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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema.

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Speaker 1: This is Rod Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And

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Speaker 1: today on Weird House Cinema, we are going to be

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Speaker 1: talking about the nineteen eighty three Hong Kong action horror

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Speaker 1: film The Boxers omen directed by Kwai Chi Hung. This

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Speaker 1: movie is a lot of things. First of all, it

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Speaker 1: is just a lot through one lens. It is an

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Speaker 1: action packed martial arts revenge film. Through another. It is

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Speaker 1: magical insanity, just an overwhelming storm of rituals and magical

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Speaker 1: items being combined, magical recipes, necromancy. You've got creaky bat skeletons,

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Speaker 1: needlenosed tarantulas, red devils, skin balloons, crocodile skulls, rotten guts,

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Speaker 1: bikini mummies, just all kinds of stuff. Basically more unhinged sorcery, slop, gore,

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Speaker 1: and wizard battles than you could imagine being crammed into

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Speaker 1: a single film.

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Speaker 2: That's right, it's pretty wall to wall, and the connective

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Speaker 2: tissue in there is when when the film isn't being

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Speaker 2: just absolutely crazy, there's some very well crafted connective tissue

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Speaker 2: that I think also adds to the weird feeling you

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Speaker 2: get watching this picture.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I was going to say, I wonder if

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Speaker 1: this is what you're alluding to through yet another lens.

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Speaker 1: It's a kind of interesting exploration of like Buddhist monastic

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Speaker 1: piety and the quest for immortality.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I don't think now. To be clear, you're

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Speaker 2: not going to learn much about Buddhism watching this picture.

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Speaker 2: But as we'll point out, there's some very nice locations here.

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Speaker 2: There's some nice almost docu mintary style scenes of like

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Speaker 2: street processions and normal people going about their everyday business

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Speaker 2: in Nepal and in Thailand and also in Hong Kong,

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Speaker 2: which you know, I can I can kind of like

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Speaker 2: provide this real world setting that really works to make

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Speaker 2: all the crazy stuff feel like a real injection of

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Speaker 2: another world into ours.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. Though, I also want to acknowledge what

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Speaker 1: this movie is mainly known for, which is just wet madness.

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Speaker 1: It has a reputation among the midnight movie crowd for

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Speaker 1: being an exercise in extremes. It's kind of like, oh,

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Speaker 1: you like Hong Kong horror movies, I have got one

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Speaker 1: you're not ready for. And maybe you're not ready. I

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Speaker 1: would not recommend, as I told I watched this one first,

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Speaker 1: and as I told Robin JJ, I would not recommend

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Speaker 1: watching this while you're eating, though I think maybe you did. Anyway.

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Speaker 2: I ate during part of it, and JJ ended up

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Speaker 2: eating doing part of it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that could be a bad move, depending on how

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Speaker 1: strong your stomach is. But I would recommend watching it

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Speaker 1: to some extent if you have a tolerance for this

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Speaker 1: sort of thing, at least, because it is one of

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Speaker 1: the most amazingly stupendously bizarre and remarkable films I've ever seen.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely it is pure magic. And it's fitting because we

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Speaker 2: say that because the film's original title is Mo, which

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Speaker 2: just means magic or devil and can certainly mean dark

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Speaker 2: magic depending on the context. We get to see both

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Speaker 2: light and dark magic here. Mo is also part of

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Speaker 2: the word magwai, just to give it a little more

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Speaker 2: clarity there.

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Speaker 1: Oh, I see, did you have a notice like the

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Speaker 1: character the Chinese character Mo is the thing that appears

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Speaker 1: at the beginning of the film.

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Speaker 2: It is, and I think it's really interesting here, and

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Speaker 2: maybe Mandarin readers can break down what's happening here a

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Speaker 2: little bit. But we Yeah, they're gonna they're gonna put

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Speaker 2: up the kanji for mo, but they kind of roll

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Speaker 2: it out in three phases, and so initially the character

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Speaker 2: that is added is the character that means ghost, and

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Speaker 2: then and then the rest of the character is added

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Speaker 2: that spells out the pure I mean, the full title magic.

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Speaker 2: So I don't know if if if a if a

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Speaker 2: Mandarin reader, a native Mandarin reader would interpret that as

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Speaker 2: like ghost magic, Like does that affect the the title

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Speaker 2: of the movie as you read it or or what,

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Speaker 2: because we don't. I guess we sometimes have things like this,

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Speaker 2: and like like English language titles for pictures where it

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Speaker 2: looks like it's gonna spell one thing and then it

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Speaker 2: spells another. But I don't think i'd seen this done

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Speaker 2: before in like a Chinese or.

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Speaker 3: A Japanese film.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that that is interesting. But it's also interesting just

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Speaker 1: thinking about the title being in one sense magic or

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Speaker 1: you know, sorcery, enchantment, whatever this refers to, uh, because

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Speaker 1: that is like actually the main theme of the movie.

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Speaker 1: And so in English, we've got this title the Boxer's Omen,

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Speaker 1: which paired with the opening scene makes it seem like

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Speaker 1: this movie is going to be about kickboxing, which is

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Speaker 1: a real bait and switch.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it does seem very concerned with kickboxing for a

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Speaker 2: little bit there, but then really goes goes off the off,

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Speaker 2: the off the cliff here into realms of magic and

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Speaker 2: demons and sorcery and all sorts of gross and mind

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Speaker 2: bending things that are pretty far removed from kicks to

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Speaker 2: the head.

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Speaker 1: Not only that, does it not only moves mainly away

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Speaker 1: from the kickboxing plot, it literally like forgets to conclude

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Speaker 1: the kickboxing plot. Yeah, there's a kickboxing thread running through.

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Speaker 1: It's like a revenge thing, and it never it never finishes.

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Speaker 1: We never get the final showdown.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we were we were joking about this off Mike

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Speaker 2: that perhaps Shaw Brothers came to the director Kuwaiti Hung

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Speaker 2: and said, hey, we want you to make a kickboxing movie,

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Speaker 2: and he's like, got it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, this is about as much about kickboxing as

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Speaker 1: like The Shining is about hotel maintenance.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, what if they had called The Shining like

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Speaker 2: the Hotel Manager.

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Speaker 1: But I like the way in which this movie is

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Speaker 1: about magic. You know, It's like there's a healthy balance

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Speaker 1: of treating magic as on one hand, of course just

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Speaker 1: an object of absolutely insane spectacle and exploitation, but then

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Speaker 1: also as an object of what feels like genuine respect.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the magic systems in this film are fascinating. Like,

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Speaker 2: this movie takes its magic seriously. We've all seen movies

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Speaker 2: where evil wizards like dabble and necromancy, and I was

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Speaker 2: thinking about this too. We were a lot of people

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Speaker 2: I think played dungeons and dragons and you know, there's

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Speaker 2: spell components in there, and your spell, your character is

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Speaker 2: supposed to their arms and say certain things. But we

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Speaker 2: often just skip over all that and say you cast

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Speaker 2: a fireball. And that's the way movies sometimes do as well.

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Speaker 2: This movie does not. There's almost a really like a hypnotic,

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Speaker 2: ritualistic way that especially the dark magic spells are presented,

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Speaker 2: and in general, like the light and dark of these

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Speaker 2: different magical schools is just oh man, it's just so

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Speaker 2: well executed.

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Speaker 3: Here.

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Speaker 1: It's almost more focused on the rituals that evoke the

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Speaker 1: magic than on the magic effects themselves.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And and the way that the spells are

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Speaker 2: generated to tell you a lot about it about the practitioners.

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Speaker 2: So the Buddhist magic is the pure expression of noble virtue,

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Speaker 2: while the black magic is the exact opposite. It's just

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Speaker 2: pure degeneration, madness, and self destruction. So in the same

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Speaker 2: way that the Abbot is on the verge of achieving

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Speaker 2: enlightenment and immortality through righteousness and equanimity, the wizards in

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Speaker 2: the picture seem to be doing everything they can to

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Speaker 2: just kind of like bottom out, as if they're not

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Speaker 2: only you know, plunging into the hells, but doing everything

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Speaker 2: they can to accelerate their descent so they can like

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Speaker 2: blast through the floor and come out the other side

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Speaker 2: in a kind of perverse counter enlightenment.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, in more than one way. I noticed this.

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Speaker 1: The bad wizards in this movie practice magic and do

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Speaker 1: their rituals not with the kind of scary solemnity we're

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Speaker 1: used to seeing Satanists do their stuff in the movies

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Speaker 1: where it's like oh, you know, no, no, in furnace

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Speaker 1: and being very serious while they're lowering the dagger like

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Speaker 1: in what was it Which Empire of the Dark. It's

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Speaker 1: not like that at all. It is a They basically

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Speaker 1: have two modes of ritual. They have depraved, chaotic frenzy

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Speaker 1: and then they also have impatient annoyance. That I made

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Speaker 1: the comparison I was going to talk about this later,

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Speaker 1: but there's one part where we see the first main

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Speaker 1: evil wizard doing a bunch of rituals when he's like

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Speaker 1: trying to get a bat to revive after it has

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Speaker 1: been destroyed, and he's talking at the ritual like somebody

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Speaker 1: talks at their car when they can't get it to start.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's just this familiar impatient annoyance, not somber

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Speaker 1: satanism with chanting, and.

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Speaker 2: At times there's also a detached defilement to what they're doing.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's like they're doing like really gross and

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Speaker 2: debased things, but it is it is also just kind

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Speaker 2: of like what they do, and you know, it takes

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Speaker 2: hours to pull this off, but it's in these are

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Speaker 2: necessary steps in order to achieve their sorceress goals.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's more in the chaotic frenzy era, because they're

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Speaker 1: just frantically kind of I don't know, picking up guts

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Speaker 1: and chewing them and cutting things off of animals and

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Speaker 1: chewing them and spitting them out and cutting things open,

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Speaker 1: and it seems half the time like they're barely paying

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Speaker 1: attention to what they're doing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Now, the magic systems that are depicted in the film,

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Speaker 2: they seem to have many connections to magical traditions and

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Speaker 2: Thailand and East Asia, real or attributed. And to be clear,

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Speaker 2: in the case of black magic, as we've discussed before,

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Speaker 2: we're certainly not always talking about practices that were ever

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Speaker 2: necessarily practiced, even by a thin minority of people. But

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Speaker 2: you know, you end up with these tales about these

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Speaker 2: the sorts of things. These are the sorts of spells

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Speaker 2: that the dark wizards and witches engage in.

