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Speaker 1: Hey, Welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is Rob Lamb.

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Speaker 2: And this is Joe McCormick, and oh boy, we got

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Speaker 2: a good one for you today. This was our episode

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Speaker 2: on a Chinese ghost Story. This one was a movie

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Speaker 2: from nineteen eighty seven that has Oh boy, it has romance,

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Speaker 2: it has adventure, it has monsters, screaming skulls, all that

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Speaker 2: good stuff. So yeah, I think we will Well, wait

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Speaker 2: a minute. I didn't say when it aired. This was

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Speaker 2: from June seventeenth, twenty twenty two. That's when it was.

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Speaker 3: Enjoy Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production

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Speaker 3: of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.

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Speaker 2: And I'm Joe McCormick.

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Speaker 1: So last year around this time, we watched the highly

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Speaker 1: influential Chinese supernatural horror comedy Mister Vampire from teen eighty five.

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Speaker 1: So we're returning once more to the genre with another

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Speaker 1: important eighties Hong Kong film, this time with romance thrown

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Speaker 1: in amid all the martial arts, spookiness and comedy. It's

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty Seven's a Chinese ghost Story.

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Speaker 2: This was a great movie. I was surprised how much

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Speaker 2: I loved this one, and much like the Lorelized Grasp,

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Speaker 2: this is another monster romance movie, except in this one

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Speaker 2: the romance is perhaps not as tragic and doomed as usual.

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Speaker 2: It basically has a happy ending.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it does. When we were looking for a

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Speaker 1: film to follow up Mister Vampire here, I was looking

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Speaker 1: at this, and we were also looking at Encounters of

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Speaker 1: the Spooky Kind, which is another big film in this area.

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Speaker 1: Ended up moving towards this one after we watched the trailer.

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Speaker 1: There are a number of amazing elements to it, though

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Speaker 1: we may get back to Spooky Encounters in the future.

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Speaker 2: You know. Much like Mister Vampire, this also has just

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Speaker 2: a rad butt whipping Taoist priest yep. But unlike Mister Vampire,

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Speaker 2: the Taoist priest in this movie has a musical number,

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Speaker 2: and it is a rap about the doo. I'm not kidding.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought you were talking about another scene and

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Speaker 1: exaggerating a bit when you texted me about this, because

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Speaker 1: you were watching the second half of the movie before

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Speaker 1: I did. And no, it's as close to a full

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Speaker 1: on rap as you could possibly expect in an eighties

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Speaker 1: period piece. Chinese supernatural romance comedy.

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Speaker 2: And it's the only musical number in the movie. I mean,

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Speaker 2: the movie has songs in it that have like lyrics,

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Speaker 2: but they're not sung by the characters. This is the

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Speaker 2: only song I think in the entire runtime that a

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Speaker 2: character on screen sings.

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Speaker 1: Aside from one little song that our lead character sort

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Speaker 1: of sings, kind of a whistling in the dark sequence

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Speaker 1: as he's running through the woods and trying to keep

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Speaker 1: himself from being completely terrified by all the wolves and

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Speaker 1: ghosts that are about.

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Speaker 2: I carry the six Classics in my heart. Yeah, yeah, well, okay,

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Speaker 2: what's the elevator pitch on this one?

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Speaker 1: The elevator pitch pretty simple. Life is tough when you're

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Speaker 1: an impoverished scholar with impossible dreams, and also when you

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Speaker 1: have a ghost for a girlfriend.

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Speaker 2: Ooh yeah, it's rough. I like how you picked up

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Speaker 2: on direct lyrics from those songs that the play in

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Speaker 2: the background that's not from the dowrap, that's from there's

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Speaker 2: like a recurring sort of lyrical motif about how you

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Speaker 2: must pursue impossible dreams passionately.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, one thing we will drive home here is

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Speaker 1: that the version we watched, which was as of This

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Speaker 1: recording streaming on Amazon Prime is in Cantonese with subtitles,

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Speaker 1: and the subtitles were at least good enough, but there

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Speaker 1: were some obvious errors here and there, as well as

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Speaker 1: sort of the traditional thing you might run into with subtitles,

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Speaker 1: where you might question whether this was the most most

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Speaker 1: elegant translation possible. And also you get into the issue

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Speaker 1: of okay, what is this comedic line actually translating through?

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Speaker 1: Most of the time, it doesn't matter. Most of the

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Speaker 1: comedy in this film shines right through the barrier of language.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I found it extremely funny. I think the

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Speaker 2: comedy totally works across culturally. But yeah, so what I

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Speaker 2: would say is that the subtitles in this movie seemed

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Speaker 2: wrong in a way that had nothing to do with

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Speaker 2: translation errors. Like there were a lot of errors that

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Speaker 2: look like the kind you get from scanning in a

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Speaker 2: printed document into digital text, where things like lowercase o's

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Speaker 2: and a's being exchanged for one another. So I remember

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Speaker 2: one line and the subtitle said evil will never overcame good. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I'm curious what process led to this. Could it be?

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Speaker 2: Could somehow there'd be a scanning of a paper document

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Speaker 2: to create the English subtitles. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, well let's go ahead and hear at

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Speaker 1: least some of the trailer. We probably won't play the

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Speaker 1: entire trailer this time, but it will give you just

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Speaker 1: a taste of the sonic world.

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Speaker 2: Of this film, all maimung Yong, do.

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Speaker 1: You go? All right? That? Of course, that can only

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Speaker 1: partially prepare you for the sights and the sequences, because

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Speaker 1: this is this is a really fun film with a

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Speaker 1: tremendous flair for the fantastic. Uh, some great martial arts sequences,

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Speaker 1: some solid slapstick. It has just about everything he could want.

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Speaker 2: So I've read that this movie actually has sort of

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Speaker 2: a cult following among young people in mainland China, even

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Speaker 2: though it was not released in theaters in mainland China

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Speaker 2: when it first came out.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you sent me a paper about this. I

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Speaker 1: was looking at that, and yeah, it's interesting one. This

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Speaker 1: one's one that definitely pops up in Michael Weldon's books

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Speaker 1: here in the West, the Psychotronic Film Guides, where he

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Speaker 1: was a big fan of it was like, yes, go

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Speaker 1: out and see this film. So it sounds like it's

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Speaker 1: a film that, yeah, maybe didn't get released the way

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Speaker 1: they might have wanted to release it initially in mainland China,

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Speaker 1: but subsequently the seeds grew in both the East and

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Speaker 1: the West, with people coming to appreciate all the things

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Speaker 1: this film has to offer.

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Speaker 2: I think there's a lot about it that's more subtle

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Speaker 2: than you might expect. Like, this movie is tonally weird,

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Speaker 2: but in a very nice way. Like It's it walks

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Speaker 2: this strange boundary between being earnest, almost to the point

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Speaker 2: of being sappy, but also being very ironic and sort

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Speaker 2: of making a mockery of authority and tradition at the

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Speaker 2: same time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it is a nice balance like it There's

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Speaker 1: there's definitely slapstick, and there are definitely some just outrageous

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Speaker 1: comedic performances sprinkled here and there. But it's done in

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Speaker 1: a way where we're yeah, like the parts that are

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Speaker 1: serious and the parts that are romantic, Uh, they're they're

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Speaker 1: allowed room to breathe and feel authentic.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is this is not a movie that is

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Speaker 2: sucking up to the powerful. It's like it's full of bosses, policemen, magistrates,

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Speaker 2: basically anybody in a position of authority in this movie

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Speaker 2: is viciously mocked.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so you can see how it would appeal to

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Speaker 1: the young people. And we'll get into some of the

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Speaker 1: examples of the of this in a bit, because yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're they're they're numerous terrible mortal authorities and you know,

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Speaker 1: I guess the the the supernatural authorities are pretty corrupt

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Speaker 1: as well. All Right, let's talk about some of the

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Speaker 1: people involved in this, because it does have some interesting

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Speaker 1: connections and uh, and it is a it is a

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Speaker 1: pretty big film. Like a lot of the people involved

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Speaker 1: in this were names at the time or certainly went

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Speaker 1: on to become big names in Hong Kong cinema and

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Speaker 1: or international cinema. So first of all, let's start with

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Speaker 1: the director. This is Sutong Qing born nineteen fifty three,

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Speaker 1: also one of the martial arts directors on the film,

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Speaker 1: Hong Kong action choreographer, actor, film director and producer. Probably

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Speaker 1: best known for this film, but he also directed such

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Speaker 1: movies as nineteen eighty six's Which from Nepal, a supernatural

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Speaker 1: film starring Chao Yon Fat, nineteen ninety three's The Mad

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Speaker 1: Monks starring Stephen Chow, nineteen ninety eights An Empress and

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Speaker 1: The Warriors starring Donnie Yin and twenty elevens The Sorcer

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Speaker 1: and the White Snake starring Jet Lee. So clearly he's

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Speaker 1: worked with some of the biggest names in Chinese cinema

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Speaker 1: at different points in their career.

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Speaker 2: Wait, I thought I saw maybe did Suetung Ching also

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Speaker 2: do Hero? The Jet Lee movie.

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Speaker 1: I think he was an action coordinator on that one. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: because yeah, because there are a number of credits that

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Speaker 1: he has that are pretty impressive that in which he

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Speaker 1: didn't direct them, but he was involved in choreographing the

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Speaker 1: martial arts. Because he's a guy. His father was actually

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Speaker 1: a Shaw Brothers studio director, and so he kind of

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Speaker 1: like came up in the system, I'm to understand. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: he even his just stunt directing credits are pretty pretty interesting.

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Speaker 1: So you have two thousand and two's Hero, and according

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Speaker 1: to IMDb, he was an uncredited stunt coordinator on two

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Speaker 1: thousand and two Spider Man, the Sam Raimi film. I'm

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Speaker 1: not sure if IMDb is one hundred percent accurate on

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Speaker 1: that account.

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Speaker 2: Though you're right. I just double checked. He did not

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Speaker 2: direct Hero. He did action choreography and also also did

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Speaker 2: action choreography for House of Flying Daggers.

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Speaker 1: Oh oh yeah, that's a solid one too, so big

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Speaker 1: name this guy. He has at least one American film, though,

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Speaker 1: a film with a notable American presence, and that is

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Speaker 1: two thousand and three's Belly of the be starring Steven Sagal.

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Speaker 2: It is almost it almost makes me want to scream

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Speaker 2: imagining someone of the talents of Su Tung Ching being

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Speaker 2: wasted on a vehicle for Steven Sagal.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you pulled up a clip of this an action

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Speaker 1: sequence from this film, which I mean, as far as

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Speaker 1: action sequence goes, is not bad, but.

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Speaker 2: It's not great.

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Speaker 1: It's not good.

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Speaker 2: But there's the.

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Speaker 1: Steven Sagall presence is almost too distracting because it's in

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Speaker 1: this film. I think he's playing uh, the basic, the

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Speaker 1: basic Stephen Sagall character where he's he's a CIA agent

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Speaker 1: but he's also a Buddhist master, uh, and he's really

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Speaker 1: great with martial arts also guns. Like that's that's most

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Speaker 1: Steven Sagall roles, if not all of them.

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Speaker 2: He's ex black ops, I'm retired now.

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Speaker 1: And then he's job. There's an IMDb trivia piece about

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Speaker 1: that film, Belly of the Beast, which says that that

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Speaker 1: basically they shot everything without Stephen Sagall and then we're

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Speaker 1: just going to bring him in at the very end

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Speaker 1: to do his shots, a lot of close up shots

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Speaker 1: and all that sort of thing, which I guess you

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Speaker 1: could interpret interpret one of two ways, right, either a

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Speaker 1: Steven Sagal has a busy schedule or as expensive you're

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Speaker 1: only going to have him for a short, short amount

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Speaker 1: of time. I know sometimes it's been said that he

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Speaker 1: doesn't like actually work very long during a given shoot,

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Speaker 1: so you know, they're just being economic about the whole thing,

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Speaker 1: or perhaps there was a certain reputation in place and

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Speaker 1: they thought, well, we need to be prepared to use

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Speaker 1: this little Steven Saghal as necessary. And according to this

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Speaker 1: bit of IMDb trivia, if it is accurate, is like

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Speaker 1: he showed up this last day. Everything else has been shot.

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Speaker 1: They just need to shoot some scenes so that they

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Speaker 1: can insert Segal in. You know, the rest of the

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Speaker 1: stuff has been done with stunt doubles. But he had

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Speaker 1: ideas about how things needed to be shot that of

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Speaker 1: course would just wreck everything else. So Ching says, okay,

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Speaker 1: that's fine, you can just you can shoot it yourself.

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Speaker 1: We'll leave and look at kind of like a standoff

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Speaker 1: and a studio put enough pressure on him that he

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Speaker 1: was like, Okay, I'll go along it with this, and

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Speaker 1: so the film was actually finished.

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Speaker 2: That's a that's a heck of a bluff. You deal

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Speaker 2: with somebody who you know is an ego man but

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Speaker 2: is also lazy, and so you're hoping the latter will

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Speaker 2: win out over the former.

