88 Films: Saga of the Phoenix (1990) – More Hong Kong fantasy/action insanity by the director of The Cat and Riki-Oh – Reviewed

 

All Images Courtesy: 88 Films/Fortune Star

In October, 88 Films released a boutique blu-ray of 1988’s Peacock King, a delightfully weird fantasy/horror/martial-arts-action film by Hong Kong cult-cinema auteur Lam Nai-Choi (The Cat, The Seventh Curse, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky), and starring Yuen Biao. Unfortunately due to rights restrictions, they were only able to release that one in the UK, on a region-B-locked disc, while the US does not yet have an equivalent blu-ray of the film (just another reminder that a region-free blu-ray player is a film nerd’s best friend). However, 88 Films were able to get the North American rights to Peacock King’s sequel, Saga of the Phoenix (1990), which is out now on a matching limited edition box set. Fortunately for those without region-free players, Saga of the Phoenix reasonably stands on its own, and can be enjoyed even if you haven’t seen the first film (although you can read our review of Peacock King here to prepare). This swanky blu-ray set sees 88 Films continue the long-overdue wave of renewed appreciation that Lam Nai-Choi’s films are finally receiving in the US. For many years, his only film to receive major US distribution was Riki-Oh, but 2025 has seen US boutique blu-ray releases of The Seventh Curse (from Vinegar Syndrome), The Cat (also from 88 Films – check out our review), and now Saga of the Phoenix, allowing American cult film fans to finally experience how singularly, utterly bonkers his wacked-out mashups of fantasy, horror, and Hong Kong action really are.

 

THE FILM:

Peacock King and Saga of the Phoenix are both loosely adapted from the 1985-1989 manga series Peacock King, which also has an anime adaptation. Loosely adapted definitely being the operative term – for one, Yuen Biao’s main character is an invention for the films, and not even in the manga or anime – and they are definitely best understood as Lam Nai-Choi’s reinvention of the material filtered through his own wacky sensibilities. His movies tend to be gleefully weird ones where anything can happen at any time. His plots typically have a fever-dream quality, where the movies can take hard turns at any moment and the screen could explode with bizarre creatures, cool special effects, and martial arts action. In other words, the perfect type of filmmaker to turn a manga into a live-action cartoon.

 

And so of course, Saga of the Phoenix hits the ground running, and is very weird and extra from frame one. It starts with a brief VO recap of what you need to know if you haven’t seen Peacock King: that Ashura, aka Hell Virgin (Gloria Yip), is the daughter of hell’s demon king who was fated to play a role in his resurrection, but she is actually an innocent with a pure heart, who has disavowed her Hell Virgin title and wants to live out her life as a human. And then the movie starts throwing insanity at you fast and furious, in a way that’s rather disorienting even if you have seen the previous film. So if you’re baffled as a newcomer, fear not; the philosophy you need when watching a Lam Nai-Choi film is to just go with it, and accept the madness as it comes. When a group of demons show up to hassle Ashura and she must use her powers – which she has sworn not to do after disavowing her demonic upbringing – to fight them off, the leader of the Buddhist order responsible for watching over her declares that her roaming free in the human world is far too dangerous, and that she must be imprisoned for the good of humanity. She is granted one last week of freedom to say goodbye to the world before her imprisonment, but under the condition that she is accompanied by her friends, the warrior-monks Peacock (Yuen Biao) and Lucky Fruit (recast, with Hiroshi Abe stepping into the role), to make sure she doesn’t get into any more trouble. However, trouble finds them, as a powerful demon sets her eyes on Ashura, wanting to abduct her and steal her powers to bring about hell on earth, and Peacock, Lucky Fruit, and Ashura again find themselves fighting off supernatural foes.

 

While Peacock King had a fairly straightforward, very propulsive plot, which sped the film from one wild action setpiece to the next in pursuit of a clear goal, Saga of the Phoenix is something altogether different: very meandering and episodic, and prioritizing supernatural antics over plot. Going back to Peacock King’s manga roots, this feels almost like a collection of short comic-book side-stories that connect back into the main plot, but are tangents in themselves. The villainous Demon Concubine repeatedly sends foes to try and capture Ashura, and our heroes fight them off, in a somewhat monster-of-the-week-ish episodic manner, and these fights interrupt the equally episodic tales of Ashura’s week-long vacation in the human world, which takes her into some… odd situations. The decidedly humor-forward film feels like it is taking a page out of a few popular Hollywood comedies of then-recent years. Ashura has a cute but naughty imp/goblin pet brought to life via a combination of puppetry and stop-motion, and the little troublemaker (Tricky Ghost) is a clear Hong Kong answer to Gizmo from Gremlins, getting into similar scrapes and situations. And Ashura, Lucky Fruit, and Tricky Ghost end up staying with a brother and sister duo, of whom the brother is a bumbling amateur mad scientist, whose lab antics feel clearly inspired by the likes of Weird Science and My Science Project.