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Speaker 1: Right, a lot of times, what we might mean by

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Speaker 1: calling something authentic culturally authentic evil sorcery does not mean

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Speaker 1: it's what people, what like sorcerers of that culture actually did.

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Speaker 1: It's what people of that culture actually thought sorcerers.

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Speaker 2: Did, Right, And then you have levels of like what

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Speaker 2: did outsiders and foreigners think about the things that they

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Speaker 2: heard about about magical practices, real or imagined? And then

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Speaker 2: in this exercise, how is all that amplified through the

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Speaker 2: lens of exploitation cinema, because this is exploitation cinema, to

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Speaker 2: be clear.

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Speaker 1: That's right. I feel like with this one, maybe we

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Speaker 1: should start with the plots at the top, because in

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Speaker 1: the plot section we're probably just going to talk a

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Speaker 1: lot about these wizard battle scenes and the rituals, so

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Speaker 1: the plot is basically takes this form. A Hong Kong

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Speaker 1: criminal named Chan Hung is drawn into a quest for

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Speaker 1: revenge against a cruel Thai kickboxer who paralyzed Chan Hung's

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Speaker 1: brother with an illegal strike during a match, actually after

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Speaker 1: a match was over, and then at the same time

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Speaker 1: he is drawn by dreams and visions to a Buddhist

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Speaker 1: monastery in Thailand, where he discovers that he has a

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Speaker 1: spiritual connection to the recently deceased abbot of that temple.

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Speaker 1: The abbot was a powerful and holy Buddhist monk who

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Speaker 1: died in the middle of a feud with a clan

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Speaker 1: of evil sorcerers. Chan Hung discovers that in order to

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Speaker 1: both avenge his worldly brother and protect the immortality of

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Speaker 1: his spirit brother through the abbot, and then finally also

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Speaker 1: to protect himself because we learn that his fate is

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Speaker 1: linked to the fate of the abbot, he must renounce

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Speaker 1: his hedonistic life of crime, shave his head, and become

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Speaker 1: a monk, and this practice of piety and self discipline

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Speaker 1: and self denial will allow him to gain supernatural strength

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Speaker 1: to fight his enemies both physical and magical, and then

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Speaker 1: from this ensues a massive series of wizard battles and

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Speaker 1: escalations of wicked enchantment. Along the way, chan hung faces doubt, weakness, temptation,

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Speaker 1: and setbacks, though actually those are kind of limited in scale,

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Speaker 1: like we get those concentrated in very specific moments in

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Speaker 1: the film. But it ends with a sorcerer showdown in

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Speaker 1: a Buddhist temple in Nepal, so stupendous that I think

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Speaker 1: many viewers will probably not even notice that the movie forgets,

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Speaker 1: as we said earlier, to tie up the kickboxing revenge plot.

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Speaker 1: As you speculated, Rob, I mean, you almost wonder if

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Speaker 1: the Shaw brothers, you know, we're like, we need a

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Speaker 1: kickboxing film, and that was just the price of admission

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Speaker 1: to get this film financed. But once the wizard re begins,

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Speaker 1: like why settle for anything less? Do we really want

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Speaker 1: to end this film with a kickboxing conflict? Is the

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Speaker 1: final confrontation when we could have a demoness giving birth

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Speaker 1: to plastic bags full of eyeballs that turn into putty

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Speaker 1: mummies that cut themselves open and cut their own fingers

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Speaker 1: off to bleed on each other and turn into eyeball

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Speaker 1: dinosaurs exactly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think anybody's left wondering exactly how the

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Speaker 2: kickboxing resolved itself. All right, Well, like we said, this

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Speaker 2: one is a film that certainly has a reputation. It's

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Speaker 2: been a very popular midnight movie for quite a while.

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Speaker 2: So he almost can't provide an elevator pitch for it.

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Speaker 2: It is the Boxer's Omen and it casts a long shadow.

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Speaker 2: But I would say, you know, one man is about

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Speaker 2: to be sucked into a world of black magic, convengeance,

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Speaker 2: and then that's really all you need to know. The

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Speaker 2: rest is more of a it's more about sensation. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: let's listen to just a little bit of the trailer audio.

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Speaker 2: Though this is one we're just gonna dip in and

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Speaker 2: out of it because the trailer is mostly sound effects.

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Speaker 2: But maybe you'll get just a little bit of a

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Speaker 2: sonic vibe here. All right. Well, if you would like

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Speaker 2: to go and watch The Boxers Omen before proceeding with

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Speaker 2: the rest of this episode, it is available. I watched

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Speaker 2: it on the Image Entertainment DVD, which I believe came

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Speaker 2: out in two thousand and seven, and I rented that

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Speaker 2: from Video Drome here in Atlanta. It was also released

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Speaker 2: on Blu Ray in the shaw Scope Volume two box set,

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Speaker 2: which actually seems like it might be the best presentation

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Speaker 2: of the film with extras, but you have to buy

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Speaker 2: the entire ten disc set to get your hands on it.

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Speaker 2: There's even a commentary track by the late critic Travis

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Speaker 2: Crawford on there.

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Speaker 3: Though.

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Speaker 2: I believe JJ was telling us that you can also

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Speaker 2: stream this from Arrow via Arrow's online streaming presence.

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Speaker 1: And to be clear, the box set you're talking about

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Speaker 1: there is the Volume two Shaw Brothers collection from Errow Video.

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Speaker 1: Because there are also some Shout Factory Shaw Brothers box

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Speaker 1: sets and I was looking at their Volume two. That's

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Speaker 1: not the same thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, make sure you get the right one. I mean,

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Speaker 2: even if you make a mistake, you can end up

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Speaker 2: with a whole bunch of Shaw Brothers pictures which, you know.

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Speaker 1: Probably a good time.

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Speaker 3: It's pretty good time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, But yes, I believe it's Volume two that has

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Speaker 2: the boxer zoning on it.

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Speaker 1: It is.

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Speaker 2: All right, Well, let's talk a little bit about the

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Speaker 2: people behind this picture and in this picture. All right,

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Speaker 2: let's start at the top with Kuochi Hung, the director,

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Speaker 2: also the story credit and he did the special effects.

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Speaker 2: He lived nineteen thirty seven through nineteen ninety nine. Hong

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Speaker 2: Kong movie director active from sixty one through nineteen eighty four,

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Speaker 2: So Boxers omen is his penultimate film and his final

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Speaker 2: horror movie. He directed just one more film with the

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Speaker 2: same screenwriter as this picture, an action comedy titled Misfire,

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Speaker 2: before he apparently immigrated or reimmigrated to the United States.

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Speaker 2: I was more on that in just a minute here.

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Speaker 2: But he apparently ran a pizza restaurant in California for

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Speaker 2: the remainder of his life. I have so many questions

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Speaker 2: about this pizza restaurant. Yeah, I wasn't able to find

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Speaker 2: out much about it. I was even looking up interviews

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Speaker 2: with his son, Ming Beaverque, who is an American film producer.

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Speaker 2: In fact, he was an associate producer on the Meg movies,

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Speaker 2: the recent Giant Shark movies.

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Speaker 1: Oh, the Owens was Jason Steithem the.

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Speaker 2: Very ones, But he didn't really get into it much.

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Speaker 2: But I mentioned reimmigrated because apparently Ming's grandfather attended Cornell

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Speaker 2: and he says graduated in nineteen twenty two, worked in

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Speaker 2: Detroit in the nineteen thirties, and then went back to China.

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Speaker 2: During the Second World War, So I don't know, I

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Speaker 2: found that interesting.

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Speaker 1: So from what I understand, Quo Chi Hung was not

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Speaker 1: originally best known for making like horror or supernatural films, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean, this was some of his later work, but

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Speaker 1: early on he made a lot of like crime dramas and.

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Speaker 3: Stuff like that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he did a lot of different stuff, but he's

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Speaker 2: probably best known internationally for this late career period when

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Speaker 2: he did a lot of black magic films, mostly in

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Speaker 2: the nineteen eighties, playing off a tradition that was kind

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Speaker 2: of popularized in the nineteen seventies by the likes of

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Speaker 2: Oily Maniac director Hominghua, who we discussed. We've discussed this

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Speaker 2: film previously on Weird House Cinema. This is a film

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Speaker 2: from nineteen seventy six, but Kuo Chi Hunk takes things

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Speaker 2: to just New Dizzeying Heights obviously, so in addition to

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Speaker 2: the Boxer Zoemen, these black magic films include nineteen eighties Hex,

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighties Hex Versus Witchcraft, eighty one's Corps Mania, eighty

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Speaker 2: one's Bewitched, to which this film I've seen sometimes described

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Speaker 2: as kind of a sequel, eighty two's Curse of Evil

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Speaker 2: and eighty two's Hex after Hex. Obviously, these are all

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Speaker 2: you know, English titles, and one can generally assume that

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Speaker 2: the actual Chinese titles were maybe a little less silly sounding.

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Speaker 2: He also directed some horror films in the nineteen seventies

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Speaker 2: seventy three's The Bamboo House of Dolls, seventy four's Ghost Eyes,

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Speaker 2: seventy four's The Killers, seventy five's Fearful Interlude, and seventy

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Speaker 2: six is Spirit of the Rape. But he also directed

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Speaker 2: several action films, including nineteen eighties Killer Constable, generally considered

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Speaker 2: his only Wushav film, and he also directed the nineteen

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Speaker 2: seventy four serious crime drama The Tea House and nineteen

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Speaker 2: seventy six is The Bod Squad, which is a Kung

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Speaker 2: fu sex comedy. Nice so a popular and obviously daring

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Speaker 2: visual Shaw Brothers director here, But it's easy to focus

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Speaker 2: on the crazy visuals in a film like this. But

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Speaker 2: he also valued great locations, which is something we see

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Speaker 2: in The Boxer z Omen as well as our lead

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Speaker 2: character travels to Thailand and Nepal, and often he would

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Speaker 2: have subtle nods to the actual lives of common people,

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Speaker 2: which we see here as well, again almost giving it

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Speaker 2: a kind of documentary vibe in its real world moments,

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Speaker 2: and I'm to understand. In his other films he also

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Speaker 2: tackled two varying degrees the subject of corruption, police, corruption,

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Speaker 2: and so forth. And yeah, but before he died, he

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Speaker 2: apparently immigrated to the United States and ran a pizza parlor.

