He Lives by Night [1982]

Ye jing hun

A radio deejay, Sissy (Sylvia Chang), takes it upon herself to goad a serial killer, with a fetish towards white stockings, dressed as a woman when out to slice, with the main detective (Eddie Chan) and his young partner, "Lousy" Wong (Simon Yam) lying in wait to nab him. But the killer has plans to intrude upon her place of work, the radio station, and respond to her negative comments towards him. Will she be able to survive or can the killer silence her for good?
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Past traumatic events are depended upon by the slasher genre to provide incentive for psychopaths to do the bad deed (typically delivering the savage, sometimes rape, but mostly bringing the violence); something serves as a catalyst that sets killers off. I was watching recently an episode of CSI about a serial rapist who dressed as a fireman, with a tank that carried nitrous oxide, setting off smoke bombs that caused fire alarms to go off in buildings as to afford the sicko responsible a chance to catch specific female targets on their way out of their apartments, allowing him to besiege them, soon knocking them out and raping them. The rapist had a foot fetish and eyed women whose feet he could see from his apartment balcony; this stemmed from when he was forced to hide under the bed while his mom hooked…her feet dangled from the edge of the bed and, hence, the foot fetish. In He Lives by Night (1982), the serial killer loose in Hong Kong is set off by white stockings. One scene has the killer, working in a shoe store, no less, reacting hostilely after rescuing a child (a neighbor, his niece, in his apartment complex) from nearly being hit by a car, when she pulls up her white socks! He dresses as a woman at night, his murderous rage spurned specifically by the appearance of white stockings of a particular kind.

The giallo comes out in the civilian, Sissy, a radio deejay who instigates her way into the investigation, earning the anger of the killer who listens to her show (she calls him a cuckolded, cold-blooded psychopath on the air) when she calls him out. She knows the police investigator working the case—he has a little crush on her, listening to her show, he’s a big fan, couple that with how smitten he is with her when upon meeting her face to face—and exploits his feelings for her to get information about (and protection as well) the crimes committed. She actually comes to realize it is a man not woman thanks to the killer’s urination in the bathroom (the woman who survived gave an account of what she could see and hear). Be careful what you wish for comes to mind because purposely antagonizing a serial killer so he will come out of hiding, after her, and supposedly into a trap by the detectives waiting for him might have a snag or two that could jeopardize Sissy’s safety. The risks often come when a killer is needed off the streets. Just to think that you could be getting shoes fit on your feet by this psycho, I imagine once his identity is made known, that would give pause for those customers.

I would be remiss if I didn’t place emphasis on this slasher’s comedic nature. This is made in lightest heart despite some potent violence, with the cops and deejay particularly a trio of clownish goofballs. This may be a turn off for many slasher fans, but I didn’t mind the different approach. It has a memorable killer, an awesome final stalk and chase (with the best use of product placement (7 Up) I have ever seen) in the darkened radio station, and a back story that is perfectly fit for any giallo. Two murder sequences are stylish and feral, with the second one especially visceral. So it isn’t like there’s just bafoonery and none of the jugular-strikes that slasher fans desire. The killer is athletic, completely devoted to taking that razor and white stocking to throats, and pursues those in his sights with dedication that often results in dead bodies. Sissy is the prototypical final girl, all wide-eyed, innocent, and cute, but defends herself admirably (especially when she finds a samurai sword (!!!)), especially when the killer pushes a 7 Up machine towards her (!), hoping to put an end to the source of his ego-bruising irritancy. The back story is uniquely triggered by Sissy’s “cuckolded” comment on the radio, with her voice and the flashback to how the mania started accumulating to provoke the killer to anger. 

Seeing Yam, in nothing but shorts, running at Sissy, gun in hand, smiling devilishly, is quite a sight, let me tell you. It fits with the nature of the whole film, though. Trying to slow her down, Yam even pushes shelves of record albums at her! Using amplified noise in speakers to rattle him before he can slice her throat is another clever bit of denying him the chance to end her life. The dual, even as the police become involved (looking often foolish as the killer outsmarts them, even disguising himself in a police uniform at one point), remains a treat as Sissy and the killer continue the cat and mouse chase. Eventually, of course, the killer is his own undoing. The visual of a dead body, having fell out a window, on the top of a van (that crashed his fall), driving away by a clueless employee of the radio station just illustrates the approach taken by director Po-Chih Leong and the screenplay.

What I think is really nifty is how the film turns the “killer pursuit of victim in her home” sequence on its head. “The Strangers” (2008) and other films similar were given a title called “home invasion”, but slashers have been doing this for a while. Here, the shoe salesman with white stocking fetish cleverly gets the address of a customer, slides into his “lady of the night”(with wig, lipstick, and dress), quietly finds his way into her home, and attempts to attack one of her friends (who knows he’s in there, believing he is her friend (but the friend is actually bathing)). What makes the scene for me is that she’s actually on to him, approaching from behind him without his knowledge! The glass sliding door moment is particularly neat, how one of the girls is able (for a few seconds, at least) to trick him outside, then shutting it on him from the inside, only for him to slide it open when she backs away (a rather dumb move not to lock it, but when you are freaking out and just trying to close it, perhaps logical thinking slips during all the terror). There’s a cool visual where it looks as if the door slides open itself, with a volleyball bouncing on the kitchen floor and coming to rest, with the girl’s eyes, entrapped with fear, lighted atmospherically. Then the director follows her up the stairs, and the knowledge of the killer downstairs is certainly weighing on the girl’s mind. The major star of this slasher, to me, is the exceptional steadicam work; it is exhilarating and exciting, really virtuoso camera work that feels natural. A fleeing victim within confined space (or even outside claustrophobic confines), for the camera to be able to follow the action as it takes place, to actually replace a character who hides behind corners, and capture the intensity of a killer trying to catch his quarry and the victim trying to survive any way she can, doing so inside a house; the camera work in He Lives by Night gets it all just right.

Now, if you think just because He Lives by Night has lots of animated faces and vaudeville humor, don’t dismiss it as a slasher without bite. It has bite. That whole scene where the killer chases after the girl in her friend’s home…well, he uses a box razor and leaves her a bloody mess before strangling her (with a smile) with a white stocking. Oh, even better, he hums “Killing Me Softly with His Song” after it is all over, while the dead girl’s friend in the bath (his intended target, taking out the wrong girl by mistake) holds her breath and stays as quiet as a church mouse. To cap the scene off, the killer urinates telling the young woman in her bubbly bath tub water that this isn’t a woman but a man. It leaves her just as terrified when he wipes his washed hands with a towel nearby.

The influence of the American slasher (or more importantly, the Italian giallo) is evident in the structure of the killer’s motives and actions. We get the back story which explains the white stocking mania, the transvestitism, and the use of the box cutter razor. He catches his wife in bed with a man who had been dressed as a woman. A box cutter was handy, and his wife had some white stockings near the bed, used to strangle her by the killer. It is this event that has served as a psychological hang-up never to leave him, reminders of that event fueling the murderous rage that must be dealt with in order to function in society daily.

I was captivated by the energy of the direction, the breathtaking pace that hardly lets up, and the virtuosity of it all. I think just based on its sheer visual skill and the change of locale for a slasher film to 80s Hong Kong, He Lives by Night reaps benefits/dividends. Without the talent behind the camera, I think He Lives by Night wouldn’t be such a slasher delight. I think it just needs the chance of a larger viewing audience to catch fire. The internet just might help in that regard. Check it out if you can!