Ri jie

The story of a fairy baby sent down from heaven to fight an evil demon. The parallels to the Superman movie are numerous down to a cheesy ripoff of the Superman theme. But since it's set in mythical ancient Chinese kingdom the ripoff factor ends up minimal. This is a magic kung-fu film with no pretensions for realism.

The production is very elaborate and has the excellent set design one can see in other Yuen Chor film. There is a level of garishness that might be hard to take depending on your tastes. The lighting designer seems to have been instructed to use every color of light on the same set. The colors are like the Technicolor musicals from the 1940's. On a good large screen this might look great. Unfortunately, the soundtrack is permeated with cheap synthesizer sounds which are repeated beyond endurance. The music is also a mixed bag of traditional Chinese music and 1980's synthesizer schmaltz.

The plot follows the fairy baby (hey that's what he's called) as he grows up and eventually confronts the evil demon. Along the way the fairy protects a beautiful princess. The film is paced very well until a long comedy segment that slows it down for a few minutes. After that the film picks up through the crazy finale where the motto apparently was "excess is entertainment".

I enjoyed it as you usually don't see anything like this.

This really a good movies. Considering the year (1982), the f/x is amazing and eye candy. The plot is great, a mix with typical kung fu movies with fantasy. Probably, at the early of 80's, that kind of movie is a trend in Hong Kong (Zu Warrior and The Buddha's Palm, for example). If you really like an entertaining fantasy movies, it's highly recommended from me.

7/10

First let's start on a positive note: The good news is that like the rest of the recently re-released Shaw Bros. films, this one looks absolutely stunning. Celestial/IVL has been doing not only fans of martial arts films a favor but also fans of cinema in general a favor by releasing these previously unseen films en masse to the public. Sure, some might be disappointing, but only when compared to the excellence of those movies released concurrently. And that's it for the good news, really. Unlike BUDDHA'S PALM, or HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD, or even BATTLE WIZARD, this latest whacked-out swordplay/fantasy movie from Celestial/IVL simply does not deliver the goods. Sure, it has its moments, most of them coming early on, but they are scant. Chu Yuan directs with an aimlessness so powerful it can only be matched by the meanderings of the plot. I say skip it entirely, or at least rent it before buying it blind like I did.