To be honest, these feel like some very bizarre choices, and the broad and silly humor doesn’t always work. How freewheeling and loose the film feels seems like a strange direction, after the tight propulsive action of the first film, and some of the episodic stretches (like the ongoing feud between the impish creature and the bumbling mad scientist) feel like distractions from the more interesting aspects of the plot. Demon Concubine’s quest to steal Ashura’s powers and awaken hell on earth too often takes a backseat, in a way that feels like the film is somewhat burying the lede. It doesn’t help that Yuen Biao’s Peacock spends the whole middle of the film sidelined in hell, leaving Ashura and Lucky Fruit to carry most of the plot, and leaving us without the great comic lead and martial artist billed as the film’s star. All of this makes Saga of the Phoenix a very very mixed bag, and certainly a weaker and less cohesive film than its predecessor.

 

With that said, however, there is still a lot of great fun to be had here, and plenty of moments when the film works. Saga of the Phoenix has some excellent fight scenes throughout, which combine martial arts action with over-the-top special effects in extremely fun ways. The special effects are, as in Peacock King, wonderfully fun and very eclectic. We have rubber-suit creatures, stop-motion, puppetry, rotoscoping… an excellent bag of tricks. Tricky Ghost, the little Gremlin character, is brought to life very well, and is absolutely adorable and extremely expressive. The stop-motion is a bit rough around the edges, but is charmingly fun; the puppetry is excellent.

By far the best part of the movie, though, is its climax, which combines excellent martial-arts combat (finally making full use of Yuen Biao after sidelining him for much of the film) with outstanding rubber-suit creature artistry, as our heroes come face to face with hell’s monstrous big-bad. The Japanese roots of the story really show themselves here, with an almost kaiju-esque creature of very cool, clearly anime-inspired design. The design and execution of the creature are great, and it makes a formidable foe which gives the film’s climax an epic feeling that the episodic, comic nature of the movie thus far had often been lacking.

 

Saga of the Phoenix is a wildly uneven film which makes some truly baffling choices, but it at least has its moments throughout, and it ends very strongly indeed. I can’t help but wish that it had more of the drive and focus that Peacock King does, since it absolutely is a lesser sequel. It still is worth a look, for its more inspired wacky moments, its great action, and its cool effects, but it is one that I would recommend more to dedicated Lam Nai-Choi fans, and would not recommend as strongly to newcomers. Of his five films that I’ve seen now – Riki Oh, The Seventh Curse, The Cat, Peacock King, and this – it is definitely the one I would rank last, although it is still worthwhile. It is worth a look if you enjoyed The Seventh Curse, The Cat, and Peacock King, but I would definitely recommend watching those first.

THE 88 FILMS LIMITED EDITION:

88 Films’ limited edition package for Saga of the Phoenix is outstanding. The set comes in a hard outer box, which contains the blu-ray, a card of the movie’s gorgeous poster art, and a book of essays, which focus on the conversation between Japanese manga and anime and Hong Kong cinema that we see in the film. On the disc itself, the extras include another very interesting and informative commentary by Frank Djeng, joined this time by F. J. DeSanto, an interview with former Golden Harvest employee Alber Lee about the inner workings of the iconic studio, and a series of deleted and extended scenes from the movie’s alternate Japanese cut.

 

The film itself comes to us on a new 2k restoration from the original negative, courtesy of Fortune Star. It looks excellent. Detail is strong and crisp, colors are bright and robust, contrast is strong. The transfer has a very filmic look with a healthy grain structure, and no signs of DNR. While I’m sure some might gripe about it not being a 4k restoration, I think this transfer looks outstanding, and more than good enough. Those who only know the film from its old non-anamorphic import DVDs will be stunned by the upgrade on display here.

It really is a shame that 88 Films were not able to release Peacock King in the US as well, because it is without a doubt the better movie of the two. This one is still a lot of fun in its best moments, and worth a look for Lam Nai-Choi fans, it just isn’t his best. Still, 88 Films have given it a stellar release, and after this past year’s US blu-ray releases of The Seventh Curse and The Cat, there should be plenty of new Lam Nai-Choi fans who will eat this release up, and enjoy judging this weird, goofy film for themselves.

 

- Christopher S. Jordan