pe -

Though many of the film's gore scenes involve use of real corpses or animal parts, the film's much controversial "cat scene" in fact a well done special effect. Tun Fei Mou covered the cat with red-dyed honey which was licked off the cat by the rats. The cat survived, was cleaned up, rewarded with fish and sent back to his owner. One can notice if watching closely that the rats never bite the cat and it never stops moving or goes limp. The rats were caught by the local schoolchildren and were however set on fire near the end of the shoot which appears on film. The local farmers were apparently quite pleased with Mou for having done so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nciD0rE32mU