Weirdhouse Cinema: Thrilling Bloody Sword

my ability to speak. Yes, Thrilling Bloody Sword will have that effect on you. You should not drive after viewing Thrilling Bloody Sword. You shouldn't attempt any kind of complicated paperwork scenario. You should. You just have to let it finish doing what it's doing to your brain. Yeah, if you watch this movie, you should schedule nap time for afterwards. Yes,

some recovery time is required. After I saw it the first time, I was rather proud of myself for thinking, like, this is the first time I've watched a movie that I would describe as face melting, which is usually um, you know, how we might describe certain you know, metal tracks and so forth. But then I've started looking around online. I saw other people had the exact same reaction and described it with the exacts the same terminology, of which which means I wasn't as original. But this film is

having the same impact on so many people. Like there's just something about it that just uh just utterly destroys and remakes you. It is so unusual and so strong and so fast. Well, it's like in a Whoosha movie when the heroes first encounter the villain and like they're overwhelmed by their by the strength and speed of their martial arts, and it's like, how will we ever defeat them? Yeah? Yes, that it's this is this is quite a film, one thrilling,

bloody sword. We've we've covered a handful of Hong Kong films on Weirdolt Cinema before, but this is gonna be our first taste of Taiwanese cinema, which is closely linked to Hong Kong cinema and often features a lot of Hong Kong cinema connections, actors and so forth, but it

has a vibe all its own. Taiwanese cinema. Um I I checked out some of the special features on the Thrilling Bloody Sword disc, including some material from Justin d Clue of Gold Ninja video talking a bit about the connection between Hong Kong cinema and Taiwanese cinema and the way he describes it is that Hong Kong had already really established itself in Taiwanese cinema is kind of trying to catch up to a certain extent, and also trying to up the anti on things like action sequences in

various films, also like creative decisions, and I think this film would suggest creative weirdness, like what is something different we can do that we can try and try and create a film that just has not been seen before. That's absolutely what this is. I would say that this movie is less rooted in pre existing genres like action or horror then we would see in in at least the Hong Kong movies we've watched so far. This is

This creates a new genre almost too. I guess the closest you could call it is maybe fantasy action, but with some elements of science fiction in there. Yeah, and it also seems to draw heavily on from is we'll discuss a few different nith and folkloreic cycles. I think there are some connections to be made to the fantasy films of Russian filmmaker Alexander Rue, especially when it gets down to bear transformation. But but yeah, this film stands

apart and gloriously so. Actually, I think that comparison is incredibly apt. This is kind of like if you took Morosco or Jack Frost and then added in a bunch of martial arts action scenes. Yes, yeah, that's that's that's definitely the vibe. So the title thrilling bloody Sword, I do have to say, thrilling, yes, sword, Yes, not so much bloody. There's not really any blood in this per se.

Probably the grossest goryous things in it or right at the beginning and right at the end at the beginning with a lady gives birth to like an alien meat pill, and then at the end there's a bunch of disembodied gory like flayed arms and legs that are flying around attacking somebody. Yeah. The original title here is uh Shinjen dong Shan, Who, which I believe translates to something like

the Divine Sword moves mountains and Rivers. But I've also seen this film just referred to as the Thrilling Sword or Heavenly Sword. But yeah, I still thrilling Bloody Sword is a title that is distinctive, and it's a movie

that's distinctive, so I think ultimately it works. Now I'm wondering, I'm sort of second guessing myself and wondering if I over sold it and saying this movie is a genre all to itself, because I guess you have a note on this, and having read several other people on the internet talk about it, I think some people think that this fits into the category of WHUSHA films, right, like this sort of historical chivalry based martial arts movies. Yeah,

I mean, and roughly so you could, you could. It would not be improper to put it on shelf with other who shoo movies. But I think most commentators seem to indicate that this this it distinguishes itself a bit more like drawing in, for instance, all of these various fairy tale and mythic elements from various non Asian cultures, Like there is essentially a multi headed dragon at one point, and it's a very western looking dragon. Um, that's a

hydra basically. Yeah, yeah, so there are things like that that that contribute to it. I've also I think it was the clue that pointed out that also the action in this film isn't as fluid as you might expect from like pure action elms of the time period. But it's still very thrilling action. Uh it's it's still it's still amazing to behold. But I can I can sort of see what he's getting out there about the about the about the martial arts in the film. It's not

a pure martial arts spectacle. Yeah, well, a lot of the martial arts are. Uh, I mean, there are a couple of just straightforward fight scenes, but most of the fighting in it is in some way sort of uh thwarted or complicated by the presence of sorcery, which involves a very funny and great special effects. Yes, the special effects are. This is a film that is very ambitious in its use of special effects at times perhaps too ambitious, but like the ambitions, yes, oh it's so good. I mean,

it's um it's my favorite kind. It's like special effects that it's not like they look quote convincing or quote realistic, but these special effects are full of soul. They are my favorite kind of effects in a movie. Uh. And the other thing I didn't want to let pass by, though, is that i'd say roughly a third of this movie is a version of snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Oh gosh, yes, yes it is. It's a story full of of cursed dwarf generals, evil sorcerers, monster attacks, jin

heavenly swords, miraculous birth by comment. There's so many elements and I'm not even touching on all of the crazy things that occur in this film. Now, you mentioned that the movie is not as bloody as the title would suggest. Did did you let your son watch this one? I didn't know, Like I didn't watch it with like a parents point of view. But is this movie okay for kids or not? It's hard to be hard to say. I mean, all parents will have to make that decision

for themselves. But content wise, I didn't think it was that bad. I tried. I showed him a little bit of it, and it was the It was one of the comedic sequences with the dwarves, and then I skipped ahead a bit to show him some of the action. And mostly he's really into Miss mostly just commenting on special effects at this point, whether he thinks something is real or not. Um, and of course he was. He was quick to say, well, that doesn't look like a real monster, but he did like he did like the

monsters designs that we encounter. Well, that phase will pass. But I think for the most part, this this feels like a feature that was aimed at the entire family. Um. That's the sense I get from it. This is this is a family film, an action fantasy film, cobbling together multiple fairytale traditions into just a single face melting fantasy adventure. I don't know if it was intended to be just so uh, And I mean it is just an intense spectacle, and I guess that appeals to all ages. Okay, maybe

we should hear some trailer audio. Let's do it all right now. A note on availability before we proceed here. Uh, this may be one of the harder films to get your hands on we've watched. There are some unofficial rips out there, and I think a number of these are in terrible quality, in part because they may be just ripped off of television. But Golden Ninja Video did a beautiful restoration of the only known thirty five millimeter footage

and it's all in this wonderful blu ray. As of this recording, I believe they're out of stock and it's unsure and when they'll restock. But you can preorder a two pack that features Thrilling Bloody Sword plus Revengeful Swords Woman Um. Otherwise, if you're Atlanta based, you can rent it at Video Drome like we did UM and it has actually played at a few cinemas here and there, so you might be able to catch it on the

