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

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Speaker 1: and oh, we have a weird one for you here today.

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Speaker 1: This is gonna be last year's episode from 9-19-2025 on

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Speaker 1: the deliriously weird Shaw Brothers film, The Boxer's Omen, full

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Speaker 1: of just grotesque black magic and just so many mind-bending shenanigans.

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Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and jump right into it. Welcome to

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey,

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

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Speaker 2: And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House Cinema,

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Speaker 2: we are going to be talking about the 1983 Hong

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Speaker 2: Kong action horror film, The Boxer's Omen, directed by Kwee

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Speaker 2: Chee Hung. This movie is a lot of things. First

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Speaker 2: of all, it is just a lot. Through one lens,

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Speaker 2: it is an action-packed martial arts revenge film. Through another,

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Speaker 2: it is magical insanity, just an overwhelming storm of rituals

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Speaker 2: and magical items being combined, magical recipes, necromancy. You've got

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Speaker 2: creaky bat skeletons, needle-nosed tarantulas, red devils, skin balloons, crocodile skulls,

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Speaker 2: rotten guts, bikini mummies. Just all kinds of stuff. Basically

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Speaker 2: more unhinged sorcery, slop gore, and wizard battles than you

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Speaker 2: could imagine being crammed into a single film.

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Speaker 1: That's right. It's pretty wall-to-wall. And the connective tissue in

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Speaker 1: there is....

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Speaker 2: No pun intended.

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Speaker 1: No pun intended. When the film isn't being just absolutely crazy,

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Speaker 1: there's some very well-crafted connective tissue there. that I think

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Speaker 1: also adds to the weird feeling you get watching this picture. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Well, I was going to say, I wonder if this

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Speaker 2: is what you're alluding to through yet another lens. It's

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Speaker 2: a kind of interesting exploration of like Buddhist monastic piety

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Speaker 2: and the quest for immortality. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't think now to be clear, you're not

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Speaker 1: going to learn much about Buddhism, uh, watching this picture,

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Speaker 1: but as we'll point out, there's some very nice locations here.

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Speaker 1: There's some, some nice, almost documentary-style scenes of, like, street

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Speaker 1: processions and normal people going about their everyday business in

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Speaker 1: Nepal and in Thailand and also in Hong Kong, which,

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Speaker 1: you know, can kind of, like, provide this real-world setting

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Speaker 1: that really works to make all the crazy stuff feel

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Speaker 1: like a real injection of another world into ours.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's right. Though I also want to acknowledge

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Speaker 2: that what this movie is mainly known for, which is

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Speaker 2: just wet madness. Uh, it has, it has a reputation

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Speaker 2: among the midnight movie crowd for being an exercise in extremes.

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Speaker 2: It's kind of like, Oh, you like Hong Kong horror movies.

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Speaker 2: I have got one. You're not ready for, uh, and

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Speaker 2: maybe you're not ready. I would not recommend as I told, uh,

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Speaker 2: I watched this one first. And as I told Robin JJ, uh,

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Speaker 2: I would not recommend watching this while you're eating, though

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Speaker 2: I think maybe you did anyway.

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Speaker 1: I ate during part of it and JJ ended up

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Speaker 1: eating during part of it.

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Speaker 2: That could be a bad move depending on how strong

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Speaker 2: your stomach is. But I would recommend watching it to

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Speaker 2: some extent if you have a tolerance for this sort

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Speaker 2: of thing, at least, because it is one of the

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Speaker 2: most amazingly, stupendously bizarre and remarkable films I've ever seen.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely. It is pure magic. And it's fitting that we

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Speaker 1: say that because the film's original title is Mo, which

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Speaker 1: just means magic or devil and can certainly mean dark magic,

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Speaker 1: depending on the context. We get to see both light

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Speaker 1: and dark magic here. Mo is also part of the

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Speaker 1: word mogwai, just to give it a little more clarity there.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I see. Did you have a note is like

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Speaker 2: the character, the Chinese character Mo is the thing that

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Speaker 2: appears at the beginning of the film?

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Speaker 1: It is. And I think it's really interesting here. And

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Speaker 1: maybe Mandarin readers can break down what's happening here a

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Speaker 1: little bit. But we yeah, they're going to they're going

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Speaker 1: to put up the kanji for Mo, but they kind

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Speaker 1: of roll it out in three phases. And so initially

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Speaker 1: the character that is added is the character that means

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Speaker 1: ghost character. And then the rest of the character is

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Speaker 1: added that spells out the full title, Magic. So I

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Speaker 1: don't know if a native Mandarin reader would interpret that

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Speaker 1: as ghost magic. Does that affect the title of the

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Speaker 1: movie as you read it? I guess we sometimes have

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Speaker 1: things like this in English language titles for pictures where

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Speaker 1: it looks like it's going to spell one thing and

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Speaker 1: then it spells another, but I don't think I'd seen

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Speaker 1: this done before, you know, like a Chinese or a

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Speaker 1: Japanese film.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that is interesting. But it's also interesting just thinking

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Speaker 2: about the title being in one sense magic or, you know, sorcery, enchantment,

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Speaker 2: whatever this refers to. Because that is like actually the

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Speaker 2: main theme of the movie. And so in English, we've

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Speaker 2: got this title, The Boxer's Omen. which paired with the

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Speaker 2: opening scene makes it seem like this movie is going

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Speaker 2: to be about kickboxing, which is a real bait and switch.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. It does seem very concerned with kickboxing for

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Speaker 1: a little bit there, but then really goes off the

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Speaker 1: cliff here into realms of magic and demons and sorcery

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Speaker 1: and all sorts of gross and mind-bending things that are

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Speaker 1: pretty far removed from Kicks to the Head.

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Speaker 2: Not only that does it, it not only moves mainly

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Speaker 2: away from the kickboxing plot, it literally like forgets to

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Speaker 2: conclude the kickboxing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: There's a kickboxing thread running through. It's like a revenge thing.

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Speaker 2: And it never, it never finishes. We never get the

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Speaker 2: final showdown. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: We were, we were joking about this off mic that

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Speaker 1: perhaps Shaw brothers came to, uh, uh, to the director, uh,

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Speaker 1: and said, Hey, we want you to make a kickboxing movie.

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Speaker 1: And he's like, got it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is about as much about kickboxing as The

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Speaker 2: Shining is about hotel maintenance.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, what if they had called The Shining the hotel manager?

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Speaker 2: But I like the way in which this movie is

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Speaker 2: about magic. It's like there's a healthy balance of treating

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Speaker 2: magic as On one hand, of course, just an object

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Speaker 2: of absolutely insane spectacle and exploitation, but then also as

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Speaker 2: an object of what feels like genuine respect?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. The magic systems in this film are fascinating. Like,

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Speaker 1: this movie takes its magic seriously. We've all seen movies

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Speaker 1: where evil wizards dabble in necromancy. And I was thinking

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Speaker 1: about this, too. A lot of people, I think, play

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Speaker 1: Dungeons & Dragons, and you know there's spell components in there. And...

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Speaker 1: Your character is supposed to wave their arms and say

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Speaker 1: certain things. But we often just skip over all that

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Speaker 1: and say you cast a fireball. And that's the way

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Speaker 1: movies sometimes do as well. This movie does not. There's

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Speaker 1: almost really like a hypnotic, ritualistic way that especially the

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Speaker 1: dark magic spells are presented. And in general, like the

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Speaker 1: light and dark of these different magical schools is just, man,

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Speaker 1: it's just so well executed here.

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Speaker 2: It's almost more focused on the rituals that evoke the

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Speaker 2: magic than on the magic effects themselves.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. And the way that the spells are generated

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Speaker 1: tell you a lot about the practitioner. So the Buddhist

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Speaker 1: magic is the pure expression of noble virtue, while the

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Speaker 1: black magic is the exact opposite. It's just pure degeneration, madness,

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Speaker 1: and self-destruction.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: In the same way that the Abbott is on the

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Speaker 1: verge of achieving enlightenment and immortality through righteousness and equanimity,

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Speaker 1: the wizards in the picture seem to be doing everything

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Speaker 1: they can to just kind of like bottom out as

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Speaker 1: if they're not only, you know, plunging into the hells,

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Speaker 1: but doing everything they can to accelerate their descent so

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Speaker 1: they can like blast through the floor and come, come

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Speaker 1: out the other side in a kind of perverse counter enlightenment. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. In more than one way, I noticed this, the

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Speaker 2: bad wizards in this movie, uh, practice magic and do

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Speaker 2: their rituals. Not with the kind of scary solemnity. We're

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Speaker 2: used to seeing Satanists do their stuff in the movies

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Speaker 2: where it's like, Oh, you know, no, no, no. In

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Speaker 2: the inferno. So being very serious while they're lowering the dagger,

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Speaker 2: like in a, what was it? We just empire of

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Speaker 2: the dark. It's not like that at all. It is a,

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Speaker 2: they basically have two modes of ritual. They have depraved

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Speaker 2: chaotic frenzy. And then they also have, Impatient annoyance. I

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Speaker 2: made the comparison. I was going to talk about this later,

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Speaker 2: but there's one part where we see the first main

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Speaker 2: evil wizard doing a bunch of rituals when he's trying

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Speaker 2: to get a bat to revive after it has been destroyed.

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Speaker 2: And he's talking at the ritual like somebody talks at

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Speaker 2: their car when they can't get it to start. It's

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Speaker 2: just this familiar, impatient annoyance, not somber Satanism with chanting.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. And at times there's also a detached defilement to

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Speaker 1: what they're doing. You know, it's like they're doing like

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Speaker 1: really gross and debased things. But it is it is

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Speaker 1: also just kind of like what they do. And, you know,

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Speaker 1: it takes hours to pull this off, but it's a

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Speaker 1: these are necessary steps in order to achieve their sorceress.

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Speaker 2: Goals yeah that's more in the chaotic frenzy era because

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Speaker 2: they're just frantically kind of I don't know picking picking

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Speaker 2: up guts and chewing them and cutting things off of

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Speaker 2: animals and chewing them and spitting them out and cutting

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Speaker 2: things open and it seems half the time like they're

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Speaker 2: barely paying attention to what they're doing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah Now, the magic systems that are depicted in the film,

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Speaker 1: they seem to have many connections to magical traditions in

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Speaker 1: Thailand and East Asia, real or attributed. And to be clear,

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Speaker 1: in the case of black magic, as we've discussed before,

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Speaker 1: we're certainly not always talking about practices that were ever

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Speaker 1: necessarily practiced, even by a thin minority of people. But,

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Speaker 1: you know, you end up with these tales about these

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Speaker 1: sorts of things, these sorts of spells that the dark

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Speaker 1: wizards and witches engage in. Right.

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Speaker 2: A lot of times what we might mean by calling

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Speaker 2: something authentic, culturally authentic evil sorcery does not mean it's

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Speaker 2: what people, what like sorcerers of that culture actually did.

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Speaker 2: It's what people of that culture actually thought sorcerers did. Right.

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Speaker 1: And then you have levels of like, what did outsiders

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Speaker 1: and foreigners think about the things that they heard about

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Speaker 1: magical practices, real or imagined? And then there's in this exercise,

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Speaker 1: how is all that amplified through the lens of exploitation cinema?

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Speaker 1: Because this is exploitation cinema, to be clear.

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Speaker 2: That's right. I feel like with this one, maybe we

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Speaker 2: should start with the plot summary at the top, because

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Speaker 2: in the plot section, we're probably just going to talk

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Speaker 2: a lot about these wizard battle scenes and the rituals.

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Speaker 2: So the plot basically takes this form. A Hong Kong

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Speaker 2: criminal named Chan Hung is drawn into a quest for

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Speaker 2: revenge against a cruel Thai kickboxer who paralyzed Chen Hung's

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Speaker 2: brother with an illegal strike during a match, actually after

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Speaker 2: a match was over. And then at the same time,

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Speaker 2: he is drawn by dreams and visions to a Buddhist

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Speaker 2: monastery in Thailand where he discovers that he has a

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Speaker 2: spiritual connection to the recently deceased abbot of that temple,

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Speaker 2: a The abbot was a powerful and holy Buddhist monk

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Speaker 2: who died in the middle of a feud with a

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Speaker 2: clan of evil sorcerers. Chan Hung discovers that in order

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Speaker 2: to both avenge his worldly brother and protect the immortality

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Speaker 2: of his spirit brother, the abbot, and then finally also

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Speaker 2: to protect himself, because we learn that his fate is

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Speaker 2: linked to the fate of the abbot, he must renounce

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Speaker 2: his hedonistic life of crime, shave his head, and become

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Speaker 2: a monk. And this practice of piety and self-discipline and

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Speaker 2: self-denial will allow him to gain supernatural strength to fight

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Speaker 2: his enemies, both physical and magical. And then from this

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Speaker 2: ensues a massive series of wizard battles and escalations of

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Speaker 2: wicked enchantment. Along the way, Chan Hung faces doubt, weakness, temptation,

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Speaker 2: and setbacks. Though actually those are kind of limited in scale.

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Speaker 2: Like we get those concentrated in very specific moments in

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Speaker 2: the film. But it ends with a sorcerer showdown in

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Speaker 2: a Buddhist temple in Nepal. So stupendous that I think

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Speaker 2: many viewers will probably not even notice that the movie forgets,

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Speaker 2: as we said earlier, to tie up the kickboxing revenge plot.

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Speaker 2: As you speculated, Rob, I mean, you almost wonder if

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Speaker 2: the Shaw brothers, you know, were like, we need a

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Speaker 2: kickboxing film. And that was just the price of admission

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Speaker 2: to get this film financed. But once the wizardry begins,

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Speaker 2: like why settle for anything less? Do we really want

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Speaker 2: to end this film with a kickboxing conflict as the

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Speaker 2: final confrontation when we could have a demoness giving birth

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Speaker 2: to plastic bags full of eyeballs that turn into putty

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Speaker 2: mummies that cut themselves open and cut their own fingers

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Speaker 2: off to bleed on each other and turn into eyeball dinosaurs?

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Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah, I don't think anybody's left wondering exactly how

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Speaker 1: the kickboxing resolved itself. All right, well, like we said,

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Speaker 1: this one is a film that certainly has a reputation.

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Speaker 1: It's been a very popular midnight movie for quite a while,

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Speaker 1: so you almost can't provide an elevator pitch for it.

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Speaker 1: It is the boxer's omen, and it casts a long shadow.

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Speaker 1: But I would say, you know, one man is about

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Speaker 1: to be sucked into a world of black magic and vengeance.

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Speaker 1: That's really all you need to know. The rest is

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Speaker 1: more of a, It's more about sensation. Yeah. Let's listen

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Speaker 1: to just a little bit of the trailer audio. Though

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Speaker 1: this is one we're just going to dip in and

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Speaker 1: out of it because the trailer is mostly sound effects.

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Speaker 1: But maybe you'll get just a little bit of a

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Speaker 1: sonic vibe here. All right. Well, if you would like

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Speaker 1: to go and watch The Boxer's Omen before proceeding with

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Speaker 1: the rest of this episode, it is available. I watched

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Speaker 1: it on the Image Entertainment DVD, which I believe came

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Speaker 1: out in 2007, and I rented that from Videodrome here

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Speaker 1: in Atlanta. It was also released on Blu-ray in the

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Speaker 1: Shawscope Volume 2 box set, which actually seems like it

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Speaker 1: might be the best presentation of the film, with extras,

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Speaker 1: but you have to buy the entire 10-disc set to

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Speaker 1: get your hands on it. There's even a commentary track

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Speaker 1: by the late critic Travis Crawford on there. Though I

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Speaker 1: believe JJ was telling us that you can also stream

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Speaker 1: this from Arrow via Arrow's online streaming presence.

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Speaker 2: And to be clear, the box set you're talking about

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Speaker 2: there is the Volume 2 Shaw Brothers collection from Arrow Video.

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Speaker 2: Because there are also some Shout Factory Shaw Brothers box sets.

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Speaker 2: And I was looking at their Volume 2. That's not

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Speaker 2: the same thing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, make sure you get the right one. I mean,

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Speaker 1: even if you make a mistake, you can end up

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Speaker 1: with a whole bunch of Shaw Brothers pictures, which, you know.

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Speaker 2: Probably a good time.

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Speaker 1: It's a pretty good time, yeah. But yes, I believe

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Speaker 1: it's volume two that has the boxer's element on it.

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Speaker 1: It is. All right, well, let's talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: about the people behind this picture and in this picture.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's start at the top with Kwechi Hung.

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Speaker 1: The director, also the story credit, and he did the

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Speaker 1: special effects. He lived 1937 through 1999. Hong Kong movie director,

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Speaker 1: active from 61 through 1984. So Boxer's Omen is his

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Speaker 1: penultimate film and his final horror movie. He directs just

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Speaker 1: one more film with the same screenwriter as this picture,

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Speaker 1: an action comedy titled Misfire, before he apparently immigrated to

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Speaker 1: or re-immigrated to the United States. I was more on

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Speaker 1: that in just a minute here. But he apparently ran

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Speaker 1: a pizza restaurant in California for the remainder of his life.

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Speaker 1: I have so many questions about this pizza restaurant, but

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Speaker 1: I wasn't able to find out much about it. I

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Speaker 1: was even looking up interviews with his son, Ming Beaverquay,

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Speaker 1: who is an American film producer. In fact, he was

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Speaker 1: an associate producer on the Meg movies, the recent Giant

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Speaker 1: Shark movies.

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Speaker 2: Oh, the ones with Jason Statham.

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Speaker 1: The very ones. But he didn't really get into it much.

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Speaker 1: But I mentioned re-immigrated because apparently Ming's grandfather attended Cornell,

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Speaker 1: and he says graduated in 1922, worked in Detroit in

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Speaker 1: the 1930s, and then went back to China during the

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Speaker 1: Second World War. So I don't know. I found that interesting.

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Speaker 2: So from what I understand, Kui Chi Hung was not originally...

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Speaker 2: best known for making, like, horror or supernatural films, right?

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Speaker 2: I mean, this was some of his later work, but

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Speaker 2: early on he made a lot of, like, crime dramas and.

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Speaker 1: Stuff like that. Yeah, he did a lot of different stuff,

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Speaker 1: but he's probably best known internationally for this late career

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Speaker 1: period when he did a lot of black magic films.

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Speaker 1: Mostly in the 1980s, playing off a tradition that was

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Speaker 1: kind of popularized in the 1970s by the likes of

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Speaker 1: oily maniac director Ho Ming-Hua. who we discussed this film

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Speaker 1: previously on Weird House Cinema. This is a film from 1976.

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Speaker 1: But Kwechi Hung takes things to just new, dizzying heights, obviously.

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Speaker 1: So in addition to The Boxer's Omen, these black magic

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Speaker 1: films include 1980s Hex, 1980s Hex vs. Witchcraft, 81's Corpse Mania,

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Speaker 1: 81's Bewitched, to which this film I've seen sometimes described

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Speaker 1: as kind of a sequel, 82's Curse of Evil, and

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Speaker 1: 82's Hex After Hex. Obviously, these are all English titles,

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Speaker 1: and one can generally assume that the actual Chinese titles

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Speaker 1: were maybe a little less silly sounding. He also directed

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Speaker 1: some horror films in the 1970s, 73's The Bamboo House

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Speaker 1: of Dolls, 74's Ghost Eyes, 74's The Killer Snake, 75's

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Speaker 1: Fearful Interlude, and 76's Spirit of the Raped. But he

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Speaker 1: also directed several action films, including... 1980s Killer Constable, generally

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Speaker 1: considered his only Wushu film, and he also directed the

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Speaker 1: 1974 serious crime drama The Tea House, and 1976's The

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Speaker 1: Bod Squad, which is a kung fu sex comedy. Nice.