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Speaker 1: But to be clear, I have not seen Belly of

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Speaker 1: the Beast in its entirety, so I don't know if

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Speaker 1: you if you have out there, if any of you

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Speaker 1: were Steven Seagal's connoisseurs, feel free to correct us on

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Speaker 1: the quality of this motion picture.

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Speaker 2: You know, my feeling is Steven Saghal is you know,

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Speaker 2: you know, you always know what you're getting with that.

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Speaker 2: So really the quality of one of his movies has

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Speaker 2: to do with how Zany is whoever they cast is

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Speaker 2: the main villain, and so like you can really achieve

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Speaker 2: a certain peaks of of of greatness in like under

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Speaker 2: Siege too dark Territory just because because Eric Bogosia and

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Speaker 2: he is going going crazy on the computer.

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Speaker 1: Mm hmm, yeah. I remember enjoying that one way back

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Speaker 1: in the day when I saw it on the HS

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Speaker 1: or something.

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Speaker 2: It's still pretty hilarious.

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Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's get into the writing on this one.

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Speaker 1: This is this because this is pretty interesting. First of all,

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Speaker 1: the screenplay was written by Kai Chi Yun. Dates unknown,

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Speaker 1: or at least I wasn't able to pull him up,

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Speaker 1: but he was seemingly active eighty three through twenty twenty,

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Speaker 1: so may still be active. A screenwriter who went on

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Speaker 1: to work on nineteen ninety four's The Legend of Drunken

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Speaker 1: Master and nineteen ninety one's Once Upon a Time in China,

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Speaker 1: and also twenty twenties The Enchanting Phantom, which seems to feature,

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Speaker 1: like this film, a scholar who falls in love with

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Speaker 1: a ghost. As we'll discuss like this, there have been

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Speaker 1: multiple adaptations of the source material here.

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Speaker 2: Oh right, So yeah, I wasn't aware of this when

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Speaker 2: I was first looking at the movie, but you told me.

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Speaker 2: This is based on a story by pousong Ling from

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Speaker 2: the original The Tales from a Chinese studio it is.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So, poosong Ling, who we've discussed in the show

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Speaker 1: before both I Think Weird House and Stuff to Blow

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Speaker 1: your Mind, was aching Dynasty writer who lived sixteen forty

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Speaker 1: through seventeen fifteen, and he mostly worked as a tutor

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Speaker 1: during his own lifetime, but along the way he collected

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Speaker 1: and wrote down a number of weird stories that he

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Speaker 1: heard and he picked up, and a lot of these

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Speaker 1: stories that were later published after his death as Strange

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Speaker 1: Stories or Strange Tales from a Chinese studio in seventeen forty.

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Speaker 1: A lot of them have that air to them where

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Speaker 1: he'll be writing and he'll say, so and so told

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Speaker 1: me this tale. I heard this tale from such and such,

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Speaker 1: so and so swore that this was the truth, and

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Speaker 1: the like.

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Speaker 2: Every time I've read one of these stories, I find

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Speaker 2: it very exciting because they don't usually conform to the

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Speaker 2: standard narrative structure that you expect from Western fairy tales.

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Speaker 2: Get they're just full of surprises, at least to me.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if you are more familiar with Chinese

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Speaker 2: traditional stories if the structures are more predictable, but at

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Speaker 2: least to me, everyone is just full of surprises.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they very tremendously. Some of them are scary, some

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Speaker 1: of them are funny, some of them are both. There

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Speaker 1: are at least a few that are a little bit body.

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Speaker 1: There are some that are essentially like, hey, this weird

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Speaker 1: thing happened. How about that? That's the whole story. They

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Speaker 1: just kind of abruptly end, like there was there's one

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Speaker 1: where it's like there's this old guy that would travel

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Speaker 1: around and he had these mice in his backpack. I

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Speaker 1: think they were mice, and they would come out and

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Speaker 1: basically do like a flea circus. They would do like

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Speaker 1: a little circus and perform, and then he would carry

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Speaker 1: on his way, and there's no story. It's just a

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Speaker 1: small tale of wonder or an account of something marvelous

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Speaker 1: that was experienced or seen.

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Speaker 2: Now, from what I gather, the main elements of the

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Speaker 2: pousong Ling story are carried over into the movie, but

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Speaker 2: it's probably worth discussing the differences because from what I understand,

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Speaker 2: the pousong Ling story is not quite as sweet as

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Speaker 2: the movie is.

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Speaker 1: It's well, there's I guess there's less room for sweetness

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Speaker 1: in it, but it's not unsweet.

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Speaker 2: Well, I just remember something about the scholars like already

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Speaker 2: married when he meets the ghost woman and he has

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Speaker 2: to wait for his wife to die or something.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well but he's very polite about it, so yeah.

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Speaker 1: The original story is sometimes titled The Magic Sword or

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Speaker 1: the Magic Sword in the Magic Bag. That's the title

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Speaker 1: in the Penguin edition of Strange Tales, which is definitely

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Speaker 1: worth picking up picking up and has some nice notes

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Speaker 1: on it, but the basic bones of the movie are present.

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Speaker 1: In that story. A traveling scholar is too poor to

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Speaker 1: stay in town, so he goes out to an old

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Speaker 1: temple to sleep, and he encounters both a magical swordsman

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Speaker 1: and a ghost who reveals that she haunts the temple

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Speaker 1: due to improper burial is and has been forced to

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Speaker 1: do the bidding of a yaksha demon that's sort of

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Speaker 1: like a corrupt in this case, a corrupt nature spirit,

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Speaker 1: a malevolent nature spirit, though I don't think all yakshas

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Speaker 1: are necessarily malevolent. The magic sword in question is a

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Speaker 1: miniature sword that gives the swordsman his power, and he

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Speaker 1: also has a bag, the magic bag from the title,

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Speaker 1: which he gives to the scholar, and we later find

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Speaker 1: out that this was the swordsman's head bag, and so yeah,

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Speaker 1: he ends up falling in love with this ghost woman.

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Speaker 1: He digs up her grave, takes her remains home to

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Speaker 1: his own home, buries them there, and as a way

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Speaker 1: of thanking him, she says, well, why don't I be

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Speaker 1: a servant here? And he's like, yes, that would be great.

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Speaker 1: So she's a servant. Then eventually his wife dies of

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Speaker 1: consumption or it's translated his consumption in the version I read,

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Speaker 1: and at that point he marries her. They have a child.

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Speaker 1: He also gets a concubine and has a child through

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Speaker 1: the concubine. These are the details that are given. But

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Speaker 1: then she also has another child, so you know, it's

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Speaker 1: essentially a happy ending. Especially as far as tales about

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Speaker 1: marrying a spirit or or a fox spirit or a

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Speaker 1: ghost or something. A lot of times there's a there's

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Speaker 1: a twist at the end that's there to get you.

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Speaker 1: So as far as those sorts of stories go, i'd

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Speaker 1: say it's a happy end.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, why don't you take that ribbon off your neck?

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Speaker 2: Kind of twists?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Anyway, it's a fun story. Sometimes you'll, i

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Speaker 1: think on IMDb in some places you'll see it credited

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Speaker 1: as a novel. It's not a novel. It's like a

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Speaker 1: ten minute read.

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Speaker 2: If that, well, I should I should go read it.

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Speaker 2: I have enjoyed literally every poo song link story I've read.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's get into the cast a little bit

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Speaker 1: at the top of this playing our impover's scholar with

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Speaker 1: impossible dreams. It's Leslie Chung playing the scholar ling choice son.

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Speaker 3: So.

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Speaker 1: Leslie Chung was born nineteen fifty six died in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and three. He was a huge star of music

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Speaker 1: and was apparently a Kanto pop pioneer, so that's like

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Speaker 1: Chinese Hong Kong pop music of the time. I believe.

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Speaker 1: His first album came out in nineteen seventy eight and

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Speaker 1: he started appearing in films that same year. He was

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Speaker 1: especially big in the eighties, noted for is in androgynist style.

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Speaker 1: After immigrating to Canada in the nineteen nineties, he famously

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Speaker 1: came out as bisexual in Time Magazine a Time Magazine interview,

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Speaker 1: which was quite a move at the time, especially in

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Speaker 1: the within the Chinese film industry. Now, this is a

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Speaker 1: fun fact. He chose the Leslie moniker. You often see this,

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Speaker 1: especially with Hong Kong actors. You know they'll choose the

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Speaker 1: sort of a Western first name. He chose Leslie as

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Speaker 1: a tribute to the British actor Leslie Howard, who's probably

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Speaker 1: best remembered in general for being the you know, the

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Speaker 1: star of such films as nineteen thirty eight Pygmalion for

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Speaker 1: Appearing and Gone with the Wind. But I imagine you and

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Speaker 1: I probably know him best from the I think, in

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Speaker 1: my opinion, pretty excellent nineteen thirty six film The Petrified Forest.

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Speaker 2: Oh who was he in that?

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Speaker 1: He's the he's the lead. Well, he's actually a traveling

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Speaker 1: scholar in that. Oh, okay, Leslie Howard is he's been

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Speaker 1: traveling across he's the British character.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought I'd like to see the Pacific Ocean

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Speaker 2: perhaps ruey that one.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so he's the star opposite Betty Davis.

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Speaker 2: Okay, as soon as you said that, it makes it.

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Speaker 2: I can hear his voice that. Yeah. But this is

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Speaker 2: also the guy who played like Ashley Wilkes and Gone

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Speaker 2: with the Wind and on all that stuff.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it kind of kind of classic looking, dry, handsome dude.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: Leslie Cheung sadly took his own life in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and three, and the twenty eleven remake of a Chinese

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Speaker 1: Ghost Story was dedicated to his memory, but he left

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Speaker 1: behind a pretty extensive filmography, including Days of Being Wild,

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Speaker 1: Ashes of Time and Nomad, a lot of you know,

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Speaker 1: serious dramas, so this one. I'm not an expert on

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Speaker 1: his filmography, but I get the feeling like this is

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Speaker 1: kind of more of a standout in that it's an

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Speaker 1: action comedy, because it seems like most of the films

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Speaker 1: he's really well known for are serious dramas, including two

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Speaker 1: key Chinese LGBTQ films of the era, Farewell, My Concubine

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Speaker 1: and nineteen ninety seven's Happy Together. His co star in

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Speaker 1: that film was Tony Lung, another huge name in Chinese

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Speaker 1: cinema who many of you may know from in The

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Speaker 1: Mood for Love, Internal Affairs, The Grand Master, and most

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Speaker 1: recently Shang Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings,

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Speaker 1: in which he played the title character's father, which is

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Speaker 1: a really great role in that movie, in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: great Marvel movie, perhaps my favorite Marvel movie that's come out.

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Speaker 2: Well. I think Leslie Chung is excellent in this movie,

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Speaker 2: and I can see that he wouldn't have normally been

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Speaker 2: in action or horror related movies because he's he is

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Speaker 2: the hero of this film, but he's not an action hero, like,

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Speaker 2: he doesn't do a lot of physical fighting. He really

404
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Speaker 2: only has a few moments of physical heroism. Mostly he's

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Speaker 2: a hero by being a sort of meek nerd who

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Speaker 2: finds courage by falling in love.

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Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. So, yeah, you're not going to see him

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Speaker 1: do huge action sequences. We have other characters to do

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Speaker 1: those scenes. Yes, all right, well, let's let's mention his

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Speaker 1: romantic interest. Our lady ghost is this is the character Susinne,

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Speaker 1: played by Joey Wang born nineteen sixty seven.

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Speaker 2: She's great too. I'd say the whole main cast, the

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Speaker 2: three main characters of this movie, all three are fantastic.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think one of the great things about

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Speaker 1: Joey Wang in this is that you might expect a

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Speaker 1: character like this, who again is a ghost woman in

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Speaker 1: a Chinese period piece. Essentially, you could expect this to

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Speaker 1: be be very one note, very passive in many ways,

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Speaker 1: and we do see some other examples of female ghosts

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Speaker 1: that very much match that template. But in this she's

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Speaker 1: delightful and funny. You know, she's being ghostly and haunting

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Speaker 1: and sort of distant as needed, but throughout it she's

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Speaker 1: also just you can see the charisma shining through.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and the scenes where she's supposed to be scary,

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Speaker 2: she is pretty creepy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So she was active in film from nineteen eighty

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Speaker 1: three through two thousand and four, probably best known for

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Speaker 1: this film, but she was also in two of its sequels.

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Speaker 1: Maybe these were the only two sequels. There's Chinese Ghost

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Speaker 1: Story two three, She was in God of Gamblers, which

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Speaker 1: I'll mention again in a minute, and also various supernatural films,

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Speaker 1: including The Beheaded one thousand and nineteen ninety two's The

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Speaker 1: Painted Skin, which is also based on a story recorded

434
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:14,840
Speaker 1: by pouson Le.

435
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:18,120
Speaker 2: So you mentioned the Chinese Ghost Story has two sequels.