big screen if you're lucky. I will say again my my personal opinion, personal recommendation, this one is worth seeking out. Like if you hear it's playing at some at some cinema nearby, it's worth making the trip. Yeah, this is a film that you can do. You can sit down and watch and intently study. But it also is just a colorful, beautiful film. Like if you just want something interesting to have playing in the background somewhere, I think

this is your movie. Okay, Rob From What Wizard's Mind was Birth to the Months Stir That is Thrilling Bloody Sword. This is the work of director writer Sin ye Chang, who was born n and His main contribution to martial arts cinema was as a writer with screenplay credits on a bunch of films, including Black Belt Angels, Three's shaw Len Versus Lama. This is the film with the Buddha

finger in it. For those of you are familiar with that or that sample, there's a there's a wonderful track from the uh from the from the artist Depth Charge that used a lot of samples from this film, and that was I think that was actually pre Woutang. But I also wrote on three's The Challenge of the Ninja nineteen seventy six is the eighteen Bronze Men. This is where like Shaolin warriors battle these men who are painted bronze and sometimes have big bronze heads. I haven't seen it,

but the trailer looks fantastic. Now as a director, he only has ten credits did which include V eight Snake in the Equal Shadow Too in nineteen seventy nine Kung Fu Commandos. None of the other films, however, apparently matched the tone and vision of Thrilling Bloody Sword, But as as Justin n Clue explains, he had he was apparently really admired for his ability to plot out martial arts action.

So like this this apparently when you get down to like screenplay questions regarding many of these martial arts films, there's a lot of leeway into like how how much are they describing and um, and and apparently this is a guy who was very into plotting out you know, the action. Uh so he was who was sought after

for this. I'm gonna say that in its favor. Um. I believe I've said this on the show before, but you know, I'm I'm critical of a lot of action scenes in movies because I think there is action choreography out there that doesn't quite understand that action has to be a drama, right. It needs to have beats, It needs to have moments of interchanging power. There need to be changes throughout it, Like you've got to keep it interesting. It can't just be you know, essentially trading blows back

and forth in a sort of static, ongoing exchange. Uh. And this movie gets that. The action scenes in this movie have beats, they have drama, they have changes. It's really good stuff. Yeah. And but but like you said, it's not a pure martial arts film in that a lot of it is the magic, and but the magic has that kind of internal, well choreographed fight scene um logic to it, where like if a new weapon is

introduced it means something. If a particular magic spell is being invoked, you know, it's it's very much a part of the plotting of of what's going on. I will also say that, especially for a lot of the earlier action scenes in the movie, I respect the restraint of how short they are, like that they don't go on forever just to eat up screen time. There's one really awesome action scene earlier in the movie where a couple of sorcerers kill a demon and it just takes a

few seconds, but it's an awesome scene. Yeah. Now, as I continue here through some of the connections here, I want to stress that this one was a little harder

to put together. The connections on the IMDb page for this movie does not include character names, and the Hong Kong uh Movie Database was it was a little more helpful, but it doesn't have the character names for a number of the actors in it, so some of these I had to look at at photographs of the actors on the Hong Kong Movie Database and sort of piece it together.

And I believe I got everything right, but there there's also some differences on how how the names are reproduced in UM in English on the two websites, so you'll just have to bear with me, but I think we got it mostly right here. Either way, I admire the attempt. So there's a co writer listed on this dates unknown, and this is their only credit on on both databases. But there's a John Lung Ching or or Chang Singh who is credited as being co writer. But let's get

into the cast here. So we have the princess. Is it yr g? It sounded to me like like uh so they spelled it in the subtitles why a U r G, But it sounded to me more like yao gi yao G. Alright, Well, the princess Yaogi, who we may I may refer to as the princess played by an actor that I don't have dates for either, and this is of Fang Fang Fong. She was active from through nine eight six and seems to have come back for a role in two thousand nineteens the shooting of

three nineteen. In this film, she's very much in traditional princess mode, but she does it well I also noticed she was in a nineteen eighty five film titled Ghost Busting, which I as seemed to be a supernatural comedy. I included the poster for you here, Joe. It looks uh, it looks impressive. Why does it have Sherlock Holmes on the cover? I believe this is a ghost busting A professor character in the film based on what I was he's reading about it. He's dressed like Sherlock Holmes. Okay,

Buston makes me feel good. I want to see this all right now. If you have a princess, you have to have a prince, and that is the Prince Ya June played by Lu Shang Chin, who was born in nineteen fifty three, Taiwanese action star who's in a bunch of wusha and fantasy movies. He played the Monkey King in nine two is New Pilgrims to the West, and also played the Monkey King again in its sequel, Monkey War. He also appeared in nineteen nineties The Twelve Animals. Man

is he dashing in this? Yes? He has all the handsome and uh and is very action oriented. A terrific prince that you really want in their handling. Your thrilling, bloody sword. Uh. Yes, so he's great. I would say, actually, the whole cast in this movie is great. I didn't notice a single performance I didn't like, But for me, the standout performers are the two villains are two sorcerers. I loved them. Yes, I think we have a new occult power couple here. Uh they are the the the, the, the,

the evil Sorcerers. Also they were described as exorcists. Uh it is Schaker and and uh, let's start with the sorcerer here. Shaker played by Chang Ye Born. Yeah, it makes an incredible villain here is Stern has kind of a Christopher Lee esque face, big bushy eyebrows, long hair, again, very stern, but also wonderful sorcerer robes. He has a cool demon staff. He was just consistently one of my favorite parts of the film. Uh yeah, just just wonderful performance. Here.

Active from the mid sixties through the mid nineties and a ton of martial arts films as well as some TV shows. Born in mainland China, he worked in a bunch of Shop Brothers films, and I believe is now. I was reading online that he's retired and living somewhere in the Vancouver area, but he seemed to have a pretty strong Ryan. He appeared in the eighteen Bronzemen alongside Carter Wong and seventy six Carter Wong. Uh. Some view listeners maybe may remember him from Big Trouble and Little China.

He plays Thunder Uh, the larger of the three storms. Another muscle guy. Yeah, the big muscle guy that explodes. Um. Changy was also in the nineteen sixty seven Shop Brothers film King Kat, in which he plays the lead, and he was a director on nineteen seventy threes Chinese Dragon, in which he was also the lead. Changes is just great in this he is cool as a cucumber. You could imagine a different version of this character that was very kind of well, you know, kind of mustache twirling

and uh and whiny. But no, they make him suave and cool and uh. He like when he's making demands on the King. I don't I don't ever recall him getting visibly upset. It's like he knows he's in command because he has the powers of darkness in his hands. Yeah. Yeah, that's that is a good description. And you know he's not doing it alone. Again, this is an ocult power couple. We have an excellent sorceress and exorcist standing beside him.

