Human Lanterns
Human Lanterns is a 1982 film from Hong Kong, directed by Sun Chung, running 99 minutes. reelscum files it under martial arts and slasher.
- Year
- 1982 · 1980s films
- Country
- Hong Kong
- Runtime
- 99 min
- Director
- Sun Chung
- Updated
- 10 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- obscure (72/100)
Defined in the glossary: Martial arts, Slasher
A Shaw wuxia that turns into a slasher, with lanterns made of human skin.
Two wealthy rivals feuding over status and a lantern-making contest both hire the same craftsman, not knowing he is abducting women and flaying them to build his masterpieces. Lo Lieh plays the lantern-maker as a fully unhinged ghoul, swinging through the sets in an ape mask like a slasher villain who wandered in from another decade. Sun Chung shoots it as a proper Shaw Brothers period piece, all courtyards and swordplay, then keeps cutting back to a workshop hung with human skin. It is one of the very few wuxia films that works as outright horror, and the flaying earns every bit of the notoriety.
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