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Speaker 2: So again, I wish I could find out more about

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Speaker 2: that pizza parlor, but it remains a mystery, all right.

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Speaker 2: Moving on to the screenplay. The screenplay is credited to

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Speaker 2: Own Setso, who lived nineteen twenty seven through twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 2: His other writings include Killer Constable, Corps Mania, Bewitched, eighty

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Speaker 2: two's Buddha's Palm, and also Curse of Evil. Obviously these

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Speaker 2: two worked together quite a lot, but Setso was in

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Speaker 2: general just a very prolific writer. On the Hong Kong

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Speaker 2: movie database, he has something like two hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: nine writing credits. Wow, that's a lot, all right. Getting

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Speaker 2: into the cast here again, our main protagonist is Chang

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Speaker 2: Hung played by Philip Coe. Philip Co lived nineteen forty

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Speaker 2: nine through twenty seventeen. Hong Kong actor, stuntman and director,

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Speaker 2: Active from nineteen six seventy through two thousand and six.

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Speaker 2: He has an uncredited guard role in nineteen seventy three's

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Speaker 2: Enter the Dragon, which this is not surprising. I think

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Speaker 2: it's often the case when you look at Shaw Brothers pictures,

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Speaker 2: like everybody has some connection to Enter the Dragon. Even

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Speaker 2: though Enter the Dragon was not a Shaw Brother's motion picture.

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Speaker 2: I believe that was a Golden Harvest picture, but anyway.

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Speaker 2: Philip co His other acting credits include eighty four's The

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Speaker 2: Eight Diagram Poll Fighter, eighty seven's Eastern Condors, and eighty

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Speaker 2: eight Dragons Forever. He was also in eighty three Seating

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Speaker 2: of a Ghost, eighty six is Magic Crystal, and eighty

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Speaker 2: five's Ninja Terminator starring Richard Harris and we just talked about.

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Speaker 2: Played the lead cultist in Empire of the Dark. Philip

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Speaker 2: Co worked with such Hong Kong greats as Bruce Lee,

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Speaker 2: Jackie Chan, Samo Hung. His directing credits include nineteen eighties

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Speaker 2: Killer Romance and ninety two's Hard to Kill, starring a

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Speaker 2: young Robin Sho of Mortal Kombat fame.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so.

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Speaker 2: He often played villains and was married at one point

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Speaker 2: to Japanese actress Yukari Oshima, who appeared in a number

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Speaker 2: of Hong Kong and Filipino pictures, including nineteen ninety one's

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Speaker 2: Ricky Oh, The Story of Ricky, in which she plays

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Speaker 2: one of the Gang of four.

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Speaker 1: May come back to that movie someday.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the connection from one notoriously bloody picture to another. Okay,

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Speaker 2: so Chanhung is helping out the abbot. I think we've

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Speaker 2: established that the abbot in question here, the one that

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Speaker 2: he is connected to, that they are like reincarnations another

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Speaker 2: twins in her previous life. Yeah, we'll find out. This

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Speaker 2: abbot is played by Elvis su Kam Kong born nineteen

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Speaker 2: sixty one, Hong Kong actor whose other films include eighty

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Speaker 2: three's Shaolin and Wu Tang. This is indeed the picture

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Speaker 2: that's one of Rizza's favorite films. Nineteen eighty six is

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Speaker 2: The Seventh Curse, eighty nine's The Iceman Cometh. I've seen

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Speaker 2: that one. I believe that one has a lot of

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Speaker 2: sword play in it. Nineteen ninety six is Viva Erotica,

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Speaker 2: and twenty thirteen's The Grand Master. Now we have multiple

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Speaker 2: dark wizards in this picture, and I had a hard

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Speaker 2: time nailing down exactly which character was which, and who

396
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Speaker 2: played each character. I was working off of the Internet

397
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Speaker 2: movie database as well as the Hong Kong movie database,

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Speaker 2: but for this movie in particular, we don't necessarily have

399
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Speaker 2: the names of the characters or even a character description

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Speaker 2: entailed as well.

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Speaker 1: I think most of the characters we never learned their name.

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Speaker 1: Movie I never says.

403
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Speaker 2: This is not that sort of movie where you get

404
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Speaker 2: to know each and every dark wizard. I was really

405
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Speaker 2: intrigued as well by a character that pops up pretty

406
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Speaker 2: late in the picture, a sorceress or demoness that is

407
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Speaker 2: summoned or resurrected. And I believe I really had to

408
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:55,960
Speaker 2: hunt around for this one, but I believe she's played

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Speaker 2: by someone named Shao Yen Lynn. But this is a

410
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Speaker 2: case where we don't have no idea like what her

411
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Speaker 2: when she was born, no biographical data about her, and

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Speaker 2: I think this was her only credit but still very

413
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Speaker 2: memorable sexy demonis role, as we'll describe later on in

414
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Speaker 2: our plot summary.

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Speaker 1: Is this. This is the character who the parental guide

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Speaker 1: on IMDb warns us that she is underdressed for entering

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Speaker 1: a temple.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, among all the other blasphemous and awful things

419
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Speaker 2: she's involved in.

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Speaker 3: She is underdressed. All right.

421
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:32,919
Speaker 2: Now we are going to get to someone who is

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Speaker 2: instantly recognizable though, and I think easily the most internationally

423
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Speaker 2: recognizable actor in this whole picture. It is Bolo Jung

424
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Speaker 2: playing Boobo the tie boxer, getting to the boxing subplot

425
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Speaker 2: that is pushed to the forefront by the English title

426
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Speaker 2: for this picture. Born in nineteen forty six. You've all

427
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Speaker 2: seen this guy before. I think he is also known

428
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Speaker 2: as Chinese Hercules.

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Speaker 1: He is a mountain. This guy. This guy is a

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Speaker 1: muscle man.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he is a beast.

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Speaker 2: And he's like he's kicking like he's fast, super muscular,

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Speaker 2: kicking with these legs look like tree trunks. I mean,

434
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:16,119
Speaker 2: he's just intimidating and also has this just natural heel

435
00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:18,880
Speaker 2: charisma just oozing off of him. You can see why

436
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:20,200
Speaker 2: this guy was so successful.

437
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: In fact, in the kickboxing scene where the movie opens,

438
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:27,920
Speaker 1: I am, by no means a kickboxing expert. I don't

439
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:30,639
Speaker 1: really know anything about it, but even my amateur eyes

440
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:33,320
Speaker 1: were looking at this and I'm like, wait, these two

441
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:37,399
Speaker 1: guys are in the same weight class. Doesn't look like

442
00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:37,919
Speaker 1: they would be.

443
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:43,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, Bola is just intimidating, and if you have ever

444
00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:47,760
Speaker 2: seen nineteen seventy three's Enter the Dragon, Bolo is the

445
00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:50,399
Speaker 2: guy who fights John Saxon's character, and you may have

446
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:54,600
Speaker 2: had similar thoughts in that matchup. You know, like John Saxon,

447
00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:57,399
Speaker 2: you know you're super cool, but there's no way you

448
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,760
Speaker 2: would have any realistic chance against this month's of a man.

449
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:03,800
Speaker 1: Well, that would make more sense of wasn't it originally

450
00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 1: in the script that John Sackson's character dies, and then

451
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:09,160
Speaker 1: they had to change it because he didn't like that.

452
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:12,600
Speaker 2: I don't remember, Yeah, may be misremembering, but it's been

453
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:14,360
Speaker 2: a long time since I've seen it, and I don't

454
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:17,879
Speaker 2: know much about it, you know, behind the scenes stuff,

455
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:22,840
Speaker 2: But yeah, Bolo was definitely in Entered the Dragon. His

456
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:25,679
Speaker 2: Hong Kong film credits go back to nineteen seventy and

457
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 2: include the nineteen seventy three film Chinese Hercules, in which

458
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:32,960
Speaker 2: he is not the star, but it was clearly promoted

459
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:37,240
Speaker 2: at least internationally with this title. To capitalize on his

460
00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:39,760
Speaker 2: screen presence, I included a poster here for you, Joe.

461
00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 2: You may have if you're out there listening, you should

462
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 2: look this up as well. It says Chinese Hercules, the

463
00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:48,320
Speaker 2: first and only muscle mad monster of the martial Arts,

464
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:52,640
Speaker 2: the superhuman Beast of the East. And then he's there's

465
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:55,800
Speaker 2: an illustration of him, like, let's see, he's got like

466
00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:59,399
Speaker 2: two guys in headlocks. And then there's a lady biting

467
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:02,680
Speaker 2: his leg as he with his elbows like busts down

468
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,159
Speaker 2: the pillars of some sort of a temple.

469
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, like Samson, it's pushing the pillars out. Is

470
00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 1: the lady biting his leg because she likes him or

471
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:13,000
Speaker 1: because she doesn't like him?

472
00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:17,320
Speaker 2: I cannot determine, And I'm not sure that actually watching

473
00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:20,879
Speaker 2: the film would answer the question. But yeah, yeah, this

474
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:23,560
Speaker 2: guy's the real deal. He was a student of Bruce Lees,

475
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 2: and you know, obviously appeared alongside him and Enter the

476
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,440
Speaker 2: Dragon was in a ton of these Hong Kong action films.

477
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:32,280
Speaker 2: But then in nineteen eighty eight he scored the main

478
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:36,200
Speaker 2: antagonist role in a little movie called blood Sport. This

479
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 2: is where I think most people are familiar with him

480
00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:42,760
Speaker 2: from this, of course, starred Jean Claude Van Dam, Donald Gibb,

481
00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:48,200
Speaker 2: and Forrest Whitaker. And yeah, Bolo is the intimidating kickboxer

482
00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:51,880
Speaker 2: that I believe, if I remember correctly, like brutally murders

483
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:55,119
Speaker 2: or injures Donald Gibbs's character, and then Jean Claude Vandam

484
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:56,720
Speaker 2: has to seek revenge against him.