Gear played by Elsa yang Hu Shan born in either fifty two or fifty three, depending on which database you're looking at. She was active from seventy six through eight six. Yeah, and she's great in this as well, just vamping it up with high fashion choices and terrific black magic. Um. Yeah, she just she she also anytime she's on the screen,

I'm just completely entertained. The scene where she first showed up, I feel like I was already loving the movie, but my brain was just like snapped to attention because it just immediately like heightens the like the weirdness and drama because she shows up in the middle of a of a court palace and um, She's like, Hi, I'm here to kill your I'm here to solve your demon problem. And the King's like, oh great, And one of his advisors is like, I don't know if we should trust

a sorceress to handle the demon problem. What if we get a nice, honest swordsman instead, And she just like points her hand at the guy and makes his head spin around three times. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, Yeah, she just immediately owns the room through black magic. Uh so

the actor here also young who sean. Other notable roles include the lead in nineteen eight Three's with the Challenge of the Lady Ninja and another notable one that I'm guessing hasn't traveled, as well as a lot of this action fair that there's drama titled ku May a Woman, in which she also starred. She also played Princess iron Fan in that two Monkey King movie New Pilgrims to

the West. As I said earlier, I love the actors playing both of the sorcerers that she she is a perfect match for for Changi here, and she is just great. Her screen presence is off the charts. So many cost him changes too, Like you never know when she's going to show up in an entirely new ensemble. Like one second it's it's it's all crimson and gold, the next section she's she's. The next scene, she's going to be

outfitted like an Egyptian queen. Uh, you never know what you're gonna get, but it's gonna be fabulous, all right. We mentioned the King. The king who's just completely bowled over by these two is played by Chin Han, Hong Kong actor who also wrote and directed a couple of features. Um, his majesty here is a fun screen presence in this, but again he's he's kind of constantly overwhelmed by either

emotional revelations or black magic. Yeah. I would say he's sort of on the receiving end of everything crazy that happens in this movie. He's always just there to react like, oh no, but he's great in that role. All right. We also have a ferry in this. We didn't even mention the fairy, the little fairy in the forest, and um, this is played by Shia ling Ling essentially is like a tinker Bell esque spirit character, and so the characters

just played to bubbly excess. It's like a like a like like very very tinker Bell, just like constant siren going off in your head. Um, so, Ly's kind of like kind of like Navvy and Ocarina of Time. Yeah, uh so. Ling Ling was a Taiwanese actor whose credits include Snake in The Equal Shadow Too is The Vampire Dominator, which I've read is a non vampire film about ghosts on the run from Dallas Exorcist. So that one sounds

kind of fun. But yeah, born ninety three. I feel like her character is almost a little bit intentionally annoying. But she she's great with it. Um but but she's sort of like part of an ensemble of the the well meaning dwellers of the forest who are set opposite the evil sorcerers of the Palace. Yes, and she's she's very helpful. She's more helpful than many fairy characters in in various fantasies. She has so many solutions that shall

bust out, uh yeah, tremendous. Oh yeah, I mean our hero could not succeed without her because when when the Prince is doing battle with many enemies, it is only through her insights that he is able to succeed, such as like she realizes, Oh, you've got to stab this uh this robot in the butt. Now, as we mentioned, there's there are seven dwarves dwarves slash cursed generals in this movie, and I don't know what their names are.

It was very difficult to figure out who is who here because they're all just I think on the Hong Kong movie database, who just listed as dwarves like dwarf, dwarf, dwarf I know that one of them, this is the I guess we might describe as FARTI. The dwarf is played by Poo Lao who who lived nineteen fifty one through five, who was a Taiwanese actor who seems to have had a lot of comedic roles um in a in a very in a short life and short career, and he also directed a comedy in eighty one titled

The Taxi Driver. But this is I get the the the the sense from these this bunch of actors playing the dwarfs that they're all comedic actors and these are all very over the top, slapsticky performances. This is not dry humor, folks. No, now we mentioned the martial arts

connections here. The martial arts director on this was Chen Shing who lived nineteen fifty one through It was a member of the Shaw Brothers Venom Mob, who did a lot of stunt work and choreography in such films as nineteen five Deadly venoms Um, which established the Venom Mob as one of the go to crews for martial arts action during this time period, though he was not an on screen venom in that film. If I remember correctly,

and then who finally the music. The music on this movie uh comes to us from Mao shan Huang, who was born in nineteen forty has something like three hundred and seventy three composer credits on IMDb Active from nine. Credits also include films like Challenge of the Lady Ninja and Lantern Festival Adventure. I loved the music in this

because it was extremely varied. So some of it was I don't know what the word for this genre is, but something I recognize kind of um, you know, action movie music with like drums and bass, but then with a synthesizer leads and and had to kind of fantasy flare about it. But then there was also just straight

up funk. Yes, when we're first introduced to the Dwarves, we get this funky bass that sounds a heck of a lot like David Bowie's track Fame, Like it sounds like Fame's gonna start up at any second, but it doesn't. There was one part where there was a baseline that made me think it was gonna go, Hey, kids, rock and rule. There's there's another scene where they're real t he vibes to the score. Um, other times, it's just glistening psychedelic synth work that really works well with the

film's sorcery. And then there there's one part part two. I don't know if you caught this. It's later in the film, but the tune of the score gets dangerously close to star spangled banner, like, way closer to star spangled banner than you would encounter in an American film. Um, it doesn't, it doesn't completely commit, but it almos it's almost star spangled banner. It's a very shocking moment. Wow, I did not catch that, But now I want to go back and watch it all over again, just to

just to find that part it had. There's like the has has the very sweet music that plays when something emotional is happening. There's also a little romantic saxophone thrown in there. Um. So, like you said, it's all over the place, but it's it's never boring, it's it's always great. All right. Well, I guess if we're gonna talk about some things from the plot, I have to say I was enthralled with this movie before the action even began, because the credits alone are just within seconds doing a

symphony of violent eccentricity throughout your brain. Uh. You know, while the credits are rolling, you see a gold sword made of pure energy, emitting bolts of lightning through like a field of stars. And then you see a bunch of things in photo negative, like so photo negative figures in battle, including a hero in like a mini tentacled head dress with armor befitting a god. Uh, and then a hero who's doing battle with a pair of disembodied

feathery big bird arms. That's what it looks like originally. I think you get a different idea later that they might be a little gooey er um. You see a flying ghost covered in ropes. You see a rapidly multiplying vision of a horned demon with a gaping mouth of all these teeth in it, and like a wizard smashing

what looked like clay pots with a staff. You see a giant with a ash club doing you know, a very righteous and bashioning of the camera lens, and then a human shaped creature zooming around like a flying squirrel, all still in photo negative. And then there's one part where what it looked like at first to me was a metal eyeball nipple shooting lasers into the blade of a dagger. Uh. You see a giant pair of teeth like those wind up chattered teeth flying through the air,