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Speaker 1: So a popular and obviously daring visual Shaw Brothers director here.

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Speaker 1: But it's easy to focus on the crazy visuals in

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Speaker 1: a film like this. But he also valued great locations,

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Speaker 1: which is something we see in The Boxer's Omen, as

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Speaker 1: well as our lead character travels to Thailand and Nepal.

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Speaker 1: And often he would have subtle nods to the actual

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Speaker 1: lives of common people, which we see here as well. Again,

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Speaker 1: almost giving it a kind of documentary vibe in its

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Speaker 1: real world moments. And I'm to understand in his other films,

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Speaker 1: he also tackled to varying degrees the subject of corruption,

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Speaker 1: police corruption and so forth. And yeah, but before he died,

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Speaker 1: he apparently immigrated to the United States and ran a

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Speaker 1: pizza parlor. So. Again, I wish I could find out

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Speaker 1: more about that pizza parlor, but it remains a mystery.

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Speaker 1: All right, moving on to the screenplay. The screenplay is

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Speaker 1: credited to On Setso, who lived 1927 through 2021. His

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Speaker 1: other writings include Killer Constable, Corpse Mania, Bewitched, 82's Buddha's Palm,

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Speaker 1: and also Curse of Evil. Obviously, these two work together

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Speaker 1: quite a lot, but Setso's was in general just a

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Speaker 1: very prolific writer. On the Hong Kong movie database, he

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Speaker 1: has something like 259 writing credits.

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Speaker 2: Wow, that's a lot.

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Speaker 1: All right, getting into the cast here. Again, our main

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Speaker 1: protagonist is Chan Hung, played by Philip Ko. Philip Ko

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Speaker 1: lived 1949 through 2017. Hong Kong actor, stuntman, and director,

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Speaker 1: active from 1970 through 2006. He has an uncredited guard

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Speaker 1: role in 1973's Enter the Dragon. which this is not surprising.

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Speaker 1: I think it's often the case when you look at

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Speaker 1: Shaw Brothers pictures, like everybody has some connection to Enter

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Speaker 1: the Dragon, even though Enter the Dragon was not a

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Speaker 1: Shaw Brothers motion picture. I believe that was a Golden

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Speaker 1: Harvest picture. But anyway, Philip Coe, his other acting credits

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Speaker 1: include 84's The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, 87's Eastern Condors,

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Speaker 1: and 88's Dragons Forever. He was also in 83's Seating

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Speaker 1: of a Ghost, 86's Magic Crystal, and 85's Ninja Terminator,

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Speaker 1: starring Richard Harrison, who we just talked about, played the

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Speaker 1: lead cultist in Empire of the Dark. Right. Philip Coe

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Speaker 1: worked with such Hong Kong greats as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan,

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Speaker 1: Sammo Hung. His directing credits include 1980's Killer Romance and

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Speaker 1: 92's Hard to Kill, starring a young Robin Shue of

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Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat fame. Oh, yeah. So he often played villains

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Speaker 1: and was married at one point to Japanese actress Yukari Oshima,

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Speaker 1: who appeared in a number of Hong Kong and Filipino pictures,

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Speaker 1: including 1991's Ricky O, The Story of Ricky, in which

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Speaker 1: he plays one of the Gang of Four.

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Speaker 2: May come back to that movie someday.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a connection from one notoriously bloody picture to another. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so Chan Hung is helping out the Abbott. I think

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Speaker 1: we've established that. The abbot in question here, the one

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Speaker 1: that he is connected to, that they are like reincarnations. No,

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Speaker 1: they're twins in a previous life. Yeah, that's right. We're

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Speaker 1: going to find out. This abbot is played by Elvis

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Speaker 1: Su Kam Kong, born 1961. Hong Kong actor whose other

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Speaker 1: films include 83's Shaolin and Wu-Tang. This is indeed the

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Speaker 1: picture that's one of RZA's favorite films. 1986 is The

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Speaker 1: Seventh Curse. 89's The Iceman Cometh. I've seen that one.

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Speaker 1: I believe that one has a lot of swordplay in it.

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Speaker 1: 1996's Viva Erotica and 2013's The Grandmaster. Now, we have

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Speaker 1: multiple dark wizards in this picture, and I had a

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Speaker 1: hard time nailing down exactly which character was which and

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Speaker 1: who played each character. I was working off of the

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Speaker 1: Internet Movie Database as well as the Hong Kong Movie Database.

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Speaker 1: But for this movie in particular, we don't necessarily have

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Speaker 1: the names of the characters or even a character description

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Speaker 1: entailed as well.

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Speaker 2: I think most of the characters, we never learn their name.

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Speaker 2: The movie never says.

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Speaker 1: This is not that sort of movie where you get

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Speaker 1: to know each and every dark wizard. I was really

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Speaker 1: intrigued as well by a character that pops up pretty

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Speaker 1: late in the picture, a sorceress or demoness that is

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Speaker 1: summoned or resurrected. And I believe, I really had to

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Speaker 1: hunt around for this one, but I believe she's played

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Speaker 1: by someone named Xiao Yanlin. But this is a case

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Speaker 1: where we have no idea when she was born, no

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Speaker 1: biographical data about her, and I think this was her

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Speaker 1: only credit. But still, very memorable, sexy, demonous role, as

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Speaker 1: we'll describe later on in our plot summary.

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Speaker 2: This is the character who the parental guide on IMDb

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Speaker 2: warns us that she is underdressed for entering a temple.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes. Among all the other blasphemous and awful things

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Speaker 1: she's involved in, she is underdressed. All right. Now we

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Speaker 1: are going to get to someone who is instantly recognizable, though,

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Speaker 1: and I think easily the most internationally recognizable actor in

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Speaker 1: this whole picture. It is Bo Lo Yong playing Bubo,

403
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Speaker 1: the Thai boxer, getting to the boxing subplot that is

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Speaker 1: pushed to the forefront by the English title for this picture.

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Speaker 1: Born in 1946. You've all seen this guy before, I think.

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Speaker 1: He is also known as Chinese Hercules.

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Speaker 2: He is a mountain. This guy, this guy is a

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Speaker 2: muscle man. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. He is a beast and is like, he's kicking,

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Speaker 1: like he's fast, super muscular, kicking with these legs that

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Speaker 1: look like tree trunks. I mean, he's just intimidating and

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Speaker 1: also has this just natural heel charisma, just oozing off

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Speaker 1: of him. You can see why this guy was so successful.

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Speaker 2: In fact, in the kickboxing scene where the movie opens,

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Speaker 2: I am by no means a kickboxing expert. I don't

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Speaker 2: really know anything about it. But even my amateur eyes

417
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Speaker 2: were looking at this and I'm like, wait, these two

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Speaker 2: guys are in the same weight class? It doesn't look

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Speaker 2: like they would be.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Bolo is just intimidating. And if you have ever

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Speaker 1: seen 1973's Enter the Dragon... Uh, Bolo is the guy

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Speaker 1: who fights John Saxon's character. And you may have had

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Speaker 1: similar thoughts in that matchup. You know, like, uh, John Saxon,

424
00:26:22,609 --> 00:26:25,450
Speaker 1: you know, you're super cool, but there's no way you

425
00:26:25,750 --> 00:26:28,690
Speaker 1: would have any realistic chance against this monster of a man.

426
00:26:29,230 --> 00:26:31,810
Speaker 2: Well, that would make more sense of, wouldn't it originally

427
00:26:31,850 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 2: in the script that John Saxon's character dies and then

428
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:36,120
Speaker 2: they had to change it because he didn't like that?

429
00:26:37,460 --> 00:26:38,760
Speaker 1: I don't remember. Yeah, I don't know.

430
00:26:38,780 --> 00:26:39,920
Speaker 2: Maybe misremembering, but.

431
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:42,020
Speaker 1: It's been a long time since I've seen it. And

432
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:43,940
Speaker 1: I don't know much about its, uh, you know, behind

433
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:49,630
Speaker 1: the scenes, uh, But yeah, Bolo was definitely in Enter

434
00:26:49,670 --> 00:26:52,930
Speaker 1: the Dragon. His Hong Kong film credits go back to

435
00:26:52,930 --> 00:26:57,540
Speaker 1: 1970 and include the 1973 film Chinese Hercules, in which

436
00:26:57,619 --> 00:27:00,980
Speaker 1: he is not the star, but it was clearly promoted,

437
00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:05,310
Speaker 1: at least internationally, with this title to capitalize on his

438
00:27:05,350 --> 00:27:08,189
Speaker 1: screen presence. I included a poster here for you, Joe.

439
00:27:08,530 --> 00:27:10,010
Speaker 1: If you're out there listening, you should look this up

440
00:27:10,070 --> 00:27:13,680
Speaker 1: as well. It says Chinese Hercules, the first and only

441
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:18,179
Speaker 1: muscle mad monster of the martial arts, the superhuman beast

442
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:21,720
Speaker 1: of the East. And then he's there's an illustration of

443
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:26,060
Speaker 1: him like, let's see, he's got like two guys in headlocks.

444
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:28,790
Speaker 1: And then there's a lady biting his leg as he

445
00:27:28,850 --> 00:27:32,449
Speaker 1: with his elbows like bust down the pillars of some

446
00:27:32,470 --> 00:27:33,070
Speaker 1: sort of a temple.

447
00:27:33,750 --> 00:27:37,470
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, like Samson. He's pushing the pillars out. Is

448
00:27:37,490 --> 00:27:39,750
Speaker 2: the lady biting his leg because she likes him or

449
00:27:39,770 --> 00:27:40,950
Speaker 2: because she doesn't like him?

450
00:27:41,550 --> 00:27:45,330
Speaker 1: I cannot determine. And I'm not sure that actually watching

451
00:27:45,369 --> 00:27:49,090
Speaker 1: the film would answer the question. But yeah, this guy

452
00:27:49,109 --> 00:27:51,109
Speaker 1: was the real deal. He was a student of Bruce

453
00:27:51,190 --> 00:27:54,210
Speaker 1: Lee's and obviously appeared alongside him in Enter the Dragon.

454
00:27:55,450 --> 00:27:57,410
Speaker 1: Was in a ton of these Hong Kong action films.

455
00:27:57,470 --> 00:28:01,310
Speaker 1: But then in 1988, he scored the main antagonist role

456
00:28:01,510 --> 00:28:04,609
Speaker 1: in a little movie called Bloodsport. This is where I

457
00:28:04,650 --> 00:28:08,030
Speaker 1: think most people are familiar with him from. This, of course,

458
00:28:08,070 --> 00:28:13,250
Speaker 1: starred Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb and Forrest Whitaker. And yeah,

459
00:28:13,810 --> 00:28:17,340
Speaker 1: Bolo is the intimidating kickboxer that I believe, if I

460
00:28:17,380 --> 00:28:21,940
Speaker 1: remember correctly, like brutally murders or injures Donald Gibb's character.

461
00:28:21,980 --> 00:28:24,580
Speaker 1: And then Jean-Claude Van Damme has to seek revenge against him.

462
00:28:24,900 --> 00:28:27,560
Speaker 2: Looking at this made me think about the possibility that

463
00:28:28,070 --> 00:28:32,070
Speaker 2: some at some point in time, People have rented and

464
00:28:32,130 --> 00:28:34,790
Speaker 2: popped in Boxer's Omen because they were a fan of

465
00:28:34,830 --> 00:28:38,590
Speaker 2: Jean-Claude Van Damme movies. And they're like, oh, another kickboxing movie.

466
00:28:38,810 --> 00:28:41,570
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, there's like maybe five minutes of it in

467
00:28:41,590 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: the picture. And it's impressive. There's some cool kickboxing as

468
00:28:46,860 --> 00:28:50,780
Speaker 1: we'll discuss. But at any rate, he'd work, getting back

469
00:28:50,820 --> 00:28:53,080
Speaker 1: to Bolo here, he'd work with Van Damme again in

470
00:28:53,420 --> 00:28:56,860
Speaker 1: 1991's Double Impact. And then apparently slowly retired from acting

471
00:28:57,300 --> 00:29:00,270
Speaker 1: after a bit there. with his last film credit as

472
00:29:00,310 --> 00:29:04,540
Speaker 1: of this recording in 2015. Of note, he also directed

473
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:08,560
Speaker 1: and starred in a film titled Bolo, playing the character Bolo.

474
00:29:08,580 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 1: This is 1979. I don't think it's autobiographical. I think

475
00:29:13,460 --> 00:29:15,200
Speaker 1: it all just happens to come together that way.

476
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:18,420
Speaker 2: Well, I believe Bolo is not his birth name, right?

477
00:29:18,460 --> 00:29:21,160
Speaker 2: I think that's like a nickname. Am I wrong about that?

478
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:24,650
Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe so. A lot of these Hong Kong actors,

479
00:29:24,850 --> 00:29:28,280
Speaker 1: as you may have noticed, listeners, they have... like an

480
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:32,020
Speaker 1: Americanized show name on top of their actual Chinese name.

481
00:29:33,500 --> 00:29:36,500
Speaker 1: Bolo's other major films include 72's Five Fingers of Death

482
00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:43,220
Speaker 1: and the 1993 action film titled TC 2000, which also

483
00:29:43,260 --> 00:29:47,820
Speaker 1: features Billy Blanks and Matthias Hughes from I Come in Peace.

484
00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:50,380
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of muscle in that picture.

485
00:29:51,060 --> 00:29:52,900
Speaker 2: That's the Tai Bo guy? Yeah.

486
00:29:54,100 --> 00:29:57,840
Speaker 1: Wow. All right, let's see. One more actor to mention here.

487
00:29:58,430 --> 00:30:02,900
Speaker 1: because she is specifically called out in the movie databases.

488
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,620
Speaker 1: We have Wai Ka Man playing Chan Hung's girl. That's

489
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:08,900
Speaker 1: his girlfriend. She doesn't really have a name as far

490
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:13,120
Speaker 1: as we can tell beyond that. Much like the wizards, yeah.

491
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:16,390
Speaker 1: She is his often-naked lady friend back in Hong Kong.

492
00:30:16,750 --> 00:30:19,870
Speaker 1: Her other credits include 83's Seating of a Ghost, 85's

493
00:30:19,930 --> 00:30:24,670
Speaker 1: Devil Cat, 85's Ghost Festival, and 93's Sexy Flower. All right,

494
00:30:24,890 --> 00:30:27,570
Speaker 1: getting behind the scenes a little bit, there's some interesting

495
00:30:27,630 --> 00:30:32,310
Speaker 1: names here. Horace Ma is credited with either art director

496
00:30:32,510 --> 00:30:35,730
Speaker 1: or scenery, depending on which database you're looking at. And

497
00:30:35,790 --> 00:30:40,430
Speaker 1: he was active from 83 through, I believe, 2022. And

498
00:30:40,470 --> 00:30:42,910
Speaker 1: I think this was his first film. He'd gone on

499
00:30:42,950 --> 00:30:47,130
Speaker 1: to win numerous awards for 2019's Shadow and also worked

500
00:30:47,270 --> 00:30:51,940
Speaker 1: on RZA's 2012 passion project, The Man with the Iron Fist. Hmm. Now,

501
00:30:51,980 --> 00:30:56,940
Speaker 1: we have two credited composers here. There's Chin-Yung Hsing, and

502
00:30:56,980 --> 00:31:02,190
Speaker 1: then there's also Chin-Hao Su. Let's see. Hsing was active

503
00:31:02,230 --> 00:31:05,170
Speaker 1: from 81 through 94, and his credits include The Seventh Curse,

504
00:31:05,310 --> 00:31:09,290
Speaker 1: Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, and Dragons Forever. His work was

505
00:31:09,350 --> 00:31:12,710
Speaker 1: also used in Kill Bill. Kill Bill, of course, samples

506
00:31:13,030 --> 00:31:18,300
Speaker 1: some various scores from different Hong Kong action films. And

507
00:31:18,660 --> 00:31:21,320
Speaker 1: as for Sue, he also worked on some of the

508
00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:24,700
Speaker 1: same films, but also worked on Human Lanterns, Seating of

509
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,860
Speaker 1: a Ghost and Bewitched. In general, I'd say the music

510
00:31:27,900 --> 00:31:29,860
Speaker 1: here is really fun. There are a lot of like

511
00:31:29,900 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 1: cool electronic effects, some of which were lifted. There's one

512
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:38,840
Speaker 1: particular sound that a number of you will remember from

513
00:31:39,140 --> 00:31:44,210
Speaker 1: 1980s Flash Gordon. That's sort of like wow sound. That

514
00:31:44,300 --> 00:31:47,600
Speaker 1: is lifted and used in this picture. And I've also

515
00:31:47,660 --> 00:31:49,560
Speaker 1: read that there are some sound effects from Alien that

516
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:50,640
Speaker 1: are utilized here as well.

517
00:31:51,140 --> 00:31:53,640
Speaker 2: Oh, okay. I did not catch that, but I can

518
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:56,810
Speaker 2: believe it. But yeah, there's a lot of fun. It's

519
00:31:56,850 --> 00:32:00,450
Speaker 2: a playful musical score. Like there's some wailing guitars and

520
00:32:00,490 --> 00:32:12,260
Speaker 2: some funny parts. All right, you ready to talk about

521
00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:12,620
Speaker 2: the plot?

522
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:14,080
Speaker 1: Let's get into the plot.

523
00:32:14,860 --> 00:32:17,410
Speaker 2: So we already laid out a brief sketch of the

524
00:32:17,450 --> 00:32:22,090
Speaker 2: plot earlier, but at the beginning of the story, our protagonist,

525
00:32:22,210 --> 00:32:27,030
Speaker 2: Chan Hung, is a mid-level Hong Kong gangster. And when

526
00:32:27,050 --> 00:32:30,440
Speaker 2: the story begins, he seemingly has everything a guy like

527
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:34,260
Speaker 2: him could want. He's got money, power, a beautiful girlfriend,

528
00:32:34,300 --> 00:32:37,520
Speaker 2: a nice house, luxuries, and it seems like respect in

529
00:32:37,540 --> 00:32:39,660
Speaker 2: the criminal underworld. He's a respected criminal.

530
00:32:40,420 --> 00:32:41,770
Speaker 1: Yeah, he has some cool sunglasses.

531
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 2: Chen Hong also has a brother. Um, now about the

532
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:50,140
Speaker 2: name of the brother, I was like some online synopses,

533
00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:52,560
Speaker 2: like the Wikipedia page for this movie calls his brother

534
00:32:52,700 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 2: Chen wing though. When I was just rewatching it, I noticed,

535
00:32:56,980 --> 00:32:59,630
Speaker 2: I think the only time somebody said his full name

536
00:32:59,690 --> 00:33:01,950
Speaker 2: in the movie, it was a boxing announcer who called

537
00:33:01,970 --> 00:33:06,310
Speaker 2: him Chen Y. Um, so I'm, I'm not sure which

538
00:33:06,390 --> 00:33:09,660
Speaker 2: is more right there, but, um, His brother is also

539
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:13,320
Speaker 2: quite successful in his own domain, which is kickboxing. And

540
00:33:13,540 --> 00:33:16,620
Speaker 2: they never talk about this, from what I recall, but

541
00:33:17,300 --> 00:33:19,640
Speaker 2: it is implied later in the film that Chan Hung

542
00:33:19,700 --> 00:33:23,390
Speaker 2: himself has previously had a career as a kickboxer.