485
00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 1: Looking at this made me think about the possibility that

486
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:04,080
Speaker 1: some at some point in time people have rented and

487
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:06,640
Speaker 1: popped in Boxer z Omen because they were a fan

488
00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:09,080
Speaker 1: of Jean Claude Van Dam movies, and they're like, oh,

489
00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:10,520
Speaker 1: another kickboxing movie.

490
00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, there's like maybe five minutes of it in

491
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:18,879
Speaker 2: the picture, and it's impressive. There's some cool kickboxing as

492
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:22,600
Speaker 2: well as discuss But at any rate, he'd work getting

493
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:24,600
Speaker 2: back to Bolo here. He'd work with Van Dam again

494
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,840
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety one's Double Impact, and then apparently slowly

495
00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:31,399
Speaker 2: retired from acting after a bit there, with his last

496
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:35,400
Speaker 2: film credit as of this recording in twenty fifteen. Of note,

497
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:38,680
Speaker 2: he also directed and starred in a film titled Bolo,

498
00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:43,600
Speaker 2: playing the character Bolo. This is nineteen seventy nine. I

499
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,320
Speaker 2: don't think it's autobiographical. I think it all just happens

500
00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:47,280
Speaker 2: to come together that way.

501
00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 1: Well, I believe Bolow is not his birth name, right,

502
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:53,200
Speaker 1: I think that's like a nickname. Am I wrong about that.

503
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:54,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, I believe so.

504
00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 2: A lot of these Hong Kong actors, as you may

505
00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:00,800
Speaker 2: have noticed listeners, you know, they have like an American

506
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 2: Eyes Show name on top of their actual Chinese name.

507
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 2: Both those Other major films include seventy two's Five Fingers

508
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 2: of Death and the nineteen ninety three action film titled

509
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:17,960
Speaker 2: TC two thousand, which also features Billy Blanks and Matthias

510
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:20,680
Speaker 2: Hughes from I Come In Peace. So there's a lot

511
00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:22,400
Speaker 2: of muscle in that picture.

512
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:24,680
Speaker 1: Really, that's the tay Bo guy.

513
00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:26,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, wow.

514
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 2: All right, Let's see one more actor to mention here,

515
00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:34,920
Speaker 2: because she is specifically specifically called out in the movie databases.

516
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:38,600
Speaker 2: We have y co Man playing Chan Hung's girl. That's

517
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:40,840
Speaker 2: his girlfriend. She doesn't really have a name as far

518
00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 2: as we can tell beyond that, uh like the Wizards.

519
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:47,440
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and she is his often naked lady friend

520
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:50,400
Speaker 2: back in Hong Kong. Her other credits include eighty three's

521
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:53,280
Speaker 2: Seating of a Ghost, eighty five's Devil Cat, eighty five's

522
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 2: Ghost Festival, and ninety three's Sexy Flower. All right, getting

523
00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,959
Speaker 2: behind the scenes a little bit, there's some interesting names here.

524
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:05,160
Speaker 2: Horace Ma is credited with either art director or scenery

525
00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:08,040
Speaker 2: depending on which database you're looking at, and he was

526
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 2: active from eighty three through I believe twenty twenty two,

527
00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 2: and I think this was his first film. He'd go

528
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:18,160
Speaker 2: on to win numerous awards for twenty nineteen Shadow and

529
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:21,720
Speaker 2: also worked on Rizza's twenty twelve passion project The Man

530
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:26,080
Speaker 2: with the Iron Fists. Now we have two credited composers here.

531
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:30,800
Speaker 2: There's Chin Jung Shing and then there's also Chin House Sue.

532
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 2: Let's see. Shing was active from eighty one through ninety four,

533
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:38,840
Speaker 2: and his credits include The Seventh Curse, Eight Diagram, Poll Fighter,

534
00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:42,880
Speaker 2: and Dragons Forever. His work was also used in Kill Bill.

535
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:47,440
Speaker 2: Kill Bill of course samples some various scores from different

536
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 2: Hong Kong action films, and as for Sue, he also

537
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:54,800
Speaker 2: worked on some of the same films, but also worked

538
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 2: on Human Lanterns, Seating of Ghost, and Bewitched. In general,

539
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,400
Speaker 2: I'd say the music here is really fun. There are

540
00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 2: a lot of like cool yeah, electronic effects, some of

541
00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:09,200
Speaker 2: which were lifted. There's one particular sound that a number

542
00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 2: of you will remember from nineteen eighties Flash Gordon that's

543
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:18,080
Speaker 2: sort of like wow sound that is lifted and used

544
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:20,160
Speaker 2: in this picture. And I've also read that there are

545
00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:22,680
Speaker 2: some sound effects from Alien that are utilized here as well.

546
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,640
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I did not catch that, but I can

547
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:28,840
Speaker 1: believe it. But yeah, there's a lot of fun It's

548
00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 1: a playful musical score, Like there's some wailing guitars at

549
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 1: some funny parts. All right, you ready to talk about

550
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:44,720
Speaker 1: the plot.

551
00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:46,280
Speaker 3: Let's get into the plot.

552
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 1: So we already laid out a brief sketch of the

553
00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:53,280
Speaker 1: plot earlier, but at the beginning of the story, our

554
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:57,880
Speaker 1: protagonist Chin Hung is a mid level Hong Kong gangster,

555
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 1: and when the story begins, he seemingly has everything a

556
00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:05,120
Speaker 1: guy like him could want. He's got money, power, a

557
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:08,720
Speaker 1: beautiful girlfriend, a nice house, luxuries, and it seems like

558
00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:11,680
Speaker 1: respect in the criminal underworld. He's a respected criminal.

559
00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:13,920
Speaker 2: M Yeah, has some cool sunglasses.

560
00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: Chen Hung also has a brother. Now about the name

561
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:22,280
Speaker 1: of the brother, I was like some online synopsies, like

562
00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:25,520
Speaker 1: the Wikipedia page for this movie calls his brother Chen Wing.

563
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,200
Speaker 1: Though when I was just rewatching it, I noticed I

564
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 1: think the only time somebody said his full name in

565
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:34,120
Speaker 1: the movie, it was a boxing announcer who called him

566
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:39,480
Speaker 1: chen Why so I'm not sure which is more right there.

567
00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:43,560
Speaker 1: But his brother is also quite successful in his own domain,

568
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:47,680
Speaker 1: which is kickboxing. And they never talk about this from

569
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:50,680
Speaker 1: what I recall, but it is implied later in the

570
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:54,280
Speaker 1: film that Chen Hung himself has previously had a career

571
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 1: as a kickboxer.

572
00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 3: Yeah.

573
00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:58,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he seems competent getting into the ring

574
00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:00,600
Speaker 2: to kickbox himself later in the picture.

575
00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:04,280
Speaker 1: Yeah. So the film opens on a kickboxing match in

576
00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:07,800
Speaker 1: Hong Kong with two fighters for the heavyweight championship, and

577
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:11,680
Speaker 1: the fighters are Chan Hung's brother Chen Wing or Chen Wy,

578
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 1: and on the other side of the ring a tie

579
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:18,000
Speaker 1: boxer named Bubo. That's the guy played by Bolo Young.

580
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:22,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again just an obvious physical mismatch here. You

581
00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 2: can tell a murder is about to take place in

582
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:25,440
Speaker 2: the ring.

583
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,360
Speaker 1: Yeah. So they're fighting, and I might be a little

584
00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 1: bit confused about the rules of kickboxing because in this fight,

585
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 1: the tie boxer kicks Chan Wing in the back of

586
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:40,120
Speaker 1: the head between rounds while his back is turned. I

587
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:43,240
Speaker 1: was like, wait, how is that not instant disqualification? I

588
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:45,640
Speaker 1: think the ref says something like if you keep that up,

589
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:48,640
Speaker 1: I'm going to disqualify you. It seems like one time

590
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 1: would be instant, wouldn't it.

591
00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:51,120
Speaker 3: Yeah.

592
00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:54,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess, as with Buddhism, we should be reluctant

593
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 2: to learn too much about kickboxing from this movie.

594
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, it seemed more like pro wrestling rules than something

595
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:04,640
Speaker 1: with line a fair competition. But yeah, anyway, through this

596
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:08,359
Speaker 1: and through so because he's like, you know, kicking him

597
00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:10,120
Speaker 1: in the back of the head while his back's turned,

598
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,399
Speaker 1: and because he's just smugly grinning a lot, we get

599
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:16,520
Speaker 1: the idea that Boobo the tie boxer is a bad

600
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:20,439
Speaker 1: sportsman and a bad dude. He's vicious, he doesn't fight fair,

601
00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:23,319
Speaker 1: and he has no sense of honor or shame. Now,

602
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:25,960
Speaker 1: there is no magic in this scene, which is an

603
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 1: interesting choice that the movie does not begin with like

604
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 1: a supernatural prologue or any indication of how weird it's

605
00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 1: going to get. From the opening scene, you could easily

606
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:39,480
Speaker 1: assume that this is just going to be a hard hitting,

607
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:43,399
Speaker 1: terrestrial kickboxer movie. And you know, I think it works

608
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:45,399
Speaker 1: pretty well in that vein Like this is a good

609
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:49,000
Speaker 1: fight scene with strong choreography and most importantly, I think

610
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:54,760
Speaker 1: good sound effects. It has that great frequency spanning slap

611
00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 1: with every punch and kick that connects. This is characteristic.

612
00:34:58,520 --> 00:34:59,959
Speaker 1: I think of a lot of the best Hong Kong

613
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:02,760
Speaker 1: action movies as they have really great fight sound effects,

614
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:08,200
Speaker 1: and that core connection sound is like a combination of

615
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:11,520
Speaker 1: a bass drum kick, a rim shot, and then a

616
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:15,319
Speaker 1: strip of wet briskets slapping on parchment paper all at

617
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:18,600
Speaker 1: once happening. Love those percussive fight scenes.

618
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:22,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have really solid sound effects throughout this picture,

619
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:24,800
Speaker 2: whether it's kicks and slaps or dripping in trails and

620
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:25,560
Speaker 2: demon slime.