chomping at the hero. And then you see the hero stabbing a giant in the butt with his sword. And the meaning of all of these images will be revealed in the film. Fortunately, these these are these are images from the movie that we are about to view. It's a clip show of the movie to come. And they had the good sense to say, what's all the weirdest stuff in the movie, let's put that in the credits. But it it makes you question why, because it's not like they needed to to get the weird out and

feel like, well, there's gonna be a break. It's not gonna be weird for a while. No, it's almost immediately weird. I can't imagine a scenario where they're like, I don't know if people are going to stay in the theater, they might try and leave. Uh. If the first thing we show them is just a comment coming out of the cosmos to impregnate a woman, let's address that. Okay, So the first thing that happens when the plot actually begins is you see space and you hear what sounds

like a heartbeat echoing through the primordial chaos waters. You know, it's like an underwater kind of sound. And then we see a fiery meteor shooting through space. Then a king and a queen in a royal palace, and the king is pacing back and forth in his throne room while all of his advisers are gathered. He's obviously concerned, and the queen is about to give birth. And at this point I need to to drive home that this film

is not dubbed in English. It has subtitles, but the subtitles are burnt in, so they're they're just a part of the footage, and they're in both Mandarin and English, and they're very rough subtitles at the times that are kind of confusing and the way they're written. Also, they're white and sometimes they're set against white backgrounds, so sometimes you just cannot read what the line of dialogue is

even in rough translation. Yes, these subtitles feel rushed. I mean, it's a it's definitely enough to figure out what's going on in the movie, but sometimes the actual phrasing is quite funny, right, like it's you're on the verge of baby delivery queen. That's the line of dialogue or when

they're talking people. Various people keep talking to the king and they address him as his majesty, as as if to say, we think we have found your daughter, his Majesty, And it's kind of unrelenting like everything else in the movie, and it can definitely impact the language center of your brain by the end of it. Yes, so the palace

starts shaking violently. Uh, there's the the approach of the burning meteor, and then the meteor suddenly flies into the palace and then flies at the queen and is seemingly absorbed into her body, and then she immediately projectile gives birth to what looks like a giant pill capsule made of alien meat. And at this point you might wonder, why are we in a Cronenberg film now, like this is what what did I sign up for? Luckily, this

is about as as gross as it gets. Yeah, this is the I don't know why they frontloaded it with that, but that's the first thing, is the alien meat pill. And then the king comes in and he sees it and he's like a gross and he instantly concludes that it is a devil, but an advisor says to him, this is a quote from the subtitles. No he is

your son anyway. Uh. And the servants at the palace, what they end up doing is that, I guess that the King's orders, they take the alien meat pill and they put it in a basket and set it in a river where it is carried away by the current. And I was like, wait a minute, this is the story of Moses and also sort of of Perseus and Danny. Yeah. Yeah, Like, like I say, this film cast a wide net for its Folkloreican mythic influences, and very apparent by by what

happens next. Oh that's right. So it goes on down the river and then we get a title says the Seven Dwarfs of the Happy Forest, And wow, okay, so the Seven Dwarfs here, Uh, just like snow White, the Seven Dwarfs live in a forest in a hut with a painted backdrop of like mountains and multicolored clouds. And oh boy. I know I've probably babbled about this before, but this is one of my all time favorite things.

I love a constructed indoor forest set. Like, uh, you know, overall, the movie isn't as great as you'd want it to be. But it's one of the best things about legend Ridley Scott's legend is the built forest sets in that studio or I think of Daego Bar or whatever. I don't know why, but I just love a built forest. Uh So, by the way, please right in with your favorite constructed indoor forest sets and movies. I seek them out, so

send them my way. And yeah, they're creating this um the you know, this rural habitat this this little farm where all the dwarves live and they since it is a farm, there is of course a rooster, an obvious puppet, screeching and mandarin. It's fabulous. The rooster is horrifying. It just it constantly cuts to it and it's like, I guess it's a puppet. For some reason, I was thinking of it as a robot. It's like a robot rooster that is just screeching and screeching. It barely resembles it.

Like I'm not even sure now thinking back, is it a chicken, Is it a female chicken? Is it a rooster? I don't know. It's it's at least a bird, and it's a great puppet. It's not it's not like a bad puppet, but yeah, it's it's just as logical to

think of it as a robot versus an animal. Yeah, so when we first meet the seven Dwarfs, they are marching and counting the numbers one to seven, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, the soundtrack changes to funk base and saxophone, and we see the robot rooster squawking, and one of the dwarfs with a fancy mustachh is dressed sort of like Robin Hood, and he's shooting arrows in the sky. And then one of them comes back down having skewered a fish, and he looks at it and goes strange.

So I was trying to think, this movie never does a thing where it like names all of the seven Dwarfs and like introduces them individually. You just kind of have to get a sense of them while it's rolling. So there's like the goofy Robin Hood, who's the bow and arrow guy, but I was also thinking of him as handsome dwarf because he's, I don't know, he's got a fancy mustache. But then there is the vain one who is interested in his hair, and then there's the guy who drinks a lot and has a big bald

spot and spits. And then there is the sleepy one, and then there is the one who farts. There's like, I guess he's he's farty friend, and like the rooster literally has a line like the FARTI dwarf farts, and then the rooster says it smells bad. And then I think there are a couple of others and I don't know what their deal was. One guy has a necklace with like bagels or dumplings or something on it. Oh yeah, he also has a mohawk. Mohawk, right, has the cool

hair style and he actually has more lines. He's one of the more active fathers of the seven fathers. Here. Um, there's also a guy with a tall hat. Um, but I don't remember what he did as much. You gotta have seven of them. They can't all have starring roles, I guess. So the film seems to focus mostly on on FARTI um, mohawk and also yeah, Robin hood yeah, and baldy also the bald one. Yes. Yeah, Okay, So we a couple of them are off in the river

and they discovered the alien space baby pill in the basket. Uh, they like pick it up and they say, hey, we picked up a big fleshball that's from the subtitles, and they they discuss what to do with it. They they're like, oh, you know, how should we deal with this? And they said one of them says let's cook it, and another says let's pickle it. But they eventually end up like stabbing it with a knife, and then it steam pours out of it, and then they realize, oh wow, it

is no longer an alien pill made of meat. Now it's just a baby. It's just a regular human baby. And they're like, oh wow, now now we're all going to be it's now we're all gonna be fathers. And they debate what to name it. They briefly consider the name Demons, but then they settle on Yaoji, and then

we get seventeen years later. And by the way, a thing that you must keep in mind while we're discussing all of this is that everything in this movie happens fast, and the cuts are very sudden, and the changes in the action are very sudden. This movie does not do I mean, occasionally it does, but most of the time does not do a lot of like establishing new shots

