88 Films UK: Peacock King (1988) – A Hong Kong fantasy/horror/action fever-dream by the director of The Cat and Riki-Oh – Reviewed

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All Images Courtesy: 88 Films/Fortune Star

88 Films have just released Saga of the Phoenix (1990) on a limited edition blu-ray in the US: their latest release of a film from the bonkers Hong Kong cult-cinema oeuvre of director Lam Nai-Choi (The Cat, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, The Seventh Curse – all of which have previously been released on blu-ray by 88 films, or Vinegar Syndrome). But bizarrely, Saga of the Phoenix is a sequel, and the film it is the sequel to – Lam Nai-Choi’s 1988 Peacock King – 88 Films could only release on blu-ray in the UK, on a region-B-locked disc, due to restrictions of licensing rights. It is most unfortunate that 88 Films were forced to release the sequel in the US without being able to release the original here as well (yet another argument for why region-free blu-ray players are a film nerd’s best friend), but for those curious to learn a bit about the original film before checking out its more easily-available sequel, I couldn’t resist also reviewing Peacock King, via my imported disc.



Lam Nai-Choi is known for his uniquely insane, anything-goes style of fantasy/horror/action filmmaking, where plots work like fever-dreams, and the screen could explode at any moment with bizarre creatures, wild special effects, and wacky cartoonish action. The closest analogs I can think of in American cinema are films like Big Trouble in Little China or Army of Darkness; true midnight-movie stuff. Peacock King – Lam Nai-Choi’s loose adaptation of the 1985 manga series of the same name – is no exception, and comes out swinging within the first minute with fast-paced, rapid-fire mystical insanity, of the most fun sort. An archaeological expedition explodes into chaos as the evil witch Raga breaks free, and enacts a plan to destroy the world by opening the four gates to hell, and releasing the long-imprisoned Hell King from his shackles. In Tibet and in rural Japan, two different sects of monks sense the rise of evil, and send their finest supernatural warriors to stop Raga: Chinese monk Peacock (a fantastic Yuen Biao, in a role that plays perfectly to his strengths as a comedic leading man who is also an impressive action star), and Japanese monk Lucky Fruit (Hiroshi Mikami). The two bickering rival monks form an odd-couple buddy-cop-style duo, as they must travel from Tokyo to Hong Kong to fight Raga and the supernatural adversaries she throws in their way. Along the way, they encounter Hell King’s daughter Ashura, aka Hell Virgin (Gloria Yip), who is a pawn in the plan for his resurrection, but is actually an innocent who wants no part in the evil. There’s also an assassin played by Gordon Liu of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Kill Bill fame, to add even more impressive martial arts action.



The plot moves breathlessly fast (the film clocks in at just over 80 minutes), never getting more complicated than it needs to be to propel a story packed with action, antics, and creatures. The tone is light, breezy, and fun, an adventure movie that feels like a live-action Saturday morning cartoon, or a hard-PG/light-PG-13 genre comedy like Ghostbusters or Big Trouble in Little China. However, it does have some occasional rather bloody gore effects that pushes it into more hard-PG-13/soft-R territory, though certainly nothing close to the level of Riki-Oh. The plot eventually slows down just enough to do justice to the manga series’ mythology, and philosophy of the balance of good and evil, before shifting largely away from its lighter and more comedic tone in the last act, to deliver a strong climax packed with martial arts action and some cool practical effects work.

 

The film’s effects and stunt work are all extremely impressive, and cover a wide gamut of styles. While it isn’t first and foremost a martial arts film, Peacock King has a few excellent martial arts sequences, including a giant brawl at the top of the third act which is a real showstopper, featuring a great Yuen Biao vs Gordon Liu fight. The movie also has plenty of impressive stunts throughout. The creature effects, though, are some of the coolest things about the movie. It features a menagerie of effects styles, used to bring the film’s many strange creatures to life. When Yuen Biao’s Peacock first arrives in Tokyo, he finds a pack of gremlin-type creatures causing trouble on a sidewalk, which are brought to life by very cool and imaginative stop-motion. Other sequences are brought to life through large puppets and animatronics. The showstopping creature sequence is definitely one in which Raga shapeshifts into a monstrous form for a battle, which has a certain Xenomorph type quality. That creature is brought to life through a combination of stop-motion, animatronics, puppetry, and a good old-fashioned guy in a suit, and the result is fantastic: the creature looks very cool, and its fluid movement within the scene is quite impressive. The transformation effects in the scene are also top-notch. The effects often have a bit of a hand-made quality, especially where the stop-motion is concerned, but in an 80s genre film like this, that is absolutely part of the charm, and adds to the fun of the effects work.



Peacock King is a very fun late-80s slice of Hong Kong genre cinema. One that fans of Hong Kong films should have a fantastic time with, and one that should be an easy crossover hit with fans of films like Big Trouble in Little China and Army of Darkness. In the pantheon of Lam Nai-Choi films, it’s not as absolutely bananas as The Cat (see our review of that one here), but is more or less alongside The Seventh Curse in both quality and level of craziness. It is one I absolutely recommend, and I hope that it gets a US blu-ray soon! In the meanwhile, you can much more easily purchase Saga of the Phoenix – and you can check out my review of that one here!

 

- Christopher S. Jordan