attitudes regarding the distribution of meat among the villagers and soldiers and his uniform.[1] Tsui suggested that this theme possibly came from his own student film work.[2]
Production
Large portions of the music from We're Going to Eat You are taken from the Italian horror film Suspiria.[3] Tsui said that the reason for the use of this existing music at the time was that there was no budget for an original soundtrack.[2]
Release
We're Going to Eat You debuted on 2 April 1980.[1] It took in HK$1,054,985.50 in the Hong Kong box office. At the end of the year, it placed at number 113 of the top-grossing Hong Kong films for 1980. This was very low in comparison to Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind, which was the 33rd top-grossing film at the Hong Kong box office in 1980.[3] We're Going to Eat You has been released under several titles, including Hell Has No Gates, No Door to Hell, We Are Going to Eat You, We're Going to Eat You! and Kung Fu Cannibals.[1] Tsui has panned the film itself, saying that "it didn't turn out good".[4]
References
- ^ a b c Morton, 2009. p.38
- ^ a b Morton, 2009. p.40
- ^ a b Morton, 2009. p.39
- ^ O'Brien, 2003. p.17
Bibliography
- Morton, Lisa (2009). The Cinema of Tsui Hark. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-4460-1. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
- O'Brien, Daniel (2003). Spooky Encounters: A Gwailo's Guide to Hong Kong Horror. Headpress. ISBN 1-900486-31-8. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
External links
- We're Going to Eat You at IMDb
- We're Going to Eat You at AllMovie
- v
- t
- e
- The Butterfly Murders (1979)
- We're Going to Eat You (1980, also writer)
- Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (1980, also writer)
- All the Wrong Clues (1981)
- Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983)
- Shanghai Blues (1984, also produced)
- Aces Go Places 3 (1984)
- Peking Opera Blues (1986, also produced)
- A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon (1989, also produced)
- Once Upon a Time in China (1991, also writer and produced)
- Once Upon a Time in China II (1992, also writer and produced)
- The Master (1992, also produced)
- Green Snake (1993, also writer and produced)
- Once Upon a Time in China III (1993, also writer and produced)
- The Lovers (1994, also writer and produced)
- Once Upon a Time in China V (1994, also writer and produced)
- The Blade (1995, also writer and produced)
- The Chinese Feast (1995, also writer and produced)
- Tristar (1996, also writer and produced)
- Double Team (1997)
- Knock Off (1998)
- Time and Tide (2000, also writer and produced)
- The Legend of Zu (2001, also writer and produced)
- Black Mask 2: City of Masks (2002, also produced)
- Seven Swords (2005, also writer and produced)
- Missing (2008, also writer and produced)
- All About Women (2008, also writer and produced)
- Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010, also produced)
- Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011, also writer and produced)
- Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon (2013, also writer and produced)
- The Taking of Tiger Mountain (2014, also writer)
- Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back (2017, also writer and produced)
- Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings (2018, also produced)
- A Better Tomorrow II (1987; also produced)
- A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991, also produced)
- Swordsman II (1992, also produced)
- New Dragon Gate Inn (1992, also produced)
- The Wicked City (1992; also produced)
- The East Is Red (1993; also produced)
- Once Upon a Time in China IV (1993; also produced)
- The Magic Crane (1993, also produced)
- Iron Monkey (1993; also produced)
- Black Mask (1996; also produced)
- The Era of Vampires (2002, also produced)
- Sword Master (2016; also produced)
- The Thousand Faces of Dunjia (2017)
- A Better Tomorrow (1986)
- A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
- The Big Heat (1988)
- I Love Maria (1988)
- The Killer (1989)
- A Terra-Cotta Warrior (1990)
- The Swordsman (1990)
- A Chinese Ghost Story II (1990)
- Shanghai Grand (1996)
- Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997)
- The Climbers (2019)
- The Banquet (1991)
- Twin Dragons (1992)
- Triangle (2007)
- Septet: The Story of Hong Kong (2020)
- The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021)
- The Battle at Lake Changjin II (2022)