and locations is just one thing straight into the next. Yeah. Yeah, And so instantly seventeen years go by, and this is where we get a monster attack, a fabulous cyclops monster. That's right, So it shows us. I think it's supposed to be an inn, like an inn and a tavern, and a cyclops monster just attacks it. It's like a monster with horns, and it's got one eye and then it's got kissy lips. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It has kind of a turtle vibe to it. Uh, it's it's it's

a nice effect. I like this cost him a lot. It starts rampaging immediately. There's a great scene where there's this drunk man kind of uh stumbling through the inn and he looks over and there's a paper screen um um, and behind it we see the silhouette of the monster, and for a second, the silhouette, I guess, kind of looks like a woman. And so the drunk man's like, oh, I'm gonna go check this out, and he pokes a hole through the screen to peek, and then the monster

like reaches through and grabs him. It's wonderful, just eats him. I think I don't know, it's hard to tell what the monster is doing with people. I think it's eating people. Uh, and we see, Okay, can anyone stop this rampaging eyeclops. A couple of tough guys with weapons leap up, one as an axe, one as a sword, but no, the monster instantly dispatches them. So I guess that just establishes that somewhere we I don't think it has told us where this is, but somewhere there is an end with

a monster problem, right, and it's ongoing. Yeah, ongoing. Let's go back to the to the forest. Just suddenly, uh, we go back and now the alien meat pill has become has grown up, and she's become a princess. And now that she is is grown up, she lives in the forest and she interacts with like magic stuff, like a magic altar. Yep, the magic altar becomes important later. I didn't understand what was going on with the magic

altar at first. I think it's described at first that the altar keeps the devil away, keeps the devil from capturing the dwarves. Uh. And essentially that's it. It's apparent it's apparently a ward to keep certain evil forces away that have a role in the Dwarfdom of these Seven

end of the Jewels. Yeah. Yeah, So she is down by the river's edge when suddenly she meets a handsome prince with sideburns, and I gotta say them when we first meet him, the combination of the sideburns and the fact that he's wearing like a white suit with these wide lapels with inlaid designs made me think Elvis. I also found it funny that in a movie so full of magic, the princess's first major threat here is she She almost falls in the water, and he's here to

save her. So it's not not like a monster attacks in this scene or anything. But he's here, he's handsome. She's immediately snooting. Yeah, absolutely instant falling in love. So she they introduced themselves. She is Yogi and he is your June of the your Chin Kingdom, and uh, I think he's he's on his way to the palace of the nearby king so that he can pay his respects

for the king's birthday. And so they walk back to the seven Dwarf's hut, and immediately the robot chicken is just mad, screeching, unleashed Um and the the the seven dads here are initially quite skeptical of the prince when they see him, but then Yeahchi explains that well, he's royalty and he saved her life, and they soften up real quick. They come around to the to the new boyfriend, but of course the prince can't stay. He's he's on

a royal journey. He has to be on his way to the palace, and so he leaves, and oh no, the princesses, oh, she's pining for him, and the farting dad says her daughter is sick with love and it's sad. I think we get some of that sweet music playing here. So next we cut back to the palace and the king, and here we begin a sequence that is just bananas.

This is what I was talking about at the beginning, where the part we're like, I mean, everything so far has been great and weird and wonderful, but at this part my brain kicked over into like a higher gear. So we're in the courtroom of the palace and the king announces he's troubled by a demon that has been attacking the town. Is there any way they can defeat it?

I think they're talking about the you know the cyclops from earlier, and uh, there there are notes of sort of Bayo wolffish stuff here, like, you know, the king's hall is under relentless assault. Can no one kill the monster? And then enter a powerful warrior from far away. So one of the advisors in the court says, his majesty, a woman exorcist and named g R in the Wuchian kingdom is overpowerful, which that sounds like a problem, but

I think they're just saying she's very strong. And the king says, all right, you know, let's get her to come in and deal with the demon. But she's already here. Just crazy, witchy laughter fills the hall and the sorceress appears in the middle of the throne room and then instead of walking up to approach the throne, she repeatedly teleports. She makes quite an entrance. Yes, she assures the king that she has the power to defeat the demon. And here's the part I was talking about where one advisor

is like, I'm concerned about the safety of civilians. Maybe we don't want to trust a sorceress. And then she just like twists his head off, like twists his head around on his neck and kills him. I guess to prove her trustworthiness. I don't know, but she curses him to death, and then there's a guard who's like, hey, you're not supposed to kill the imperial ministers, and he draws his sword, but then she uses her magic to make the sword fly from his hand through the air

and then back through his chest. But I guess she turned it into a spectral sword or something, because he appears unharmed. He's just very shocked. So she's ultimately just proving what she could do if she needed to do it. I don't I guess she didn't actually kill anybody here. Well, no, I think she did kill the first guy. I think she just didn't kill the second guy for some reason.

That the neck twisting guy. Okay, yeah, I mean I could be wrong, No, I I the impression I got was she actually twisted his head off, but she did not actually skewer the guy with his own sword at any rate. She makes a strong statement, I've got the goods I can handle this demon, but by the way, I also need to bring in another person on this one.

That's right. So she says she's going to capture the demon, but she has a friend called Shacker who has magical powers and he's going to help her, and the King's like, oh great, another sorcerer will send for him, but once again he's already here. So we get the shock her reveal and wow, it's like a wrestling entrance. He has

his own funky theme music. The lights start flashing, and he appears in both live action bodily form, but also in animated form and an animated form, he's like blue and he looks like a Marvel Comics dark wizard with glowing eyes. It's like they're they're flashing to still images from a glorious van mural of a wizard. Yes, and I every time both times that I watched this and I'm watching this film a couple of times I was it was just like what, Like who should I know

that that image? Like what's going on? Uh, it's such a strange to me choice, but it absolutely makes an impression. Yeah, I know what you mean. It's almost like it was intercutting with like a famous painting that we should recognize, Like it's with like, you know, the Bosch painting of Terror and Madness or something. Yeah, I don't know, but I love it and again, he makes quite an entrance and he's got this wonderful magic staff with that like what a demon head on top of it. So you

instantly can tell this guy knows his exorcisms. She knows her exorcisms. This, this is the occult power couple we need to invest in as a kingdom. You do not need to mess with these two. And the king says, so you are powerful exorcists. Hope that you make it um so onto business. They go out to beat the monster, but also in doing so they do a sick costume change. They look so cool. Yeah, the sorceress especially, like suddenly she's wearing this terrific Egyptian themed out fit with this

like Egyptian like ancient Egyptian hairstyle. Absolutely wonderful. And then how do they kill the demon? It's over very quick. Yeah, Like they basically show up. There's the demons rampaging in the streets, and uh, the sorcerer uses this kind of napalm demon staff strike. He like does a few flourishes, throws his demon staff and it just explodes in a big fireball when it hits the demon boom. Done one and done. It's over, and then they're right back in