543
00:33:23,930 --> 00:33:26,410
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. I mean, he seems competent getting into the

544
00:33:26,470 --> 00:33:28,970
Speaker 1: ring to kickbox himself later in the picture. Yeah.

545
00:33:29,490 --> 00:33:32,690
Speaker 2: So the film opens on a kickboxing match in Hong

546
00:33:32,730 --> 00:33:35,940
Speaker 2: Kong with two fighters for the heavyweight championships. And the

547
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:39,770
Speaker 2: fighters are Chan Hung's brother, Chan Wing, or Chan Wai.

548
00:33:40,380 --> 00:33:42,870
Speaker 2: And on the other side of the ring, a Thai

549
00:33:42,910 --> 00:33:45,490
Speaker 2: boxer named Bu Bo. That's the guy played by Bo

550
00:33:45,510 --> 00:33:46,030
Speaker 2: Lo Young.

551
00:33:46,750 --> 00:33:50,950
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, just an obvious physical mismatch here. You

552
00:33:50,990 --> 00:33:53,050
Speaker 1: can tell a murder is about to take place in

553
00:33:53,090 --> 00:33:53,410
Speaker 1: the ring.

554
00:33:53,990 --> 00:33:56,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they're fighting. And I might be a little

555
00:33:56,360 --> 00:34:00,680
Speaker 2: bit confused about the rules of kickboxing because in this fight,

556
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 2: the Thai boxer kicks Chan Wing in the back of

557
00:34:03,760 --> 00:34:08,110
Speaker 2: the head between rounds. while his back is turned. I

558
00:34:08,150 --> 00:34:11,130
Speaker 2: was like, wait, how is that not instant disqualification? I

559
00:34:11,250 --> 00:34:13,690
Speaker 2: think the ref says something like, if you keep that up,

560
00:34:13,750 --> 00:34:16,670
Speaker 2: I'm going to disqualify you. It seems like one time

561
00:34:16,730 --> 00:34:18,160
Speaker 2: would be instant, wouldn't it?

562
00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:21,980
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I guess as with Buddhism, we should be

563
00:34:22,060 --> 00:34:26,219
Speaker 1: reluctant to, to learn too much about kickboxing from this movie. Yeah.

564
00:34:26,460 --> 00:34:29,339
Speaker 2: It seemed more like pro wrestling rules than something with

565
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:33,170
Speaker 2: line of fair competition. But yeah. Anyway, through this, uh,

566
00:34:33,300 --> 00:34:36,310
Speaker 2: and through, so because he's like, you know, kicking him

567
00:34:36,330 --> 00:34:38,070
Speaker 2: in the back of the head while his back's turned,

568
00:34:38,550 --> 00:34:41,380
Speaker 2: and because he's just smugly grinning a lot, we get

569
00:34:41,410 --> 00:34:44,500
Speaker 2: the idea that Bubo, the Thai boxer, is a bad

570
00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:48,500
Speaker 2: sportsman and a bad dude. He's vicious, he doesn't fight fair,

571
00:34:48,540 --> 00:34:51,299
Speaker 2: and he has no sense of honor or shame. Now,

572
00:34:51,340 --> 00:34:53,920
Speaker 2: there is no magic in this scene, which is an

573
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:58,320
Speaker 2: interesting choice that the movie does not begin with a

574
00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:01,799
Speaker 2: supernatural prologue or any indication of how weird it's going

575
00:35:01,820 --> 00:35:04,990
Speaker 2: to get. From the opening scene, you could easily assume

576
00:35:05,070 --> 00:35:07,470
Speaker 2: that this is just going to be a hard hitting

577
00:35:07,550 --> 00:35:11,390
Speaker 2: terrestrial kickboxer movie. And, you know, I think it works

578
00:35:11,430 --> 00:35:13,390
Speaker 2: pretty well in that vein. Like this is a good

579
00:35:13,489 --> 00:35:17,020
Speaker 2: fight scene with strong choreography. And most importantly, I think

580
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:22,120
Speaker 2: good sound effects. It has that great, uh, frequency spanning

581
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 2: slap with every punch and kick that connects. Uh, this

582
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:27,510
Speaker 2: is characteristic. I think of a lot of the best

583
00:35:27,550 --> 00:35:29,890
Speaker 2: Hong Kong action movies is they have really great fight

584
00:35:29,950 --> 00:35:34,880
Speaker 2: sound effects. Uh, and that core, uh, connection sound is

585
00:35:34,940 --> 00:35:38,520
Speaker 2: like a combination of a bass drum kick, a rim shot,

586
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:42,300
Speaker 2: and then a strip of wet brisket slapping on parchment

587
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:46,580
Speaker 2: paper all at once happening. Love those percussive fight scenes.

588
00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:50,090
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have really solid sound effects throughout this picture,

589
00:35:50,110 --> 00:35:53,550
Speaker 1: whether it's kicks and slaps or dripping entrails and demon slime.

590
00:35:54,510 --> 00:35:57,989
Speaker 2: Anyway, the fight is quite brutal. At different times, both

591
00:35:58,050 --> 00:36:02,110
Speaker 2: Bu Bo and Chen Wing are landed just disgusting hits.

592
00:36:02,230 --> 00:36:05,490
Speaker 2: At one point, Bubo has a bunch of floppy pink

593
00:36:05,650 --> 00:36:08,469
Speaker 2: gore tinsel hanging off the side of his head. He

594
00:36:08,630 --> 00:36:11,090
Speaker 2: gets kicked in the head and it's just like, whoa,

595
00:36:11,110 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 2: it's like his wires are coming out, it looks like.

596
00:36:16,020 --> 00:36:19,480
Speaker 2: So Chan-Hung's brother wins the fight, but after he has

597
00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:23,380
Speaker 2: declared the winner, the Thai boxer becomes furious. He runs up,

598
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:25,550
Speaker 2: he sucker punches him in the back of the head

599
00:36:25,570 --> 00:36:28,820
Speaker 2: again and And then when he falls down, he stomps

600
00:36:28,940 --> 00:36:31,200
Speaker 2: on his body until his neck is broken.

601
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:32,760
Speaker 1: Brutal. Brutal.

602
00:36:33,380 --> 00:36:36,540
Speaker 2: Once again, you'd think like, okay, that that's not just disqualified.

603
00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:39,359
Speaker 2: Like you'd be arrested, but instead it's just kind of like, no,

604
00:36:39,420 --> 00:36:43,550
Speaker 2: you're not supposed to do that. Later after the fight,

605
00:36:43,590 --> 00:36:46,790
Speaker 2: we see Chan Hung in his element. He swaggers into

606
00:36:46,830 --> 00:36:50,029
Speaker 2: this cool Hong Kong club that's flooded with red light.

607
00:36:50,570 --> 00:36:53,310
Speaker 2: He is wearing a sleek gray suit with a pocket

608
00:36:53,350 --> 00:36:56,290
Speaker 2: square and a black shirt open about four buttons down

609
00:36:56,350 --> 00:37:00,450
Speaker 2: from the neck. Also sunglasses at night indoors so that

610
00:37:00,530 --> 00:37:03,719
Speaker 2: he is a cool cat. So he comes into the

611
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:07,680
Speaker 2: crime den and he is addressed as Brother Hung. Chan

612
00:37:07,700 --> 00:37:09,820
Speaker 2: Hung is called in for a meeting with the boss,

613
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:12,739
Speaker 2: Uncle Chi, and the boss tells him that he has

614
00:37:12,780 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 2: to go to a 1 a.m. meeting with the representatives

615
00:37:15,540 --> 00:37:18,860
Speaker 2: of a gang from the mainland. Hung agrees, and he

616
00:37:18,900 --> 00:37:21,900
Speaker 2: makes plans to have backup with weapons waiting outside the

617
00:37:21,940 --> 00:37:26,140
Speaker 2: meeting place in case anything goes wrong. Well, something does

618
00:37:26,180 --> 00:37:29,320
Speaker 2: go wrong. In fact, it is a trap. The meeting

619
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:32,759
Speaker 2: takes place at some kind of construction site, and as

620
00:37:32,860 --> 00:37:35,140
Speaker 2: soon as Chan Hung comes in and sees the leader

621
00:37:35,180 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 2: of the mainlanders, he's obviously like, this is not going

622
00:37:39,700 --> 00:37:42,120
Speaker 2: to be a happy meeting. He takes off his sunglasses,

623
00:37:42,500 --> 00:37:45,439
Speaker 2: there's a guitar wail on the soundtrack, and Hung says,

624
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:48,569
Speaker 2: you're very cocky. You just arrived and already you're fighting

625
00:37:48,610 --> 00:37:51,990
Speaker 2: for territory. And I do love, by the way, the

626
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:54,700
Speaker 2: outfit of the mainlander. He's got like this cool hat

627
00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:58,500
Speaker 2: cocked to the side and he's smoking a cigarette. I

628
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:02,060
Speaker 2: don't know, something looks kind of like 1920s gangster about him.

629
00:38:02,980 --> 00:38:06,339
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a real vicious air to him.

630
00:38:06,580 --> 00:38:10,040
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the gangster says, you know, it's bold of

631
00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:13,060
Speaker 2: you to come here alone. And Hung says, I've been

632
00:38:13,100 --> 00:38:15,200
Speaker 2: in Hong Kong a long time. I've seen it all.

633
00:38:15,860 --> 00:38:18,780
Speaker 2: But then the mainlander guy's like, bet you haven't seen this.

634
00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:22,100
Speaker 2: And then from somewhere up above, he drops a burlap

635
00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:25,739
Speaker 2: sack full of chopped up human body with bloody arms

636
00:38:25,820 --> 00:38:28,660
Speaker 2: poking out of it. And whoops, inside the sack is

637
00:38:28,860 --> 00:38:32,920
Speaker 2: Uncle Chi, Hung's boss. And then the other gang reveals

638
00:38:32,940 --> 00:38:35,960
Speaker 2: that they also killed all of Hung's backup. And now

639
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:38,060
Speaker 2: they're about to kill him as well. So they like

640
00:38:38,140 --> 00:38:40,420
Speaker 2: tie him up, hang him upside down by his feet

641
00:38:40,820 --> 00:38:43,560
Speaker 2: and plunge his head into a bucket of water. So

642
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:45,189
Speaker 2: it's brutal. Yeah.

643
00:38:45,250 --> 00:38:49,770
Speaker 1: So suddenly we've gone from sports movie to violent crime movie.

644
00:38:50,130 --> 00:38:51,799
Speaker 1: And it seems like that movie is about to end

645
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:52,950
Speaker 1: here rather quickly.

646
00:38:53,489 --> 00:38:56,660
Speaker 2: But now we're about six minutes into the film. We're

647
00:38:56,880 --> 00:39:00,719
Speaker 2: about to get the first sudden intervention of magic. There

648
00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:05,000
Speaker 2: is a divine interruption of this gangland execution when an

649
00:39:05,219 --> 00:39:09,660
Speaker 2: otherworldly wind and an emanation of white light burst into

650
00:39:09,719 --> 00:39:13,460
Speaker 2: the scene, frightening and confusing the gangsters. And then we

651
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:16,420
Speaker 2: cut away to see the source of this power. In

652
00:39:16,500 --> 00:39:19,380
Speaker 2: the doorway to the warehouse, there is a bald monk

653
00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:22,739
Speaker 2: naked at the shoulder but wrapped in gold robes with

654
00:39:22,790 --> 00:39:26,250
Speaker 2: a gold band around his head from which dangle these

655
00:39:26,330 --> 00:39:29,689
Speaker 2: two large spheres or discs on either side down below

656
00:39:29,730 --> 00:39:32,920
Speaker 2: his jaw. And then in the dark all around, we

657
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:37,560
Speaker 2: can see jets of white radiant energy squirting off of him.

658
00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:40,580
Speaker 2: He almost literally looks like a lawn sprinkler of holiness.

659
00:39:40,820 --> 00:39:41,560
Speaker 1: He does. Yes.

660
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:46,089
Speaker 2: Suddenly Chan Hung is free of his bindings. The ropes

661
00:39:46,130 --> 00:39:48,340
Speaker 2: come undone. He looks around and he can stand up.

662
00:39:48,730 --> 00:39:52,010
Speaker 2: And all of the rival gangsters lie dead on the ground.

663
00:39:52,610 --> 00:39:55,649
Speaker 2: The apparition of the monk says, Chan Hung, you must

664
00:39:55,730 --> 00:39:59,140
Speaker 2: follow me. Chan Hung asks, who are you? But he

665
00:39:59,180 --> 00:40:01,120
Speaker 2: doesn't have time to figure it out. He hears police

666
00:40:01,140 --> 00:40:04,060
Speaker 2: sirens approaching, so he has to flee the scene. And

667
00:40:04,100 --> 00:40:06,859
Speaker 2: then he goes back home to spend the night with

668
00:40:06,900 --> 00:40:07,580
Speaker 2: his girlfriend.

669
00:40:08,060 --> 00:40:12,150
Speaker 1: Yeah, and a really steamy sex scene ensues. But it's

670
00:40:12,190 --> 00:40:15,390
Speaker 1: also important because it helps establish that our hero is

671
00:40:15,450 --> 00:40:18,319
Speaker 1: a lover. He is a lusty gentleman. which is going

672
00:40:18,340 --> 00:40:19,310
Speaker 1: to be important later on.

673
00:40:19,820 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 2: Yes, I think you were supposed to think back to

674
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:25,560
Speaker 2: the scene immediately when he later promises the Buddha a

675
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:27,060
Speaker 2: vow of sexual abstinence.

676
00:40:27,100 --> 00:40:27,779
Speaker 1: Yeah.

677
00:40:28,620 --> 00:40:32,330
Speaker 2: So later that night, Chan Hung has another strange vision.

678
00:40:32,410 --> 00:40:35,290
Speaker 2: He is awakened from a dream to see a glowing

679
00:40:35,469 --> 00:40:38,090
Speaker 2: orange symbol floating in the air over his bed. It

680
00:40:39,130 --> 00:40:41,279
Speaker 2: sort of looks like a carrot symbol or like a

681
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:43,480
Speaker 2: capital letter A without a crossbar.

682
00:40:44,020 --> 00:40:45,779
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm not sure if it's intended to be

683
00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:47,930
Speaker 1: read this way, but the symbol sort of looks like

684
00:40:47,969 --> 00:40:51,210
Speaker 1: the character for Ren, which means man or person.

685
00:40:52,790 --> 00:40:55,670
Speaker 2: Also, the symbol has its own soundtrack cue. It's like

686
00:40:55,710 --> 00:40:59,279
Speaker 2: a hollow rhythm beating on a metal drum. And the

687
00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:01,739
Speaker 2: symbol leads Chan Hung into the living room where the

688
00:41:01,780 --> 00:41:05,140
Speaker 2: TV is on. It's blasting static and filling the room

689
00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:07,720
Speaker 2: with blue light. And then the vision of the monk

690
00:41:07,780 --> 00:41:10,970
Speaker 2: in bodily form appears once again. He tells Hung that

691
00:41:10,989 --> 00:41:13,370
Speaker 2: there's something he needs to explain to him. But the

692
00:41:13,410 --> 00:41:16,610
Speaker 2: vision disappears when Hung's girlfriend walks into the room and

693
00:41:16,690 --> 00:41:20,110
Speaker 2: startles him. The next day, Chan Hung visits his brother

694
00:41:20,210 --> 00:41:23,350
Speaker 2: in the hospital. His brother is still in traction, covered

695
00:41:23,730 --> 00:41:26,770
Speaker 2: all over with bandages like a burn victim. I don't

696
00:41:26,790 --> 00:41:29,210
Speaker 2: understand why the bandages are like all the way around

697
00:41:29,250 --> 00:41:29,730
Speaker 2: his head.

698
00:41:29,750 --> 00:41:32,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like a cartoon level of bandaging here.

699
00:41:33,110 --> 00:41:37,540
Speaker 2: Yeah. The doctor informs them that the brother's kickboxing career

700
00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:39,819
Speaker 2: is over. He's going to be paralyzed for the rest

701
00:41:39,860 --> 00:41:42,520
Speaker 2: of his life. And Chan Hung is shaken and the

702
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:45,819
Speaker 2: brother whispers that Hung must take revenge for him. He

703
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:48,880
Speaker 2: wants to see Hung get revenge on the Thai boxer.

704
00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:53,160
Speaker 2: So we cut right to it. Next, we're in Thailand

705
00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:56,420
Speaker 2: and we see busy city streets filled with cars. You've

706
00:41:56,460 --> 00:42:01,280
Speaker 2: got rivers, canals with motorboats, beautiful Buddhist temples and shrines

707
00:42:01,340 --> 00:42:05,000
Speaker 2: all around. Chan Hung goes to an event where a

708
00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:09,160
Speaker 2: local promoter is presenting an award to Bubo, the Thai boxer.

709
00:42:09,900 --> 00:42:12,520
Speaker 2: The gist of the ceremony is kind of like, well,

710
00:42:12,540 --> 00:42:15,720
Speaker 2: they say Bubo showed the Hong Kong champion what boxing

711
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:18,859
Speaker 2: is all about. And then they say that, you know,

712
00:42:18,890 --> 00:42:21,730
Speaker 2: the Hong Kong judges were biased against our guy. The

713
00:42:21,770 --> 00:42:24,290
Speaker 2: fight was rigged. So the judgment doesn't really count. So

714
00:42:24,350 --> 00:42:27,109
Speaker 2: we declare our fighter the winner. Yeah. Yeah.

715
00:42:27,150 --> 00:42:29,090
Speaker 1: It's a small gathering, but it looks like the local

716
00:42:29,130 --> 00:42:32,870
Speaker 1: press was invited. And of course, our hero has shown

717
00:42:32,930 --> 00:42:33,850
Speaker 1: up as well. Yeah.

718
00:42:34,450 --> 00:42:37,810
Speaker 2: So the MC presents Bubo with a championship belt, but

719
00:42:37,850 --> 00:42:40,230
Speaker 2: before he can claim it, Chan Hung walks up and

720
00:42:40,250 --> 00:42:43,310
Speaker 2: he smacks it to the ground and he starts cussing

721
00:42:43,390 --> 00:42:47,319
Speaker 2: it at Bolo Young here. And they yell at each

722
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:49,359
Speaker 2: other for a bit. And then they finally agree that

723
00:42:49,420 --> 00:42:51,360
Speaker 2: in three months, the two of them will fight a

724
00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:53,120
Speaker 2: grudge match in Hong Kong.

725
00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:55,680
Speaker 1: And to your point earlier, it really does feel like

726
00:42:55,719 --> 00:42:58,540
Speaker 1: pro wrestling at this point. Here we have our obvious

727
00:42:58,580 --> 00:43:03,060
Speaker 1: heel and our obvious face here teasing the next big matchup,

728
00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:04,160
Speaker 1: the grudge match.

729
00:43:05,130 --> 00:43:07,430
Speaker 2: In my English subtitles, by the way, they were calling

730
00:43:07,489 --> 00:43:09,910
Speaker 2: each other Hong Kong boy and Thai boy.

731
00:43:10,210 --> 00:43:13,270
Speaker 1: Yes, same for me. So, okay, it seems like the

732
00:43:13,310 --> 00:43:16,180
Speaker 1: vengeance here is off to a great start. You know,

733
00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:18,799
Speaker 1: they have something on the books, so good enough.