436
00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:19,960
Speaker 2: At least do you know anything about these or they.

437
00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:22,520
Speaker 1: Supposed to know that some of the same characters come back,

438
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:25,520
Speaker 1: if not all the same characters like it yea. So

439
00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:29,159
Speaker 1: beyond that, I'm not sure, but I think the at

440
00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:32,080
Speaker 1: least the first sequel is also streaming on Prime, if

441
00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:34,520
Speaker 1: not the third one as well, same director, I believe

442
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,719
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, all right, now it's time to discuss

443
00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:42,840
Speaker 1: our swordsmen. Swordsman Yen played by Wu Ma who lived

444
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:45,280
Speaker 1: nineteen forty two through twenty fourteen.

445
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:51,280
Speaker 2: This is our irreverent, wisecracking, tough Taoist priest.

446
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:58,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's amazing. The actor here Ma. He

447
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:02,359
Speaker 1: appeared in Writing Wrongs, the Dead and the Deadly Iron

448
00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:04,520
Speaker 1: Monkey two Once Upon a Time in China. He was

449
00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:07,240
Speaker 1: also in at least the first sequel, Chinese Ghost Story

450
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:10,080
Speaker 1: two and This is Fun. He was the rice seller

451
00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:12,359
Speaker 1: in Mister Vampire. Do you remember this role.

452
00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:15,719
Speaker 2: Yes, there's a scene in Mister Vampire where to repel

453
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:18,800
Speaker 2: the evil spirits they have to use glutinous rice, and

454
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:21,360
Speaker 2: apparently other types of rice will not do, so they're

455
00:24:21,359 --> 00:24:24,879
Speaker 2: going to get the sticky rice, and the rice seller

456
00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:28,439
Speaker 2: corruptly is trying to mix in some plain rice with

457
00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:31,360
Speaker 2: the sticky rice to pull one over on the kid

458
00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:33,800
Speaker 2: they send to buy the stuff. And I think this

459
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:35,600
Speaker 2: has disastrous consequences.

460
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:38,440
Speaker 1: This is fun because it reminds me of a line

461
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,120
Speaker 1: that Swordsman Yen has later on in the film, where

462
00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:44,199
Speaker 1: he's getting very emotional about the fact that in the

463
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:46,800
Speaker 1: spirit world everything's black and white, you know exactly what

464
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:50,679
Speaker 1: side they stand on, but in the human realm, everything's complex,

465
00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:54,560
Speaker 1: everything's potentially corrupted. So even though when you're dealing with

466
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,440
Speaker 1: the spirit world you know exactly what sort of rice

467
00:24:56,480 --> 00:25:00,239
Speaker 1: you need, you know you know which side of of

468
00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:03,360
Speaker 1: ordering chaos. Everyone stands on, but the human realm who

469
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 1: knows the rice cellar might give you what you're paying for,

470
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:07,879
Speaker 1: or he might be cheating you.

471
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:10,720
Speaker 2: This is a great point and something I wanted to

472
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:12,520
Speaker 2: come back to. I would say this seems to be

473
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 2: a major theme of the movie, like the part where

474
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:20,879
Speaker 2: so Swordsman Yen gives this speech about how he was

475
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:23,000
Speaker 2: he once a magistrate. They said he was like a.

476
00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:24,920
Speaker 1: Judge or a magistrate, was a judge or something.

477
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and so he was a judge, but he

478
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:32,040
Speaker 2: said he became sick of that job because you know,

479
00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:34,879
Speaker 2: there was all this ambiguity and people were always lying

480
00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:37,320
Speaker 2: and you could never know what's true. So instead he

481
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:40,440
Speaker 2: gave that up to go like kill ghosts, because there

482
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:42,840
Speaker 2: you always know what's right and wrong. You never have

483
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,119
Speaker 2: to wonder if you did the right thing. Now, I

484
00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:48,200
Speaker 2: don't know if that's something that you can really live by,

485
00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:50,359
Speaker 2: because of course, you know, we do have to make

486
00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:54,080
Speaker 2: judgments all the time in situations where the facts are ambiguous.

487
00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:57,679
Speaker 2: But it's interesting that this is expressed and sort of

488
00:25:57,720 --> 00:25:59,720
Speaker 2: related to a couple of other things that come up

489
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:05,040
Speaker 2: in the movie, like the questions about you know, what

490
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:08,720
Speaker 2: is scarier mortals or ghosts. This comes up a few times.

491
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:11,439
Speaker 2: I think there's some kind of thread running through the

492
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,440
Speaker 2: movie about how I don't know, maybe the most treachery

493
00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 2: or danger is not always in the place you would

494
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:17,280
Speaker 2: expect it to be.

495
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:22,040
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, Now Wuma, I should also note he has

496
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:25,040
Speaker 1: he has numerous other roles. I think he has something

497
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 1: like two hundred and ninety four acting credits on IMDb,

498
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:30,800
Speaker 1: so I'm probably missing something else that stands out. But

499
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: he also has forty three direction directorial credits, including the

500
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,840
Speaker 1: Chinese Ghostbuster and My Cousin the Ghost. So I guess

501
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: it goes for any film scene that once you've been

502
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:44,399
Speaker 1: a part of a successful genre film, that genre or

503
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:46,800
Speaker 1: subgenre kind of becomes a part of you, at least

504
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 1: professionally speaking.

505
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:51,080
Speaker 2: You know. You know those stories about certain big Hollywood

506
00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:54,440
Speaker 2: celebrities who have their own like script doctors or agents

507
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 2: who go through any script, you know, to like make

508
00:26:57,119 --> 00:26:59,160
Speaker 2: sure that it's more it has lines that are sort

509
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 2: of tailored to their personality. Yeah, I imagine that wu

510
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 2: Ma has got to have a situation like that where

511
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:07,240
Speaker 2: like anytime he takes a role, they got to work

512
00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:09,800
Speaker 2: a rap about the dow in there because once you've

513
00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:12,439
Speaker 2: done that, you can't go back. It's like, that's got

514
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:15,040
Speaker 2: to be what people are looking for every time exactly.

515
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 1: Now, those are the three main actors in the film,

516
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:23,080
Speaker 1: but there's some other performances of note I'm gonna mention

517
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 1: them a little more briefly, but we have Why Lamb

518
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 1: playing swordsman. How dates unknown, but this guy, I believe

519
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:33,399
Speaker 1: it's still active. This is a brash swordsman that's encountered

520
00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:36,879
Speaker 1: early in the picture. Fun role. This guy's been in

521
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:39,160
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff over the years, including nineteen eighty

522
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 1: three's The Boxer's Omen. This is a Shaw Brothers picture

523
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:44,919
Speaker 1: that's often held up as a prime example of a

524
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 1: psychotronic film. It has a lot of really you know,

525
00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:51,520
Speaker 1: kind of psychedelic imagery in it. So he's fun in

526
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:55,200
Speaker 1: this stern character while we lasts. He's on the original

527
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:57,720
Speaker 1: Chinese poster, so I guess he's worth mentioning here, though

528
00:27:57,720 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 1: he doesn't really factor into the plot all that much.

529
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:03,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, he dies I think like fifteen minutes into the movie,

530
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:06,520
Speaker 2: but he's very cool looking, so yeah, yeah, you gotta

531
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 2: put him on the poster.

532
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:10,600
Speaker 1: We also have Sue mng Lao born nineteen thirty one,

533
00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:14,480
Speaker 1: who plays the Tree Demon, one of our main antagonists.

534
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:17,640
Speaker 1: He was also in a bunch of films, including other

535
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:20,000
Speaker 1: Chinese ghost story movies I think this in the same

536
00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:22,639
Speaker 1: character role, as well as a couple of big Jackie

537
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:25,040
Speaker 1: Chan movies. He was in the Legend of Drunken Master

538
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:29,960
Speaker 1: and The Medallion. Then this last acting credit I'm going

539
00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:33,399
Speaker 1: to mention is just it's a small, outrageously over the

540
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:38,280
Speaker 1: top role. A crooked magistrate, a crooked judge. It doesn't

541
00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 1: have a name, but just so over the top, played

542
00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:46,440
Speaker 1: by this actor Jing Wong born nineteen fifty five. It's

543
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:49,400
Speaker 1: worth calling out because Jingwong himself is a huge name

544
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:51,760
Speaker 1: in Hong Kong cinema, with over one hundred producing and

545
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 1: directing credits across multiple genres, including the gambling genre, which

546
00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 1: I've read is one of his specialties. So he's responsible

547
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 1: for that film God of Gamblers that I mentioned earlier,

548
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 1: and he was apparently especially a big deal, big moneymaker

549
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 1: in the nineteen nineties.

550
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 2: He is funny in this, but it's not dry humor.

551
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:13,719
Speaker 2: He is like over there, he's like Jim carrying it up,

552
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:18,720
Speaker 2: you know, full body, just like wet Wet acting, and

553
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:21,520
Speaker 2: basically every line in his scene is him demanding a

554
00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:22,560
Speaker 2: bribe from someone.

555
00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:25,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of these roles where, yeah, it's just

556
00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:28,480
Speaker 1: how over the top and how corrupt could we have

557
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:32,000
Speaker 1: a portrayal of a local magistrate and let's just have

558
00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 1: him say all the quiet, quiet things out loud, just

559
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 1: blatantly talking about being lazy and wishing that we could

560
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 1: just get a bribe and finish this early. It's fun,

561
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 1: but it is. It's it's the hammiest part of the film.

562
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 2: It's like, should I have you beaten and then demand

563
00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:49,560
Speaker 2: a bribe? Or should I demand a bribe and then

564
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 2: have you beaten?

565
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:55,040
Speaker 1: Exactly? All right? And finally, the music on this one,

566
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:59,440
Speaker 1: it's credited to Romeo Diaz and James Wong. James Wong

567
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:04,560
Speaker 1: lived forty through two thousand and four, and he's a

568
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:06,640
Speaker 1: particular note here because not only did he score a

569
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:10,640
Speaker 1: bunch of films, he also was a cantopop lyricist and songwriter,

570
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:13,720
Speaker 1: and he acted in a bunch of films, including Iron Monkey.

571
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,800
Speaker 1: The music in this I actually quite enjoyed. I would

572
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:19,280
Speaker 1: have to say there are may be a few cheesy

573
00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 1: parts here and there, but it has kind of this

574
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:25,800
Speaker 1: blending of a little bit of synth but also traditional

575
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: music to invoke a dramatic, historical Chinese cinema feel.

576
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,479
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know what the term for this is.

577
00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 2: This might be technically like a subgenre of cantopop, but

578
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:38,320
Speaker 2: it's Yeah, it's a type of Chinese popular music that

579
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 2: has kind of like a lyrical ballad quality, very broad

580
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 2: themes about love and dreams and stuff, and then like

581
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:50,800
Speaker 2: a flute in the background.

582
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 1: Yeah. If there any cantopop fans out there, feel free

583
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:57,680
Speaker 1: to write in. We'd love to hear your thoughts on

584
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:11,880
Speaker 1: these names that we've referenced regarding kantapop. Please, all right, Well,

585
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:13,920
Speaker 1: shall we get into the plot of this one a bit?

586
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 2: All right? Well, so this movie begins with our hero

587
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 2: a good natured young scholar and debt collector. And I'm

588
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:25,600
Speaker 2: a little curious about the historical notes, like is it

589
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:28,680
Speaker 2: common for a young scholar to also be a debt collector?

590
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:32,120
Speaker 2: Or is that a strange pairing? I wasn't sure, but

591
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 2: this is master ling choice on and I would I

592
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:37,040
Speaker 2: think I already said this, but I would describe Ling

593
00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:40,200
Speaker 2: as in many ways kind of your classic film nerd

594
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:45,680
Speaker 2: hero He is initially timid. He's meek, frail, unlucky, but

595
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:49,960
Speaker 2: he's also kind hearted, and through falling in love, he

596
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 2: discovers an inner courage that he never knew he possessed before,

597
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:56,800
Speaker 2: and that's sort of the arc of his heroism. But

598
00:31:56,880 --> 00:31:59,960
Speaker 2: he acquires friends along the way who will sort of

599
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:03,560
Speaker 2: complement his abilities when they face the big demons at

600
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:03,920
Speaker 2: the end.

601
00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:06,720
Speaker 1: Young scholars like this are pretty much doomed to be

602
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:10,120
Speaker 1: seduced by ghosts or fox spirits and tales like this,

603
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: and I guess, I guess that trope kind of transcends

604
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:16,479
Speaker 1: Chinese tales in general. You know, you're probably having lonely

605
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 1: scholars in various cultures writing fictional tales about lonely scholars

606
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:27,520
Speaker 1: being seduced by, you know, invisible lovers and so forth.