621
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:30,000
Speaker 1: Anyway, the fight is quite brutal. At different times, both

622
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:34,880
Speaker 1: Bubo and Chen Wing landed just disgusting hits. At one point,

623
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 1: Boubo has a bunch of floppy pink gore tinsel hanging

624
00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:41,200
Speaker 1: off the side of his head. He gets kicked in

625
00:35:41,239 --> 00:35:44,680
Speaker 1: the head and it's just like wuh, It's like his

626
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:49,239
Speaker 1: wires are coming out. It looks like so Chanhung's brother

627
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,560
Speaker 1: wins the fight, but after he has declared the winner,

628
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:56,040
Speaker 1: the tie boxer becomes furious. He runs up, He sucker

629
00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:58,640
Speaker 1: punches him in the back of the head again, and

630
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 1: then when he falls down, he stomps on his body

631
00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:03,200
Speaker 1: until his neck is broken.

632
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:04,840
Speaker 3: Brittle brittle.

633
00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:08,600
Speaker 1: Once again you'd think like, okay, that's not just disqualified,

634
00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:10,960
Speaker 1: like you'd be arrested, but instead it just kind of

635
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:15,120
Speaker 1: like now you're not supposed to do that. Later after

636
00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:17,640
Speaker 1: the fight, we see Chan Hung in his element. He

637
00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:21,400
Speaker 1: swaggers into this cool Hong Kong club that's flooded with

638
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:24,920
Speaker 1: red light. He's wearing a sleek gray suit with a

639
00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:28,080
Speaker 1: pocket square and a black shirt open about four buttons

640
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:32,279
Speaker 1: down from the neck. Also sunglasses at night indoors, so

641
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:35,399
Speaker 1: that he is a cool cat. And so he comes

642
00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:38,240
Speaker 1: into the crimed in and he's addressed as brother Hung.

643
00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:41,800
Speaker 1: Chan Hung is called in for a meeting with the boss,

644
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:44,719
Speaker 1: Uncle Chi, and the boss tells him that he has

645
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 1: to go to a one am meeting with the representatives

646
00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:50,840
Speaker 1: of a gang from the mainland. Hung agrees, and he

647
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:53,840
Speaker 1: makes plans to have back up with weapons waiting outside

648
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:57,920
Speaker 1: the meeting place in case anything goes wrong. Well something

649
00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:01,320
Speaker 1: does go wrong. In fact, it is a track the meeting.

650
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:04,359
Speaker 1: It takes place at some kind of construction site, and

651
00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:06,799
Speaker 1: as soon as Chan Hun comes in and sees the

652
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 1: leader of the Mainlanders, he's obviously like this is not

653
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:14,160
Speaker 1: gonna be a happy meeting. He takes off his sunglasses.

654
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:17,479
Speaker 1: There's a guitar whale on the soundtrack, and Hung says,

655
00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:20,640
Speaker 1: you're very cocky. You just arrived and already you're fighting

656
00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 1: for territory. And I do love. By the way, the

657
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:26,720
Speaker 1: outfit of the mainlander, he's got like this cool hat

658
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:29,480
Speaker 1: cock to the side, and he's smoking a cigarette and he,

659
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:32,800
Speaker 1: I don't know, something looks kind of like nineteen twenties

660
00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:34,080
Speaker 1: gangster about him.

661
00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:38,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a real vicious air to him.

662
00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:42,040
Speaker 1: Yeah. So the gangster says, you know, it's bold of

663
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 1: you to come here alone, and Hung says, I've been

664
00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:47,239
Speaker 1: in Hong Kong a long time. I've seen it all.

665
00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:50,680
Speaker 1: But then the mainlander guys like, bet you haven't seen this,

666
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:54,040
Speaker 1: And then from somewhere up above, he drops a burlap

667
00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:57,800
Speaker 1: sack full of chopped up human body with bloody arms

668
00:37:57,800 --> 00:38:00,600
Speaker 1: poking out of it, and whoops. Inside the sack is

669
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:04,960
Speaker 1: Uncle Chi Hung's boss. And then the other gang reveals

670
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:07,759
Speaker 1: that they also killed all of Hung's back up and

671
00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:09,759
Speaker 1: now they're about to kill him as well, so they

672
00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:12,440
Speaker 1: tie him up, hang him upside down by his feet,

673
00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:15,520
Speaker 1: and plunge his head into a bucket of water. So

674
00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:16,240
Speaker 1: it's brutal.

675
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:20,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, So suddenly we've gone from sports movie to violent

676
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,520
Speaker 2: crime movie, and it seems like that movie's about to

677
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:25,040
Speaker 2: end here rather quickly.

678
00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 1: But now we're about six minutes into the film, we're

679
00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:32,719
Speaker 1: about to get the first sudden intervention of magic. There

680
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:37,080
Speaker 1: is a divine interruption of this gangland execution when an

681
00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:41,720
Speaker 1: otherworldly wind and an emanation of white light burst into

682
00:38:41,719 --> 00:38:45,440
Speaker 1: the scene, frightening and confusing the gangsters. And then we

683
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:48,319
Speaker 1: cut away to see the source of this power. In

684
00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 1: the doorway to the warehouse, there is a bald monk

685
00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:54,680
Speaker 1: naked at the shoulder but wrapped in gold robes, with

686
00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:58,279
Speaker 1: a gold band around his head, from which dangle these

687
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:01,720
Speaker 1: two large spheres are dish on either side, down below

688
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:04,880
Speaker 1: his jaw, and then in the dark all around we

689
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:09,560
Speaker 1: can see jets of white radiant energy squirting off of him.

690
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,640
Speaker 1: He almost literally looks like a lawn sprinkler of holiness.

691
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 3: He does yes.

692
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:18,120
Speaker 1: Suddenly Chan Hung is free of his bindings. The ropes

693
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:20,440
Speaker 1: come undone. He looks around and he can stand up,

694
00:39:20,680 --> 00:39:24,000
Speaker 1: and all of the rival gangsters lie dead on the ground.

695
00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:27,720
Speaker 1: The apparition of the monk says, Chan Hung, you must

696
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 1: follow me. Chan Hung asks who are you? But he

697
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 1: doesn't have time to figure it out. Here's police sirens approaching,

698
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:36,440
Speaker 1: so he has to flee the scene, and then he

699
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:39,600
Speaker 1: goes back home to spend the night with his girlfriend.

700
00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:44,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, and a really steamy sex scene ensues. But it's

701
00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:47,319
Speaker 2: also important because it helps establish that our hero is

702
00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:50,319
Speaker 2: a lover. He is a lusty gentleman, which is going

703
00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:51,319
Speaker 2: to be important later on.

704
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:53,680
Speaker 1: Yes you will. I think you were supposed to think

705
00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:57,120
Speaker 1: back to the scene immediately when he later promises the

706
00:39:57,120 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: Buddha vow of sexual abstinence.

707
00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:00,399
Speaker 3: Yeah.

708
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:04,320
Speaker 1: So later that night, Chan Hung has another strange vision.

709
00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:07,280
Speaker 1: He has awakened from a dream to see a glowing

710
00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:11,000
Speaker 1: orange symbol floating in the air over his bed. It

711
00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:13,319
Speaker 1: sort of looks like a carrot symbol, or like a

712
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:15,480
Speaker 1: capital letter A without a crossbar.

713
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:17,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm not sure if it's intended to be

714
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:19,920
Speaker 2: read this way, but the symbol sort of looks like

715
00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 2: the character for wren, which means man or person.

716
00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:27,640
Speaker 1: Also, the symbol has its own soundtrack Q It's like

717
00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:31,239
Speaker 1: a hollow rhythm beating on a metal drum. And the

718
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:33,759
Speaker 1: symbol leads chan Hung into the living room where the

719
00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:37,160
Speaker 1: TV is on. It's blasting static and filling the room

720
00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:39,680
Speaker 1: with blue light, and then the vision of the monk

721
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:42,920
Speaker 1: in bodily form appears once again. He tells Hung that

722
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:45,320
Speaker 1: there's something he needs to explain to him, but the

723
00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:48,560
Speaker 1: vision disappears when Hung's girlfriend walks into the room and

724
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 1: startles him. The next day, Chan Hung visits his brother

725
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 1: in the hospital. His brother is still in traction, covered

726
00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:58,759
Speaker 1: all over with bandages like a burn victim. I don't

727
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:00,919
Speaker 1: understand why the bandage is. They're like all the way

728
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:01,760
Speaker 1: around his head.

729
00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:04,919
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like a cartoon level of bandaging here.

730
00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 1: Yeah. The doctor informs them that the brother's kickboxing career

731
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:11,839
Speaker 1: is over. He's going to be paralyzed for the rest

732
00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:14,520
Speaker 1: of his life, and Chan Hung is shaken and the

733
00:41:14,520 --> 00:41:17,799
Speaker 1: brother whispers that Hung must take revenge for him. He

734
00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:20,840
Speaker 1: wants to see Hung get revenge on the tie boxer,

735
00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:25,120
Speaker 1: so we cut right to it. Next, we're in Thailand

736
00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:28,439
Speaker 1: and we see busy city streets filled with cars. You've

737
00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:32,799
Speaker 1: got rivers, canals with motor boats, beautiful Buddhist temples and

738
00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:36,839
Speaker 1: shrines all around. Chan Hung goes to an event where

739
00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:40,400
Speaker 1: a local promoter is presenting an award to Boobo the

740
00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 1: tie boxer. The gist of the ceremonies kind of like, well,

741
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,720
Speaker 1: they say Boobo showed the Hong Kong champion what boxing

742
00:41:47,840 --> 00:41:50,799
Speaker 1: is all about. And then they say that, you know,

743
00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:53,680
Speaker 1: the Hong Kong judges were biased against our guy. The

744
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:56,279
Speaker 1: fight was rigged, so the judgment doesn't really count. So

745
00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:58,120
Speaker 1: we declare our fighter the winner.

746
00:41:58,520 --> 00:41:58,759
Speaker 3: Yeah.

747
00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:00,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a small gather, but it looks like the

748
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:04,600
Speaker 2: local press was invited, and of course our hero has

749
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:05,520
Speaker 2: shown up as well.

750
00:42:05,640 --> 00:42:09,680
Speaker 1: Yeah. So the MC presents Bubo with a championship belt,

751
00:42:09,719 --> 00:42:12,120
Speaker 1: but before he can claim it, Chan Hung walks up

752
00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:14,880
Speaker 1: and he smacks it to the ground and he starts

753
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:19,160
Speaker 1: cussing it at below Young here, and they yell at

754
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:21,200
Speaker 1: each other for a bit, and then they finally agree

755
00:42:21,239 --> 00:42:23,200
Speaker 1: that in three months the two of them will fight

756
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:25,040
Speaker 1: a grudge match in Hong Kong.

