From the early 1990’s The Cat is a wacky ‘n’ pulpy blend of mystery, sci-fi-edged action, and horror. It brings together a dog-fighting-cat from out of space, a Blob/Thing-like alien that takes over folks, and a curious/smug novelist.  The joint Hong Kong/Japanese-produced film is certainly one hell of a ride, with well-set-up/choreographed action scenes, blended with Hong Kong wackiness. Here from 88 Films is a Blu-ray release of the picture, featuring a new 2k scan of the film,  the alternative Japanese version, a commentary track, and an interview with the film's writer.

The Cat ( Lo Mau, Karaté Cat, The 1000 Years Cat) is from the year 1991. It was the final film from Ngai Choi Lam, who had eleven other features to his name. These move from gritty and violent crime thriller Men From The Gutter (1983), haunted house parody The Ghost Snatchers (1986), and brutal rape revenge thriller Her Vengeance (1988)- which has also had a recent Blu Ray reissue on  88 Films.

The one nearing one-hour and thirty-minute film starts off decidedly foreboding and/ little creepy manner, as we move from a heavy-set man unable to sleep from the sound in the above apartment- he finds an eerie, piercing-eyed woman, an old man with bloody hands, and a mysterious long long-haired black cat. We have a dead tramp reanimated by alien goop, and a multi-limbed alien that’s a live with orange lighting.

As we move on, we get to meet our decidedly smug & smart casual-wearing writer Wisely (Waise Lee). He resides in a huge apartment, with built with books archways and towers, which gets well and truly shot up, in a very Terminator-like scene, when one of the blob aliens possesses a man.

The film features a few neat/ lengthy action/ fight scenes- first, there’s a junk yard encounter where our interstellar black cat fights a huge dog, with claw slashing & dog collar flipping/ slams. Next, there’s the above-mentioned apartment attack- with loads of explosions. And a huge blob on top of a skyscraper showdown.

I’d say the film's tone very much shifts from mystery/ horror to action/sci-fi, with things becoming more campy as it moves along.  It’s never too extreme in its horror elements, though we do have a sweaty woman sexualized scene, which was a sudden, bizarre detour. I’d say if you're looking for an action-packed film, which dips into horror & Sci-fi tropes, with a distinct twist of Hong Kong twists of wackiness,  then The Cat, will be for you.

This new release takes in a couple of new extras- first is a commentary track from  East Asian film expert Frank Djeng, I’ve played a few of his tracks now, and once again, he does a great job- blending research with light humour. He moves from talking about The Old Cat, the novel the film was based on, which is part of the popular adventure-sci-fi Wisely Series, written by Hong Kong novelist Ni Kuang.  We find out the film played for just a week, going from 22^nd to 28^th October 1992, taking 2.7 HK $’s , ranking number 88 in the year's box office. He points out actors as they appear/ giving bios. Later on, he comments on how some of the gun loading scenes have a John Woo feel, and how the ending of the book and film differ. And of course, much more- another well worth a play track from Mr Djeng. The other new extra is an interview with Gordon Chan(  21.47), who co-wrote the screenplay for the film.

We get two versions of the film- there’s the Hong Kong version, which gets a 2k scan- this runs at one hour and twenty-nine minutes. Then there’s the Japanese version, which runs one hour and thirty-seven minutes- this replaces the film's lead with a Japanese actor, adds in new scenes/ with new actors, and the original scenes are reshuffled.

The finished release comes with a forty-page inlay booklet, an art card,  and a ridge slip.

The Cat is a lot of wacky fun- meshing and blending mystery, sci-fi, action and horror genres entertainingly. Great to see it getting this new 88Films- with a 2k scan, and a few worthy extras.