Hong hai er

Easily the weirdest film in Venom Mob director Cheh Chang's filmography. Not that I'm an expert on Chinese culture or folklore, but this film seemed to be a Peking opera style of retelling of an adventure by the legendary Chinese trickster character the Monkey King, who in this tale does battle with what I think is the titular Magical Baby, who is really more of an impetuous young god who caused assorted trouble. The film features trees our hero fighting sentient trees, a very odd centaur-like creature fighting a hoard of warriors, and all sorts of other strange fantasy elements. I do enjoy Hong Kong martial arts fantasy films, but this film was disappointing. Generally speaking, it really wasn't until the 1980s when Tsui Hark brought western style special effects and film techniques that those types of films really became something special (which interestingly came back to the west in the form of cult favorite "Big Trouble in Little China"). I usually love most all of Cheh Chang's films, but this one was lacking his characteristically tough and brutal fight sequences and instead had fight scenes more resembling dances. The film sets also appeared purposefully stage-like, as did the costumes and make-up, which also made me think this film was intended as something of a film version of a Peking opera performance. I really don't know if this type filmed-Peking-opera-stage-performance is a sub-genre of martial arts films, but if it is, it's one that's not really to my taste, so this is not a film that I would recommend.

I do not pretend to be any kind of Chinese scholar, but I've seen dozens and dozens of Kung Fu movies and this is certainly one of the strangest. Although it was a bit hard for me to follow, it seems the "baby" of the title, Red Boy, (who is more like 12 or 13) is the antagonist here, who kidnaps a ruler. The Monkey King and "Pigsie" (that was actually the name given in the subtitles) a comic relief character with pig's nose and ears, try to get the ruler back.

Besides the basic Kung Fu action, this whole affair seems heavily influenced by traditional Chinese opera. Some of the interactions seem overly slow and over-choreographed, and now and again had a kind of Busby Berkeley vibe to them. People kept popping between Heaven and earth to fight, and I never did figure out why.

Weapons and people appear and disappear. Trees and statues come to life and then turn into people and fight. There's a Kung Fu centaur and flame-throwing chariots. Throw in some sci-fi theremin mixed with Chinese gongs and you get the idea. I'm not sure how accurate the subtitles were here (I caught this on El Rey), but I found it all pretty hard to follow. This movie was in Mandarin and I can never understand any inflection or tone that helps me understand things in Mandarin or Cantonese like I can in other languages. But it's basically all action, and at just over an hour I certainly can't say it was boring, just a bit confusing.

I found a dusty VCD (video CD) on the bottom shelf of a music store on Grant Avenue in San Francisco's China Town. It had Shaw Brothers on the label. As a hard core fan of martial arts movies of the golden age from 1967 to 1984 with a personal collection of over 2000 movies, I had never heard of this movie.

Regardless, I had to buy it. It likely cost $5 but I would have paid $100. This was something I would never see again and if I did not buy it then I would never buy it. A closer examination of the case revealed the name "Chang Cheh". Because of that, it was even possible I would enjoy the movie. That was in January 2015 on my first trip to San Francisco. I did not get around to actually watching the movie until today. Would you believe the delay was because I had other movies on my list to watch first? It's true, I have a lot of movies.

The title was of concern. A movie about a baby was not my genre. Fantastic and magic only made it worse. I checked out the cast and recognized a few of the bad guys like Fung Hak On. I also noticed Woo Gam. I like her when she plays slutty characters. She's hot. So I spun up the video CD in my region free DVD player and hit the couch. I kept the remote in hand with my finger on the fast forward button.

It starts with the helpful narrator explain things as Woo Gam and a man enjoy a cannibalistic dinner. Their conversation is all exposition. This leads to the main character, Ting Wa-Chung, introduced as Red Boy. I am relieved that the "magic baby" is actually a "magic teenager". He continues with expository dialog. Red Boy intervenes when the villagers make offerings to the greedy mountain gods.

The earliest Chinese martial arts movies were based on Peking opera stories. These movies were also filmed as if the audience was watching a stage presentation. Most of the camera shots are from center audience point of view and the setting is the stage. This movie is also filmed that way.

Shaw Brothers movies are known for fabulous sets and costumes. This movie seemed a cheap production. The sets were too simple. The costumes were sometimes flamboyant but still looked cheap and designed by children In Peking opera the fights do have real martial arts moves but the choreography is stylized and adds acrobatics. The result is a fight that looks good but not realistic. That was how the fights were done in this movie also.

The Peking opera comparison put me into the frame of mind to enjoy this movie. Pretend you are siting front row center and watching a Peking opera performance, not a movie. With that mind set I did enjoy the movie and never used the fast forward. This is still a watch it once and then done forever kind of movie.