607
00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:30,160
Speaker 2: So anyway, at the outside of the story, Master Ling

608
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,360
Speaker 2: is roaming through the countryside. He's on a journey. He

609
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:36,680
Speaker 2: seems to be headed for a particular town on a

610
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 2: mission to collect debts for his boss. I've also seen

611
00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:44,240
Speaker 2: him described in some sources as a tax collector, though

612
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:47,760
Speaker 2: the movie makes it seem more like he's supposed to

613
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:50,720
Speaker 2: be working from a ledger of private debts. Maybe there's

614
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:54,280
Speaker 2: some overlap of these things within the historical setting. I'm

615
00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:54,680
Speaker 2: not sure.

616
00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:58,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like there's that one scene where I guess we'll

617
00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:01,440
Speaker 1: probably describing a bit here where something happens to the

618
00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:04,400
Speaker 1: tax ledger and the individual he's visiting. He's like, Oh,

619
00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:06,480
Speaker 1: I don't owe you anything now, then get out of here.

620
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:11,560
Speaker 1: And granted this is a broad comedy, but one wonders

621
00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:16,400
Speaker 1: if that is the response you would have towards towards

622
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:20,440
Speaker 1: the state debt versus private debt at this time.

623
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:25,160
Speaker 2: Right, So, anyway, we watch young master Ling. He's sort

624
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,760
Speaker 2: of traveling around the forests and the byways, and the

625
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:32,120
Speaker 2: movie's weird sense of humor immediately comes through, even in

626
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:34,880
Speaker 2: this opening montage, because there's a part where we see

627
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:38,320
Speaker 2: Lings sit down to eat lunch, I think, and when

628
00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:40,600
Speaker 2: he tries to bite into something. Is this a piece

629
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:42,400
Speaker 2: of bread? It's some kind of food. It might be

630
00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 2: a roll or something bun I'm guessing, yeah, And he

631
00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:48,960
Speaker 2: bites into it and it's too hard for his teeth

632
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:51,560
Speaker 2: to pierce, like he almost cracks a tooth on it.

633
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,239
Speaker 2: And then he bashes the bread against a rock and

634
00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:56,760
Speaker 2: the rock cracks in half, and then he kicks the

635
00:33:56,800 --> 00:34:00,000
Speaker 2: bread and frustration and it punches a hole in his shoe.

636
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:01,240
Speaker 2: He is toe poking out.

637
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:03,960
Speaker 1: All of this stuff here. It has this kind of

638
00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:07,960
Speaker 1: almost silent era like Buster Keaton or Yes where Charlie

639
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:09,480
Speaker 1: Chaplin kind of vibe to it.

640
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:13,640
Speaker 2: Totally yeah, like like modern times or the kid Yeah Oh.

641
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:16,640
Speaker 2: In the whole time, there is this this sentimental song

642
00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:20,120
Speaker 2: playing about how you must pursue beautiful, impossible dreams.

643
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:24,360
Speaker 1: So clearly he's just having problems with this mundane aspirations

644
00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:26,879
Speaker 1: like can I have shoes without holes in them? Can

645
00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:29,399
Speaker 1: I have an umbrella that's not already shredded? That sort

646
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:29,640
Speaker 1: of thing.

647
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:33,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, is collecting debts in rural townships his impossible dream.

648
00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:37,399
Speaker 2: I don't think so. But ling he gets lost because

649
00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:39,440
Speaker 2: he doesn't he reads a sign thats like the town

650
00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:41,799
Speaker 2: is three miles south, But then he's like which way

651
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:44,719
Speaker 2: is south? And his compass needle is just spinning wildly

652
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:46,920
Speaker 2: all over the place, and he gets caught in a

653
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:49,600
Speaker 2: storm and he tries to open his umbrella and it's

654
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:53,000
Speaker 2: riven with holes. So he's just having a bad, bad

655
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:58,399
Speaker 2: day and eventually takes shelter under an abandoned pavilion, and

656
00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 2: let's see this point. Suddenly, oh, this is a swordsman

657
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:06,479
Speaker 2: runs up. You hear somebody saying don't run away, And

658
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 2: I think this is the first instance of a theme

659
00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 2: repeated for comedy throughout the movie, which is people shouting

660
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:18,400
Speaker 2: don't run or don't go yeah, which is later, well,

661
00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:20,440
Speaker 2: we can save the Keystone cops thing until we get

662
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:22,359
Speaker 2: to the town, but yeah, it'll be a common thing

663
00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,279
Speaker 2: that the police respond to once we get into town.

664
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:30,440
Speaker 2: And so there's a swordsman chasing down a bunch of

665
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:33,080
Speaker 2: thieves and he chases them to right in front of

666
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:36,080
Speaker 2: the little hut where master Ling is hanging out and

667
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:39,560
Speaker 2: he and then master Ling just stands there. So he

668
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:42,400
Speaker 2: catches them, he beats them up, and then the last

669
00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:45,520
Speaker 2: thief there says to the swordsman, please, sir, forgive us.

670
00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:48,000
Speaker 2: I'll return your money to you. And Ling is just

671
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:51,279
Speaker 2: standing there, frozen in fear, watching the swordsman execute the

672
00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:52,680
Speaker 2: thieves who stole from him.

673
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:55,279
Speaker 1: Yeah. Their head's top toppling through the air.

674
00:35:55,360 --> 00:35:57,640
Speaker 2: It's one yeah, yeah, heads are rolling. And then when

675
00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:01,560
Speaker 2: the swordsman slashes the very last guy, it squirts blood

676
00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:03,240
Speaker 2: directly into Ling's mouth.

677
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:07,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's like, oh, he's just yeah, just horrified.

678
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 2: So he's standing there terrified, and then there's a moment

679
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,360
Speaker 2: where the swordsman seems to take pity on Ling. He

680
00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 2: tosses him a bun. It's a soft bun this time,

681
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:20,520
Speaker 2: and he kind of makes this face that I took

682
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:22,479
Speaker 2: a screen grab of for you to see, Rob because

683
00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:26,160
Speaker 2: the swordsman's face here is really good. It's it's almost

684
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:28,600
Speaker 2: like it could be the new Robert Redford nodding meme.

685
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:31,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I can see it. Yeah, I mean, this

686
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:35,759
Speaker 1: guy's this guy has made a fabulous and violent introduction.

687
00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 1: He looks really cool. I have to say. He's dressed

688
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:40,480
Speaker 1: all in black with some gold and a little bit

689
00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:43,879
Speaker 1: of red, so yeah, he looks fierce. And now he's

690
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:47,200
Speaker 1: just sitting down casually having a bun, and he's like, hey, yeah,

691
00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:48,879
Speaker 1: you're all right here, I have a bun too.

692
00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:51,320
Speaker 2: He has a profound jaw, it's.

693
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:53,040
Speaker 1: Possibly because he has part of a bun in his

694
00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:54,400
Speaker 1: mouth in this shot.

695
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,240
Speaker 2: But as soon as the swordsman walks away, Ling spits

696
00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:59,520
Speaker 2: out his bun all over the place and he scrambles

697
00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:01,799
Speaker 2: and fearing get stuck in the mud. As he's strengfly.

698
00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:05,719
Speaker 2: But next we come to Ling's arrival in town, and

699
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,000
Speaker 2: there are a number of things to discuss here, because

700
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:11,440
Speaker 2: he'll return to town several times. And there are these

701
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:14,840
Speaker 2: running jokes. I think one is sort of the Keystone Cops.

702
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:21,040
Speaker 2: So there are police or soldiers in town. Who are

703
00:37:21,400 --> 00:37:24,560
Speaker 2: they are trying to catch criminals? I think because there

704
00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:28,799
Speaker 2: are bounties for criminals. But what this turns into is

705
00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:33,359
Speaker 2: anytime they hear somebody say like don't go or don't

706
00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:38,640
Speaker 2: run or don't leave, they immediately start chasing and just

707
00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:42,480
Speaker 2: grabbing people because they say anytime someone says don't go,

708
00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:45,120
Speaker 2: that's because they're saying it to a thief who has

709
00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 2: stolen something.

710
00:37:46,239 --> 00:37:48,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then here they come running in. They're like

711
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,360
Speaker 1: who said that? Who said that? Good? And they're chasing

712
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:50,879
Speaker 1: after them.

713
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:52,839
Speaker 2: And so one of the things that happens is these

714
00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:57,040
Speaker 2: these incompetent policemen like grab poor poor Ling and they

715
00:37:57,719 --> 00:37:59,879
Speaker 2: like shove them up against a wall. And then they're

716
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:03,880
Speaker 2: looking at all of these drawings of criminals unwanted posters

717
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 2: and they're like, ah, he's not any of them. Get

718
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:09,040
Speaker 2: rid of him. But as they shove him up against

719
00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:12,160
Speaker 2: a wall, they press him against the front of a

720
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:16,560
Speaker 2: stall of I'm not sure what this profession would be,

721
00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:19,960
Speaker 2: like an undertaker or a funeral arts master. Anyway, somehow

722
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:24,000
Speaker 2: ling gets pressed against a wall covered in joss paper

723
00:38:24,120 --> 00:38:29,280
Speaker 2: or money for the Dead, some kind of funerary printed material.

724
00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:33,919
Speaker 1: Yeah, paper talisman, ceiling spells, that sort of thing. These,

725
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:38,560
Speaker 1: of course, were also featured in or very similar talismans

726
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:41,360
Speaker 1: were featured in Nature Vampire as being something that you

727
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:44,839
Speaker 1: could use to sort of deactivate a vampire, to deactivate

728
00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:45,960
Speaker 1: a djung shei.

729
00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:48,240
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, you'd put the kind of like yellow receipt

730
00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:50,200
Speaker 2: on their forehead and they would power down.

731
00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:53,520
Speaker 1: But yeah, he's been pressed up against them, so initially

732
00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:56,360
Speaker 1: he has them stuck to his back, and later on,

733
00:38:56,360 --> 00:39:00,200
Speaker 1: once they've been peeled away, they've still stained the the

734
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:02,040
Speaker 1: text onto the back of his shirt.

735
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:05,680
Speaker 2: So his back now has warding magic power that he's

736
00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:10,120
Speaker 2: completely unaware of. Yeah, but like you mentioned earlier, when

737
00:39:10,120 --> 00:39:13,560
Speaker 2: he goes to collect his debts, he oh, so he

738
00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:15,520
Speaker 2: shows up at like a tavern and he's talking to

739
00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:17,839
Speaker 2: the tavern owner and he's like, hey, you know, it's

740
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:20,960
Speaker 2: time to pay up, And the tavern owner says, why

741
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:24,239
Speaker 2: a different debt collector every time, and Ling is like, ah,

742
00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:27,839
Speaker 2: the last one was murdered. And then the By the way,

743
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 2: this movie is just it takes place in a world

744
00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:34,120
Speaker 2: where everybody is constantly getting murdered. Like basically half the

745
00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:39,440
Speaker 2: characters that are encountered or mentioned at some point are murdered. Yeah,

746
00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:43,760
Speaker 2: it's a it's a lawless land. But so the tavern

747
00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:46,680
Speaker 2: owner then says to Ling, he says, well, since you're

748
00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:48,440
Speaker 2: going to be murdered anyway, why don't you do me

749
00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:51,719
Speaker 2: a favor and not collect the debt? And Ling's like,

750
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:55,000
Speaker 2: don't make jokes. But then when he opens up his

751
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:58,239
Speaker 2: account books, they're ruined because they got soaked I think

752
00:39:58,239 --> 00:39:59,920
Speaker 2: in the rain or maybe when he got stuck in

753
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,759
Speaker 2: mud somehow. They're all wet, and now the records are destroyed.

754
00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:07,560
Speaker 2: And when the tavern owner discovers this, he is overjoyed.

755
00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:10,400
Speaker 2: He's like, as there's no record in the accounts, that

756
00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:13,160
Speaker 2: means I don't owe any money, which Ling has no

757
00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:17,040
Speaker 2: comeback to this. He's just like, oh man, yeah, that's

758
00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:18,320
Speaker 2: I've got nothing.

759
00:40:18,719 --> 00:40:21,560
Speaker 1: That's how Fight Club ended, right, I didn't.

760
00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:26,360
Speaker 2: Think about that. That's good. So the poor scholar he

761
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:28,560
Speaker 2: gets thrown out in the street. He can't do his

762
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 2: debt collection. He has no money and not a friend

763
00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:33,040
Speaker 2: in this world, so what's he going to do? Well,

764
00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:35,400
Speaker 2: he starts asking around, is there anywhere I can sleep

765
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:38,919
Speaker 2: for free tonight? And one of the locals tells him, Yeah,

766
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:41,040
Speaker 2: there's only one place around here where you can have

767
00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:45,160
Speaker 2: free shelter, and that is the lan Yuk Temple. And

768
00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:48,080
Speaker 2: as soon as that word is uttered, as soon as

769
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:50,440
Speaker 2: that name is uttered, all the locals are like, huh,

770
00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:53,440
Speaker 2: and they all turn and lean in the you know

771
00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:55,520
Speaker 2: they're they're telling him, you like, yeah, go through the

772
00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:58,240
Speaker 2: woods with the killer wolves until you see a creepy

773
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:00,880
Speaker 2: looking temple and that'll be where you should sleep.

