Wu zi tian shi

This film is alternatively titled as "War of the Wizards". The story is creative, well developed and captivating. Special effects are ambitious for the budget and production era.

This innovative and highly creative fantasy paradigm that has sadly sunk to obscurity. Swimming in the murky depths of a village port, our hero Ty (a budding scholar) stumbles upon a magical vessel lost by the gods. Upon discovering the special properties of the artifact he uses it's powers to improve his lifestyle. From humble fisherman to noble lord in a matter of days, few question how Ty generates a copious amount of wealth. Upsetting the socioeconomic complacency of locals (who know doubt damaged their teeth while chewing on magical silver) robbers soon start pouring out of the rafters to spoil Ty's frivolity. After Ty avoids several assassination attempts, thanks to a handy pair of chopsticks, he decides to marry two ravishing women to act as his bodyguards. This arouses disquiet in the local magic wielding fortune tellers. His vessel subsequently falls into the clutches of a malevolent witch heralding the beginning of the real adventure.

Well this was a wild ride! There's a lot to love about this crazy film. The story is... strange, but fun. The characters are... also strange, but also fun. There's a lot of weird and unexplainable scenes; like a Phoenix arriving out of nowhere, a man called 'Deadly Chopsticks' using the utensils to kill other brilliantly-titled bandits, and a man charging up his special energy in the sun for 3 days like a battery.

It's really hard to make sense of what's going on in the film, but it doesn't really matter, it's just hilarious to go along for the ride and watch in awe while all this insane stuff plays out in front of you. I definitely recommend watching this!

My review was written in December 1983 after a screening at Empire theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.

"War of the Wizards" is the U. S. release version of a 1978 Taiwanese film originally titled "The Phoenix". Picture is a colorful, but silly juvenile fantasy adventure, rendered very difficult to watch (and listen to) by poor U. S. dubbing and editing.

Period tale concerns a young fisherman named Thai, who finds a treasure chest underwater containing the legendary Magic Vessel of Plenty and Bamboo Book. The golden Vessel creates material wealth whenever he wishes, and attracts the attention of various villains and wizards. Ultimately Thai falls in with two beautiful sisters, marrying one and setting up a menage a trois.

The sisters are stooges for their evil aunt Flower Fox, who steals Thai's Vessel and demands the (still underwater) Bamboo Book from him. Thai escapes aboard that mythic bird The Phoenix to Fairy Mountain, where he acquires super powers from the Sun and Moon and battles with Fox and her huge henchman (played by U. S. guest star Richard Kiel).

Truncated film is of interest mainly for its gaudy costumes and sets, saturated with bright red and other primary colors. Special effects are cheap animated rays, poor miniatures and sloppy optical printing, with the Phoenix a stiff papier mache creation on the level of U. S. junk monsters such as the Giant Claw of the 1950s. The hero, credited as "Charles Lang", mugs incessantly while Kiel is embarrassing.