Tian shi zhuang xie

there's two things one has to get past to like this film - first, there's no 'drunken boxing' style here; second, the first half-hour of the film is so loopy, you may want to know what planet you just stepped onto.

this film is actually part of a tradition that has no comparison outside china - part magic show, part low-brow comedy, part juggling and acrobatics, part martial arts, part folk-lore - basically a kind of circus-entertainment that was lost to the west long ago.

part of what makes this hard to follow is that the traditions of magic in china, besides being simply different than those in the west, are also far more complex, since china has been civilized longer, and to a greater extent, than the west has yet achieved. all magic derives from formula; but china's traditional formulas are a little difficult to grasp - there are four magicians in this film, but it is unclear to this westerner why they can each perform certain magic and not others, and why they need to perform straight-out martial arts on occasion, despite their magic.

in any event, after a while, the characters grew on me and i came to like the show - and as the film progresses, there's more and more action, more rapidly paced; so after a while, the cultural differences ceased to matter.

one historic note; beginning with snake in eagle's shadow, yuen woo ping made a number of classic, realistically staged kung-fu comedies and tragedies, culminating in the thinly veiled family memoir, 'secret master' - less than a year after that film was made, this one appeared, and began a set of films spinning 180 degrees in another direction entirely, before yuen regrouped with the classic 'hero among heroes', or 'legend of the red dragon' as it has been retitled for recent u.s. re-release. most of the films of this mid-period are, to put it mildly, a bit off-the-wall, at least according to western standards, and it's not sure why yuen went down this route. most of them - including this one - are not to everyone's taste, even among martial-arts fans; but they're all worth seeing, at least once. they certainly show a different and remarkable - if sometimes bewildering - side to a many-faceted talent of martial arts film-making.

By 1983 everything that could be done in a martial arts movie had been done a thousand times. As the genre was about to be pronounced dead a few creative geniuses like John Woo, Jackie Chan, and the Yuen clan reinvented it. This movie is sometimes called "Miracle Fighters 2". It is not a sequel but a continuation of the creativity of the Yuen clan.

Though they were geniuses in martial arts also they used practical effects to reinvent the genre. (A practical effect is a special effect produced physically and this was the only way to do it back then.) In this movie they used illusions that real stage magicians used, such as the ring trick at the end, and greatly elaborated. Rings were often used as weapons in martial arts movies and I hate them because they are not real weapons and mostly ineffective. The Venoms used rings but they were mostly acrobatic props. Here, the Yuens start with the genuine stage magician linking rings trick and raised it exponentially plus made an effective martial arts weapon.

They were also geniuses in the ancient Chinese art of puppetry. The wire work of lifting fighters into the air had been done for decades but the real creativity came with applying puppetry to the props too.

Chinese also knew all about fireworks and the Yuens used plenty of chemical reactions in their effects.

Some might say there was not enough fighting in this movie. Yes, there was less than usual for a typical martial arts movie. In my opinion, it didn't need any more fighting, quality beats quantity. I rate this 8 out of 10 and it has my highest recommendation.

From the same people who made DRUNKEN WU TANG, and featuring some of the same characters, this is early 80s Hong Kong Kung fu, with blood-drinking demons, giant frogs, flaming fists, giant fire-breathing puppets, and a very surreal mumenchanz-like butt mask Kung Fu fight. Back flips and mayhem, a giant toad with glowing eyes and a tongue that stretches across the room and breaks a table, and a gruesome "walk on the nails" scene. whew.

At one point, the bad says: "Ha Ha Ha!!! I'm evil!!!"

Rat Face(the Drunken Toaist) drinks and fights with gusto, takes a sand shower, and always manages to survive to drink again.

If you like wilfully weird (Lewis Carroll, Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel) check this one out.

We used to call this movie rabbit teeth 25 years ago when we were kids because we didn't know the title of the movie was. Watch for yourself. Action ,Comdey There is no boring part of the movie.

Apr 2021

One of the 4 Yuen Clan films from the early 80s, and they are all equally as excellent as each other for me, the others being "Drunken Tai Chi, Taoism Drunkard and Miracle Fighters".

All 4 have to be seen to be believed, they are all so inventive and amazing and funny with it.

They all star Yuen Cheung Yan, Yuen Shun Yee and Yuen Yat Chor.

Sit back and enjoy

10 out of 10.