774
00:41:02,719 --> 00:41:04,000
Speaker 1: So at this point in the film, and I have

775
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:06,120
Speaker 1: to say, it's very well paced, like there's not really

776
00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:08,399
Speaker 1: a dull moment in the entire film, but at this point,

777
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:10,959
Speaker 1: you know you're after the races, because oh, he's gonna

778
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:14,320
Speaker 1: have to travel through haunted woods, get to inevitably haunted

779
00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:18,080
Speaker 1: Temple and it's just gonna be fireworks from there on out.

780
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:20,960
Speaker 2: So he goes through the haunted woods, he gets menaced

781
00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:24,720
Speaker 2: by wolves with yellow eyes, and then when he arrives

782
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:27,640
Speaker 2: at the temple, he happens to stumble into the middle

783
00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 2: of a brutal fight between two master swordsmen. Now is

784
00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:34,360
Speaker 2: one of them the guy who got the blood in

785
00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:35,520
Speaker 2: Ling's mouth earlier.

786
00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:39,360
Speaker 1: Yes, one of them is the strong jawed, bun eating

787
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:43,000
Speaker 1: swordsman from earlier. The other one is a new character

788
00:41:43,239 --> 00:41:47,960
Speaker 1: who will turn out to be our Dallas superstar Swordsman

789
00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:50,800
Speaker 1: slash Sorcerer Swordsman Yin.

790
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:55,880
Speaker 2: Right Swordsman Yin Chikha, who is again also a former lawman.

791
00:41:56,400 --> 00:41:59,000
Speaker 2: But this is an awesome fight scene. It's like dark

792
00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:02,799
Speaker 2: and foggy and windy, and they're like flying around and

793
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:06,640
Speaker 2: flipping in and out of buildings and onto balconies, and

794
00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:10,080
Speaker 2: at one point and like it seems pretty evenly matched.

795
00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:13,480
Speaker 2: But then at one point the swordsman we saw earlier

796
00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:15,960
Speaker 2: sort of loses track of where the new guy is,

797
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:18,080
Speaker 2: and then the new guy like explodes out of a

798
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:20,359
Speaker 2: wall at him and seems to get the better of him.

799
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:23,280
Speaker 2: Oh but right when he does this, they're both standing

800
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:26,160
Speaker 2: there holding their swords out, and then right between them

801
00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:28,399
Speaker 2: is Master laying like his head is between their two

802
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:33,600
Speaker 2: sword tips and the new swordsman. Swordsman Yen says brother Ha,

803
00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:36,840
Speaker 2: how you've been fighting me for seven years and lost

804
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:40,520
Speaker 2: for seven years. And then we learn in their exchange

805
00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:43,440
Speaker 2: that Swordsman Yen has been living for six months at

806
00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:46,239
Speaker 2: the lan Yuk Temple, and they taunt each other, but

807
00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:50,160
Speaker 2: Swordsman Yen tells brother Ha how that by being overly

808
00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:54,040
Speaker 2: concerned with worldly titles, with fame and glory as a swordsman,

809
00:42:54,080 --> 00:42:56,880
Speaker 2: he actually let his skills go to seed, and that

810
00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:59,560
Speaker 2: is why he has always Beaten. He's too concerned with

811
00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:02,680
Speaker 2: being scene is the best rather than actually being the best,

812
00:43:02,719 --> 00:43:06,279
Speaker 2: and he's too hot tempered. So they both got their

813
00:43:06,280 --> 00:43:09,440
Speaker 2: swords pointed at each other. Master Ling's throat is right

814
00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:13,560
Speaker 2: between them, and then master Ling is like, hey, why

815
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:15,560
Speaker 2: not be nice to each other. I think it really

816
00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:17,799
Speaker 2: says that, and then he says, you have to know

817
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:20,960
Speaker 2: that the universe is infinite and true love lasts forever.

818
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:26,719
Speaker 2: So he's got a good heart. And eventually I think

819
00:43:26,760 --> 00:43:29,680
Speaker 2: the other swordsman gets so annoyed that he just leaves

820
00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:34,279
Speaker 2: and Ling is accidentally he's like standing on the swordsman's

821
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:36,640
Speaker 2: cloak as he's leaving, and it rips part of it off.

822
00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 2: He tries to hand it to him and the swordsman

823
00:43:39,760 --> 00:43:43,239
Speaker 2: just yells at Ling. He says, go love it so

824
00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:47,759
Speaker 2: that guy brother how split swordsman Yen warns Master Ling

825
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:51,239
Speaker 2: not to stay at the temple that he but he

826
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:54,880
Speaker 2: warns him in in a bunch of kind of rebald ways,

827
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:57,000
Speaker 2: like he says, you know, if a tiger appears, you'll

828
00:43:57,000 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 2: probably want to hide in my trousers. At one point,

829
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:02,319
Speaker 2: Ling's like, why do you keep yelling at me? And

830
00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:04,520
Speaker 2: he says it's because I have bad breath and I

831
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:05,520
Speaker 2: want you to go away.

832
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:07,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great, great line too.

833
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:10,440
Speaker 2: But Ling doesn't listen. He has nowhere else to go,

834
00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:12,680
Speaker 2: and so he picks a room in the temple to

835
00:44:12,719 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 2: put down his things. Now this goes into a sequence

836
00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:20,680
Speaker 2: that is I guess it's followed up on it multiple points,

837
00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:23,839
Speaker 2: but this is master laying in the bark zombies, and

838
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:25,799
Speaker 2: I loved this whole thing. Rob, Do you want to

839
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:27,040
Speaker 2: describe what's going on here?

840
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:30,320
Speaker 1: Yeah? So we start getting these shots of what seems

841
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:33,279
Speaker 1: to be the attic of the temple or part of

842
00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:37,200
Speaker 1: the temple complex here, and it has these desiccated corpses

843
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:41,360
Speaker 1: up there, you know, perhaps past victims. Because I believe

844
00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:44,759
Speaker 1: that the film opens up even with a sequence where

845
00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:51,000
Speaker 1: somebody is attacked whilst being loved up on grounds that

846
00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:56,160
Speaker 1: look like this temple, and so eventually we see these

847
00:44:56,239 --> 00:44:59,640
Speaker 1: remains start to move around. And so yeah, they are

848
00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:03,400
Speaker 1: partial rendered with stop motion effects that definitely have a

849
00:45:03,520 --> 00:45:06,640
Speaker 1: nineties tool video vibe to them, you know, like it's

850
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:09,920
Speaker 1: it's not quite you know, Harry Housing level, but it

851
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:13,080
Speaker 1: still looks really cool and I loved every bit of it.

852
00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:16,239
Speaker 1: Later on, they're also played, they're created via puppetry and

853
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:21,000
Speaker 1: also costumes, and at times legitimately creepy, but it's a

854
00:45:21,160 --> 00:45:24,360
Speaker 1: great there's a great The great thing about this sequence

855
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:28,359
Speaker 1: is that Ling is completely unaware of them. They start

856
00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:30,480
Speaker 1: off in the attic, they end up falling through into

857
00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:34,160
Speaker 1: the basement at times. At at one point Ling falls

858
00:45:34,239 --> 00:45:37,120
Speaker 1: partially falls through the basement and his his his rear

859
00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:40,680
Speaker 1: end is down there and they're like trying to grab

860
00:45:40,719 --> 00:45:43,600
Speaker 1: his butt and they tear off part of his clothing.

861
00:45:45,080 --> 00:45:47,319
Speaker 1: And then he winds up in the basement later on

862
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:49,839
Speaker 1: and they're creeping up on him. You think they're gonna

863
00:45:49,840 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 1: get him, but then he opens some shutters and that

864
00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:55,839
Speaker 1: the sunlight just melts them away, and he never knows

865
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:56,600
Speaker 1: they were there at all.

866
00:45:56,680 --> 00:46:00,000
Speaker 2: It's fine, Yeah, it's It's very much the Baby Herman cartoon.

867
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:03,240
Speaker 2: At the beginning of Roger Rabbit. He's just bumbling about

868
00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:06,640
Speaker 2: and constantly in peril but just evading them by accident.

869
00:46:07,080 --> 00:46:09,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it surely fun. And then and again the

870
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:13,120
Speaker 1: bark zombies look incredible. I thought they were a lot of.

871
00:46:13,040 --> 00:46:18,319
Speaker 2: Fun, excellent bark zombies. But meanwhile, while he's doing all that,

872
00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:22,000
Speaker 2: we learn about something that's going on at this temple,

873
00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:26,080
Speaker 2: the plot of the Seductive Ghost Ladies. So the forest

874
00:46:26,400 --> 00:46:31,200
Speaker 2: around this temple is swarming with these beautiful ghost ladies

875
00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:33,719
Speaker 2: who one of our main characters will be one of

876
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:37,640
Speaker 2: them that seduce men and then suck out their life

877
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:40,719
Speaker 2: force and turn them into these screaming husks. And this

878
00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:44,520
Speaker 2: happens to the other swordsman, the brother ha how he's

879
00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:48,520
Speaker 2: like made a campfire and then a beautiful woman like

880
00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:51,520
Speaker 2: shows up and she's like, oh hey, and they start kissing,

881
00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:56,399
Speaker 2: but she unfortunately sucks out his life force and leaves

882
00:46:56,480 --> 00:47:00,680
Speaker 2: him a shriveled, dry, dry corpse. When I watched this

883
00:47:00,760 --> 00:47:04,440
Speaker 2: part with Rachel, she said that she dietamacious earthed him.

884
00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:12,680
Speaker 1: Yeah. In the original story by bousong Ling. The ghost

885
00:47:12,719 --> 00:47:15,680
Speaker 1: Woman will do one of two things. Either she will

886
00:47:15,719 --> 00:47:17,160
Speaker 1: come up to you and ask if you want to

887
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:19,680
Speaker 1: make love, and then when you do so, she will

888
00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:24,440
Speaker 1: eventually poke a hole into your heel, I believe, with

889
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:27,640
Speaker 1: some sort of a spike so that your essence can

890
00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:29,840
Speaker 1: be drained out of the hole. Or if you say no,

891
00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:32,960
Speaker 1: thank you to the love making, she'll offer you what

892
00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:35,160
Speaker 1: seems to be like a golden coin, and if you

893
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:38,160
Speaker 1: accept that, then you'll be overcome by the magic as well.

894
00:47:38,239 --> 00:47:40,719
Speaker 1: So like one of the two vices will get you.

895
00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:43,480
Speaker 2: It's a great time to chee lust and greed in

896
00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:47,880
Speaker 2: favor of gluttony. Oh but we do see some like

897
00:47:47,960 --> 00:47:50,960
Speaker 2: magical implements of this kind in the scene, because like

898
00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:54,320
Speaker 2: in the scene where the ghost woman is seducing the swordsman,

899
00:47:54,360 --> 00:47:56,800
Speaker 2: we see that she has a sort of a magical

900
00:47:56,880 --> 00:48:00,439
Speaker 2: ankle bracelet on that it seems to have charmsing off

901
00:48:00,480 --> 00:48:06,000
Speaker 2: of it. And then also when swordsman Hahowe is lying

902
00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:09,840
Speaker 2: there shriveled, he is discovered by Swordsmanien who's like, oh,

903
00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:12,560
Speaker 2: look what they did you. But then he like wakes

904
00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:16,360
Speaker 2: up as a corpse and starts attacking him, and Swordsman

905
00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:18,840
Speaker 2: Yen is like, ah, even in death, you attack me again,

906
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:21,560
Speaker 2: and so he has to pull out a holy needle

907
00:48:21,960 --> 00:48:25,279
Speaker 2: and plunge the needle into the corpse's eye and that

908
00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:28,920
Speaker 2: like shuts him down. These needles frequently are used against

909
00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:31,000
Speaker 2: unholy spirits.

910
00:48:31,640 --> 00:48:34,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love Swordsmanien's arsenal here because of course he

911
00:48:34,840 --> 00:48:37,560
Speaker 1: has his sword, his magic sword, but yeah, he has

912
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:41,040
Speaker 1: these needles that it can also be thrown as projectiles,

913
00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:45,279
Speaker 1: and I understand basically throwing implements like this are used

914
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:49,880
Speaker 1: in different martial arts, but not as effectively clearly as

915
00:48:49,880 --> 00:48:53,600
Speaker 1: Swordsman Yen is using them here. He also has several

916
00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:56,480
Speaker 1: magical spells that he uses he's able to He does

917
00:48:56,520 --> 00:48:59,399
Speaker 1: this wonderful bit later on where he like cuts into

918
00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:01,719
Speaker 1: his palm, does some sort of a symbol there, and

919
00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:04,800
Speaker 1: then is able to like shoot out essentially like magic

920
00:49:04,840 --> 00:49:07,959
Speaker 1: missiles and fireballs and the like, but in a way

921
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:11,279
Speaker 1: that is super cool, especially within the confines of a

922
00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:12,719
Speaker 1: martial arts sequence.