734
00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:21,859
Speaker 2: Sure, but it's about to get more complicated, because while

735
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:26,260
Speaker 2: riding in a motorboat down the river canal after the confrontation,

736
00:43:27,180 --> 00:43:30,219
Speaker 2: Chan Hong suddenly sees a familiar shape. At the peak

737
00:43:30,320 --> 00:43:33,649
Speaker 2: of a roof of a Buddhist temple... He sees that

738
00:43:33,770 --> 00:43:37,609
Speaker 2: glowing orange shape from his waking dream. So it's like,

739
00:43:37,870 --> 00:43:41,150
Speaker 2: what's this? He has to go in and investigate. When

740
00:43:41,190 --> 00:43:44,660
Speaker 2: Chan Hong approaches the entrance, a monk in orange robes

741
00:43:44,739 --> 00:43:47,739
Speaker 2: greets him and already knows him by name. He says

742
00:43:47,780 --> 00:43:51,120
Speaker 2: they've been expecting him. Inside the temple, we're treated to

743
00:43:51,180 --> 00:43:55,160
Speaker 2: visions of altars and shrines glowing with gold and candlelight

744
00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:58,300
Speaker 2: in the dim interior. And the monks all sing a

745
00:43:58,570 --> 00:44:02,150
Speaker 2: hypnotic repeating chant. We will hear this chant or something

746
00:44:02,210 --> 00:44:04,390
Speaker 2: like it many times in the film, and it has

747
00:44:04,410 --> 00:44:07,910
Speaker 2: a powerful effect. The way it just kind of like

748
00:44:07,969 --> 00:44:11,590
Speaker 2: cycles on itself, I found it deeply hypnotic.

749
00:44:12,010 --> 00:44:12,810
Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.

750
00:44:12,850 --> 00:44:13,049
Speaker 2: Yeah.

751
00:44:13,110 --> 00:44:18,589
Speaker 1: And of course, these temple locations that they're using are

752
00:44:18,630 --> 00:44:22,650
Speaker 1: also just so amazing here. We'll have some sets later on,

753
00:44:22,710 --> 00:44:26,520
Speaker 1: but At least a number of these early interiors that

754
00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:30,280
Speaker 1: we're encountering. Like these are, I believe, actual Thai temple interiors.

755
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:33,500
Speaker 2: Well, the head monk wastes no time getting into an

756
00:44:33,580 --> 00:44:37,140
Speaker 2: explanation for Chan Hung. He says, a year ago, our

757
00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:39,410
Speaker 2: abbot went to Hong Kong to take care of a

758
00:44:39,450 --> 00:44:44,910
Speaker 2: black magician, Mai Gu Su. Okay. And so then we

759
00:44:44,950 --> 00:44:47,950
Speaker 2: see the sorcerer in question. He is getting out of

760
00:44:47,989 --> 00:44:50,310
Speaker 2: a taxi cab and going into the airport. And he's

761
00:44:50,350 --> 00:44:53,280
Speaker 2: not dressed like a wizard, by the way. In fact,

762
00:44:53,700 --> 00:44:56,180
Speaker 2: to show that he practices black magic, he's dressed all

763
00:44:56,219 --> 00:44:59,620
Speaker 2: in black. He's wearing a black shirt, black shoes, black pants,

764
00:44:59,700 --> 00:45:03,739
Speaker 2: black belt, and has Elvis hair. Yes. So this guy's

765
00:45:03,780 --> 00:45:06,919
Speaker 2: walking into the airport and then suddenly from behind him

766
00:45:07,100 --> 00:45:12,890
Speaker 2: appears the abbot dressed in his orange robes, illuminated from behind.

767
00:45:12,950 --> 00:45:16,299
Speaker 2: So he shimmers with this pious light. And his head

768
00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:19,500
Speaker 2: is also surrounded by a halo. There's a circular pattern

769
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:24,919
Speaker 2: of rainbow-colored prismatic feathers. And the abbot calls out to Maegusu,

770
00:45:25,360 --> 00:45:27,960
Speaker 2: who turns and looks at him like, oh no, I've

771
00:45:27,980 --> 00:45:31,600
Speaker 2: been caught. And then the abbot holds up in his

772
00:45:31,660 --> 00:45:36,180
Speaker 2: hand a tear-shaped shard of mirror and then throws it

773
00:45:36,219 --> 00:45:39,610
Speaker 2: at the wizard. It attaches to the wizard's forehead and

774
00:45:39,650 --> 00:45:44,830
Speaker 2: immediately starts to sap his black magic and destroy his body.

775
00:45:45,410 --> 00:45:48,719
Speaker 2: So the magician starts screaming in pain, and then he

776
00:45:48,739 --> 00:45:51,759
Speaker 2: starts clutching at his face, which begins to melt and

777
00:45:51,820 --> 00:45:56,180
Speaker 2: turns into white, goopy paste. Green light floods the scene,

778
00:45:56,739 --> 00:46:00,180
Speaker 2: and then the wizard starts exploding. Not in one big explosion,

779
00:46:00,219 --> 00:46:04,410
Speaker 2: but lots of little explosions, beginning with balloons that inflate

780
00:46:04,530 --> 00:46:08,310
Speaker 2: underneath his sloppy skin. And they're all over his arms

781
00:46:08,370 --> 00:46:11,609
Speaker 2: and his neck and face. kind of like an infestation

782
00:46:11,650 --> 00:46:14,910
Speaker 2: of boils, but they are full-on skin balloons which each

783
00:46:15,010 --> 00:46:15,990
Speaker 2: blow up and pop.

784
00:46:16,630 --> 00:46:18,870
Speaker 1: There are a number of subgenres that can be applied

785
00:46:18,890 --> 00:46:21,150
Speaker 1: to the boxer's omen. We should mention that one of

786
00:46:21,190 --> 00:46:23,970
Speaker 1: them is body horror. There's a lot of body horror

787
00:46:24,030 --> 00:46:26,650
Speaker 1: in this movie. So if that's not your thing, if

788
00:46:26,670 --> 00:46:29,970
Speaker 1: you're not open to it, then I would maybe pass

789
00:46:30,030 --> 00:46:30,469
Speaker 1: on this one.

790
00:46:30,830 --> 00:46:33,589
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the wizard collapses to the floor while he's

791
00:46:33,660 --> 00:46:36,799
Speaker 2: popping all over, popping off. He collapses to the floor

792
00:46:36,820 --> 00:46:39,560
Speaker 2: of the airport terminal and He melts some more and

793
00:46:39,620 --> 00:46:41,920
Speaker 2: screams on the floor, and then he pulls himself up

794
00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:44,820
Speaker 2: over the top of a bunch of orange plastic chairs,

795
00:46:45,620 --> 00:46:48,739
Speaker 2: at which point he has morphed into a different form,

796
00:46:49,260 --> 00:46:53,219
Speaker 2: that of a withered old wizard with long white spiderweb

797
00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:56,020
Speaker 2: hair and pale skin and a big black spot on

798
00:46:56,060 --> 00:47:01,740
Speaker 2: his forehead with long pointy bugle fingernails. I guess... This

799
00:47:01,820 --> 00:47:04,630
Speaker 2: means that this is my Gusu's true form, and the

800
00:47:04,830 --> 00:47:07,730
Speaker 2: Elvis wizard, the guy in black, was sort of his

801
00:47:07,790 --> 00:47:08,750
Speaker 2: glamour spell.

802
00:47:09,130 --> 00:47:11,950
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that was my interpretation as well.

803
00:47:12,590 --> 00:47:16,200
Speaker 2: The abbot, now sitting cross-legged on the airport lobby floor,

804
00:47:16,300 --> 00:47:20,060
Speaker 2: is praying with hands folded, and this keeps exerting magical

805
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:23,100
Speaker 2: suffering on the wizard. And then the wizard collapses on

806
00:47:23,140 --> 00:47:27,140
Speaker 2: the ground, seemingly dead, with dry plaster skin. And then

807
00:47:27,300 --> 00:47:30,529
Speaker 2: out of his mouth, something begins to wiggle. It is

808
00:47:30,570 --> 00:47:33,020
Speaker 2: a bat. It is a bat crawling out of his mouth,

809
00:47:33,219 --> 00:47:36,120
Speaker 2: a bat that lived inside the wizard's mouth. And it's

810
00:47:36,180 --> 00:47:38,540
Speaker 2: so cute. And it squeaks and flies away.

811
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:41,080
Speaker 1: But if you think that's the end of it, it

812
00:47:41,140 --> 00:47:43,450
Speaker 1: is not. One thing you'll quickly learn about this film

813
00:47:43,510 --> 00:47:48,410
Speaker 1: is most pictures would leave it at bat, but not

814
00:47:48,450 --> 00:47:49,230
Speaker 1: the Boxer's Omen.

815
00:47:49,530 --> 00:47:52,270
Speaker 2: No, no, we're just getting started. The abbot catches the

816
00:47:52,310 --> 00:47:55,040
Speaker 2: bat in his hand. He puts the wiggling bat in

817
00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:58,640
Speaker 2: his pocket and then goes back to his temple in Thailand. So, like,

818
00:47:59,020 --> 00:48:01,680
Speaker 2: did he get on an airplane with the bat squeaking

819
00:48:01,719 --> 00:48:03,219
Speaker 2: and writhing the whole way?

820
00:48:03,239 --> 00:48:06,870
Speaker 1: I don't know. It was a different world back then

821
00:48:06,930 --> 00:48:08,029
Speaker 1: when it came to flying around.

822
00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:18,279
Speaker 2: Back at the temple in front of a shrine with

823
00:48:18,340 --> 00:48:20,940
Speaker 2: a golden Buddha, he does a ritual to defeat the

824
00:48:20,980 --> 00:48:25,000
Speaker 2: black magic involving a bunch of candles, a dagger, a bell,

825
00:48:25,460 --> 00:48:28,779
Speaker 2: a pink flowering tree branch. This might be a cherry

826
00:48:28,820 --> 00:48:32,920
Speaker 2: blossom branch. I'm not sure. But here we begin to

827
00:48:32,980 --> 00:48:36,830
Speaker 2: see a symmetry. While the abbot is doing a holy

828
00:48:36,890 --> 00:48:40,450
Speaker 2: ritual in his holy place, we first get a glimpse

829
00:48:40,650 --> 00:48:45,250
Speaker 2: into the realm of the anti-holy, some kind of devil's temple.

830
00:48:46,120 --> 00:48:49,910
Speaker 2: Somewhere else, there is a large room filled with shelves

831
00:48:50,090 --> 00:48:53,690
Speaker 2: containing clay jars. And at one end of this big

832
00:48:53,730 --> 00:48:57,210
Speaker 2: room full of jars, there is a giant shrine to

833
00:48:57,350 --> 00:49:00,989
Speaker 2: the demons and dealers of black magic. So we have

834
00:49:01,070 --> 00:49:04,989
Speaker 2: a roaring bonfire presided over by a statue of a

835
00:49:05,070 --> 00:49:09,600
Speaker 2: huge winged devil with glowing yellow eyes, four horns around

836
00:49:09,640 --> 00:49:12,719
Speaker 2: a bald head. And note that the fire seems to

837
00:49:12,739 --> 00:49:16,170
Speaker 2: be basically emanating from the demon's crotch. And then in

838
00:49:16,210 --> 00:49:20,410
Speaker 2: front of that, four giant white statues representing Han. with

839
00:49:20,840 --> 00:49:25,680
Speaker 2: curled clutching fingers, and on each hand, a statue of

840
00:49:25,780 --> 00:49:30,580
Speaker 2: some kind of nasty animal. You've got scorpions, bats, spiders,

841
00:49:30,700 --> 00:49:34,839
Speaker 2: and I think snakes, or maybe caterpillars. All around, there

842
00:49:34,900 --> 00:49:38,399
Speaker 2: are various other implements of evil strewn about the room.

843
00:49:38,420 --> 00:49:41,390
Speaker 2: You've got skulls, daggers, and a tea kettle, I guess,

844
00:49:41,430 --> 00:49:41,810
Speaker 2: for tea.

845
00:49:42,130 --> 00:49:44,969
Speaker 1: Well, you gotta have tea either way. So, yeah, this

846
00:49:45,030 --> 00:49:48,570
Speaker 1: is glorious looking. Some great use of red and green gels.

847
00:49:49,710 --> 00:49:52,970
Speaker 1: This looks like the most amazing Halloween decorations you could imagine.

848
00:49:53,030 --> 00:49:55,370
Speaker 1: Very well done. And I could be off on this,

849
00:49:55,489 --> 00:49:58,640
Speaker 1: but I think maybe each nasty animal corresponds to a

850
00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:01,339
Speaker 1: different wizard we're gonna see during the rest of the

851
00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:06,880
Speaker 1: picture here. But at any rate, we're about to touch

852
00:50:06,940 --> 00:50:11,759
Speaker 1: base with with a related wizard to the wizard that

853
00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:15,950
Speaker 1: was just murdered in the airport. This is going to

854
00:50:15,969 --> 00:50:19,469
Speaker 1: be our main wizard for the picture. And then later on,

855
00:50:19,510 --> 00:50:22,690
Speaker 1: we'll deal with some of his apprentices, three of his apprentices.

856
00:50:22,750 --> 00:50:25,950
Speaker 1: So four wizards remaining in this movie. Right.

857
00:50:26,350 --> 00:50:28,839
Speaker 2: So back at the temple, we see the abbot doing

858
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:32,340
Speaker 2: his own kind of magic. He's doing an exorcism of

859
00:50:32,380 --> 00:50:35,860
Speaker 2: the evil magic by hammering a gold dagger into into

860
00:50:35,880 --> 00:50:39,720
Speaker 2: the heart of the demon bat that he holds captive. Um,

861
00:50:40,060 --> 00:50:42,900
Speaker 2: and then we see the bat at the evil shrine

862
00:50:43,000 --> 00:50:45,650
Speaker 2: and green goo starts to pour out of its heart.

863
00:50:46,070 --> 00:50:49,110
Speaker 2: And then the Abbott pours holy water over the captive bat.

864
00:50:49,489 --> 00:50:52,549
Speaker 2: And at the evil shrine, the bat statue dissolves and

865
00:50:52,590 --> 00:50:57,529
Speaker 2: melts away, leaving only a bat skeleton behind. Then we,

866
00:50:58,550 --> 00:51:01,050
Speaker 2: it's kind of like the moment where something has, something

867
00:51:01,090 --> 00:51:04,950
Speaker 2: has gotten the attention of a higher up in response. Uh,

868
00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:08,739
Speaker 2: Out of somewhere in the evil shrine, a being awakens.

869
00:51:09,320 --> 00:51:11,859
Speaker 2: We see it first as a figure in black with

870
00:51:12,020 --> 00:51:15,760
Speaker 2: glowing red eyes, then revealed to be a man wearing

871
00:51:15,880 --> 00:51:20,259
Speaker 2: a monstrous bat mask with a big white wig. The

872
00:51:20,300 --> 00:51:23,790
Speaker 2: figure flies across the room, takes off the bat mask,

873
00:51:23,890 --> 00:51:26,810
Speaker 2: revealing that he is a man with a mustache, wearing

874
00:51:26,850 --> 00:51:30,290
Speaker 2: a black headband, a red and gold mark on his forehead.

875
00:51:31,130 --> 00:51:34,010
Speaker 2: And this will be our main evil wizard for the film,

876
00:51:34,050 --> 00:51:36,430
Speaker 2: or at least the first half of the film. And

877
00:51:36,450 --> 00:51:38,830
Speaker 2: he looks down at the skeleton, a little bit sad,

878
00:51:39,210 --> 00:51:43,910
Speaker 2: and says, how dare he kill my bat? So let

879
00:51:43,930 --> 00:51:48,520
Speaker 2: the counter rituals begin. And I want to say, just

880
00:51:48,560 --> 00:51:52,840
Speaker 2: by describing it, it is hard to convey the ludicrous,

881
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:56,380
Speaker 2: frenetic feeling of the scenes where the bad wizard carries

882
00:51:56,440 --> 00:52:01,340
Speaker 2: out his black magic invocations and recipes. Part of the effect,

883
00:52:01,380 --> 00:52:05,460
Speaker 2: I think, is the cinematography. Something feels almost in fast

884
00:52:05,520 --> 00:52:09,940
Speaker 2: forward about it. Part of it is also the actor's performance.

885
00:52:09,980 --> 00:52:14,799
Speaker 2: The actor who plays the evil wizard has this uncontrollable, mischievous,

886
00:52:15,540 --> 00:52:20,080
Speaker 2: satanic spider monkey energy. He's so good. And then part

887
00:52:20,100 --> 00:52:22,000
Speaker 2: of it also is in the content of what he

888
00:52:22,080 --> 00:52:25,100
Speaker 2: is doing, which is so off the wall. So it's like,

889
00:52:25,500 --> 00:52:27,939
Speaker 2: open a jar, grab a live rat out of the jar,

890
00:52:28,020 --> 00:52:30,440
Speaker 2: take a bite out of the rat. spit blood all

891
00:52:30,500 --> 00:52:34,419
Speaker 2: over the bat skeleton and start screaming at it to revive, revive.

892
00:52:35,100 --> 00:52:37,029
Speaker 2: And this is the part I was talking about earlier

893
00:52:37,050 --> 00:52:39,550
Speaker 2: when I was like, it's not the kind of somber

894
00:52:39,630 --> 00:52:42,210
Speaker 2: reverence for Satan that you expect out of movies like

895
00:52:42,270 --> 00:52:46,129
Speaker 2: The Devil's Reign or Empire of the Dark. Instead, this

896
00:52:46,190 --> 00:52:48,670
Speaker 2: is a guy in a hurry yelling at his car

897
00:52:48,710 --> 00:52:50,850
Speaker 2: when he's turning the key and it won't turn over.

898
00:52:50,870 --> 00:52:56,160
Speaker 2: I don't know. It's a delightful choice, I think. And

899
00:52:56,180 --> 00:52:59,069
Speaker 2: so the wizard gets his bat skeleton and up and

900
00:52:59,140 --> 00:53:02,660
Speaker 2: walking around and he's chasing it, clicking a bone at

901
00:53:02,780 --> 00:53:05,100
Speaker 2: it and, uh, trying to get it to move faster.

902
00:53:05,560 --> 00:53:08,020
Speaker 2: And meanwhile, at the Abbott's temple, while he's doing that,

903
00:53:08,140 --> 00:53:11,090
Speaker 2: the bat skeleton at the Abbott's temple gets up and

904
00:53:11,140 --> 00:53:14,430
Speaker 2: starts walking around too. It's walking toward the door. So

905
00:53:14,450 --> 00:53:18,710
Speaker 2: the wizard is remote controlling a distant bat skeleton with

906
00:53:18,750 --> 00:53:22,069
Speaker 2: his own bat skeleton. Yeah. Covered in rat blood that

907
00:53:22,090 --> 00:53:22,810
Speaker 2: he spit on it.

908
00:53:23,210 --> 00:53:27,420
Speaker 1: In both cases, it's moving with kind of a windup toy. Um, yes. Uh,

909
00:53:28,550 --> 00:53:32,069
Speaker 1: energy to it. And this is a, I mean, all

910
00:53:32,110 --> 00:53:34,330
Speaker 1: the scenes in this movie are pretty weird. This one

911
00:53:34,390 --> 00:53:37,170
Speaker 1: is weird early on because I'm like, am I rooting

912
00:53:37,230 --> 00:53:40,670
Speaker 1: for the bat skeleton? The tension we're building here, I

913
00:53:40,730 --> 00:53:43,450
Speaker 1: think I want the bat skeleton to escape the abbot.