757
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:27,680
Speaker 2: And to your point earlier, it really does feel like

758
00:42:27,719 --> 00:42:30,560
Speaker 2: pro wrestling at this point. Here we have our obvious

759
00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:35,120
Speaker 2: heel and our obvious face here teasing the next big matchup,

760
00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:36,240
Speaker 2: the grudge match.

761
00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:39,120
Speaker 1: Yeah. In my English subtitles, by the way, they were

762
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:41,640
Speaker 1: calling each other Hong Kong Boy and thie.

763
00:42:41,560 --> 00:42:45,000
Speaker 2: Boy, Yes, the same for me. So okay, it seems

764
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:47,840
Speaker 2: like the vengeance here is off to a great start.

765
00:42:47,920 --> 00:42:51,200
Speaker 2: You know, they have something on the books, so good enough.

766
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:53,920
Speaker 1: Sure, but it's about to get more complicated because while

767
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:57,319
Speaker 1: riding in a motor boat down the river canal after

768
00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:01,799
Speaker 1: the confrontation, Chan Hung suddenly sees a familiar shape at

769
00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 1: the peak of a roof of a Buddhist temple. He

770
00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:09,239
Speaker 1: sees that glowing orange shape from his waking dream, so

771
00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:12,279
Speaker 1: it's like, what's this He has to go in and investigate.

772
00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:16,720
Speaker 1: When Chenhun approaches the entrance, a monk in orange robes

773
00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:19,759
Speaker 1: greets him and already knows him by name. He says,

774
00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:23,080
Speaker 1: they've been expecting him. Inside the temple, we're treated to

775
00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:27,120
Speaker 1: visions of altars and shrines blowing with gold and candle light,

776
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:30,440
Speaker 1: and the dim interior and the monks all sing a

777
00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:34,200
Speaker 1: hypnotic repeating chant. We will hear this chant or something

778
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:36,399
Speaker 1: like it many times in the film, and it has

779
00:43:36,440 --> 00:43:39,880
Speaker 1: a powerful effect the way it just kind of like

780
00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:43,600
Speaker 1: cycles on itself. I found it deeply hypnotic.

781
00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:45,040
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely, yeah.

782
00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 2: And of course these these these temple locations that they're

783
00:43:50,160 --> 00:43:53,200
Speaker 2: using are also just so amazing here. We'll have some

784
00:43:53,760 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 2: sets later on, but at least a number of these

785
00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:00,440
Speaker 2: early interiors that we're encountering like these are I believe

786
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:02,400
Speaker 2: actual Tie Temple interiors.

787
00:44:02,840 --> 00:44:05,520
Speaker 1: Well, the head Monk wastes no time getting into an

788
00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:09,120
Speaker 1: explanation for Chan Hung. He says, a year ago, our

789
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:11,400
Speaker 1: abbot went to Hong Kong to take care of a

790
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:17,120
Speaker 1: black magician, my Goosu. Okay, And so then we see

791
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:20,080
Speaker 1: the sorcerer in question. He is getting out of a

792
00:44:20,120 --> 00:44:22,480
Speaker 1: taxi cab and going into the airport, and he's not

793
00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:25,279
Speaker 1: dressed like a wizard, by the way. He's in fact,

794
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:28,040
Speaker 1: he to show that he practices black magic. He's dressed

795
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:31,000
Speaker 1: all in black. He's wearing a black shirt, black shoes,

796
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:35,239
Speaker 1: black pants, black belt, and has elvis hair. Yes, So

797
00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:38,240
Speaker 1: this guy's walking into the airport, and then suddenly, from

798
00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:42,040
Speaker 1: behind him appears the abbot, dressed in his orange robes,

799
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:47,160
Speaker 1: illuminating illuminated from behind, so he shimmers with this pious light,

800
00:44:47,719 --> 00:44:50,319
Speaker 1: and his head is also surrounded by a halo. There's

801
00:44:50,360 --> 00:44:55,160
Speaker 1: a circular pattern of rainbow colored prismatic feathers, and the

802
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:59,000
Speaker 1: abbot calls out to my Goosu, who turns and looks

803
00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:01,399
Speaker 1: at him like, oh no, I've and caught. And then

804
00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:05,240
Speaker 1: the abbot holds up in his hand a tear shaped

805
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:08,840
Speaker 1: shard of mirror and then throws it at the Wizard.

806
00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:12,799
Speaker 1: It attaches to the Wizard's forehead and immediately starts to

807
00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:17,560
Speaker 1: like sap his black magic and destroy his body. So

808
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:21,040
Speaker 1: the Magician starts screaming in pain, and then he starts

809
00:45:21,080 --> 00:45:24,160
Speaker 1: clutching at his face, which begins to melt and turns

810
00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:28,799
Speaker 1: into white, goopy paste. Green light floods the scene, and

811
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:32,200
Speaker 1: then the Wizard starts exploding, not in one big explosion,

812
00:45:32,239 --> 00:45:36,360
Speaker 1: but lots of little explosions, beginning with balloons that inflate

813
00:45:36,520 --> 00:45:40,320
Speaker 1: underneath his sloppy skin, and they're all over his arms

814
00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:43,560
Speaker 1: and his neck and face, kind of like an infestation

815
00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:46,719
Speaker 1: of boils, but they are full on skin balloons which

816
00:45:46,719 --> 00:45:47,960
Speaker 1: each blow up and pop.

817
00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:50,880
Speaker 2: There are a number of subgenres that can be applied

818
00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:53,160
Speaker 2: to the Boxer's omen. We should mention that one of

819
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:55,959
Speaker 2: them is body harp. There's a lot of body heart

820
00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:58,680
Speaker 2: in this movie. So if that's not your thing, if

821
00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:01,960
Speaker 2: you're not open to it, then I would maybe pass

822
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:02,560
Speaker 2: on this one.

823
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:05,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the Wizard collapses to the floor while he's

824
00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:08,799
Speaker 1: popping all over popping off. He collapses to the floor

825
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:12,080
Speaker 1: of the airport terminal. He melts some more and screams

826
00:46:12,120 --> 00:46:14,319
Speaker 1: on the floor, and then he pulls himself up over

827
00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:17,680
Speaker 1: the top of a bunch of orange plastic chairs, at

828
00:46:17,719 --> 00:46:21,319
Speaker 1: which point he has morphed into a different form, that

829
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:25,520
Speaker 1: of a withered old wizard with long white spiderweb hair

830
00:46:25,640 --> 00:46:28,160
Speaker 1: and pale skin and a big black spot on his

831
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:33,680
Speaker 1: forehead with like long pointy bugle fingernails. I guess this

832
00:46:33,840 --> 00:46:36,600
Speaker 1: means that this is my Goosu's true form, and the

833
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:39,719
Speaker 1: Elvis Wizard the guy in black was sort of his

834
00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:40,640
Speaker 1: glamour spell.

835
00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:44,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that was my interpretation as well.

836
00:46:44,600 --> 00:46:47,360
Speaker 1: The abbot, now sitting cross legged on the airport a

837
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:51,000
Speaker 1: lobby floor, is preying with hands folded, and this keeps

838
00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:54,400
Speaker 1: exerting magical suffering on the Wizard, and then the Wizard

839
00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:58,439
Speaker 1: collapses on the ground, seemingly dead with dry plaster skin,

840
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:01,400
Speaker 1: and then out of his mouth something begins to wiggle.

841
00:47:02,239 --> 00:47:04,480
Speaker 1: It is a bat. It is a bat crawling out

842
00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:07,359
Speaker 1: of his mouth, a bat that lived inside the Wizard's mouth,

843
00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:10,520
Speaker 1: And it's so cute and it squeaks and flies away.

844
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:13,080
Speaker 2: But if you think that's the end of it, it

845
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:15,480
Speaker 2: is not. One thing you'll quickly learn about this film

846
00:47:15,560 --> 00:47:20,279
Speaker 2: is most pictures would leave it at bat, but not

847
00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:21,319
Speaker 2: the Boxer Zone. It.

848
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:24,279
Speaker 1: No, no, we're just getting started. The abbot catches the

849
00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 1: bat in his hand. He puts the wiggling bat in

850
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:30,040
Speaker 1: his pocket and then goes back to his temple in Thailand.

851
00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:32,680
Speaker 1: So like did he get on an airplane with the

852
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:35,239
Speaker 1: bat squeaking and writhing the whole way?

853
00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:38,839
Speaker 2: And then it was a different, different world back then

854
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:43,960
Speaker 2: when it came to flying around.

855
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:50,239
Speaker 1: Back at the temple, in front of a shrine with

856
00:47:50,280 --> 00:47:52,960
Speaker 1: a golden Buddha, he does a ritual to defeat the

857
00:47:52,960 --> 00:47:56,800
Speaker 1: black magic, involving a bunch of candles, a dagger, a bell,

858
00:47:57,440 --> 00:48:00,000
Speaker 1: a pink flowering tree branch. This might be a cherry

859
00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:04,759
Speaker 1: cherry blossom branch. I'm not sure, But here we begin

860
00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:08,480
Speaker 1: to see a symmetry. While the abbot is doing a

861
00:48:08,520 --> 00:48:12,040
Speaker 1: holy ritual in his holy place, we first get a

862
00:48:12,080 --> 00:48:15,800
Speaker 1: glimpse into the realm of the anti holy, some kind

863
00:48:15,960 --> 00:48:20,520
Speaker 1: of devil's temple somewhere else. There is a large room

864
00:48:20,680 --> 00:48:25,200
Speaker 1: filled with shelves containing clay jars, and at one end

865
00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:27,600
Speaker 1: of this big room full of jars, there is a

866
00:48:27,680 --> 00:48:32,120
Speaker 1: giant shrine to the demons and dealers of black magic.

867
00:48:32,480 --> 00:48:36,200
Speaker 1: So we have a roaring bonfire presided over by a

868
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:39,840
Speaker 1: statue of a huge winged devil with glowing yellow eyes,

869
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:43,960
Speaker 1: four horns around a bald head, and note that the

870
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:47,160
Speaker 1: fire seems to be basically emanating from the demon's crotch.