923
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:16,240
Speaker 2: He also has a Sanskrit phrase that he says that's

924
00:49:16,320 --> 00:49:19,120
Speaker 2: the opening line of a of a book, like a

925
00:49:19,120 --> 00:49:22,560
Speaker 2: holy Sanskrit book. Though it's interesting because there's a scene

926
00:49:22,600 --> 00:49:25,719
Speaker 2: later in the movie where he's finally he's sort of

927
00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:28,319
Speaker 2: teaming up with the scholar and he's like, if you

928
00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:30,359
Speaker 2: need to save yourself, you know, say a line from

929
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:33,160
Speaker 2: this book, and the scholars like, but I can't read Sanskrit,

930
00:49:33,480 --> 00:49:35,239
Speaker 2: and he says, we'll just open your heart to the

931
00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:37,160
Speaker 2: Buddha and the Buddha will tell you what to say.

932
00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:40,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, just just be relaxed and you'll be able

933
00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:43,040
Speaker 1: to do it. And also ring this ball. Like he

934
00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:46,080
Speaker 1: basically ends up the whole plot ends up being like,

935
00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:48,800
Speaker 1: I need to get this this big bad that's responsible

936
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:50,560
Speaker 1: for all this. I need to get these ghosts. You're

937
00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:51,200
Speaker 1: going to be de bait.

938
00:49:51,560 --> 00:49:54,160
Speaker 2: But that's later on, so before we get there, we

939
00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:57,000
Speaker 2: have to actually get the love story, which is so

940
00:49:57,320 --> 00:50:02,719
Speaker 2: master ling. Being afraid out in the forest, eventually encounters

941
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:06,839
Speaker 2: the ghost woman nip Chu Sin, and Su Sin is

942
00:50:06,880 --> 00:50:10,520
Speaker 2: a vampiric ghost, so she's she's not just like holy innocent.

943
00:50:10,640 --> 00:50:14,160
Speaker 2: She is draining people's energy. She's seducing, you know, hapless

944
00:50:14,239 --> 00:50:16,360
Speaker 2: dudes in the forest. They end up turned into a

945
00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:19,520
Speaker 2: bark zombie. It's no good, and it seems like she's

946
00:50:19,560 --> 00:50:23,120
Speaker 2: going to do the same thing to Ling when they

947
00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:26,080
Speaker 2: first meet, but Ling ultimately just turns out to be

948
00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:28,160
Speaker 2: too nice a guy. Did you read it that way?

949
00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:31,560
Speaker 2: Also that yeah, yeah, he's like so sweet to her

950
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:33,160
Speaker 2: that she can't really do it.

951
00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:36,880
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's kind of a fun twist from the original

952
00:50:36,920 --> 00:50:39,719
Speaker 1: because in the original story, she basically is like, hey,

953
00:50:39,719 --> 00:50:40,920
Speaker 1: do you want to make love? And he's like, no,

954
00:50:40,960 --> 00:50:42,719
Speaker 1: I would, I would never, And she's like, well, do

955
00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:44,560
Speaker 1: you want this gold coin? He's like, I'm not taking

956
00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:46,600
Speaker 1: that kind of money from, you know, someone hanging out

957
00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:49,760
Speaker 1: in a you know, temple ruins, and she's like okay.

958
00:50:50,680 --> 00:50:52,719
Speaker 1: But in this one it's less. I mean, part of

959
00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:56,520
Speaker 1: it is that he's you know, he's moral, and it's

960
00:50:56,560 --> 00:50:58,520
Speaker 1: good moral fiber. But the other part, yeah, is that

961
00:50:58,600 --> 00:51:01,680
Speaker 1: he's just a sweet guy. And as she is not,

962
00:51:02,200 --> 00:51:05,799
Speaker 1: you know, herself completely a creature of evil, like she

963
00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:10,000
Speaker 1: herself is ensourcelled by another force that will discuss here,

964
00:51:10,239 --> 00:51:12,840
Speaker 1: Like the part of her like recognizes that, and so

965
00:51:12,920 --> 00:51:15,839
Speaker 1: we do have room for like this legitimate, believable love

966
00:51:15,880 --> 00:51:17,680
Speaker 1: story to to blossom here.

967
00:51:18,440 --> 00:51:20,279
Speaker 2: I think one of though it is funny. One of

968
00:51:20,360 --> 00:51:23,640
Speaker 2: the things that first indicates to her how kind he

969
00:51:23,760 --> 00:51:26,520
Speaker 2: is is that he says to her, He's like, wow,

970
00:51:26,600 --> 00:51:28,319
Speaker 2: you don't look so good. Do you need to go

971
00:51:28,320 --> 00:51:30,279
Speaker 2: to a doctor? I think, referring to the fact that

972
00:51:30,320 --> 00:51:31,839
Speaker 2: she's pale because she is dead.

973
00:51:32,280 --> 00:51:34,080
Speaker 1: It's like, you're really pale, and he's talking about our

974
00:51:34,120 --> 00:51:35,480
Speaker 1: skin being cold and all this.

975
00:51:35,680 --> 00:51:37,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, we need to get you some medical attention.

976
00:51:38,280 --> 00:51:40,600
Speaker 1: Yeah. The script, it really feels punched up, like they

977
00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:42,960
Speaker 1: really they really got in a lot of a lot

978
00:51:43,040 --> 00:51:45,520
Speaker 1: of comedic jabs here and sequences like this.

979
00:51:54,680 --> 00:51:57,360
Speaker 2: But of course, at first, I think when when Susan

980
00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:01,520
Speaker 2: likes Master Ling, you know, she understands it as like

981
00:52:01,560 --> 00:52:04,799
Speaker 2: a love that cannot be right. She's not like, oh,

982
00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:07,280
Speaker 2: stay here and be with me forever. She's like, oh,

983
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:08,800
Speaker 2: you know this is bad for him.

984
00:52:09,200 --> 00:52:11,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so a lot of it ends up being

985
00:52:11,239 --> 00:52:13,440
Speaker 1: a situation where she's like, look, you don't need to

986
00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:16,400
Speaker 1: be here when when my master shows up, when the

987
00:52:16,440 --> 00:52:18,319
Speaker 1: others come, you need to get out of here. You

988
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:20,440
Speaker 1: need to leave these grounds. You're a good dude. You

989
00:52:20,440 --> 00:52:23,200
Speaker 1: don't need to be here. But she doesn't seem to

990
00:52:23,200 --> 00:52:25,520
Speaker 1: think that she has any kind of a future with him.

991
00:52:25,800 --> 00:52:29,120
Speaker 2: Now we should be clear though, that when Ling first

992
00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:31,239
Speaker 2: meets her, he has no idea she's a ghost. He

993
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:32,200
Speaker 2: doesn't understand.

994
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:33,840
Speaker 1: He's not picking up on the clues.

995
00:52:34,120 --> 00:52:36,640
Speaker 2: Yes, this is something he has to be convinced of.

996
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:40,279
Speaker 2: I think Swordsman Yen tells him. He's like, no, no, no,

997
00:52:40,480 --> 00:52:43,520
Speaker 2: everybody at this temple is a ghost except me. They're

998
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:44,680
Speaker 2: all just ghosts.

999
00:52:44,960 --> 00:52:47,040
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Because there's a scene where one of the

1000
00:52:47,080 --> 00:52:50,879
Speaker 1: other ghosts gets cut in half by by master Yin

1001
00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:53,960
Speaker 1: and he's like, you killed that woman, right, I mean,

1002
00:52:53,960 --> 00:52:57,359
Speaker 1: that's the long and short of it. And he's like, no, no,

1003
00:52:57,400 --> 00:52:58,920
Speaker 1: that was a ghost. I didn't kill anybody.

1004
00:52:59,040 --> 00:53:02,759
Speaker 2: So eventually he learns the whole plot and we do too.

1005
00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:06,120
Speaker 2: So so what is the whole magical hierarchy here? What's

1006
00:53:06,160 --> 00:53:09,320
Speaker 2: the org chart for the ghosts and demons at this temple?

1007
00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:16,120
Speaker 1: So basically we have this malicious nature spirit, this tree demon,

1008
00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:19,600
Speaker 1: or this Yaksha demon as it's described in the original story.

1009
00:53:19,880 --> 00:53:22,480
Speaker 2: Is this the figure they're calling the old Dame?

1010
00:53:23,080 --> 00:53:27,440
Speaker 1: Yes? Yeah, which is this? You know? This this kind

1011
00:53:27,440 --> 00:53:33,040
Speaker 1: of royally dressed individual who shows up and they kind

1012
00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:38,280
Speaker 1: of speak simultaneously with like a like a gravelly masculine voice,

1013
00:53:38,280 --> 00:53:42,280
Speaker 1: but also a feminine voice, the kind of one superimposed

1014
00:53:42,320 --> 00:53:46,320
Speaker 1: over the other. And and this character is ordering around

1015
00:53:46,360 --> 00:53:51,520
Speaker 1: both by both Susanne, the our ghost love interest, but

1016
00:53:51,600 --> 00:53:55,719
Speaker 1: also some other female ghosts that are being used as

1017
00:53:56,440 --> 00:53:59,920
Speaker 1: agents of seduction by this demon. So the demons the

1018
00:54:00,080 --> 00:54:04,320
Speaker 1: one harvesting life energies and life forces, but he's using

1019
00:54:04,400 --> 00:54:06,960
Speaker 1: these ghosts to do it, or at least to lure

1020
00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:09,720
Speaker 1: them in, to get them in a in a position

1021
00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:13,640
Speaker 1: to where the tree demon can creep up on them

1022
00:54:14,120 --> 00:54:17,000
Speaker 1: in vine or tongue form, as we later find out

1023
00:54:17,120 --> 00:54:19,640
Speaker 1: is the case, and sap their life force.

1024
00:54:19,920 --> 00:54:22,440
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there's a lot of creepy tree demon morphology

1025
00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:26,600
Speaker 2: later on, especially when the all tongue emerges. But yeah,

1026
00:54:26,640 --> 00:54:28,480
Speaker 2: so we learn a lot of this in a in

1027
00:54:28,520 --> 00:54:31,719
Speaker 2: a great sort of comedy scene where Master Ling is

1028
00:54:32,680 --> 00:54:37,120
Speaker 2: visiting Susin. Win like, the boss shows up and he

1029
00:54:37,239 --> 00:54:40,520
Speaker 2: has to hide underneath the water in a wash basin

1030
00:54:41,400 --> 00:54:44,600
Speaker 2: while while the while the demon is there and while

1031
00:54:44,640 --> 00:54:47,240
Speaker 2: the other ghosts are there, and they're all like talking

1032
00:54:47,280 --> 00:54:50,920
Speaker 2: about how that Susin has been pledged in marriage to

1033
00:54:51,120 --> 00:54:55,360
Speaker 2: this horrible monster, the Monster of Black Mountain, and I

1034
00:54:55,360 --> 00:54:57,480
Speaker 2: guess their marriage is coming up soon. It's like a

1035
00:54:57,520 --> 00:54:59,560
Speaker 2: week away or something, And so she's just trying to

1036
00:54:59,560 --> 00:55:01,520
Speaker 2: get him out there so that they don't catchling in

1037
00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:03,400
Speaker 2: there and kill him. And there's a bunch of a

1038
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:05,560
Speaker 2: bunch of this has played for comedy, yeah.

1039
00:55:05,400 --> 00:55:09,480
Speaker 1: And also for the romantic angle. It's like, oh, we're

1040
00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:11,480
Speaker 1: both hiding in the same place at the same time,

1041
00:55:12,280 --> 00:55:13,960
Speaker 1: and we're almost kissing that sort of thing.

1042
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:15,920
Speaker 2: Well, she does kiss him, so at one point she

1043
00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:18,320
Speaker 2: like hides him by leaning into the wash basin and

1044
00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:22,640
Speaker 2: then kisses him under the water, and he's like, wow, geez.

1045
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:26,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a key scene that is that we revisit

1046
00:55:27,680 --> 00:55:30,040
Speaker 1: later on with like a musical motif.

1047
00:55:30,520 --> 00:55:31,080
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1048
00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:35,320
Speaker 1: So she is falling hard for this this lonely scholar mortal,

1049
00:55:35,719 --> 00:55:39,480
Speaker 1: and he is falling hard for this female ghost even

1050
00:55:39,480 --> 00:55:42,920
Speaker 1: though he doesn't know she's a ghost at this point.

1051
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:47,120
Speaker 2: Right, But he eventually discovers basically what's going on, like

1052
00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 2: they are a bunch of different things. Well, he doesn't

1053
00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:50,880
Speaker 2: discover it at this point, I think, but I remember

1054
00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:53,200
Speaker 2: there's one point where I think he like does some

1055
00:55:53,320 --> 00:55:56,120
Speaker 2: kind of like harm to her by like accidentally showing

1056
00:55:56,160 --> 00:55:58,280
Speaker 2: her his back, which is where all of the warning

1057
00:55:58,400 --> 00:55:59,400
Speaker 2: magic was printed.