914
00:53:43,969 --> 00:53:46,750
Speaker 1: And our dark wizard is like saying things like, get

915
00:53:46,850 --> 00:53:48,589
Speaker 1: out of there, get out of there. There's nothing else

916
00:53:48,630 --> 00:53:50,710
Speaker 1: to see. You got to get out of there. And

917
00:53:50,750 --> 00:53:52,319
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like, yeah, go bat, go.

918
00:53:53,410 --> 00:53:56,130
Speaker 2: He's so annoyed though. The wizard is just like, get out.

919
00:53:56,170 --> 00:53:58,300
Speaker 2: There's nothing to see. Yeah. He's trying to get it

920
00:53:58,340 --> 00:54:01,660
Speaker 2: to hurry up. Fortunately, I guess, uh, from the Abbott's

921
00:54:01,719 --> 00:54:04,080
Speaker 2: point of view, the Abbott catches the bat skeleton in

922
00:54:04,120 --> 00:54:07,500
Speaker 2: mid escape. And then he gets out a giant Looney

923
00:54:07,560 --> 00:54:11,510
Speaker 2: Tunes size hammer, like a huge mallet and smashes it.

924
00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:14,820
Speaker 1: Yeah. Just over and over again to just smash, smash, smash, smash, smash.

925
00:54:15,280 --> 00:54:18,030
Speaker 2: And the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, wizard does not

926
00:54:18,090 --> 00:54:20,310
Speaker 2: like this. He says he broke my magic again. Damn.

927
00:54:21,780 --> 00:54:25,560
Speaker 2: So the magic continues. The wizard starts frantically playing a

928
00:54:25,700 --> 00:54:29,339
Speaker 2: reed pipe instrument like a snake charmer. He still has

929
00:54:29,400 --> 00:54:31,660
Speaker 2: blood on his mouth from biting the rat, by the way.

930
00:54:32,360 --> 00:54:35,670
Speaker 2: Serpents come out of several clay jars. Their tongues are flicking.

931
00:54:35,690 --> 00:54:39,089
Speaker 2: They slither on the floor. The wizard grabs them and

932
00:54:39,190 --> 00:54:42,090
Speaker 2: milks the snakes for venom, which is a kind of

933
00:54:42,190 --> 00:54:45,770
Speaker 2: green sour apple juice that drains into a flask. And

934
00:54:45,810 --> 00:54:48,969
Speaker 2: then he opens another clay jar and pulls a head out,

935
00:54:49,230 --> 00:54:56,069
Speaker 2: a defleshed skull. covered in jelly, like spam, with eyeballs

936
00:54:56,270 --> 00:54:57,870
Speaker 2: and brain intact.

937
00:54:58,370 --> 00:55:02,549
Speaker 1: Oh, it's so gross. It's so gross. But it just

938
00:55:02,890 --> 00:55:06,330
Speaker 1: perfectly executed. This is pure Halloween right here.

939
00:55:06,710 --> 00:55:09,390
Speaker 2: He pulls a bunch of worms off the head, breaks

940
00:55:09,489 --> 00:55:13,870
Speaker 2: open the skull, revealing fresh brain, like full, fleshy, fresh brain,

941
00:55:14,450 --> 00:55:17,109
Speaker 2: pours the snake venom that he just milked into the.

942
00:55:17,070 --> 00:55:19,750
Speaker 1: Brain, stirs, Yeah, scrambles it all.

943
00:55:19,969 --> 00:55:23,400
Speaker 2: Scrambles it, pours the venom slash brain combo into a

944
00:55:23,440 --> 00:55:27,280
Speaker 2: clay pot and cooks it, pours out the green juice

945
00:55:27,680 --> 00:55:31,700
Speaker 2: on the resulting green juice on this like white board,

946
00:55:32,140 --> 00:55:36,110
Speaker 2: then gets out a sack and releases from it three tarantulas,

947
00:55:36,450 --> 00:55:39,509
Speaker 2: which crawl out and drink the juice through straws. And

948
00:55:39,550 --> 00:55:42,970
Speaker 2: the tarantulas, much like the bat, are sort of felt

949
00:55:43,090 --> 00:55:45,360
Speaker 2: textured and look very cute. Adorable.

950
00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:49,520
Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah. Again, very much a wind-up toy sort of

951
00:55:49,900 --> 00:55:51,760
Speaker 1: vibe going on here with these little creatures.

952
00:55:52,020 --> 00:55:55,040
Speaker 2: And the wizard is screaming, grant me infinite power, Lord

953
00:55:55,080 --> 00:55:58,420
Speaker 2: of the Dark. And then later we see the wizard

954
00:55:58,640 --> 00:56:02,390
Speaker 2: sneaking into the abbot's temple, Assassin's Creed style. There's some

955
00:56:02,469 --> 00:56:06,370
Speaker 2: fence climbing and light parkour. He's a very agile wizard.

956
00:56:07,910 --> 00:56:10,570
Speaker 2: And he obviously hates it in here, all these Buddhas

957
00:56:10,630 --> 00:56:14,360
Speaker 2: and this holy stuff. He's repulsed. But the wizard finds

958
00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:16,840
Speaker 2: the room where the abbot is sleeping. He crawls up

959
00:56:16,880 --> 00:56:19,500
Speaker 2: the wall like a spider. I guess he has sticky hands.

960
00:56:19,580 --> 00:56:23,760
Speaker 2: Then he crawls on the ceiling, then releases his magic tarantulas,

961
00:56:23,840 --> 00:56:27,739
Speaker 2: which descend on threads to the abbot's bed, climb on

962
00:56:27,780 --> 00:56:31,780
Speaker 2: the abbot's face, and pierce his eyeballs with magic golden needles.

963
00:56:32,860 --> 00:56:35,990
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, this is all a flashback. This is

964
00:56:36,150 --> 00:56:39,469
Speaker 1: all providing a little backstory here. But it's also just

965
00:56:39,489 --> 00:56:43,359
Speaker 1: a nice snapshot. at where the film's going from here.

966
00:56:44,780 --> 00:56:47,480
Speaker 1: So I want to add just a general note here

967
00:56:47,540 --> 00:56:49,820
Speaker 1: that part of the movie's real charm is the way

968
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:53,319
Speaker 1: amid glorious set design and lighting, we'll go from some

969
00:56:53,600 --> 00:56:57,770
Speaker 1: really grisly prop use and things that might be entrails

970
00:56:57,790 --> 00:57:01,250
Speaker 1: from a local butcher shop to some really cool looking

971
00:57:01,430 --> 00:57:05,290
Speaker 1: animated effects. And then the use of puppetry and wind

972
00:57:05,330 --> 00:57:08,290
Speaker 1: up toy effects for things like bats, spiders, skulls, and

973
00:57:08,370 --> 00:57:11,920
Speaker 1: little demons. And on one level, yeah, there's, kind of

974
00:57:11,960 --> 00:57:14,049
Speaker 1: a wide drift here in the quality of the effects

975
00:57:14,340 --> 00:57:16,230
Speaker 1: that's one way of looking at it but there's also

976
00:57:16,290 --> 00:57:20,709
Speaker 1: kind of a house-esque otherworldliness to it that can almost

977
00:57:20,770 --> 00:57:23,850
Speaker 1: be hard to explain like just a real madness to

978
00:57:23,870 --> 00:57:26,390
Speaker 1: the whole affair that the wind-up toy effects kind of

979
00:57:26,430 --> 00:57:27,430
Speaker 1: punctuate you know.

980
00:57:27,870 --> 00:57:32,060
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah like the the variability of the effects textures

981
00:57:32,280 --> 00:57:36,660
Speaker 2: almost emphasize the unpredictability of the story and and the

982
00:57:36,720 --> 00:57:38,280
Speaker 2: things that are happening.

983
00:57:38,200 --> 00:57:40,640
Speaker 1: Yeah and just like you know he goes to all

984
00:57:40,680 --> 00:57:45,920
Speaker 1: these grotesque extremes committing multiple atrocities to create some sort

985
00:57:45,960 --> 00:57:49,220
Speaker 1: of magic potion. Then this like obvious wind up toy

986
00:57:49,280 --> 00:57:51,880
Speaker 1: creature drinks. And then we move on to the next

987
00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:56,600
Speaker 1: level of the spell slash vengeance plan that's in effect.

988
00:57:57,120 --> 00:57:59,720
Speaker 1: But again, I think the other way to interpret all

989
00:57:59,760 --> 00:58:03,060
Speaker 1: this is that dark wizards are as crazy as they

990
00:58:03,120 --> 00:58:06,439
Speaker 1: are vile. Like you just have to be completely shamelessly

991
00:58:06,520 --> 00:58:10,880
Speaker 1: unhinged in order to practice these dark arts. But don't fret.

992
00:58:10,900 --> 00:58:12,420
Speaker 1: There are going to be more spells and there are

993
00:58:12,440 --> 00:58:14,620
Speaker 1: going to be more spell components. Yeah.

994
00:58:15,160 --> 00:58:16,620
Speaker 2: The other thing I wanted to say about the Dark

995
00:58:16,680 --> 00:58:21,550
Speaker 2: Wizard is it almost feels, I mean, they're productive. They're

996
00:58:21,610 --> 00:58:26,350
Speaker 2: on this constant improvisational grind. These guys feel like, you know,

997
00:58:26,390 --> 00:58:29,230
Speaker 2: get up at six and get to the dark magic immediately.

998
00:58:29,250 --> 00:58:34,820
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, those atrocities aren't going to commit themselves.

999
00:58:36,120 --> 00:58:39,020
Speaker 2: Anyway, finally, we're sort of getting caught up. So back

1000
00:58:39,060 --> 00:58:43,520
Speaker 2: in the present, the monk finishes explaining this backstory to Qianhong.

1001
00:58:44,040 --> 00:58:47,840
Speaker 2: He explains that the abbot, again, whose name was Qingzhou,

1002
00:58:48,410 --> 00:58:50,770
Speaker 2: was about to achieve immortality.

1003
00:58:51,430 --> 00:58:53,890
Speaker 1: Or as a different translation might put it, maybe like

1004
00:58:53,970 --> 00:58:55,450
Speaker 1: enlightenment or liberation.

1005
00:58:56,890 --> 00:59:00,270
Speaker 2: But because of the poison injected into his eyes by

1006
00:59:00,310 --> 00:59:03,600
Speaker 2: the cursed spider's He can no longer attain that goal

1007
00:59:03,860 --> 00:59:08,630
Speaker 2: unless somebody breaks the magic spell. And the abbot prophesied

1008
00:59:08,750 --> 00:59:11,980
Speaker 2: that three months or a man named Chan Hung would

1009
00:59:12,040 --> 00:59:14,450
Speaker 2: come to the temple and he would be the one

1010
00:59:14,490 --> 00:59:17,610
Speaker 2: who could break the curse. Chan Hung does not believe it,

1011
00:59:18,190 --> 00:59:21,150
Speaker 2: but there will be proof. The abbot's body was placed

1012
00:59:21,290 --> 00:59:24,720
Speaker 2: inside a giant urn upon his death. And if there

1013
00:59:24,780 --> 00:59:27,780
Speaker 2: is any decomposition of the abbot's body, they will know

1014
00:59:27,880 --> 00:59:31,020
Speaker 2: that it was nonsense. But if the body is perfectly preserved,

1015
00:59:31,360 --> 00:59:33,890
Speaker 2: then they'll know it was all true. So they go

1016
00:59:33,930 --> 00:59:36,410
Speaker 2: to check out the urn. Some monks shatter it with

1017
00:59:36,490 --> 00:59:40,050
Speaker 2: big mallets, and the abbot is not rotten at all. Uh-oh,

1018
00:59:40,150 --> 00:59:42,430
Speaker 2: Chin Hung is now implicated. He's got to help.

1019
00:59:42,630 --> 00:59:45,660
Speaker 1: Yeah, fabulous scene. I love the shattering of the great urn.

1020
00:59:46,220 --> 00:59:49,640
Speaker 1: And inside, yeah, the uncorrupted corpse of the abbot. Playing

1021
00:59:49,700 --> 00:59:52,180
Speaker 1: on very real traditions in both the East and the

1022
00:59:52,220 --> 00:59:55,820
Speaker 1: West of holy men whose bodies do not fully decompose.

1023
00:59:56,570 --> 00:59:59,330
Speaker 1: You know, also getting into traditions of self-mummification.

1024
00:59:59,750 --> 01:00:02,650
Speaker 2: Also, right after this, the monks lock Chan Hung inside

1025
01:00:02,690 --> 01:00:05,310
Speaker 2: the room with the abbot's body. He's trying to get out,

1026
01:00:05,350 --> 01:00:07,290
Speaker 2: but they lock him in there. And the body starts

1027
01:00:07,370 --> 01:00:10,480
Speaker 2: talking to him. It says, you must be curious as

1028
01:00:10,520 --> 01:00:13,340
Speaker 2: to why I've summoned you here. It's because we were

1029
01:00:13,420 --> 01:00:17,020
Speaker 2: twins in our past lives. That's why your fate is

1030
01:00:17,080 --> 01:00:20,220
Speaker 2: similar to mine in this life. So whatever happens to

1031
01:00:20,280 --> 01:00:22,190
Speaker 2: me will happen to you.

1032
01:00:22,210 --> 01:00:23,450
Speaker 1: Uh-oh.

1033
01:00:23,590 --> 01:00:26,590
Speaker 2: So because of the golden needles in his eyes, if

1034
01:00:26,630 --> 01:00:29,790
Speaker 2: they were normal people, the abbot's body would already have

1035
01:00:29,810 --> 01:00:33,470
Speaker 2: decomposed and Chan Hung would already be dead because the

1036
01:00:33,510 --> 01:00:35,780
Speaker 2: same thing would happen to him that happens to the abbot.

1037
01:00:35,950 --> 01:00:39,840
Speaker 2: But the body is not decomposed and Chan Hung is

1038
01:00:39,900 --> 01:00:43,040
Speaker 2: still alive. And the abbot explains this is because of

1039
01:00:43,120 --> 01:00:47,459
Speaker 2: his practice of Buddhism. He says, I almost achieved immortality,

1040
01:00:47,520 --> 01:00:49,640
Speaker 2: but because I was hit with the poison spell, I

1041
01:00:49,680 --> 01:00:53,280
Speaker 2: couldn't succeed. But by the time my body decomposes, it

1042
01:00:53,320 --> 01:00:56,230
Speaker 2: will be your time of death. You can't avoid it.

1043
01:00:57,080 --> 01:00:59,900
Speaker 2: So that's the setup. These two are magically linked as

1044
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:02,940
Speaker 2: twins from a past life. The abbot can no longer

1045
01:01:03,040 --> 01:01:06,140
Speaker 2: fight this battle because he is dead, and only Chan

1046
01:01:06,200 --> 01:01:09,040
Speaker 2: Hung can save them both. If Chan Hung can defeat

1047
01:01:09,100 --> 01:01:11,920
Speaker 2: the evil magic, his life will be saved and the

1048
01:01:12,060 --> 01:01:15,540
Speaker 2: abbot will be able to achieve immortality. Otherwise, it's curtains

1049
01:01:15,580 --> 01:01:16,160
Speaker 2: for them both.

1050
01:01:16,700 --> 01:01:20,460
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. And don't really worry about the kickboxing revenge anymore.

1051
01:01:21,120 --> 01:01:22,580
Speaker 1: It's less important at this point.

1052
01:01:22,840 --> 01:01:25,540
Speaker 2: Yeah. Chan Hong doesn't want to hear this, of course.

1053
01:01:25,580 --> 01:01:28,370
Speaker 2: He cusses out the monk and he leaves. But that

1054
01:01:28,450 --> 01:01:32,690
Speaker 2: night in the hotel room, he has some eel vomiting issues.

1055
01:01:32,730 --> 01:01:35,030
Speaker 2: He vomits up a live eel in the sink. He

1056
01:01:35,270 --> 01:01:37,710
Speaker 2: doesn't like that. Great sequence.

1057
01:01:37,830 --> 01:01:41,840
Speaker 1: Would be the most memorable scene in many other movies. Here,

1058
01:01:41,940 --> 01:01:44,660
Speaker 1: it can become a little lost in the shuffle. Yeah. Yeah.

1059
01:01:44,680 --> 01:01:46,500
Speaker 2: So next day he's like, okay, I don't want to

1060
01:01:46,520 --> 01:01:48,820
Speaker 2: do that again. So he goes back to the temple

1061
01:01:48,860 --> 01:01:51,400
Speaker 2: and he says, I will help you fight. But then

1062
01:01:51,440 --> 01:01:54,300
Speaker 2: the next shoe drops. In order to have the magical

1063
01:01:54,360 --> 01:01:56,900
Speaker 2: abilities he's going to need in order to fight this battle,

1064
01:01:57,340 --> 01:01:59,860
Speaker 2: he has to become a monk. And that means shaving

1065
01:01:59,900 --> 01:02:03,040
Speaker 2: his head, giving up his life of crime, giving up

1066
01:02:03,160 --> 01:02:06,590
Speaker 2: sin and earthly pleasures. Oh no, but he does it.

1067
01:02:07,490 --> 01:02:10,030
Speaker 2: And we see a ceremony where he is led into

1068
01:02:10,070 --> 01:02:12,530
Speaker 2: the temple complex riding on the back of an elephant

1069
01:02:12,570 --> 01:02:16,030
Speaker 2: with dancers marching all around. He makes an offering and

1070
01:02:16,050 --> 01:02:19,590
Speaker 2: he bows before the Buddha and he begins his practice.

1071
01:02:20,290 --> 01:02:22,450
Speaker 2: And this part of the movie is kind of like

1072
01:02:22,510 --> 01:02:26,360
Speaker 2: a long Buddhist monk magic warrior training montage. He goes

1073
01:02:26,400 --> 01:02:30,040
Speaker 2: through the rituals, he humbles himself, and even receives a

1074
01:02:30,080 --> 01:02:33,260
Speaker 2: new name that the monks at the temple call him Kaidibaluhu.

1075
01:02:34,270 --> 01:02:38,310
Speaker 2: The training has several different things. One is enduring leeches

1076
01:02:38,370 --> 01:02:40,330
Speaker 2: in a river. He has to get in a river

1077
01:02:40,350 --> 01:02:44,690
Speaker 2: where he gets covered in leeches. And his master is like,

1078
01:02:44,890 --> 01:02:45,530
Speaker 2: you stay there.

1079
01:02:45,890 --> 01:02:47,270
Speaker 1: This is played for laughs, by the way.

1080
01:02:47,470 --> 01:02:51,320
Speaker 2: Yes, hilarious. And then there's also a scene which was

1081
01:02:51,560 --> 01:02:54,020
Speaker 2: so strange, but I wonder if this is based on

1082
01:02:54,080 --> 01:02:58,320
Speaker 2: anything real. Where he gets inside of a giant clay

1083
01:02:58,540 --> 01:03:01,920
Speaker 2: pot that starts to glow. The pot is covered with

1084
01:03:02,040 --> 01:03:05,250
Speaker 2: sacred writing. And then Chan Hung is on the inside

1085
01:03:05,330 --> 01:03:08,090
Speaker 2: and his hands are wrapped in ropes and the ropes

1086
01:03:08,410 --> 01:03:10,790
Speaker 2: go out of the pot and are held by monks

1087
01:03:10,930 --> 01:03:14,290
Speaker 2: all around him who are chanting. And then he is

1088
01:03:14,510 --> 01:03:19,420
Speaker 2: absorbed in a scripture tornado where the sacred writing on

1089
01:03:19,520 --> 01:03:22,420
Speaker 2: the pot spins all around him and becomes a funnel.