the courtroom. Yeah, and she has another costume change. She's wearing all red though she's gonna be back in the Egyptian outfit again like the following scene. But she's a sorcerers she can do what she wants. So for killing the Cyclops demon, the king rewards them with official posts. I think he makes the well, actually, I don't know if this is fair. I don't notice that he rewards the sorceress only the male sorcerer. Uh. He rewards Schaker

by making him a general. And the King's advisor has concerns. He's like, I don't know if we should make these for his generals. That would be kind of giving them a lot of trust. But the King just dismisses these worries. It'll be fine, and they seem great. And then literally in the next shot, they're both cackling about what a great idea it was to send the one ied demon to terrify the people so that then they could gain access to the palace by defeating it. Yeah, the advisor

is the only sensible person in the entire film. Um that that basically the king never listens to him, except a little bit maybe at the beginning concerning the child, but for them. But when it comes to these the sorcerer and the sorceress, he's like, no, no, no, I'm fine. I trust them completely. Didn't you see how powerful they are? And now we know they're up to no good? Right, right?

I wouldn't be fair to the advisor. I think later on he does get his advice followed somewhat like after remember, after he finds out about who the princess is, and he want he tells the king. He's like, hey, I think that's your daughter. Actually he's consistent. He has sound counsel throughout the entire picture. Sometimes they listen to him, sometimes they don't. That's right, But oh man, there is such eye popping demon activity in the next scene. So they go down in what I was thinking of the

whole movie as the basement. The sorcerers go to the basement where they've got a big statue of a demon with two faces, one face on the head and then one face in like the belly or the crotch, and like they talk about this because at one point the sorcerer says to their demon, he's like, you've got too many faces or something. Yeah, And then there are these big, like paper machee giant human heads that may represent the sorcerer and the sorceress that are like clutched in hands.

There's all this glorious red gel lighting. It is this wonderful demon layer. And one thing I particularly loved is that the design of this demonic altar it um, it has a style like the artistic style here is not It's not something you would necessarily I think see in like traditional uh Chinese iconography, but it reminded me very strongly of of decorations that I saw in Ending, China at a haunted house, like a like a tourist attraction,

you know, at one of the parks there. It was the same sort of style of outrageous looking demon head. So I don't know if if this kind of uh this style of decoration has a name, but you might think if it I guess is like sort of like Chinese halloween stylings. Um, but it it has. It's it's wonderful. Yeah, this whole, this whole demon layer, and we learned the demon's name. They serve Ah, do they say we are your loyal lackeys for long? Yes, lackeys forever. But Okay,

what are they going to do down here. Well, they do some rituals and they pledge their loyalty to the demon ah do, and then they're like, hey, let's create a nine headed siren. We need another monster. That's right, I mean they've gotten so far with one uh monster, con they've got to take it to the next level introduce another monster that, of course they will have to fight and then reap the benefits of having slain. But it doesn't exactly go that way, does it. But we'll

get there in a second. So, first of all, there is a scene where she's dad's try to make her happy again, because you know, she's back in the forest. She's love sick. She's fallen in love with the prince but he's gone off on his own path and and now all she can do is sit around in pine for him. So she's so sad, and they, you know, these are these are kind dads, these these are they're good dads, and they want to help her out. So they're like, I know, let's try to make her laugh

by doing animal impressions. Um. So they they spend a long time seeing who can like be the funniest, like, uh, rooster or ape. Yeah, the scene. This scene maybe goes on a little too long, not that that I got sick of it, but you can tell the music transition to the sweet stuff while the comedic shenanigans were still going on. But then they cut over and yeah, she's feeling sad, and they realize it's not working. We've got to help her in another way, right. I think they're

starting to get the picture. It's like, look, the only solution here is we've got to get her together with her prints. That's the only way she's gonna be happy. But they know where the prince is. He's at the capital, so they'll be able to follow up on that. Okay, so what are they What are they gonna do to kill the nine headed Siren? The King's like, there's more monsters? Why why are we getting more monsters? Um? And this time they suggest, I know, let's let's not waste our

best sorcerers on the monster. This time, let's send the heroic young swordsman, the prince you're June, who is here from a foreign land to celebrate the king's birthday. He can kill the demon for us. And there's initially some concern. I think they're like, oh, but he's like he's actually royal, Like, we don't want to risk his life. But your June comes out and says, no, no, I am skilled in self defense. And you can tell the Sorcerer and the Sorceress do not like this idea. This is um, this

is a kink in their plans. Uh. They are supposed to be the go toos for dealing with demons, right, So the young Prince goes out with uh several other soldiers to fight the monster, and then there's this cool scene where the the evil sorcerer Schacker is sort of puppet control owling the nine headed Siren from the demon

basement while the Prince is fighting him. Yeah, the sorcery in this film is all fabulous because there's a lot of um, a lot of hand movements and moodras and so forth, with wonderful kind of martial arts sound effects to each movement, and then also the creation of magical circles in the in the air in front of the sorcerer or sorceress that they'll stick their hands through to

do the various incantations. So the magic is just richly visually of fun to watch, and of course the Prince wins the sword fight against the monster, and it's interesting that the violence against the monster actually translates back to the puppet master at actually to Chakur. Like at the end of the fight, he's in his demon basement spitting up blood. It's intense. So once again things are not

going according to plan. This this monster was was theirs to slay and they couldn't even use this monster then to slay this metlesome hero. So then we cut back to the forest for a bit and here we get the bunny fairy seed. Do you want to describe this, Well, you know, she's she's doing what a princess may may do oftentimes, just setting there, a bunny comes up to her. She's feeling sad, so she picks up the bunny and then she puts the bunny back down instead of I

guess what, killing the bunny. I don't beating it because the because the thing is the bunny then transforms into the fairy of the forest and did this tiny little bubbly woman who then is like, yeah, you save me, this is great. Let me make it up to you, or maybe not save You didn't save me, but you

like spared me. I'm not I'm not really sure what the trans The details of the transaction are here, but basically, she's I am a fairy and now i am fully introduced in this film, and I'm here to help you. That's right. So I think the fairy is saying, I'm so glad you didn't kill and eat me as a bunny. Um. So, so anyway she gets she says, hey, I'll grant you a wish. And what is the princess wish for? She tells her she can win for a gym or a pearl, but the princess says, no, all I want is to

be with my prince. And so together her, her dad's in the forest, and the little Fairy, they conspire to help Yogi win the heart of the prince. But let's see, the fairy magically gives her a gown that would, let you know, it's like Cinderella like. She can wear this to the palace. And then the seven Dwarfs come up with a plan to sneak her into the palace because one of them knows the guards at the palace, and they can sneak her in pretending to be a maid