1058
00:55:59,680 --> 00:56:02,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, which he recoils from you know, because these

1059
00:56:02,440 --> 00:56:04,680
Speaker 1: are holy scriptures and she cannot look upon them.

1060
00:56:04,840 --> 00:56:07,080
Speaker 2: But there's also a conflict because he's been kind of

1061
00:56:07,160 --> 00:56:12,399
Speaker 2: friendly ish with Swordsman Yen and swords Minyen is there.

1062
00:56:12,520 --> 00:56:16,320
Speaker 2: He's like, no, no, no, ghosts are to be beheaded and destroyed,

1063
00:56:17,200 --> 00:56:21,800
Speaker 2: and this lady is no good. But then Ling also

1064
00:56:21,840 --> 00:56:26,080
Speaker 2: becomes convinced that Swordsman Yen is a murderer, so so

1065
00:56:26,200 --> 00:56:28,640
Speaker 2: he you know, he's he's getting bounced back and forth

1066
00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:32,080
Speaker 2: between between alliances, and at one point he ends up

1067
00:56:32,120 --> 00:56:35,720
Speaker 2: taking before a magistrate in this really funny scene where

1068
00:56:36,440 --> 00:56:38,680
Speaker 2: where he's I think he's trying to be like, yeah,

1069
00:56:38,840 --> 00:56:41,560
Speaker 2: he's a murderer, you've got to stop him, and the

1070
00:56:41,560 --> 00:56:43,520
Speaker 2: magistrate is just totally uninterested.

1071
00:56:43,920 --> 00:56:47,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a great vet where he calls in the

1072
00:56:47,080 --> 00:56:49,680
Speaker 1: guards and they're like like, what's he talking about, Like, no, no,

1073
00:56:49,719 --> 00:56:52,720
Speaker 1: we already we already captured the guy on the warning poster.

1074
00:56:52,960 --> 00:56:55,000
Speaker 1: We already caught that guy. And then they're like, but

1075
00:56:55,040 --> 00:56:57,080
Speaker 1: of course we do catch the wrong guy like most

1076
00:56:57,080 --> 00:56:59,719
Speaker 1: of the times. Yeah, so they're like, all right, let's

1077
00:56:59,719 --> 00:57:02,480
Speaker 1: hear it out. But then there's a lot of discussion about, yeah,

1078
00:57:02,480 --> 00:57:04,840
Speaker 1: should we beat him first, or accept a bribe first,

1079
00:57:05,360 --> 00:57:07,640
Speaker 1: and then eventually it's like when they find out the

1080
00:57:07,680 --> 00:57:10,080
Speaker 1: ghosts are involved in it, they're like, oh, well, that's good.

1081
00:57:10,080 --> 00:57:12,080
Speaker 1: We don't have to weigh in on this. We can

1082
00:57:12,160 --> 00:57:14,880
Speaker 1: just leave early because we were tired of even pretending

1083
00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:16,320
Speaker 1: to work oh before.

1084
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:18,920
Speaker 2: So okay, So we're barreling towards the end, but before

1085
00:57:18,920 --> 00:57:21,360
Speaker 2: we get to like some of the final confrontations, we

1086
00:57:21,600 --> 00:57:23,920
Speaker 2: need to take a moment to discuss the dow rap.

1087
00:57:24,320 --> 00:57:28,160
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, it's so good. Yeah. I almost want

1088
00:57:28,200 --> 00:57:31,840
Speaker 1: to include a sample from it here, because whatever you're

1089
00:57:31,880 --> 00:57:34,200
Speaker 1: imagining can't quite equal what you get.

1090
00:57:34,400 --> 00:57:37,360
Speaker 2: There's one part where the subtitle, at least of what

1091
00:57:37,520 --> 00:57:41,240
Speaker 2: he's rapping is I spit, I spit, I spit, I spit.

1092
00:57:41,800 --> 00:57:47,120
Speaker 1: Yes, Oh, it's so good. Yeah, And he's the whole time,

1093
00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:49,960
Speaker 1: he's going through these different martial art true teams too,

1094
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:52,520
Speaker 1: so it's like he's really getting you know, REVD up

1095
00:57:52,840 --> 00:57:56,280
Speaker 1: for battle. Oh it's it's you have to see it

1096
00:57:56,320 --> 00:57:59,160
Speaker 1: to believe it. And of course we could play part

1097
00:57:59,160 --> 00:58:00,880
Speaker 1: of the audio, but you wouldn't have the subtitles, so

1098
00:58:00,880 --> 00:58:02,720
Speaker 1: you wouldn't get the full experience, and you wouldn't get

1099
00:58:02,720 --> 00:58:05,560
Speaker 1: to see him moving around, so it has to be seen.

1100
00:58:05,560 --> 00:58:09,320
Speaker 2: Okay, but eventually, so we're skipping lightly about over much

1101
00:58:09,360 --> 00:58:11,560
Speaker 2: that happens in the middle of the film, but eventually

1102
00:58:11,640 --> 00:58:14,600
Speaker 2: it's going to progress toward a big showdown with the

1103
00:58:14,640 --> 00:58:18,600
Speaker 2: demons because we learned the backstory of Susin. What is

1104
00:58:18,640 --> 00:58:22,160
Speaker 2: going on with her? Why has she been why has

1105
00:58:22,200 --> 00:58:25,160
Speaker 2: she been trapped in this cycle of seducing men in

1106
00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:28,120
Speaker 2: the forest or at the temple so that their life

1107
00:58:28,120 --> 00:58:31,760
Speaker 2: force can be sucked out? And basically what we discover

1108
00:58:31,920 --> 00:58:35,200
Speaker 2: is that Susin was murdered many years ago while traveling

1109
00:58:35,280 --> 00:58:39,919
Speaker 2: once when she was mortal, and her father gave her

1110
00:58:39,960 --> 00:58:43,680
Speaker 2: a temporary burial under an old tree in the forest,

1111
00:58:43,880 --> 00:58:47,960
Speaker 2: but then he was murdered before he could move her

1112
00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:51,840
Speaker 2: bones to holier ground. So now nobody else knows she's there,

1113
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:55,320
Speaker 2: so she's stuck there and her spirit is trapped in

1114
00:58:55,440 --> 00:58:58,520
Speaker 2: servitude to the demon that lives within the tree. I

1115
00:58:58,520 --> 00:59:01,160
Speaker 2: think this is the Old Dame, and now the Old

1116
00:59:01,280 --> 00:59:04,240
Speaker 2: Dame is her boss. The Old Dame makes her seduce

1117
00:59:04,280 --> 00:59:07,040
Speaker 2: men so that she can kill them steal their energy,

1118
00:59:07,520 --> 00:59:10,920
Speaker 2: and Sussin has been pledged to marry against her will,

1119
00:59:11,000 --> 00:59:14,320
Speaker 2: the old monster of Black Mountain, and the only way

1120
00:59:14,360 --> 00:59:17,120
Speaker 2: she can escape from being a ghost and finally be

1121
00:59:17,240 --> 00:59:20,840
Speaker 2: reincarnated again is if someone digs up her ashes and

1122
00:59:20,880 --> 00:59:23,680
Speaker 2: her bones and takes them to her village to be

1123
00:59:23,800 --> 00:59:28,000
Speaker 2: reburied there. And it's interesting how this is a recurring

1124
00:59:28,040 --> 00:59:32,440
Speaker 2: theme in a lot of the Chinese horror comedy martial

1125
00:59:32,520 --> 00:59:36,600
Speaker 2: arts movies we've watched, because proper and improper burial was

1126
00:59:36,960 --> 00:59:39,040
Speaker 2: also a major theme of Mister Vampire.

1127
00:59:39,440 --> 00:59:42,120
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, the idea and really tied up with the

1128
00:59:42,160 --> 00:59:45,240
Speaker 1: idea of the Chinese vampire, the Chuang. She is the

1129
00:59:45,600 --> 00:59:48,880
Speaker 1: idea that this person was not properly buried, their spirit

1130
00:59:49,000 --> 00:59:52,360
Speaker 1: is not at rest, and the only way to really

1131
00:59:52,360 --> 00:59:54,720
Speaker 1: defeat them is to make sure they are moved to

1132
00:59:54,760 --> 00:59:56,960
Speaker 1: a place of proper rest. And that's the case here

1133
00:59:57,000 --> 00:59:59,440
Speaker 1: as well. But of course she can't just dig up

1134
00:59:59,440 --> 01:00:02,880
Speaker 1: her bones and get away with it, because there's a demon.

1135
01:00:02,560 --> 01:00:04,800
Speaker 2: Involved here, oh man.

1136
01:00:05,240 --> 01:00:08,080
Speaker 1: And and so you get a in the movie version, here,

1137
01:00:08,160 --> 01:00:11,200
Speaker 1: you get a big throw down between the demon and

1138
01:00:11,240 --> 01:00:14,800
Speaker 1: our heroes, and the I was totally surprised by the

1139
01:00:14,800 --> 01:00:17,000
Speaker 1: form I was expecting. You know, it's a tree demon, right,

1140
01:00:17,040 --> 01:00:18,880
Speaker 1: So it's going to be some sort of a ant

1141
01:00:19,120 --> 01:00:22,640
Speaker 1: like creature. But no, the true form, or at least

1142
01:00:22,640 --> 01:00:25,040
Speaker 1: one of the true forms, is revealed as being this

1143
01:00:25,320 --> 01:00:28,280
Speaker 1: just this endless tongue, this all tongue as you described it.

1144
01:00:28,520 --> 01:00:31,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was thinking about the doors that ride the tongue.

1145
01:00:32,040 --> 01:00:36,040
Speaker 2: The tongue is long seven miles. It's it's just like

1146
01:00:36,120 --> 01:00:39,440
Speaker 2: this gigantic tongue that wraps all the way around the

1147
01:00:39,480 --> 01:00:42,880
Speaker 2: temple and can like wrap around people. So it's like

1148
01:00:42,920 --> 01:00:46,080
Speaker 2: a giant, you know, octopus arm basically, and and it

1149
01:00:46,120 --> 01:00:48,560
Speaker 2: has like multiple tongues within the tongue.

1150
01:00:48,920 --> 01:00:51,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's it's kind of like it has a

1151
01:00:51,280 --> 01:00:54,600
Speaker 1: beginning because it does shoot out of the human form

1152
01:00:55,560 --> 01:00:57,480
Speaker 1: of the of the Dame's mouth at one point, but

1153
01:00:57,520 --> 01:01:00,800
Speaker 1: then in another scene, the dame just becomes the tongue.

1154
01:01:01,120 --> 01:01:03,840
Speaker 1: So it's it's almost like there is no beginning to

1155
01:01:03,920 --> 01:01:06,080
Speaker 1: the tongue. It is just this endless tongue that's just

1156
01:01:06,200 --> 01:01:09,240
Speaker 1: lashing about throughout this entire action sequence.

1157
01:01:09,600 --> 01:01:12,360
Speaker 2: And there's like a tongue versus mouth mechanic because the

1158
01:01:12,400 --> 01:01:14,880
Speaker 2: tongue will try to grab people and then go into

1159
01:01:14,960 --> 01:01:18,200
Speaker 2: their mouths and so like swordsman Gin is yelling at

1160
01:01:18,280 --> 01:01:20,480
Speaker 2: at Ling. He's like, be careful, don't let her tongue

1161
01:01:20,480 --> 01:01:23,480
Speaker 2: into your mouth. So they're they're trying to fight it

1162
01:01:23,520 --> 01:01:27,080
Speaker 2: off and the and Yen eventually ends up like chopping

1163
01:01:27,160 --> 01:01:30,160
Speaker 2: off pieces of the tongue to prevent them from from

1164
01:01:30,920 --> 01:01:32,200
Speaker 2: getting in people's mouths.

1165
01:01:32,600 --> 01:01:34,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's there are a number of sequences in which

1166
01:01:34,440 --> 01:01:37,160
Speaker 1: people get wrapped up in tongue or later on, wrapped

1167
01:01:37,240 --> 01:01:40,720
Speaker 1: up in tentacles and uh, and then usually Swordsman Yen

1168
01:01:40,800 --> 01:01:43,360
Speaker 1: has to jump in with his sword and slash through

1169
01:01:43,360 --> 01:01:45,800
Speaker 1: those tentacles and splash goo all over the place.

1170
01:01:46,160 --> 01:01:49,200
Speaker 2: Oh, there's so much gou later on, well there's so

1171
01:01:49,280 --> 01:01:52,600
Speaker 2: much goo in general. But uh, there's there's goo, there's slime.

1172
01:01:52,680 --> 01:01:55,800
Speaker 2: And then we get to see Swordsman Yen's arsenal again,

1173
01:01:55,880 --> 01:01:59,200
Speaker 2: so he uses his holy needles. In fact, Ling has

1174
01:01:59,200 --> 01:02:01,640
Speaker 2: to come through in the pin because Yen gets grabbed

1175
01:02:01,720 --> 01:02:04,320
Speaker 2: up and Ling has to get the needle and come

1176
01:02:04,360 --> 01:02:07,000
Speaker 2: save him, and at one point he accidentally stabs him

1177
01:02:07,000 --> 01:02:07,960
Speaker 2: in the butt.