871
00:48:47,680 --> 00:48:50,880
Speaker 1: And then in front of that four giant white statues

872
00:48:50,960 --> 00:48:56,640
Speaker 1: representing hands with curled, clutching fingers, and on each hand

873
00:48:56,800 --> 00:49:02,600
Speaker 1: a statue of some kind of nasty animal scorpions, bats, spiders,

874
00:49:02,640 --> 00:49:06,839
Speaker 1: and I think snakes or maybe caterpillars. All around there

875
00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:10,399
Speaker 1: are various other implements of evils strewn about the room.

876
00:49:10,440 --> 00:49:13,399
Speaker 1: You got skulls, daggers, and a tea kettle. I guess

877
00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:13,960
Speaker 1: for tea.

878
00:49:14,040 --> 00:49:15,359
Speaker 3: Well you gotta have tea either way.

879
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:15,799
Speaker 1: Yeah.

880
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:19,239
Speaker 2: So, yeah, this is glorious looking, some great great use

881
00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:22,560
Speaker 2: of red and green gels. This looks like the most

882
00:49:22,560 --> 00:49:26,319
Speaker 2: amazing Halloween decorations you could imagine, very well done. And

883
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:28,640
Speaker 2: I could be off on this, but I think maybe

884
00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:31,880
Speaker 2: each nasty animal corresponds to a different wizard. We're going

885
00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:35,520
Speaker 2: to see during the rest of the picture here, but

886
00:49:37,560 --> 00:49:41,120
Speaker 2: at any rate, we're about to touch base with a

887
00:49:41,239 --> 00:49:46,120
Speaker 2: related wizard to the wizard that was just murdered in

888
00:49:46,200 --> 00:49:49,600
Speaker 2: the airport. This is going to be our main wizard

889
00:49:49,640 --> 00:49:52,040
Speaker 2: for the picture, and then later on we'll deal with

890
00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:55,720
Speaker 2: some of his apprentices. Three of his apprentices, so four

891
00:49:55,760 --> 00:49:57,480
Speaker 2: wizards remaining in this movie.

892
00:49:57,760 --> 00:50:00,600
Speaker 1: Right. So back at the temple, we see the abbot

893
00:50:00,600 --> 00:50:04,160
Speaker 1: doing his own kind of magic. He's doing an exorcism

894
00:50:04,239 --> 00:50:07,880
Speaker 1: of the evil magic by hammering a gold dagger into

895
00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:10,760
Speaker 1: the heart of the demon bat that he holds captive.

896
00:50:12,040 --> 00:50:14,920
Speaker 1: And then we see the bat at the evil Shrine

897
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:17,840
Speaker 1: and green goose starts to pour out of its heart,

898
00:50:18,040 --> 00:50:21,160
Speaker 1: and then the abbot pours holy water over the captive bat,

899
00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:24,520
Speaker 1: and at the evil Shrine, the bat statue dissolves and

900
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:30,600
Speaker 1: melts away, leaving only a bat skeleton behind. Then it's

901
00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:33,759
Speaker 1: kind of like the moment where something has gotten the

902
00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:38,120
Speaker 1: attention of a higher up. In response, out of somewhere

903
00:50:38,160 --> 00:50:41,799
Speaker 1: in the Evil Shrine, a being awakens. We see it

904
00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:45,240
Speaker 1: first as a figure in black with glowing red eyes,

905
00:50:45,719 --> 00:50:49,200
Speaker 1: then revealed to be a man wearing a monstrous bat

906
00:50:49,480 --> 00:50:53,600
Speaker 1: mask with a big white wig. The figure flies across

907
00:50:53,640 --> 00:50:56,640
Speaker 1: the room, takes off the bat mask, revealing that he

908
00:50:56,840 --> 00:50:59,800
Speaker 1: is a man with a mustache, wearing a black headband,

909
00:51:00,440 --> 00:51:03,719
Speaker 1: red and gold mark on his forehead. And this will

910
00:51:03,719 --> 00:51:06,200
Speaker 1: be our main evil wizard for the film, or at

911
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:08,840
Speaker 1: least the first half of the film. And he looks

912
00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:11,680
Speaker 1: down at the skeleton a little bit sad and says,

913
00:51:11,840 --> 00:51:16,320
Speaker 1: how dare he kill my bat? So let the counter

914
00:51:16,400 --> 00:51:20,680
Speaker 1: rituals begin? And I want to say it just by

915
00:51:20,719 --> 00:51:25,640
Speaker 1: describing it. It is hard to convey the ludicrous, frenetic

916
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:28,600
Speaker 1: feeling of the scenes where the bad wizard carries out

917
00:51:28,600 --> 00:51:33,360
Speaker 1: his black magic invocations and recipes. Part of the effect,

918
00:51:33,400 --> 00:51:37,480
Speaker 1: I think is the cinematography. Something feels almost in fast

919
00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:41,960
Speaker 1: forward about it. Part of it is also the actor's performance.

920
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:47,480
Speaker 1: The actor who plays the evil wizard has this uncontrollable, mischievous,

921
00:51:47,520 --> 00:51:52,080
Speaker 1: satanic spider monkey energy. He's so good. And then part

922
00:51:52,080 --> 00:51:54,000
Speaker 1: of it also is in the content of what he

923
00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:56,960
Speaker 1: is doing, which is so off the wall. So it's

924
00:51:57,000 --> 00:51:59,600
Speaker 1: like open a jar, grab a live rat out of

925
00:51:59,600 --> 00:52:01,920
Speaker 1: the jar, take a bite out of the rat, spit

926
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:04,799
Speaker 1: blood all over the bat skeleton, and start screaming at it.

927
00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:08,239
Speaker 1: To revive, revive, And this is the part I was

928
00:52:08,239 --> 00:52:10,520
Speaker 1: talking about earlier when I was like, it's not the

929
00:52:10,600 --> 00:52:13,680
Speaker 1: kind of somber reverence for Satan that you expect out

930
00:52:13,719 --> 00:52:17,960
Speaker 1: of movies like The Devil's Rain or Empire of the Dark. Instead,

931
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:20,319
Speaker 1: this is a guy in a hurry yelling at his

932
00:52:20,360 --> 00:52:22,759
Speaker 1: car when he's turning the key and it won't turn over.

933
00:52:24,560 --> 00:52:28,080
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's a delightful choice, I think. And

934
00:52:28,160 --> 00:52:31,560
Speaker 1: so the Wizard gets his bat skeleton up and walking

935
00:52:31,600 --> 00:52:34,879
Speaker 1: around and he's chasing it, clicking a bone at it

936
00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:38,120
Speaker 1: and trying to get it to move faster. And meanwhile

937
00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:40,560
Speaker 1: at the Abbot's temple, while he's doing that, the bat

938
00:52:40,600 --> 00:52:43,840
Speaker 1: skeleton at the Abbot's temple gets up and starts walking

939
00:52:43,880 --> 00:52:47,000
Speaker 1: around too. It's walking toward the door. So the Wizard

940
00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:51,120
Speaker 1: is remote controlling a distant bat skeleton with his own

941
00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:54,839
Speaker 1: bat skeleton covered in rat blood that he spit on it.

942
00:52:55,200 --> 00:52:57,440
Speaker 2: In both cases, it's moving with kind of a wind

943
00:52:57,520 --> 00:53:02,600
Speaker 2: up toy yes energy to it. And this is a

944
00:53:02,920 --> 00:53:05,799
Speaker 2: I mean, all the scenes in this movie are pretty weird.

945
00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:08,560
Speaker 2: This one is weird early on because I'm like, am

946
00:53:08,640 --> 00:53:12,520
Speaker 2: I rooting for the bat skeleton. The tension we're building here,

947
00:53:12,600 --> 00:53:15,040
Speaker 2: I think I want the bat skeleton to escape. The

948
00:53:15,080 --> 00:53:18,480
Speaker 2: abbot and our dark wizard is like saying things like

949
00:53:18,560 --> 00:53:20,400
Speaker 2: get out of there, Get out of there, there's nothing

950
00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:22,160
Speaker 2: else to see. You got to get out of there,

951
00:53:22,560 --> 00:53:24,239
Speaker 2: and I'm kind of like, yeah, go, bad go.

952
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:28,120
Speaker 1: He's so annoyed, though. The Wizard is just like, get out.

953
00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:30,360
Speaker 1: There's nothing to say yet He's trying to get it

954
00:53:30,360 --> 00:53:33,919
Speaker 1: to hurry up. Fortunately, I guess from the Abbot's point

955
00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:36,800
Speaker 1: of view, the Abbot catches the bat skeleton in mid escape,

956
00:53:37,160 --> 00:53:41,120
Speaker 1: and then he gets out a giant Looney Tunes size hammer,

957
00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:44,359
Speaker 1: like a huge mallet, and smashes it just.

958
00:53:44,360 --> 00:53:47,200
Speaker 2: Over and over again too, just smash smash, smash, smash, smash.

959
00:53:47,239 --> 00:53:47,560
Speaker 3: And the.

960
00:53:49,239 --> 00:53:51,520
Speaker 1: Wizard does not like this. He says, he broke my

961
00:53:51,600 --> 00:53:56,360
Speaker 1: magic again, damn. So the magic continues. The Wizard starts

962
00:53:56,440 --> 00:54:00,520
Speaker 1: frantically playing a reed pipe instrument like a snake charm.

963
00:54:00,040 --> 00:54:03,160
Speaker 1: He still has blood on his mouth from biting the rat.

964
00:54:03,200 --> 00:54:06,560
Speaker 1: By the way, serpents come out of several clay jars.

965
00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:09,440
Speaker 1: Their tongues are flicking. They slither on the floor. The

966
00:54:09,480 --> 00:54:13,239
Speaker 1: Wizard grabs them and milks the snakes for venom, which

967
00:54:13,280 --> 00:54:16,520
Speaker 1: is kind of green sour apple juice that drains into

968
00:54:16,560 --> 00:54:19,840
Speaker 1: a flask. And then he opens another clay jar and

969
00:54:19,920 --> 00:54:24,920
Speaker 1: pulls a head out, a defleshed skull covered in jelly

970
00:54:25,719 --> 00:54:29,840
Speaker 1: like spam with eyeballs and brain intact.