so she can meet the prince again. Now you might wonder why did the dwarves have all these connections it They kind of begin to trickle the information here and about the dwarves, but we eventually learned that they are dwarves because they were cursed. They were seven generals. So they even though they're in hiding and they're using a magical altar to keep evildoers from finding out where they are, they still have connections to uh, military individuals at the

palace and so forth. So I guess he was once like the fartie general. I guess. Alright, So the princess in filth rates the palace pretending to be a maid. She meets the prince again, and things are going sort of well in that regard, but then the sorceress g

r Is jealous. She goes to the demon statue in the basement and she's like, I thought you said I am the most charming girl, and the demon statue was like, uh, well, well, well sorry, you were not the most I guess this is supposed to be a kind of a mirror mirror on the wall. Who's the fairest. Well this this leads to a sort of cascade of political machinations in the palace, but they all end up with the prince being transformed into a bear, yes, transformed into a bear and caliported

into the forest by the Sorcerer. And oh my goodness, this bear transformation, I absolutely love it. I think I'm becoming a big fan of bad bear costumes and films. Um. I recently watched the three film Adam and e Versus the Cannibals that I briefly mentioned in our Fruit of Paradise episode that has a tremendously bad bear costume in it. I watched that just the other week. This film's bear is much better than than the one in Adam and

e Versus the Cannibals. It's still kind of reminds me of the mutated bear in the Prophecy, but also is very much this um kind of I don't know, sloth bear, sun bear. He's not very threatening, he's kind of cuddly. Um, it's a it's a fun bear costume, but also it's clearly a bear costume. Yeah. Yeah. And of course strong connections here to Alexander rose Russian fantasy film Jack Frost, because in that we also have a prince who has turned into a bear where his voice sounds like Zoidberg. Right.

But in this one, like the bear is almost immediately marching up to the farm house there of the seven dwarves, and everybody's like, oh, I don't know what that's all about. Look, there's a bear coming this way. We should be afraid. But the Fairy she can tell. She can tell in this kind of hilarious sequence where she sees that the bear is not like a dancing bear, it's actually the dancing Prince, and she's like, no, no, it's the prince.

We've got to help it. Yeah, that's what so she so yeah, they reveal the backstory that the seven dwarfs are originally generals, and then she and the fairy and the generals are like, we know what to do. We have to boil the bear in a magic potion and a cauldron with the lid on for seven days. Yes, he has to suffer in there for like seven days, and he can't come out, you can't take the lid

off of it. But at the end he will be cured. Now, meanwhile, there's another scene with the sorcerer and the Sorceress and they're they're like, you know again, they're plotting, and they're realizing we've got to do something about these um these generals or the prince, the prince us and so forth, and there's some talk of like, oh, we need to find where they are and they're they're like no, no, they have an exorcist alter, so we can't pinpoint their position.

We should send someone to destroy the altar, and pretty much the next scene is the princess accidentally knocking over the altar and thus incapacitating it. It was like, it's a weird set up there, Like I thought they were going to send some sort of lackey uh to you know, to some sort of a spy or a magical animal. But no, it just this problem solved itself, no additional lackey required, right, And as soon as it happens, they appear and they abduct the princess. Oh and then they

magically blow the top off of the cauldron too. So now it's revealed that the prince is going to be paralyzed because he didn't complete his bear bath. Oh but wait he's not for some reason, right, Don't they do something to help him the princess, I mean not the princess. The fairy then says, oh, don't worry about it, I have a solution, and she has some sort of a potion that she gives him and he's fine. See, she's just she solves problems. That's what a good fairy does. Yeah,

she's on top of it. But but but uh so they so the sorcerers have kidnapped to the princess because I think they're gonna use her in their plan for usurpation of the throne. Because what do they want? Ultimately, they want power, right, they want to be in charge. So they take her to the demon basement and they do a ritual and this scene will make you lose your mind. Yes, there's dancing fire. The scynth just gets really intense, flashing eyes, flying heads as they ask their

demon lord to quote dead in her soul. The goal of this is to hypnotize her to say that she will marry shack her the sorcerer. Um. So they take her up to meet her father again, and by this point the king has been convinced by his adviser that ah, yes, this princess was the baby we put in the basket and sent down the river. This is your daughter. So the King's like, oh wow, it's wonderful to see you again. Daughter, I'm so happy you're here. But the first thing, she's like, look,

I gotta marry the evil sorcerer. And the King's like, well, okay, if that's what you want. But again it's only because she's hypnotized. Uh. And here kind of begins a journey of Adventures section of the movie because the Prince now he's back at the in the forest. He becomes aware of this via Bunny Fairy reconnaissance, and he's like, oh, I've got to stop this from happening. So I've got to make a journey to recruit several kinds of magical help in order to save the princess. But the Bubbly

Fairy realizes he's not ready for this right now. He needs he needs you. He like any hero in a story. He needs special weapons, he needs special armor, and I've got to send him on a side quest to get those things. Okay, So I I've I think I forget some of the quests. He goes on, what are these

quests that happened in rapid succession? Well, he has to he has to swim right some sort of subterranean cave in order to get the armor and the sword from a skeleton he doesn't fight the skeleton or fight any kind of Ardian It's just I guess, difficult to get there. And then the skeleton talks to him. He is like, hey, here you go. Take this is great armor, great sword. I'm so glad somebody can use this. Oh yeah, I think what it's the thunder sword and the magic armor.

And I think what the skeleton says is every trinkle in my collection has magic power. I think that might be a typo, yes, but the ideas that like every detail of it, every cuff link, every every jewel uh in the armor has some sort of a magical power. Sometimes you don't know about it till later, Like later on you'll hear more narration from the skeleton that will inform our hero of how he can better utilize this

fabulous armor. That's right, And then he travels more. He travels like into this strange desert with these spires of rock that the ferry purchase on and they talk, and at one point he goes into a cave and ends up battling what I thought, we're bat demons. But then also some of them look like frogman like they literally have a diverse flippers on their hands, and feet. Um, so they were doing what they could with the costuming here, but I still think it looks it's it's pretty good.

Um And I was like, what are these supposed to be? But according to the captions they were, they're not bats. They were a bird and frogs Yeah, three frog sirens. This is the second time that that siren is used in the subtitles to note some sort of a monster. So I feel like there's probably some sort of interesting connection about like how monster becomes the word siren or what word in Mandarin eventually becomes siren in this context. But yeah, some sort of bird monster, some sort of

frog monsters. The bird monster looks better than the frog monsters. I feel like they were they were running out of funds or time or both to create these frog creatures. But I don't know. The lighting is weird. The physical performance of the frog sirens is is humorous, so it it works. You were entertained by it. One off their heads gets cut off and it's like it's like going on my head and trying to grab it. It's wonderful.