1178
01:02:07,880 --> 01:02:10,160
Speaker 1: Right in the butt. Yeah, and then Yen has to

1179
01:02:10,320 --> 01:02:12,200
Speaker 1: has to pull the needle out of his own butt

1180
01:02:12,240 --> 01:02:14,520
Speaker 1: and then use it to stab the demon.

1181
01:02:14,560 --> 01:02:18,640
Speaker 2: It's great yeah, but they do eventually defeat the Old Dame.

1182
01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:21,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, we see some sort of a final form. It's

1183
01:02:21,680 --> 01:02:25,960
Speaker 1: just this monstrous amalgam of light, tentacles and planned and

1184
01:02:26,320 --> 01:02:29,920
Speaker 1: I don't know, alligator and human face. You know, it's

1185
01:02:29,920 --> 01:02:33,000
Speaker 1: a real monstrosity. But they are able to defeat it.

1186
01:02:33,600 --> 01:02:38,160
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, Sussin is dragged away into the underworld. Yeah, and

1187
01:02:38,280 --> 01:02:41,720
Speaker 2: so in the very last act, the coda, the final confrontation,

1188
01:02:42,200 --> 01:02:44,320
Speaker 2: it's not our world anymore, buddy, you got to go

1189
01:02:44,480 --> 01:02:46,800
Speaker 2: into the underworld to save the princess.

1190
01:02:47,440 --> 01:02:49,480
Speaker 1: That's right. And it's I really like the way they

1191
01:02:49,480 --> 01:02:53,720
Speaker 1: created this underworld sequence because it's it's a lot what

1192
01:02:53,760 --> 01:02:57,680
Speaker 1: you might expect in a dark realm. There's there's mist

1193
01:02:57,800 --> 01:03:02,840
Speaker 1: and smoke. They're like hands grasping out of nowhere. There

1194
01:03:02,920 --> 01:03:07,040
Speaker 1: are disembodied heads, there are mountains of skulls, and of

1195
01:03:07,080 --> 01:03:13,280
Speaker 1: course we encounter the dark individual who's Susan is betrothed to.

1196
01:03:13,840 --> 01:03:16,880
Speaker 2: Right, this is the Monster of Black Mountain, And oh man,

1197
01:03:16,960 --> 01:03:19,400
Speaker 2: how this guy's really cool. How would you describe him?

1198
01:03:20,000 --> 01:03:24,880
Speaker 1: Just kind of like imagine a gloomy dark lord in armor,

1199
01:03:24,920 --> 01:03:26,480
Speaker 1: and that's basically what you've got here.

1200
01:03:27,040 --> 01:03:31,000
Speaker 2: I could say, maybe a point of reference for the

1201
01:03:31,040 --> 01:03:33,880
Speaker 2: young folks these days. Elden Ring Boss. He's got elden

1202
01:03:33,920 --> 01:03:34,880
Speaker 2: Ring Boss vibes.

1203
01:03:35,040 --> 01:03:37,680
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, like kind of like kind of

1204
01:03:37,720 --> 01:03:41,520
Speaker 1: like the outline of a of an armored individual, right,

1205
01:03:41,600 --> 01:03:45,200
Speaker 1: but then they're they're increasingly more monstrous elements the deeper

1206
01:03:45,240 --> 01:03:45,960
Speaker 1: you dig into that.

1207
01:03:46,400 --> 01:03:48,040
Speaker 2: Right. One of the big things, in fact, one of

1208
01:03:48,080 --> 01:03:50,720
Speaker 2: my favorite images or effects in the entire movie was

1209
01:03:50,760 --> 01:03:53,680
Speaker 2: when like his cloak is peeled open and his entire

1210
01:03:53,880 --> 01:03:55,440
Speaker 2: form is made of faces.

1211
01:03:55,880 --> 01:04:00,240
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's like a pile of disembodied heads their

1212
01:04:00,320 --> 01:04:01,160
Speaker 1: faces in there.

1213
01:04:01,240 --> 01:04:06,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're all screaming yeah yeah. Really good arms

1214
01:04:06,600 --> 01:04:09,240
Speaker 2: their arms coming out of the walls. Like, the Underworld

1215
01:04:09,240 --> 01:04:12,480
Speaker 2: sequence is just great, and there are great heroic moments

1216
01:04:12,480 --> 01:04:14,680
Speaker 2: for our characters. There's a there's a wonderful part where

1217
01:04:14,720 --> 01:04:17,840
Speaker 2: like Susin is flying through the air with a sword

1218
01:04:17,880 --> 01:04:21,600
Speaker 2: in her hand and yeah, yeah, it's it's it's really cool.

1219
01:04:22,040 --> 01:04:24,480
Speaker 1: And we get a nice climax where like tentacles are

1220
01:04:24,560 --> 01:04:28,080
Speaker 1: lashing out. The dark Lord ear has wrapped everyone up.

1221
01:04:28,920 --> 01:04:32,200
Speaker 1: The tentacles are holding our hero up and they're starting

1222
01:04:32,240 --> 01:04:34,400
Speaker 1: to rip his clothes apart and will probably soon start

1223
01:04:34,440 --> 01:04:37,400
Speaker 1: ripping his flesh apart. But then we remember what does

1224
01:04:37,440 --> 01:04:40,080
Speaker 1: he have underneath his his his cloak, underneath his robes,

1225
01:04:40,320 --> 01:04:44,840
Speaker 1: he has that Holy Sutra, which immediately it's mere presence starts,

1226
01:04:45,080 --> 01:04:47,600
Speaker 1: you know, incinerating the villain here.

1227
01:04:47,800 --> 01:04:50,520
Speaker 2: It's red hot. It's so good. And oh there's a

1228
01:04:50,600 --> 01:04:54,000
Speaker 2: detail I forgot that I really liked though, that when

1229
01:04:54,720 --> 01:04:58,560
Speaker 2: Swordsman Yen and master Ling first arrive in the underworld,

1230
01:04:59,040 --> 01:05:02,520
Speaker 2: they're sort of a to walk amongst the dead without

1231
01:05:02,600 --> 01:05:06,920
Speaker 2: being disturbed at first, because Swordsman Yan says, when ghosts

1232
01:05:06,920 --> 01:05:09,200
Speaker 2: are in the mortal world, they're invisible to us, but

1233
01:05:09,240 --> 01:05:12,120
Speaker 2: when mortals are in the ghost world, we're invisible to them.

1234
01:05:12,640 --> 01:05:13,000
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1235
01:05:13,240 --> 01:05:15,600
Speaker 2: Oh, but in the end we do get a happy ending.

1236
01:05:15,640 --> 01:05:18,240
Speaker 2: They are able to all make it out of the underworld,

1237
01:05:18,440 --> 01:05:22,880
Speaker 2: and they do, and they are able to relocate the

1238
01:05:23,240 --> 01:05:27,400
Speaker 2: mortal remains of Su Sin, and so it's it's pretty

1239
01:05:27,440 --> 01:05:29,400
Speaker 2: much a happy ending, and it makes you think, like,

1240
01:05:29,480 --> 01:05:31,000
Speaker 2: are there more adventures to come?

1241
01:05:31,760 --> 01:05:33,720
Speaker 1: Well, they say, they basically say, like, let's go on

1242
01:05:33,760 --> 01:05:37,520
Speaker 1: adventures now, Yeah, and clearly they do. There are two

1243
01:05:37,560 --> 01:05:41,640
Speaker 1: more films in the series at least, so yeah, I'm

1244
01:05:41,640 --> 01:05:44,720
Speaker 1: interested to eventually check out the next one, and there's

1245
01:05:44,920 --> 01:05:46,760
Speaker 1: again I have to drive on. There's so many sequences

1246
01:05:46,760 --> 01:05:49,240
Speaker 1: we didn't even mention here that are so well executed.

1247
01:05:49,280 --> 01:05:51,439
Speaker 1: There's not really a dull moment in the film. It's

1248
01:05:51,440 --> 01:05:54,320
Speaker 1: a very well paced so it's it's a lot of fun.

1249
01:05:54,360 --> 01:05:55,320
Speaker 1: I highly recommend it.

1250
01:05:55,600 --> 01:05:59,120
Speaker 2: Totally agree that this one's really a highlight Chinese ghost story.

1251
01:05:59,160 --> 01:06:03,160
Speaker 2: It's beautiful, it's truly weird. It's up there with the best.

1252
01:06:03,480 --> 01:06:05,600
Speaker 1: And again, this is a big picture. This was a

1253
01:06:05,640 --> 01:06:08,400
Speaker 1: This has been a very successful film. It's generated a

1254
01:06:08,480 --> 01:06:12,680
Speaker 1: cult following around the world. It's been remade, as I

1255
01:06:12,720 --> 01:06:16,320
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, but also the story about the Magic Sword,

1256
01:06:16,360 --> 01:06:19,000
Speaker 1: of the Magic Sword and the Magic Bag. This was

1257
01:06:19,360 --> 01:06:21,960
Speaker 1: adapted at least a couple of other times, nineteen sixty

1258
01:06:22,040 --> 01:06:25,960
Speaker 1: nine's The Magic Sword and nineteen sixties The Enchanting Shadow,

1259
01:06:26,240 --> 01:06:28,600
Speaker 1: which I've read was also kind of an inspiration for

1260
01:06:28,640 --> 01:06:32,840
Speaker 1: this film. So there are probably some other movies out

1261
01:06:32,880 --> 01:06:35,960
Speaker 1: there that you'll find that have some of the basic elements,

1262
01:06:36,200 --> 01:06:39,000
Speaker 1: you know, traveling scholar, spinning the night in a temple,

1263
01:06:39,080 --> 01:06:42,320
Speaker 1: falling in love with a ghost. It's a winning formula.

1264
01:06:42,560 --> 01:06:45,480
Speaker 1: Now since this is a major motion picture, Yeah, It's

1265
01:06:45,520 --> 01:06:48,440
Speaker 1: been out in various formats over the years, so you

1266
01:06:48,440 --> 01:06:50,280
Speaker 1: want to watch it on VHS, you can find a

1267
01:06:50,320 --> 01:06:53,560
Speaker 1: copy somewhere. DVD, it's out there. There are blu rays,

1268
01:06:53,640 --> 01:06:56,200
Speaker 1: I can't really speak for the various regions and so forth.

1269
01:06:56,680 --> 01:06:57,200
Speaker 2: Lasers.

1270
01:06:58,280 --> 01:07:02,240
Speaker 1: Probably probably on a laser disc, go for it. But

1271
01:07:03,280 --> 01:07:06,160
Speaker 1: we watched it streaming on Prime and as of this recording,

1272
01:07:06,200 --> 01:07:08,400
Speaker 1: it is streaming on Prime in the States, and it

1273
01:07:08,440 --> 01:07:10,240
Speaker 1: may be streaming some other places as well.

1274
01:07:10,480 --> 01:07:11,320
Speaker 2: Two tongues up.

1275
01:07:13,640 --> 01:07:15,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, this one was a lot of fun. We'd love

1276
01:07:15,320 --> 01:07:17,480
Speaker 1: to hear from anyone out there who is also a

1277
01:07:17,520 --> 01:07:20,320
Speaker 1: fan of this film, or if you have experiences with

1278
01:07:20,400 --> 01:07:23,360
Speaker 1: this film, or if there are any other films in

1279
01:07:23,400 --> 01:07:26,560
Speaker 1: the same genre that you think we should be aware

1280
01:07:26,640 --> 01:07:28,680
Speaker 1: of or should cover in the future, let us know.

1281
01:07:29,080 --> 01:07:31,280
Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you. In the meantime, if

1282
01:07:31,280 --> 01:07:33,880
Speaker 1: you want to check out other episodes of Weird House Cinema,

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Speaker 1: it publishes every Friday in the Stuff to Blow Your

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Speaker 1: Mind podcast feed. We are primarily a science podcast, but

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Speaker 1: on Fridays we set aside most serious concerns and we

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Speaker 1: just talk about a strange film. Let's see. If you

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Speaker 1: want to follow everything that we're doing here. Let's see

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Speaker 1: over at some immutomusic dot com. I do blog posts

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Speaker 1: about each film and if there's additional information, additional media

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Speaker 1: and bed that there. We also have a letterboxed page.

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Speaker 1: If you just look up a Weird House on there,

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Speaker 1: you'll find us. You can follow there, and we just

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Speaker 1: have all the movies listed that we've covered, so if

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Speaker 1: you just want to like a single visual layout of

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Speaker 1: the films we've covered on Weird House Cinema, you will

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Speaker 1: find them there.

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Speaker 2: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth

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Speaker 2: Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch

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Speaker 2: with us with feedback on this episode or any other,

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01:08:25,120 --> 01:08:27,880
Speaker 2: to suggest topic for the future, or just to say hello,

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Speaker 2: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

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Speaker 2: your Mind dot com.

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Speaker 3: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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Speaker 3: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.