The Cat

Not since Jackie Chan's outlandish escapades in City Hunter has there been a Hong Kong action film as resolutely goofy as this one. Lee is a noted author of UFO and fantasy books who narrates this tale of extraterrestrial visitors and giant killer mushrooms. The cat in question is actually an alien visitor, who, along with its trusty female companion, is pursued to earth by an evil entity intent on global destruction. The cat (black, natch) and the girl (who resembles nothing so much as one of those Japanese pop stars suffering from a terminal case of post-pubescent perkiness) must get ahold of the so-called “octagon” that resides in a local Hong Kong museum in order to thwart their nemesis. Imagine Disney's That Darn Cat remade by Tsui Hark and Sam Raimi while Mack Sennett shouts encouragement from the sidelines and you'll get the picture. Despite the genuinely ludicrous story here, The Cat is oddly appealing in a surreal sort of way. Like so many other Hong Kong fantasy films of late, The Cat moves at a breathless pace, with action that's so far over the top it makes your head spin. The cat flies, performs martial arts (!), engages in horrific, bloody battles, and saves the world, more or less. Plenty of low-budget blue screens and the occasional botched stop-motion bit add some unintentional levity to the proceedings, but if you can get past the ridiculous nature of the story, The Cat is wildly entertaining.