Huh oh. And then while all this is going on, the people back home are in peril because the sorcerers imprisoned the king and the princess and their allies in a magic circle and they're like, you must renounce your throne and turn it over to me. And there he's slowly like burning his advisors alive until he relents. Yeah, it's the situation has has gotten rather intense at the capitol. And then meanwhile they've also sent out warriors to battle

the prince for immortals. Okay, so maybe you caught more of the context here. This is the battle where um, where the prince and then some of his allies end up fighting these these like statues or these automata. Yeah, and this might be something that's kind of connected or inspired by the eighteen Bronze Men film that I mentioned earlier from seventies six, because when they first encountered them that they're clearly at her standing still, you know, brandishing

their weapons, but they're kind of moving a little bit. Yeah, they touch them, they hit them with their weapons, and they just grew weapons. They seem useless against them, and then they start battling and this is a this is a fun uh fun group of villains here. For for our hero, he also has like a few lackeys with him. At this point warriors from the capitol who came to get him and be like, hey, you should come. There's

a whole situation going on. Yeah, that's right. So among these warriors, there's a big ogre with the club, there's a guy with a mace that has a rotating drill bit, there's a teleporting fighter with a spear and a shield, and then I think I lost track of who the

fourth guy was. But for this this fight, the Prince gets his thundersword charged up and he's trying to fight him, and he's a very skilled warrior, but he just like he can't beat him until the little Fairy of the Forest uses her magic vision to see their weak points and he's and she's like, oh, I see, you have to hit this one in the armpit. You have to hit this one in the mouth. And then the last one is one who has to be hit in the anus. Even though the subtitles say his quote hip, but that

is not what has shown. No, Nope, he clearly he has to stab this one up the butt with the Heavenly sword. And the scene in which this happens is absolutely amazing because he does this fabulous martial arts Hong Kong wire back flip thing, then slides underneath the monster and then upward thrust with the sword and then picks him up off the ground with the sword and then the warrior explodes in a burst of brilliant fire. It's great.

And so after this there's another part where he has to go into a temple and fight another magical guardian of some kind. It's like hard to describe what it is. It's like a flay. It's flayed body parts that don't have the whole body with them, and they're flying around attacking him. So like like bloody skinless legs and like arms and teeth. Yeah, the the limbs they look they look like, you know, gore, like fake gore, but they also kind of look like fur. So I kept thinking

of them as the limbs of the meat muppet. They're moving around, they're flying around, they're also being sneaky around him. And this whole sequence where he's battling this guardian that is all these pieces that then eventually comes together. Um, it made me think of like the works of Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard, where you know, one of the things that when you mess with ancient sorcery and ancient magic, you just have no idea what sort

of madness you're messing with. And this sequence just felt just authentically just so weird, like this is some weird magic that our heroes encountering here, and oh, we should say why he's here. I believe the fairy has said, oh yeah, if you want to defeat the evil sorcerer and sorceress, you're gonna need some help. You need to get this magic box. They imprisoned somebody, they betrayed some magical being. The magical being is in the box. Go here at the box, bring that with you to the

capitol when you go to defeat them. Okay, So he does. He defeats this monster, he gets the box, he opens it up, and then a guy comes out who is kind of scary in his own right, and he's got uh these two big like bald camel humps in the middle of his head. Yeah, yeah, strong fengi vibes to the head. Though to be clear, the farrengies wouldn't be introduced told like eighty seven. I think, so no way

that was a connection. It reminded me a bit of various illustrations of the divine farmer Shinnong, who has you know, kind of like an ox like appearance to his otherwise humanoid body. So he's like some often like little horns poking through the top of his skull. So I kind of got a vibe of of that character from this being. But also clearly this is some sort of a gin because it's you know, very much some sort of a

genie you trapped inside of a container. And now the being has been freed and he's going to do a solid for the individual who freed him, right, so they together go back to the palace. Magically, there's like almost a chase scene then where the genie like grabs the guy pulls him into the box and then flies to

the palace with the fairy struggling to keep up. Oh yeah, and then she's like wait, wait, I can't keep up, and so the the gin hand comes out of the box as it's flying through the air on obvious wires, grabs her and it pulls her into the box as well. Again. Just so the the the effects in this were just audacious, like they're very ambitious in what they want to do

accomplish here. Now, of course, There is a big final battle involving the Prince doing his his sword fighting, and then also involving this this wizard genie being who has been freed from the box fighting his fighting the the wizards who betrayed him, and it's uh. I don't want to describe it in too much detail. It's just a absolutely wonderful showdown. It does involve the uh, the guy freed from the box pointing at things with his middle finger. Yeah,

he starts using all sorts of crazy gin magic. Our sorcerer and Sorceress who are now cornered. They have at least one major costume change that occurs, and they're doing a kind of tandem fighting. We get an awesome wizard sword that's busted out by the Sorcerer, and the sorceress also has like a fancy black magic dagger that she uses. Just an epic battle proceeds uh to play out here in the uh the Hall of the King. I think I can say no more about thrilling Bloody Sword except

that it was absolutely wonderful, one of my favorites we've done. Yeah, it should. You absolutely have to see it. It's just a complete visual spectacle. And also the music is great as well. Uh so see it, listen to it, learn from it, be changed by it, be melted and remade, and its likeness become an eternal lackey if the demon

I do. Yes. Oh man, there there's so many great but like there's some wonderful, big caring moments between the sorcerer and the sorceress and do Like the sorceress has the bit of course where she's like, I thought you said I was the most charming, and then there is this whole bit where a dudes like, hey, Sorcerer, I thought I told you to kill the prince and the princess,

and he's like, I have my own plan. I'm gonna do what I want here, and then they get into a big argument and it kind of comes to blows um with the with various like demon icons sent out against the sorcerer and he's having to battle him off with his staff until finally the demon is the one that's like, WHOA, well, we shouldn't be bickering. You know, you need to get out there and fight that prince. We're on the same side here, thrilling bloody sword all right,

So yeah, strong recommendation on this one. Uh, you have find a way to see it and see it. All right, We're gonna go and close the book on this one. But I'd love to hear from anyone out there who has thoughts on Thrilling Bloody Sword, if you've seen it recently, or I'd love to hear from anyone who saw it back in the nineteen eighties. Uh, definitely right in about

that if if you have details. But yeah, if you want to listen to other episodes of at House Cinema, it happens every Friday in the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed. We're primarily a science podcast, but on Friday's we set aside most serious concerns and we just focus on a strange film. I will blog about these movies over at SMUTA music dot com and if you are a letterboxed user, that's l E T T E R B o x D dot com. Uh, you'll find

us there. Our user name is weird House. We have a fabulous list of all the movies we've covered thus far, and we'll also generally sprinkle in the next one or two movies we're going to cover, so you can sort of get get a drop on what we're going to discuss in case you want to watch something ahead of publication. Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth

Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest topic for the future, or just to say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.