Oily Maniac

Oily Maniac: No, this isn’t a Laura Loomer biopic, it’s a 1976 Hong Kong Grade B exploitation/revenge/folk horror flick.  The story follows Shen Yuan (portrayed by the prolific Hong Kong Action/Martial Arts actor Danny Lee, probably best known to American audiences from John Woo’s 1989 The Killer), a gentle legal assistant whose life is defined by the limitations of a leg crippled by polio.  Indeed, Shen shuffles around with forearm crutches in much the same fashion as Breaking Bad’s Walt Jr.  But anyways, Shen’s world collapses when his paternal figure is wrongfully sentenced to death for a crime committed in self-defense. Before his execution, the elder reveals a secret: a magical tattoo that grants the power of the Orang (the Oily Man).

Driven by a thirst for justice, Shen Yuan performs the ritual, plunging into a pool of oil that springs up from the hole he has dug in his living room (?!?!) and emerging as the titular Oily Maniac—a hulking, slime-covered monster with glowing yellow eyes and a cheesy-looking beating red heart. Initially, Shen’s maniac alter-ego acts as a supernatural vigilante, using his ability to dissolve into a liquid puddle to bypass locked doors and avenge his family. However, the power quickly corrupts (with great power comes great. . .well, you know).

As the loopy film progresses through various stages of plot and subplot illogic, Shen’s *justice* becomes increasingly erratic. Between protecting his unrequited love, Yue, from gangsters and a corrupt lawyer, the crippled oriental incel embarks on a goofily charming misogynistic killing spree—targeting everything from negligent plastic surgeons to women in their bathtubs. The film reaches a fever pitch as the authorities and his own moral decay close in. Ultimately, the very substance that granted him power becomes his undoing: he is cornered and set ablaze, meeting a fiery, inevitable end.

Supposedly inspired by a Malaysian legend, Oily Maniac seems like an British Petroleum-sponsored remake of The Blob, or an Exxon prototype of The Toxic Avenger.

Shot in Malaysia, I can’t tell whether the sallow-skinned thespian cast is Chinese or Malay or a mongrel mix of both. What I do know is that most of the female cast, at one point or another, is topless and bottomless, though sans frontal genital nudity.  The bodies of the jaundiced girls aren’t bad, though some of their faces are pretty rough.  The film’s most memorable dumb subplot depicts a pallid prostitute getting her hymen reattached so customers will think she’s a virgin.

All in all, Oily Maniac is kOOky (and literal) crude fun.