1090
01:03:22,780 --> 01:03:25,420
Speaker 2: And then the lines of scripture flow down his arms

1091
01:03:25,520 --> 01:03:26,600
Speaker 2: and into his blood.

1092
01:03:26,620 --> 01:03:31,130
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Great use of animation here. And

1093
01:03:31,150 --> 01:03:33,650
Speaker 1: I really think it's a great element of the film here. Yeah,

1094
01:03:33,670 --> 01:03:37,130
Speaker 1: with the black magic is consistently like gross and over

1095
01:03:37,170 --> 01:03:41,110
Speaker 1: the top and just completely mind-rending. But also the good

1096
01:03:41,150 --> 01:03:44,010
Speaker 1: guy magic is also so visually impressive here.

1097
01:03:44,430 --> 01:03:46,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. And there is a strong, I mean,

1098
01:03:47,320 --> 01:03:53,840
Speaker 2: even aesthetically, the two different schools of magic really emphasize

1099
01:03:53,880 --> 01:03:57,520
Speaker 2: themes of like order versus chaos. Like the sorcerers are

1100
01:03:57,560 --> 01:04:01,540
Speaker 2: doing chaos magic. And there is something that feels very

1101
01:04:02,040 --> 01:04:07,240
Speaker 2: traditional and ordered and structured about the magic practiced by

1102
01:04:07,280 --> 01:04:07,919
Speaker 2: the monks here.

1103
01:04:08,320 --> 01:04:11,650
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's centered around language, you know? I mean,

1104
01:04:12,130 --> 01:04:14,410
Speaker 1: it's so orderly. I think this is a great point.

1105
01:04:22,870 --> 01:04:25,590
Speaker 2: Another thing that comes is the vows. So this is

1106
01:04:25,640 --> 01:04:28,700
Speaker 2: an important plot point. In order to maintain purity, he

1107
01:04:28,740 --> 01:04:31,360
Speaker 2: must keep his vows as a monk. So he swears

1108
01:04:31,420 --> 01:04:33,840
Speaker 2: to follow the Buddha and do a bunch of stuff.

1109
01:04:33,860 --> 01:04:39,250
Speaker 2: He has to abstain from prohibited activities such as gambling, murder, sex,

1110
01:04:39,490 --> 01:04:40,570
Speaker 2: and drinking alcohol.

1111
01:04:41,050 --> 01:04:42,950
Speaker 1: But he's up for it. He's like, let's do it. Okay.

1112
01:04:44,150 --> 01:04:49,070
Speaker 2: And then the head monk after that says, so you've succeeded.

1113
01:04:49,230 --> 01:04:52,820
Speaker 2: You are now ready to defeat evil. It feels like

1114
01:04:52,860 --> 01:04:55,800
Speaker 2: it comes on so fast, but they're wasting no time

1115
01:04:55,840 --> 01:04:59,180
Speaker 2: at all. We cut straight to an amazing wizard battle.

1116
01:04:59,940 --> 01:05:02,000
Speaker 2: I'm not going to narrate this one with as much

1117
01:05:02,100 --> 01:05:05,120
Speaker 2: detail as the last one. Well, the last one wasn't

1118
01:05:05,140 --> 01:05:07,840
Speaker 2: a battle, I guess, but the last ritual scene. But

1119
01:05:07,900 --> 01:05:09,700
Speaker 2: I do want to mention at least some of the

1120
01:05:09,800 --> 01:05:13,640
Speaker 2: incredible sites and developments throughout. First of all, do you know, Rob,

1121
01:05:13,760 --> 01:05:17,430
Speaker 2: where this takes place? Is it in another plane of existence?

1122
01:05:17,510 --> 01:05:19,130
Speaker 2: It feels like it's kind of in the middle of

1123
01:05:19,190 --> 01:05:20,190
Speaker 2: a void world.

1124
01:05:20,650 --> 01:05:24,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, a Place becomes less important here, doesn't it? Because

1125
01:05:24,340 --> 01:05:27,580
Speaker 1: it's just like two magical forces doing battle with each other.

1126
01:05:27,640 --> 01:05:30,020
Speaker 1: It could be like basically the way it's presented here

1127
01:05:30,080 --> 01:05:34,600
Speaker 1: visually is one practitioner seated on one end and the

1128
01:05:34,640 --> 01:05:37,760
Speaker 1: other practitioner seated on the other. And magical effects are

1129
01:05:37,780 --> 01:05:40,200
Speaker 1: kind of going to war between the two of them.

1130
01:05:40,610 --> 01:05:43,790
Speaker 1: So you could certainly interpret this as happening like within

1131
01:05:43,810 --> 01:05:47,770
Speaker 1: the astral plane or within the mental realm that exists

1132
01:05:48,230 --> 01:05:51,510
Speaker 1: between their shared minds. Or, yeah, did they go to

1133
01:05:51,550 --> 01:05:54,180
Speaker 1: some sort of neutral zone where it's like, okay, we

1134
01:05:54,220 --> 01:05:56,940
Speaker 1: have to go to the battle chamber where the wizards

1135
01:05:56,980 --> 01:06:02,260
Speaker 1: do get out? I guess I lean more towards the

1136
01:06:02,340 --> 01:06:04,700
Speaker 1: idea that it's in some sort of a zone in

1137
01:06:04,720 --> 01:06:07,130
Speaker 1: their head, but I don't know. You go either direction here.

1138
01:06:07,510 --> 01:06:10,090
Speaker 2: So it begins when the evil wizard flies in through

1139
01:06:10,110 --> 01:06:13,050
Speaker 2: the night in his bat mask costume, and then he says,

1140
01:06:13,270 --> 01:06:18,130
Speaker 2: show me what you got. And then, by the way,

1141
01:06:18,530 --> 01:06:22,310
Speaker 2: the evil wizard has... ultimate warrior face paint on. It's awesome.

1142
01:06:22,450 --> 01:06:26,660
Speaker 2: And like purple satin suit. He's surrounded by an army

1143
01:06:26,700 --> 01:06:30,060
Speaker 2: of crocodile skulls, which are animated by chicken blood.

1144
01:06:30,120 --> 01:06:32,160
Speaker 1: He throws chicken blood. Yeah, makes them clack and crawl

1145
01:06:32,200 --> 01:06:35,440
Speaker 1: around and eventually chase after a chicken carcass.

1146
01:06:35,820 --> 01:06:40,220
Speaker 2: Oh, and warning to people in this scene, there is

1147
01:06:40,320 --> 01:06:44,470
Speaker 2: what appears to me to be probably an unsimulated beheading

1148
01:06:44,490 --> 01:06:47,330
Speaker 2: of a chicken. I'm not positive about that, but it

1149
01:06:47,370 --> 01:06:49,940
Speaker 2: looks to me like it's real, so. I don't know.

1150
01:06:50,000 --> 01:06:51,660
Speaker 2: You get that with some of these older movies.

1151
01:06:51,980 --> 01:06:57,580
Speaker 1: Yeah. Most of the animal violence in this picture does

1152
01:06:57,620 --> 01:06:58,960
Speaker 1: appear to be quite simulated.

1153
01:06:59,800 --> 01:07:01,160
Speaker 2: All of the other stuff seems to be fake.

1154
01:07:01,180 --> 01:07:05,050
Speaker 1: Yeah, but this chicken and maybe another chicken scene are

1155
01:07:05,070 --> 01:07:07,970
Speaker 1: a little questionable. Well, to be clear, the other chicken

1156
01:07:08,170 --> 01:07:12,670
Speaker 1: is definitely dead, but also very gross. So, yeah, this

1157
01:07:12,730 --> 01:07:14,990
Speaker 1: is a gross movie, just to drive that home once more.

1158
01:07:16,360 --> 01:07:20,480
Speaker 2: So anyway, you've got blooming red eyes out of these

1159
01:07:20,540 --> 01:07:23,880
Speaker 2: crocodile skulls. You've got bats in the eye holes. And

1160
01:07:23,920 --> 01:07:26,290
Speaker 2: then the wizard is saying, get up, attack the monk.

1161
01:07:27,790 --> 01:07:30,470
Speaker 2: So the bats fly at him, but he kind of

1162
01:07:30,750 --> 01:07:33,910
Speaker 2: surrounds himself with a magical force field that becomes a

1163
01:07:34,030 --> 01:07:38,020
Speaker 2: glowing hot glue trap for bats. They get stuck to it,

1164
01:07:38,100 --> 01:07:41,180
Speaker 2: and then it incinerates them. And then we get the

1165
01:07:41,300 --> 01:07:46,240
Speaker 2: evil rice. The wizard starts... throwing out handfuls of rice

1166
01:07:46,500 --> 01:07:50,240
Speaker 2: over the crocodile heads and saying, dark Lord grant ultimate

1167
01:07:50,280 --> 01:07:53,660
Speaker 2: power to this rice. And then Chan hung is attacked

1168
01:07:53,700 --> 01:07:57,120
Speaker 2: by a score, a swarm of animated crocodile skulls, which

1169
01:07:57,160 --> 01:07:59,030
Speaker 2: are chomping like wind up teeth.

1170
01:07:59,350 --> 01:08:02,250
Speaker 1: Yeah. And he dispatches these by like throwing a little

1171
01:08:02,470 --> 01:08:07,010
Speaker 1: Buddhist ambulance into all their mouths. Yeah. So yeah, basically

1172
01:08:07,170 --> 01:08:10,350
Speaker 1: like each wizard is a general commanding these different magical

1173
01:08:10,410 --> 01:08:11,390
Speaker 1: effects against each other.

1174
01:08:11,650 --> 01:08:14,410
Speaker 2: That's right. So the bad wizard is, He starts eating

1175
01:08:14,490 --> 01:08:17,840
Speaker 2: rotten guts and vomiting them and eating them and saying,

1176
01:08:17,880 --> 01:08:20,860
Speaker 2: I'm full of power now. And then there's pink vomit

1177
01:08:20,920 --> 01:08:24,019
Speaker 2: from a giant pot that's bubbling and becoming a green

1178
01:08:24,100 --> 01:08:28,800
Speaker 2: Martian head with this giant cranium and pointy ears. And

1179
01:08:28,840 --> 01:08:31,210
Speaker 2: this like rises up out of the pot. Where does

1180
01:08:31,270 --> 01:08:33,030
Speaker 2: this green Martian come from?

1181
01:08:33,110 --> 01:08:37,349
Speaker 1: Words cannot describe how bizarre this point in an already

1182
01:08:37,530 --> 01:08:41,770
Speaker 1: just completely crazy sequence is. Like this is such an

1183
01:08:41,950 --> 01:08:45,230
Speaker 1: ultimate WTF moment in this film. And just my jaw

1184
01:08:45,700 --> 01:08:48,580
Speaker 1: literally drops at this point in the movie. And then

1185
01:08:48,620 --> 01:08:49,979
Speaker 1: it just keeps happening. Yeah.

1186
01:08:50,000 --> 01:08:52,680
Speaker 2: And then it becomes scanners because the monk uses his

1187
01:08:52,740 --> 01:08:56,979
Speaker 2: scanners powers to make the green Martian head explode The

1188
01:08:57,060 --> 01:09:00,120
Speaker 2: wizard then pokes himself in the neck with needles and

1189
01:09:00,160 --> 01:09:03,320
Speaker 2: then severs his own head. And his severed head flies

1190
01:09:03,380 --> 01:09:06,019
Speaker 2: away from his body with arteries dangling out of the

1191
01:09:06,080 --> 01:09:09,830
Speaker 2: ragged neck and then attacks the monk by strangling him

1192
01:09:09,870 --> 01:09:13,050
Speaker 2: with the arteries. And then the monk fights back and

1193
01:09:13,110 --> 01:09:15,550
Speaker 2: makes the wizard's head melt with the power of a

1194
01:09:15,610 --> 01:09:16,250
Speaker 2: red sun.

1195
01:09:17,010 --> 01:09:19,610
Speaker 1: Yeah. And then this is the finish to the match.

1196
01:09:20,020 --> 01:09:22,020
Speaker 1: This wizard is now for real dead.

1197
01:09:22,890 --> 01:09:26,210
Speaker 2: That's right. That part is over. So Chan Hung is

1198
01:09:26,750 --> 01:09:28,850
Speaker 2: like after the battle, he's talking to the head monk

1199
01:09:28,870 --> 01:09:31,509
Speaker 2: who tells him evil is defeated. The abbot can achieve

1200
01:09:31,570 --> 01:09:34,430
Speaker 2: immortality and you can go back to Hong Kong. So again,

1201
01:09:34,510 --> 01:09:38,260
Speaker 2: it's pretty, it's like, wow, that was sudden. But as

1202
01:09:38,420 --> 01:09:41,220
Speaker 2: soon as he gets home to Hong Kong, Chan Hung,

1203
01:09:41,240 --> 01:09:43,240
Speaker 2: he like comes in through the door. He sees his

1204
01:09:43,260 --> 01:09:46,520
Speaker 2: girlfriend in the shower and he is overcome with lust.

1205
01:09:46,920 --> 01:09:49,080
Speaker 2: And at this point, I think he was wondering, wait,

1206
01:09:50,130 --> 01:09:52,210
Speaker 2: do I still have to keep all those vows I

1207
01:09:52,229 --> 01:09:55,689
Speaker 2: made to the Buddha? Unclear. Don't know if I'm still

1208
01:09:55,710 --> 01:09:56,309
Speaker 2: bound by that.

1209
01:09:56,330 --> 01:10:00,740
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I mean, it's my understanding, especially in

1210
01:10:00,920 --> 01:10:04,820
Speaker 1: Thai Buddhism, like, you know, you can enter the priesthood

1211
01:10:04,860 --> 01:10:06,759
Speaker 1: and become a monk for a certain period of time,

1212
01:10:07,439 --> 01:10:10,550
Speaker 1: such as, like, before you become married and so forth,

1213
01:10:10,729 --> 01:10:13,190
Speaker 1: or perhaps later on if you're changing something up in

1214
01:10:13,210 --> 01:10:17,110
Speaker 1: your life, that sort of thing. So, We can't really

1215
01:10:17,130 --> 01:10:20,710
Speaker 1: apply some of the same thinking that we would apply to, say,

1216
01:10:20,850 --> 01:10:25,809
Speaker 1: Western Christian monastic traditions. So my understanding here is it's

1217
01:10:25,830 --> 01:10:27,839
Speaker 1: kind of like he's in the clear, right? He did

1218
01:10:27,850 --> 01:10:31,780
Speaker 1: the monk thing. He fought evil. He defeated evil. They

1219
01:10:31,820 --> 01:10:35,160
Speaker 1: told him he could go home. He is totally in

1220
01:10:35,180 --> 01:10:38,280
Speaker 1: the clear here to get naked with his already naked girlfriend.

1221
01:10:38,500 --> 01:10:41,330
Speaker 2: Yeah. So lust wins out. He gets in the shower

1222
01:10:41,390 --> 01:10:44,690
Speaker 2: with her. Uh, and, uh, also there's some funny dialogue

1223
01:10:44,729 --> 01:10:46,970
Speaker 2: in the scene, but she, she's basically like, did you

1224
01:10:47,010 --> 01:10:48,970
Speaker 2: cheat on me a lot in Thailand? And he says,

1225
01:10:49,110 --> 01:10:51,670
Speaker 2: I was a monk for three months. And she goes,

1226
01:10:51,729 --> 01:10:52,670
Speaker 2: it's about time.

1227
01:10:52,689 --> 01:10:57,380
Speaker 1: In the end, right? They live happily ever after.

1228
01:10:57,700 --> 01:11:00,300
Speaker 2: Oh, you would think so. Uh, no, uh, they live

1229
01:11:00,340 --> 01:11:03,080
Speaker 2: happily for a bit. Uh, but then there is more

1230
01:11:03,140 --> 01:11:06,460
Speaker 2: wickedness to come. So we get a funeral for a

1231
01:11:06,479 --> 01:11:09,580
Speaker 2: bad wizard. I think this is supposed to be the

1232
01:11:09,760 --> 01:11:12,580
Speaker 2: evil wizard's body burning on a big funeral pyre.

1233
01:11:12,860 --> 01:11:13,580
Speaker 1: Right, has no head.

1234
01:11:14,240 --> 01:11:18,280
Speaker 2: Who's burning it? Uh-oh, we see three more wizards of

1235
01:11:18,320 --> 01:11:21,960
Speaker 2: the Black Magic School looking on. Are they supposed to

1236
01:11:22,000 --> 01:11:26,740
Speaker 2: be colleagues or apprentices of the main wizard? Maybe like underlings?

1237
01:11:27,020 --> 01:11:30,450
Speaker 1: They could have even been enemies, but hey, once a

1238
01:11:30,530 --> 01:11:34,090
Speaker 1: holy monk takes out one of your own, that's a

1239
01:11:34,189 --> 01:11:39,419
Speaker 1: uniting principle. They are clearly hell-bent now on seeking vengeance

1240
01:11:39,960 --> 01:11:42,660
Speaker 1: against those who took out this dark wizard.

1241
01:11:42,900 --> 01:11:45,080
Speaker 2: And then they're going to ratchet up the craziness. So

1242
01:11:45,120 --> 01:11:47,940
Speaker 2: these three, they go to a spooky house in the

1243
01:11:47,979 --> 01:11:51,450
Speaker 2: woods with owls hooting outside. And then from under the house,

1244
01:11:51,550 --> 01:11:55,010
Speaker 2: they retrieve a mummy, you know, from the mummy storage cellar.

1245
01:11:55,030 --> 01:11:57,549
Speaker 2: It's a wet mummy, by the way, wrapped in vines.

1246
01:11:57,570 --> 01:12:00,790
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like a bog mummy, a swamp mummy, nasty

1247
01:12:00,870 --> 01:12:01,570
Speaker 1: swamp corpse.

1248
01:12:02,010 --> 01:12:05,060
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. Do you describe what happens from here?

1249
01:12:05,860 --> 01:12:08,760
Speaker 1: All right, so yeah, they really get to cooking, basically.

1250
01:12:09,320 --> 01:12:12,519
Speaker 1: So they don't do a lot of describing, so we

1251
01:12:12,560 --> 01:12:16,320
Speaker 1: just have to sort of follow along. But what they're

1252
01:12:16,340 --> 01:12:18,920
Speaker 1: going to try and do, apparently, is either create a

1253
01:12:18,960 --> 01:12:21,280
Speaker 1: body for an evil spirit to inhabit, or they're going

1254
01:12:21,310 --> 01:12:26,010
Speaker 1: to resurrect an older, powerful sorceress. And so what they're

1255
01:12:26,030 --> 01:12:29,330
Speaker 1: going to need for this, whichever route we're taking here,

1256
01:12:29,710 --> 01:12:31,509
Speaker 1: is they have to get that dead body from the swamp,

1257
01:12:32,010 --> 01:12:35,110
Speaker 1: And then they need to steal or acquire a crocodile.

1258
01:12:35,790 --> 01:12:39,820
Speaker 1: And then they're going to get that crocodile corpse. They're

1259
01:12:39,840 --> 01:12:45,360
Speaker 1: going to put the dead human body inside the crocodile corpse,

1260
01:12:45,800 --> 01:12:48,260
Speaker 1: sew it up, and then all manner of depravity.

1261
01:12:48,280 --> 01:12:49,580
Speaker 2: Like a crocodile Wellington.

