I've watched this movie four or five times over the years, and it still surprises me just how full of crazy it is. It jumps from a relatively normal battle to an amazing fight with vase vampires in ten minutes flat. A guy played by Sammo Hung holds people and things at bay with his eyebrows, a window ends up being a pool of water, two people flirt by the medium of throwing giant sculptures at each other, and gravity isn't just optional, as with most Wuxia: people here literally bounce around the scenery like a pinball.
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| I love this whole scene so much. |
Welcome to the Xianxia genre, which differs from Wuxia mainly in that it's about immortal characters with godlike powers. So you get warriors that shoot off the light reflected from their swords, a priestess that can freeze people solid by wrapping them up in her scarf, and all sorts of fun stuff. Chinese mythological superheroes.
Director (and all-round-legend) Tsui Hark, along with writers Shui Chung-yuet and Sze-to Cheuk-hon adapted a 1932 novel by taking all the action and very little connective tissue, and then spliced it with Star Wars (Hark even poached a couple of FX artists from that movie to work on this). The result is a frenetic film that often seems like it's being dictated by a kid with an overactive imagination.
Di (Yuen Biao) is an unwilling deserter who, after some misadventures, falls off a battlefield into a magic realm where he joins a motley group of superpowered warriors (Adam Cheng, Moon Lee, Damian Yau and Mang Hoi) in a quest to stop the Blood Demon from materializing or something like that. Simple premise, and a standard quest structure then; But the obstacles and complications in the way are so ridiculous, poorly telegraphed and explained, or arbitrary that the whole thing gets hopelessly tangled right out of the gate.
To be honest, it doesn't really matter; There's so much cool stuff, so many fights and stunts and bizarre sights - realised with an incredible amount of care and craft, and brought to the screen with some truly incredible early eighties special effects work (right alongside incredibly cheesy FX where you can almost hear the cellophane paper crinkle).
The plot might be a mess, and the humor... well, it's exactly the type of broad and kind of unfunny business you'd expect, I have a lot of time for the film's messaging, though - There's a lot of sly underlining the senselessness of war, and several instances of strict rules and codes of conduct causing a lot of damage. Corny, to be sure - especially when brought to the fore - but, like the rest of the movie, kind and earnest.
Like other movies in this and related genres, there's a pretty high cultural barrier to enjoying it- Chinese sensibilities take some getting used to. But even if you're inclined to like martial arts and wuxia movies, the fantasy elements of this one, along side some chintzy visuals and its breakneck pacing can be a tall order. It can be very rewarding, but you have to let it work its daft spell on you.
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