1262
01:12:49,800 --> 01:12:52,700
Speaker 1: Yes, yes. And then all manner of depravities have to

1263
01:12:52,740 --> 01:12:56,560
Speaker 1: be committed in order to complete the spell. Like, I mean,

1264
01:12:56,590 --> 01:13:02,310
Speaker 1: there are flayed human heads just hanging around, watching on... meanwhile,

1265
01:13:02,350 --> 01:13:04,910
Speaker 1: I guess the body is kind of like cooking inside

1266
01:13:04,950 --> 01:13:08,689
Speaker 1: of the dead crocodile while the three wizards conduct foul

1267
01:13:08,750 --> 01:13:13,410
Speaker 1: rituals and prepare quote-unquote food for the soon-to-be-revived body of

1268
01:13:13,450 --> 01:13:14,430
Speaker 1: the demon sorceress.

1269
01:13:14,930 --> 01:13:18,270
Speaker 2: Which involves a lot of chewing up and eating disgusting,

1270
01:13:18,310 --> 01:13:20,950
Speaker 2: gross stuff and then either spitting or vomiting it out

1271
01:13:21,010 --> 01:13:23,330
Speaker 2: and then maybe another one of them eating it and

1272
01:13:23,350 --> 01:13:24,290
Speaker 2: chewing it up again.

1273
01:13:24,310 --> 01:13:28,849
Speaker 1: Yep, in the same shot. You can't suspend disbelief on that.

1274
01:13:28,870 --> 01:13:32,830
Speaker 1: So it's like Yeah, they're chewing up pieces of chicken, entrails,

1275
01:13:33,670 --> 01:13:37,270
Speaker 1: durian fruit. I'm assuming like rotten durian fruit because new

1276
01:13:37,330 --> 01:13:41,090
Speaker 1: durian fruit in and of itself is perfectly tasty, if

1277
01:13:41,150 --> 01:13:45,020
Speaker 1: not a little fragrant. But so for these guys, normal

1278
01:13:45,030 --> 01:13:47,040
Speaker 1: durian fruit clearly is not going to work. This is

1279
01:13:47,080 --> 01:13:48,760
Speaker 1: probably something that's rotted a little bit.

1280
01:13:49,140 --> 01:13:54,820
Speaker 2: So, yeah, just madness. Gross madness. Amazing. And then we

1281
01:13:54,860 --> 01:13:57,820
Speaker 2: see the effects of their evil work in two different

1282
01:13:57,880 --> 01:14:02,440
Speaker 2: intercut scenes. First of all, we've got the monks at

1283
01:14:02,479 --> 01:14:05,690
Speaker 2: the temple. They are preparing the abbot's body for immortality.

1284
01:14:06,100 --> 01:14:09,870
Speaker 2: They're covering it with gold and chanting all around it. Meanwhile,

1285
01:14:09,930 --> 01:14:13,189
Speaker 2: Chan Hung is, remember the kickboxing grudge match?

1286
01:14:13,330 --> 01:14:13,550
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.

1287
01:14:13,570 --> 01:14:17,210
Speaker 2: It's happening. Now it's happening. He's fighting the Thai boxer

1288
01:14:17,250 --> 01:14:21,889
Speaker 2: for revenge. So while these things are happening, the demoness awakes.

1289
01:14:22,610 --> 01:14:24,710
Speaker 2: And they give her Freddy Krueger fingers, by the way.

1290
01:14:25,280 --> 01:14:27,689
Speaker 2: And she wakes up and they guide her over to,

1291
01:14:27,710 --> 01:14:29,950
Speaker 2: I guess it's supposed to be a statue of the abbot.

1292
01:14:30,450 --> 01:14:34,130
Speaker 2: And she pokes the eyes of the statue with her claws.

1293
01:14:34,729 --> 01:14:39,050
Speaker 2: And then, oh no, that inflicts simultaneous curses. First of all,

1294
01:14:39,090 --> 01:14:42,870
Speaker 2: the gold falls from the abbot's corpse and seems to signal, uh-oh,

1295
01:14:42,930 --> 01:14:46,690
Speaker 2: he's not incorruptible anymore. He's going to decompose. And then

1296
01:14:46,880 --> 01:14:49,860
Speaker 2: in the middle of his kickboxing match, Chan Hung loses

1297
01:14:49,939 --> 01:14:53,340
Speaker 2: his sight and not only loses his sight, but acquires

1298
01:14:53,500 --> 01:14:54,160
Speaker 2: maggot vision.

1299
01:14:54,590 --> 01:14:57,390
Speaker 1: This is so glorious because, yeah, suddenly he goes blind

1300
01:14:57,430 --> 01:14:59,670
Speaker 1: during the match. You know, he's having to blind punch

1301
01:14:59,729 --> 01:15:03,870
Speaker 1: and kick while Bolo pummels him. And you might wonder, then,

1302
01:15:03,930 --> 01:15:05,550
Speaker 1: as a viewer, well, what does he see? And, yeah,

1303
01:15:05,590 --> 01:15:08,930
Speaker 1: we get the POV shot, and it's just maggots. It's

1304
01:15:09,090 --> 01:15:12,490
Speaker 1: like a visor shape on the screen, and it's just

1305
01:15:12,770 --> 01:15:16,150
Speaker 1: maggots rolling around there. And then later on, he's going

1306
01:15:16,170 --> 01:15:19,849
Speaker 1: to get a backstage, like, mirror vision where he sees

1307
01:15:20,060 --> 01:15:23,610
Speaker 1: maggots just falling out of his eye sockets. So, yeah,

1308
01:15:23,870 --> 01:15:26,100
Speaker 1: there are a lot of gross worms in this movie. Yeah.

1309
01:15:26,570 --> 01:15:28,060
Speaker 2: So Chan-Hung is beaten badly.

1310
01:15:28,620 --> 01:15:30,580
Speaker 1: But he pulls out the victory, though.

1311
01:15:30,979 --> 01:15:32,439
Speaker 2: Oh, he does? I forgot about that.

1312
01:15:32,479 --> 01:15:36,620
Speaker 1: Yeah, he somehow kicks Bolo over the top rope. Bolo

1313
01:15:36,700 --> 01:15:37,780
Speaker 1: goes through a table.

1314
01:15:37,810 --> 01:15:40,130
Speaker 2: Okay, okay.

1315
01:15:40,189 --> 01:15:43,730
Speaker 1: And then our hero runs backstage with his maggot eyes.

1316
01:15:43,770 --> 01:15:45,130
Speaker 1: And then, you know, he looks in the mirror and

1317
01:15:45,150 --> 01:15:46,650
Speaker 1: he sees maggots falling out.

1318
01:15:47,680 --> 01:15:50,320
Speaker 2: I totally missed that he actually beat Bolo. Okay.

1319
01:15:50,580 --> 01:15:51,679
Speaker 1: So I guess maybe.

1320
01:15:51,920 --> 01:15:53,519
Speaker 2: Maybe that is the conclusion.

1321
01:15:53,540 --> 01:15:56,360
Speaker 1: Maybe vengeance is acquired here. I could be. Oh, okay.

1322
01:15:56,540 --> 01:15:58,440
Speaker 2: Now I feel bad. I feel like I was totally

1323
01:15:58,479 --> 01:16:00,160
Speaker 2: wrong about the fact that it doesn't tie up the

1324
01:16:00,189 --> 01:16:03,309
Speaker 2: kickboxing thing because I was under the misimpression that he

1325
01:16:03,390 --> 01:16:06,550
Speaker 2: lost in this match because of what happened to his eyes.

1326
01:16:06,810 --> 01:16:09,670
Speaker 1: Well, he doesn't get to savor the victory. That's for sure. Yeah.

1327
01:16:09,729 --> 01:16:12,830
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I was paying attention. I guess his

1328
01:16:12,910 --> 01:16:15,190
Speaker 2: victory is short enough that I looked away and look

1329
01:16:15,229 --> 01:16:15,750
Speaker 2: back and yeah.

1330
01:16:16,439 --> 01:16:19,060
Speaker 1: It's, it's easy to lose sight of the, um, the

1331
01:16:19,100 --> 01:16:22,920
Speaker 1: mundane plot at this point because the, the crazy magic

1332
01:16:22,979 --> 01:16:24,720
Speaker 1: plot is just growing in size.

1333
01:16:25,260 --> 01:16:27,590
Speaker 2: Anyway, he goes back to the temple to find out

1334
01:16:27,630 --> 01:16:30,580
Speaker 2: what went wrong. And the monk there is like, uh,

1335
01:16:30,630 --> 01:16:32,809
Speaker 2: you didn't break any of your vows, did you?

1336
01:16:34,170 --> 01:16:35,750
Speaker 1: He's like, no, no, of course not.

1337
01:16:35,870 --> 01:16:38,330
Speaker 2: Oh, he doesn't admit to it immediately, but they will

1338
01:16:38,390 --> 01:16:40,980
Speaker 2: eventually figure it out with the help of a supernatural

1339
01:16:41,100 --> 01:16:47,250
Speaker 2: fire-based lie detector test. Um, but, uh, anyway, uh, he, uh, first, uh,

1340
01:16:48,270 --> 01:16:51,230
Speaker 2: the monks, they think he has still been faithful and

1341
01:16:51,270 --> 01:16:53,689
Speaker 2: the head monk says, don't worry, I'll, I'll arrange another

1342
01:16:53,729 --> 01:16:56,170
Speaker 2: duel for you. Uh, but first they're going to do

1343
01:16:56,229 --> 01:16:57,250
Speaker 2: a power up scene.

1344
01:16:58,450 --> 01:17:01,090
Speaker 1: That's right. That's right. They're going to need some sort

1345
01:17:01,110 --> 01:17:05,220
Speaker 1: of extra power. Uh, and so, uh, they, uh, they

1346
01:17:05,260 --> 01:17:08,439
Speaker 1: go out to search for the thousand year old Ganoderma.

1347
01:17:08,960 --> 01:17:10,840
Speaker 1: So again, it's easy to get caught up in all

1348
01:17:10,880 --> 01:17:15,660
Speaker 1: the hideous rituals of the dark wizards, uh, and so

1349
01:17:15,700 --> 01:17:17,390
Speaker 1: caught up in it that we can forget the sublime

1350
01:17:17,470 --> 01:17:22,370
Speaker 1: wonder and weirdness of the Buddhist magic scenes. So that's

1351
01:17:22,410 --> 01:17:24,350
Speaker 1: exactly what we have here with the quest for the

1352
01:17:24,390 --> 01:17:28,850
Speaker 1: thousand-year-old Ganoderma. That is presumably a reishi mushroom here. It

1353
01:17:28,890 --> 01:17:32,870
Speaker 1: is in the genus Ganoderma. So the reishi mushroom, if

1354
01:17:32,890 --> 01:17:35,549
Speaker 1: you're not familiar with it, it holds an important place

1355
01:17:35,610 --> 01:17:40,379
Speaker 1: in traditional Chinese medicine, various other Asian folk medicine traditions.

1356
01:17:40,939 --> 01:17:43,110
Speaker 1: And also in general in the world of like alternative

1357
01:17:43,170 --> 01:17:46,870
Speaker 1: medicine and supplements and so forth. A few years back,

1358
01:17:46,910 --> 01:17:49,250
Speaker 1: my wife and I prepared a tea from some reishi

1359
01:17:49,290 --> 01:17:51,250
Speaker 1: mushrooms that we foraged. Oh, nice.

1360
01:17:51,290 --> 01:17:51,690
Speaker 2: How was that?

1361
01:17:51,970 --> 01:17:57,010
Speaker 1: Very bitter. Very bitter. But it enhanced my chi, eased

1362
01:17:57,050 --> 01:18:00,890
Speaker 1: my spirit, and, you know, probably promoted longevity. So these

1363
01:18:00,930 --> 01:18:05,020
Speaker 1: are some of the ideas that are held concerning the reishi. And,

1364
01:18:05,680 --> 01:18:08,120
Speaker 1: you know, it's still consumed all over the world. Paul

1365
01:18:08,140 --> 01:18:11,630
Speaker 1: Stamets is a big fan of the reishi mushrooms. But anyway,

1366
01:18:11,670 --> 01:18:13,769
Speaker 1: this is our magical take on it. This is a

1367
01:18:13,890 --> 01:18:17,690
Speaker 1: thousand year old mushroom they're seeking out. So our hero

1368
01:18:17,729 --> 01:18:20,890
Speaker 1: and the current abbot, they find this ancient mushroom in

1369
01:18:20,950 --> 01:18:24,969
Speaker 1: a chasm of a great Buddha's eye in an underground temple.

1370
01:18:25,010 --> 01:18:27,469
Speaker 1: And I have to say, this is just a fantastic set.

1371
01:18:28,710 --> 01:18:33,860
Speaker 1: This is not a real temple location, just an incredible set.

1372
01:18:34,360 --> 01:18:37,880
Speaker 1: It has this like magic flaming tree growing out of

1373
01:18:37,960 --> 01:18:40,540
Speaker 1: the eye socket as well. And so they kind of

1374
01:18:40,580 --> 01:18:42,940
Speaker 1: like rope down to it and then they draw the

1375
01:18:42,979 --> 01:18:45,690
Speaker 1: magic out of the mushroom by applying honey to it.

1376
01:18:46,130 --> 01:18:49,270
Speaker 1: And this allows the magic goo to then clear goo

1377
01:18:49,310 --> 01:18:53,260
Speaker 1: to drip down from the mushroom into this little amulet container.

1378
01:18:53,860 --> 01:18:55,900
Speaker 1: That way our hero can use it later on when

1379
01:18:55,920 --> 01:18:57,360
Speaker 1: he's fighting evil.

1380
01:18:57,760 --> 01:18:59,479
Speaker 2: By doing self-surgery on himself.

1381
01:18:59,540 --> 01:19:01,660
Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah. He's going to have to terminate his arm

1382
01:19:01,820 --> 01:19:06,019
Speaker 1: in a really gross scene. So even the good magic

1383
01:19:06,380 --> 01:19:08,580
Speaker 1: practitioners here do get into a little bit of body

1384
01:19:08,620 --> 01:19:09,200
Speaker 1: horror for sure.

1385
01:19:10,150 --> 01:19:13,410
Speaker 2: But also, by the way, before the duel can be arranged,

1386
01:19:13,490 --> 01:19:15,990
Speaker 2: the monks figure out that Chan Hung broke his vows.

1387
01:19:17,189 --> 01:19:18,380
Speaker 2: So that's really bad.

1388
01:19:18,400 --> 01:19:21,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're like, you lied to the Buddha. It's some

1389
01:19:21,200 --> 01:19:22,560
Speaker 1: serious business. It is.

1390
01:19:22,700 --> 01:19:25,360
Speaker 2: They take it seriously and they're like, no, there's nothing

1391
01:19:25,420 --> 01:19:28,670
Speaker 2: you can do now. You're just, yeah, too bad. But

1392
01:19:28,710 --> 01:19:31,290
Speaker 2: Chan Hung doesn't accept it. So he goes to the abbot,

1393
01:19:31,630 --> 01:19:34,150
Speaker 2: to the abbot's body, and he's like, is there anything

1394
01:19:34,189 --> 01:19:36,230
Speaker 2: that can be done? At first, he doesn't get an answer.

1395
01:19:36,270 --> 01:19:38,450
Speaker 2: And then he's like, I'll trash your temple. And he

1396
01:19:38,479 --> 01:19:43,380
Speaker 2: starts like smashing everything up. And finally, the abbot's like,

1397
01:19:43,400 --> 01:19:47,040
Speaker 2: stop throwing a tantrum. And he tells him there is

1398
01:19:47,479 --> 01:19:49,780
Speaker 2: one way they can be saved now. It's the only

1399
01:19:49,850 --> 01:19:53,870
Speaker 2: way is by if Chan Hung retrieves a sacred Buddhist

1400
01:19:53,950 --> 01:19:56,910
Speaker 2: relic from a temple in Nepal. These would be the

1401
01:19:57,070 --> 01:20:00,210
Speaker 2: abbot's ashes from one of his past lives when he

1402
01:20:00,250 --> 01:20:12,500
Speaker 2: was a lama there. So let's go to Nepal. Chan

1403
01:20:12,520 --> 01:20:16,450
Speaker 2: Hung travels by plane, lands, he gets his bearings in Nepal,

1404
01:20:16,830 --> 01:20:19,750
Speaker 2: and eventually he finds this temple where the ashes are stored,

1405
01:20:19,870 --> 01:20:24,849
Speaker 2: but they apparently only... show up during a special magic

1406
01:20:24,910 --> 01:20:26,870
Speaker 2: time of day. I think maybe it's a dawn.

1407
01:20:27,229 --> 01:20:29,590
Speaker 1: Yeah, where the light's going to shine through into this

1408
01:20:29,729 --> 01:20:34,000
Speaker 1: underground temple, and it's going to illuminate the ashes. We

1409
01:20:34,040 --> 01:20:39,080
Speaker 1: learn this because he goes on a tour of the temple,

1410
01:20:39,200 --> 01:20:42,340
Speaker 1: and there is a tour guide that's informing him, as

1411
01:20:42,380 --> 01:20:45,460
Speaker 1: well as there's a Western tourist lady there as well.

1412
01:20:45,780 --> 01:20:47,360
Speaker 1: And we get the full rundown on this place.

1413
01:20:47,780 --> 01:20:50,690
Speaker 2: So he does the self-surgery. He puts the amulet inside

1414
01:20:50,729 --> 01:20:54,050
Speaker 2: his body. And he goes in during the off hours

1415
01:20:54,090 --> 01:20:57,130
Speaker 2: to collect the ashes, but he is not alone there.

1416
01:20:57,270 --> 01:21:01,270
Speaker 2: First of all, he deals with some magic, some magical

1417
01:21:01,930 --> 01:21:05,410
Speaker 2: security measures where there is like a statue at this

1418
01:21:05,510 --> 01:21:10,030
Speaker 2: big Buddhist shrine that starts yelling intruder alert, intruder alert,

1419
01:21:10,110 --> 01:21:10,930
Speaker 2: which is so good.

1420
01:21:11,550 --> 01:21:14,729
Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. And then like the, the statue, the multi-armed

1421
01:21:14,770 --> 01:21:19,570
Speaker 1: statue comes alive. So we have like a Nepalese statue.

1422
01:21:20,100 --> 01:21:22,980
Speaker 1: buddhist automaton here that is going to do battle with

1423
01:21:23,020 --> 01:21:26,040
Speaker 1: him uh but he makes pretty short work of these

1424
01:21:26,120 --> 01:21:28,240
Speaker 1: i'm not sure how much of it is that you

1425
01:21:28,260 --> 01:21:30,549
Speaker 1: know he's just far above them at this point or

1426
01:21:30,560 --> 01:21:32,730
Speaker 1: maybe they didn't like the way the effects came together

1427
01:21:32,890 --> 01:21:35,170
Speaker 1: or we just we were running long on time here

1428
01:21:35,229 --> 01:21:37,970
Speaker 1: and we just needed to get to the final conflict right.

1429
01:21:37,750 --> 01:21:41,809
Speaker 2: And then the evil wizard's demoness appears uh i don't

1430
01:21:41,850 --> 01:21:46,180
Speaker 2: know rob do you want to describe this how i

1431
01:21:46,200 --> 01:21:46,840
Speaker 2: don't even know how.

1432
01:21:46,800 --> 01:21:51,800
Speaker 1: To begin I mean, skimpy outfit, high heels, like a

1433
01:21:51,920 --> 01:21:57,229
Speaker 1: crazy golden crown. She appears to have elongated arms at

1434
01:21:57,280 --> 01:22:01,090
Speaker 1: first glance, and I guess does, but her arms terminate

1435
01:22:01,150 --> 01:22:05,030
Speaker 1: in skeletal claw hands that are either extensions of her

1436
01:22:05,229 --> 01:22:11,650
Speaker 1: arms or being used as weapons. Anyway, a very glamorous, sexy,

1437
01:22:11,810 --> 01:22:17,050
Speaker 1: hellish entrance here for our final boss. Equal parts alluring

1438
01:22:17,130 --> 01:22:20,309
Speaker 1: and revolting all at once. And, of course, illuminated in

1439
01:22:20,350 --> 01:22:23,300
Speaker 1: all sorts of cool green and red gels.

1440
01:22:23,800 --> 01:22:26,979
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I can't describe everything that happens in this conflict,

1441
01:22:27,040 --> 01:22:33,519
Speaker 2: but among other things, she shoots detachable alligator armor hands

1442
01:22:33,900 --> 01:22:37,260
Speaker 2: at our hero, and they grab Chan Hung's chest and

1443
01:22:37,320 --> 01:22:39,509
Speaker 2: grip his pectoral muscles and cut them.

1444
01:22:39,900 --> 01:22:42,350
Speaker 1: Yeah. Later on, they're going to crawl around on the

1445
01:22:42,390 --> 01:22:44,660
Speaker 1: ground and then hold him in place. Yes. Yes.

1446
01:22:45,220 --> 01:22:49,310
Speaker 2: She creates a giant crocodile that crawls on the floor

1447
01:22:49,530 --> 01:22:50,490
Speaker 2: and attacks him.

1448
01:22:50,850 --> 01:22:51,530
Speaker 1: Yes.

1449
01:22:51,670 --> 01:22:55,309
Speaker 2: He escapes the giant crocodile, but then she grabs his

1450
01:22:55,510 --> 01:22:59,070
Speaker 2: head with her legs. And then he is like pinned

1451
01:22:59,170 --> 01:23:03,120
Speaker 2: down on the ground by the hands. And then, oh God,

1452
01:23:03,200 --> 01:23:05,560
Speaker 2: I forget what happens after. Oh, she puts the caterpillars

1453
01:23:05,680 --> 01:23:05,920
Speaker 2: on him.

1454
01:23:06,100 --> 01:23:07,979
Speaker 1: Yeah. So she kind of, she gives him like a

1455
01:23:08,280 --> 01:23:11,280
Speaker 1: thigh squeeze and like kind of shimmies around and then

1456
01:23:11,320 --> 01:23:15,000
Speaker 1: she stands over him. And she continues to shimmy and

1457
01:23:15,040 --> 01:23:17,100
Speaker 1: kind of do a little sexy dance, but then makes

1458
01:23:17,200 --> 01:23:20,979
Speaker 1: caterpillars rain down on him. And they crawl over his body.

1459
01:23:21,420 --> 01:23:24,140
Speaker 1: And then they begin to crawl into his nostrils and

1460
01:23:24,280 --> 01:23:27,220
Speaker 1: into his ears. So we get a little Wrath of

1461
01:23:27,260 --> 01:23:29,100
Speaker 1: Khan energy in this picture as well.

1462
01:23:29,479 --> 01:23:31,900
Speaker 2: But then there is a kind of intervention, right, from

1463
01:23:31,960 --> 01:23:36,510
Speaker 2: the shrine itself because the light comes in. And it

1464
01:23:37,430 --> 01:23:40,630
Speaker 2: awakens the spirit of the llama. Did you understand it

1465
01:23:40,670 --> 01:23:41,669
Speaker 2: that way as well?

1466
01:23:41,970 --> 01:23:45,340
Speaker 1: And then the llama kind of like rides down.

1467
01:23:45,350 --> 01:23:47,160
Speaker 2: On like a tram, basically.

1468
01:23:47,340 --> 01:23:52,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, like a laser palanquin. And interferes, like saves him

1469
01:23:53,020 --> 01:23:58,830
Speaker 1: from the demoness. And then the demoness battles the llama.

1470
01:23:59,630 --> 01:24:02,590
Speaker 1: And they have this kind of like super magical energy standoff.

1471
01:24:03,120 --> 01:24:06,300
Speaker 1: He wins, because she tries to wrap him up in

1472
01:24:06,340 --> 01:24:09,240
Speaker 1: her hair, and then he just pulls her hair and

1473
01:24:09,280 --> 01:24:14,930
Speaker 1: her skin off. And that causes her to then flail skinless, defleshed,

1474
01:24:15,310 --> 01:24:17,590
Speaker 1: and fall back onto the floor, where she begins to

1475
01:24:17,670 --> 01:24:20,550
Speaker 1: writhe in agony. But, oh, it is not over yet.

1476
01:24:20,830 --> 01:24:23,490
Speaker 2: No, but there she looks like just one sniff of

1477
01:24:23,530 --> 01:24:25,070
Speaker 2: that fog, and you're inside out.

1478
01:24:25,410 --> 01:24:27,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, she does look like that. She looks like she's

1479
01:24:27,720 --> 01:24:31,599
Speaker 1: inside out. A little bit like Slim Goodbody, too. Full

1480
01:24:31,640 --> 01:24:35,400
Speaker 1: body Slim Goodbody. just writhing on the floor. And she

1481
01:24:35,439 --> 01:24:39,850
Speaker 1: begins to leak purple slime everywhere, like purple slime falling

1482
01:24:39,910 --> 01:24:40,730
Speaker 1: out of her body.

1483
01:24:41,130 --> 01:24:45,110
Speaker 2: And then gives birth to three plastic bags full of eyeballs,

1484
01:24:45,189 --> 01:24:48,450
Speaker 2: which walk around on the floor and then expand and

1485
01:24:48,530 --> 01:24:53,320
Speaker 2: turn into putty mummies that are going, and then they

1486
01:24:53,380 --> 01:24:56,540
Speaker 2: turn into the three wizards. That's where they were.

1487
01:24:56,680 --> 01:24:56,980
Speaker 1: Okay.

1488
01:24:57,510 --> 01:25:01,720
Speaker 2: But then they produce knives and stab themselves. One of

1489
01:25:01,760 --> 01:25:04,480
Speaker 2: them cuts open his belly. The other two cut off

1490
01:25:04,520 --> 01:25:07,800
Speaker 2: their own fingers and bleed on the guy's belly. And

1491
01:25:07,900 --> 01:25:13,700
Speaker 2: then that turns his body into little eyeball brontosauruses that

1492
01:25:13,720 --> 01:25:14,700
Speaker 2: attack on the floor.

1493
01:25:15,080 --> 01:25:18,660
Speaker 1: Yes, little pink demons that look kind of like brontosauruses.

1494
01:25:18,700 --> 01:25:21,889
Speaker 1: I've also seen them described as poodle demons. And they

1495
01:25:21,950 --> 01:25:27,490
Speaker 1: begin to crawl toward the llama. And I mean, at

1496
01:25:27,530 --> 01:25:31,590
Speaker 1: this point, we're just in such crazy town. It's almost

1497
01:25:31,650 --> 01:25:33,950
Speaker 1: senseless to try and make any sense out of it.

1498
01:25:34,310 --> 01:25:38,219
Speaker 1: This is just like crazy wizard nonsense. But my interpretation

1499
01:25:38,340 --> 01:25:41,580
Speaker 1: is that in this final transformation on the part of

1500
01:25:41,600 --> 01:25:44,200
Speaker 1: the dark wizards, it's like a last ditch effort to

1501
01:25:44,260 --> 01:25:49,990
Speaker 1: assume a very particular specialized range spellcasting demon form, three

1502
01:25:50,030 --> 01:25:52,349
Speaker 1: of them, one for each of them, that might allow

1503
01:25:52,390 --> 01:25:55,650
Speaker 1: them to take out their enemies. So they begin blasting

1504
01:25:55,689 --> 01:25:59,689
Speaker 1: their eyeball bolts at the llama. And I don't know,

1505
01:25:59,729 --> 01:26:02,479
Speaker 1: maybe they've got a chance, maybe they don't. But that's

1506
01:26:02,540 --> 01:26:05,380
Speaker 1: not how it goes down, because the llama then causes

1507
01:26:05,460 --> 01:26:10,540
Speaker 1: the statues in the temple to fling their vajras, these

1508
01:26:10,580 --> 01:26:17,890
Speaker 1: little Buddhist thunderbolts, artifacts at the pink demons, which then

1509
01:26:17,930 --> 01:26:20,309
Speaker 1: cause the pink demons to explode, killing them.

1510
01:26:20,900 --> 01:26:23,340
Speaker 2: And that is our final victory over evil here.

1511
01:26:24,260 --> 01:26:26,720
Speaker 1: And to be clear, the pink demons very much wind

1512
01:26:26,780 --> 01:26:30,380
Speaker 1: up toys, getting into that wind up toy energy that

1513
01:26:30,420 --> 01:26:33,340
Speaker 1: we keep experiencing throughout the picture.

1514
01:26:33,700 --> 01:26:36,990
Speaker 2: I don't want to, because I have to be clear,

1515
01:26:37,030 --> 01:26:39,250
Speaker 2: I'm not an expert in this in any way. So

1516
01:26:39,290 --> 01:26:44,090
Speaker 2: I don't want to oversell the cultural authenticity of the

1517
01:26:44,150 --> 01:26:47,559
Speaker 2: magic depicted here, but I am struck by, by how

1518
01:26:47,660 --> 01:26:53,600
Speaker 2: much more specifically Buddhist in flavor the magic and the

1519
01:26:53,640 --> 01:26:56,960
Speaker 2: magical conflict in this movie is when compared to the

1520
01:26:57,020 --> 01:26:59,019
Speaker 2: magic you'd see in a lot of other movies. That

1521
01:26:59,100 --> 01:27:03,790
Speaker 2: is often, I don't know, a lot of the specific

1522
01:27:03,950 --> 01:27:08,410
Speaker 2: real-world religious imagery or connections feels de-emphasized in favor of

1523
01:27:08,450 --> 01:27:11,370
Speaker 2: a kind of generic appeal. You know what I mean?

1524
01:27:11,890 --> 01:27:13,450
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know what you mean. This is something we

1525
01:27:13,530 --> 01:27:19,800
Speaker 1: enjoy to a lesser extent in the Indian horror movie Paranamandir,

1526
01:27:20,540 --> 01:27:24,630
Speaker 1: in which they're using very Hindu iconography to overcome spirits

1527
01:27:24,670 --> 01:27:31,250
Speaker 1: of evil. So it is nice to get supernatural horror

1528
01:27:31,570 --> 01:27:35,540
Speaker 1: outside of the sort of traditional Western Christian motifs.

1529
01:27:35,820 --> 01:27:39,180
Speaker 2: Yeah, that has some cultural specifics actually in it.

1530
01:27:39,260 --> 01:27:43,809
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like with these Vajra artifacts serving as

1531
01:27:43,930 --> 01:27:46,540
Speaker 1: holy hand grenades to blow up the pink demons. Yes.

1532
01:27:47,160 --> 01:27:50,760
Speaker 1: But with this, I believe, and the movie seems to believe,

1533
01:27:51,220 --> 01:27:55,560
Speaker 1: the evil wizards are now completely defeated. Wizard number one, dead.

1534
01:27:56,120 --> 01:28:00,870
Speaker 1: Wizard number two, dead. Wizards three, four, and five, dead.

1535
01:28:00,890 --> 01:28:05,910
Speaker 1: Demoness slash sorceress from beyond the grave also returned to

1536
01:28:05,950 --> 01:28:07,230
Speaker 1: being full dead. Yeah.

1537
01:28:07,790 --> 01:28:11,570
Speaker 2: And the Abbott can at least attain immortality in which case,

1538
01:28:11,590 --> 01:28:13,810
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe he could help again if more,

1539
01:28:13,990 --> 01:28:15,689
Speaker 2: more wizards appear. Yeah.

1540
01:28:15,810 --> 01:28:19,010
Speaker 1: Yeah. We see the eyes open on the, uh, the

1541
01:28:19,090 --> 01:28:21,890
Speaker 1: Abbott's body. Uh, and then we, the eyes of our

1542
01:28:21,930 --> 01:28:24,650
Speaker 1: hero are also cured and he's able to, we actually

1543
01:28:24,680 --> 01:28:27,130
Speaker 1: get a nice little scene there at the end where, uh,

1544
01:28:27,180 --> 01:28:29,500
Speaker 1: the monks are coming in to pray in front of

1545
01:28:29,540 --> 01:28:31,820
Speaker 1: the Abbott's body and he gets up and he walks

1546
01:28:31,900 --> 01:28:32,340
Speaker 1: out the door.

1547
01:28:33,060 --> 01:28:36,980
Speaker 2: Actually before the, We see him, there's like happy music

1548
01:28:37,040 --> 01:28:39,850
Speaker 2: playing like, oh, we finally did it as our hero

1549
01:28:39,870 --> 01:28:41,980
Speaker 2: is pulling needles out of his eyes.

1550
01:28:43,640 --> 01:28:48,720
Speaker 1: Very long needles like, oh, yeah, supernatural needles being, you know,

1551
01:28:48,760 --> 01:28:50,720
Speaker 1: I don't think he's necessarily pulling them. He's kind of

1552
01:28:50,740 --> 01:28:55,180
Speaker 1: like magically excreting them straight through his eyelids.

1553
01:28:55,320 --> 01:28:56,479
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1554
01:28:57,140 --> 01:28:59,380
Speaker 1: So just a little last bit of holy body art.

1555
01:28:59,840 --> 01:29:02,780
Speaker 2: Made me think of those tear-drinking moths we talked about

1556
01:29:03,120 --> 01:29:09,530
Speaker 2: last week for poking their proboscis into the eyeball. Okay, well,

1557
01:29:09,710 --> 01:29:11,350
Speaker 2: that is The Boxer's Omen.

1558
01:29:12,610 --> 01:29:16,250
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yes. Sights and sounds well beyond anything you've tested.

1559
01:29:17,350 --> 01:29:19,870
Speaker 1: Highly recommend this one for anyone out there. Though, if

1560
01:29:19,910 --> 01:29:21,559
Speaker 1: you've listened to it all the way here, I think

1561
01:29:21,570 --> 01:29:24,040
Speaker 1: at this point either you are pretty clear this is

1562
01:29:24,160 --> 01:29:26,780
Speaker 1: not a film you want to see or this is

1563
01:29:26,840 --> 01:29:29,560
Speaker 1: a film you absolutely have to see Or I think

1564
01:29:29,600 --> 01:29:32,120
Speaker 1: in many cases you have seen the film, you love it,

1565
01:29:32,220 --> 01:29:34,260
Speaker 1: and you just wanted to hear our thoughts on all

1566
01:29:34,280 --> 01:29:37,320
Speaker 1: of the sheer insanity that occurs in this movie.

1567
01:29:38,260 --> 01:29:42,780
Speaker 2: Overflowing with ritual madness. I wonder if I would like

1568
01:29:42,840 --> 01:29:48,360
Speaker 2: recommendations from listeners for movies that show not just the

1569
01:29:48,650 --> 01:29:51,850
Speaker 2: use of magic, you know, like people casting spells and

1570
01:29:52,650 --> 01:29:55,969
Speaker 2: power emanating from them that show not just the magical effects,

1571
01:29:56,050 --> 01:30:01,320
Speaker 2: but spend as much attention on the process of acquiring

1572
01:30:01,400 --> 01:30:05,370
Speaker 2: magic power or of like the recipes for spells as

1573
01:30:05,430 --> 01:30:06,210
Speaker 2: this movie does.

1574
01:30:07,290 --> 01:30:09,390
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I'd be hard pressed to think of one. I,

1575
01:30:09,770 --> 01:30:12,189
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm more readily think of examples of the

1576
01:30:12,290 --> 01:30:16,430
Speaker 1: opposite where wizards and witches just do things and you

1577
01:30:16,470 --> 01:30:19,440
Speaker 1: don't really know much about the preparation that goes into them.

1578
01:30:20,060 --> 01:30:23,500
Speaker 1: There's probably too much of that. Whereas, I mean, really

1579
01:30:23,540 --> 01:30:25,840
Speaker 1: this gets down to the sort of the Shakespearean roots, right?

1580
01:30:26,330 --> 01:30:29,010
Speaker 1: where you know everything that's going into the witch's cauldron.

1581
01:30:29,470 --> 01:30:33,150
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. Actually, yeah, Boxer's Omen, in the tradition

1582
01:30:33,189 --> 01:30:33,770
Speaker 2: of Macbeth.

1583
01:30:34,189 --> 01:30:37,710
Speaker 1: Yeah. You could also think of this as a black

1584
01:30:37,790 --> 01:30:42,769
Speaker 1: magic procedural. Very obsessed with all the steps that go

1585
01:30:42,890 --> 01:30:47,519
Speaker 1: into casting your dark, dank magics. So indeed, if you

1586
01:30:47,530 --> 01:30:52,240
Speaker 1: have suggestions for other examples of this, or counterexamples, write in.

1587
01:30:52,340 --> 01:30:54,760
Speaker 1: We would love to hear from you. We're going to

1588
01:30:54,800 --> 01:30:57,420
Speaker 1: close out this episode. Yeah, would love to hear from

1589
01:30:57,460 --> 01:31:00,280
Speaker 1: everyone out there. If you have thoughts on The Boxer's Omen,

1590
01:31:00,700 --> 01:31:04,080
Speaker 1: other films by this filmmaker, or just other great recommendations

1591
01:31:04,100 --> 01:31:07,799
Speaker 1: from Hong Kong cinema in general, write in. A reminder

1592
01:31:07,840 --> 01:31:09,740
Speaker 1: that Stuff to Blow Your Mind is primarily a science

1593
01:31:09,760 --> 01:31:12,260
Speaker 1: and culture podcast with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

1594
01:31:12,280 --> 01:31:14,519
Speaker 1: But on Fridays, we set aside most serious concerns to

1595
01:31:14,580 --> 01:31:16,860
Speaker 1: just talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema.

1596
01:31:17,320 --> 01:31:20,660
Speaker 1: If you are on Letterboxd.com, find us. We are Weird

1597
01:31:20,700 --> 01:31:23,010
Speaker 1: House on Letterboxd. And we have a nice list there

1598
01:31:23,030 --> 01:31:24,910
Speaker 1: of all the movies we've covered over the years and

1599
01:31:24,950 --> 01:31:27,690
Speaker 1: sometimes a peek ahead at what's coming up next. Again,

1600
01:31:27,710 --> 01:31:30,309
Speaker 1: you can always find Weird House Cinema in the Stuff

1601
01:31:30,330 --> 01:31:33,620
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind podcast feed. But we also have

1602
01:31:33,680 --> 01:31:36,840
Speaker 1: a playlist that is just Weird House Cinema. So you

1603
01:31:36,860 --> 01:31:38,840
Speaker 1: can also look up Weird House Cinema wherever you get

1604
01:31:38,860 --> 01:31:41,020
Speaker 1: your podcasts and follow us that way as well.

1605
01:31:41,300 --> 01:31:45,150
Speaker 2: Huge thanks, as always, to our excellent audio producer, J.J. Posway.

1606
01:31:45,650 --> 01:31:47,170
Speaker 2: If you would like to get in touch with us

1607
01:31:47,210 --> 01:31:49,979
Speaker 2: with feedback on this episode or any other, To suggest

1608
01:31:50,040 --> 01:31:52,299
Speaker 2: a topic for the future or just to say hello,

1609
01:31:52,400 --> 01:31:56,360
Speaker 2: you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com.

1610
01:32:03,290 --> 01:32:05,769
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio.

1611
01:32:06,120 --> 01:32:09,440
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple

1612
01:32:09,479 --> 01:32:11,820
Speaker 2: Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.