971
00:54:30,280 --> 00:54:34,560
Speaker 2: Oh, it's so gross. It's so gross, but it just

972
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:38,439
Speaker 2: perfectly executed. It just this is pure Halloween right here.

973
00:54:38,680 --> 00:54:41,440
Speaker 1: He pulls a bunch of worms off the head, breaks

974
00:54:41,480 --> 00:54:45,760
Speaker 1: open the skull, revealing fresh brain like, full fleshy fresh brain,

975
00:54:46,400 --> 00:54:50,120
Speaker 1: pours the snake venom that he just milked into the brain, stirs,

976
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:55,440
Speaker 1: scrambles it, pours the venom slash brain combo into a

977
00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:59,360
Speaker 1: clay pot and cooks it. Pours out the green juice

978
00:54:59,520 --> 00:55:03,680
Speaker 1: on the resulting green juice on this like white board.

979
00:55:04,120 --> 00:55:08,120
Speaker 1: Then gets out a sack and releases from it three tarantulas,

980
00:55:08,400 --> 00:55:11,440
Speaker 1: which crawl out and drink the juice through straws. And

981
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:15,080
Speaker 1: the tarantulas, much like the bat, are sort of felt

982
00:55:15,080 --> 00:55:17,400
Speaker 1: textured and look very cute adorable.

983
00:55:17,880 --> 00:55:21,399
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah again, very much a wind up toy sort

984
00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:24,160
Speaker 2: of vibe going on here with these little creatures, and.

985
00:55:24,120 --> 00:55:27,160
Speaker 1: The wizard is screaming, grant me infinite power Lord of

986
00:55:27,200 --> 00:55:31,160
Speaker 1: the Dark. And then later we see the wizard sneaking

987
00:55:31,200 --> 00:55:34,760
Speaker 1: into the Abbot's temple assassin's creed style. There's some fence

988
00:55:34,800 --> 00:55:39,960
Speaker 1: climbing in light parkour. He's a very agile wizard and

989
00:55:40,080 --> 00:55:42,680
Speaker 1: he obviously hates it in here, all these buddhas and

990
00:55:42,719 --> 00:55:46,480
Speaker 1: this holy stuff. He's repulsed. But the wizard finds the

991
00:55:46,560 --> 00:55:49,000
Speaker 1: room where the abbot is sleeping. He crawls up the

992
00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:51,520
Speaker 1: wall like a spider. I guess he has sticky hands.

993
00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:55,760
Speaker 1: Then he crawls on the ceiling, then releases his magic tarantulas,

994
00:55:55,800 --> 00:55:59,719
Speaker 1: which descend on threads to the abbot's bed, climb on

995
00:55:59,719 --> 00:56:02,840
Speaker 1: the ap its face, and pierce his eyeballs with magic

996
00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:03,840
Speaker 1: golden needles.

997
00:56:04,840 --> 00:56:09,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again, this is all a flashbacks, all providing

998
00:56:09,160 --> 00:56:11,960
Speaker 2: a little backstory here, but it's also just a nice

999
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:18,040
Speaker 2: snapshot at where the film's going from here. So I

1000
00:56:18,080 --> 00:56:20,000
Speaker 2: want to add just a general note here that part

1001
00:56:20,040 --> 00:56:23,320
Speaker 2: of the movie's real charm is the way amid glorious

1002
00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:26,560
Speaker 2: set design and lighting will go from some really grizzly

1003
00:56:26,680 --> 00:56:30,040
Speaker 2: prop use and things that might be entrails from a

1004
00:56:30,040 --> 00:56:34,440
Speaker 2: local butcher shop to some really cool looking animated effects,

1005
00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:37,640
Speaker 2: and then the use of puppetry and wind up toy

1006
00:56:37,680 --> 00:56:41,120
Speaker 2: effects for things like bats, spider skulls and little demons.

1007
00:56:41,480 --> 00:56:44,319
Speaker 2: And on one level, yeah, there's kind of a wide

1008
00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:46,680
Speaker 2: drift here in the quality of the effects. That's one

1009
00:56:46,719 --> 00:56:48,600
Speaker 2: way of looking at it. But there's also kind of

1010
00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:52,760
Speaker 2: a house esque other worldliness to it that can almost

1011
00:56:52,800 --> 00:56:55,840
Speaker 2: be hard to explain, like just a real madness to

1012
00:56:55,880 --> 00:56:58,359
Speaker 2: the whole affair that the wind up toy effects kind

1013
00:56:58,360 --> 00:56:59,399
Speaker 2: of punctuy you know.

1014
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:04,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Like the variability of the effects textures almost

1015
00:57:04,840 --> 00:57:09,120
Speaker 1: emphasize the unpredictability of the story and the things that

1016
00:57:09,160 --> 00:57:09,760
Speaker 1: are happening.

1017
00:57:10,200 --> 00:57:12,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, and just like you know, he goes to all

1018
00:57:12,640 --> 00:57:17,960
Speaker 2: these grotesque extremes, committing multiple atrocities to create some sort

1019
00:57:17,960 --> 00:57:21,000
Speaker 2: of magic potion that then this like obvious wind up

1020
00:57:21,040 --> 00:57:23,640
Speaker 2: toy creature drinks, and then we move on to the

1021
00:57:23,680 --> 00:57:28,640
Speaker 2: next level of the spell slash vengeance plan that's in effect.

1022
00:57:29,080 --> 00:57:31,760
Speaker 2: But again, I think the other way to interpret all

1023
00:57:31,840 --> 00:57:35,080
Speaker 2: this is that dark wizards are as crazy as they

1024
00:57:35,120 --> 00:57:38,400
Speaker 2: are vile, Like you just have to be completely shamelessly

1025
00:57:38,520 --> 00:57:42,600
Speaker 2: unhinged in order to practice these dark hearts. But don't

1026
00:57:42,640 --> 00:57:44,520
Speaker 2: fret they're going to be more spells, and they're going

1027
00:57:44,600 --> 00:57:45,760
Speaker 2: to be more spell components.

1028
00:57:46,360 --> 00:57:46,560
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1029
00:57:46,640 --> 00:57:48,440
Speaker 1: Yeah. The other thing I wanted to say about the

1030
00:57:48,480 --> 00:57:53,120
Speaker 1: Dark Wizard is it almost feels I mean, they're productive,

1031
00:57:53,320 --> 00:57:58,000
Speaker 1: They're on this constant improvisational grind. These guys feel like,

1032
00:57:58,080 --> 00:57:59,720
Speaker 1: you know, get up at six and get to the

1033
00:57:59,800 --> 00:58:01,200
Speaker 1: dark magic immediately.

1034
00:58:01,800 --> 00:58:06,920
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, those atrocities aren't gonna commit themselves.

1035
00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:07,960
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1036
00:58:08,040 --> 00:58:11,040
Speaker 1: Anyway, finally we're sort of getting caught up. So back

1037
00:58:11,040 --> 00:58:15,480
Speaker 1: in the present, the monk finishes explaining this backstory to Chanhung.

1038
00:58:16,040 --> 00:58:19,640
Speaker 1: He explains that the abbot, again whose name was ching Jo,

1039
00:58:20,480 --> 00:58:23,600
Speaker 1: was about to achieve immortality.

1040
00:58:23,440 --> 00:58:25,920
Speaker 2: Or as a different translation might put it, maybe like

1041
00:58:26,080 --> 00:58:27,920
Speaker 2: enlightenment or liberation.

1042
00:58:28,880 --> 00:58:32,280
Speaker 1: But because of the poison injected into his eyes by

1043
00:58:32,320 --> 00:58:35,560
Speaker 1: the cursed spiders, he can no longer attain that goal

1044
00:58:35,880 --> 00:58:40,720
Speaker 1: unless somebody breaks the magic spell, and the abbot prophesied

1045
00:58:40,760 --> 00:58:44,240
Speaker 1: that three months earlier, a man named Chanhung would come

1046
00:58:44,240 --> 00:58:46,600
Speaker 1: to the temple and he would be the one who

1047
00:58:46,600 --> 00:58:50,240
Speaker 1: could break the curse. Chanhung does not believe it, but

1048
00:58:50,440 --> 00:58:53,760
Speaker 1: there will be proof. The abbot's body was placed inside

1049
00:58:53,760 --> 00:58:56,840
Speaker 1: a giant urn upon his death, and if there is

1050
00:58:56,920 --> 00:58:59,920
Speaker 1: any decomposition of the abbot's body, they will know that

1051
00:59:00,080 --> 00:59:03,040
Speaker 1: it was nonsense. But if the body is perfectly preserved,

1052
00:59:03,360 --> 00:59:05,840
Speaker 1: then they'll know it was all true. So they go

1053
00:59:05,920 --> 00:59:08,400
Speaker 1: to check out the urn. Some monks shatter it with

1054
00:59:08,440 --> 00:59:11,400
Speaker 1: big mallets, and the abbot is not rotten at all.

1055
00:59:11,600 --> 00:59:14,479
Speaker 1: Uh oh, chen Hung is now implicated. He's got to help.

1056
00:59:14,640 --> 00:59:17,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, fabulous scene. I love the shattering of the greater

1057
00:59:17,360 --> 00:59:21,080
Speaker 2: urn and inside yet the uncorrupted corpse of the Abbot,

1058
00:59:21,320 --> 00:59:24,080
Speaker 2: playing on very real traditions in both the East and

1059
00:59:24,120 --> 00:59:27,760
Speaker 2: the West of holy men whose bodies do not fully decompose,

1060
00:59:28,560 --> 00:59:31,240
Speaker 2: you know, also getting into traditions of self mummification.

1061
00:59:31,720 --> 00:59:34,680
Speaker 1: Also, right after this, the monks lock chen Hung inside

1062
00:59:34,720 --> 00:59:37,320
Speaker 1: the room with the Abbot's body. Is trying to get out,

1063
00:59:37,360 --> 00:59:39,360
Speaker 1: but they lock him in there, and the body starts

1064
00:59:39,400 --> 00:59:42,520
Speaker 1: talking to him. It says, you must be curious as

1065
00:59:42,520 --> 00:59:45,360
Speaker 1: to why I've summoned you here. It's because we were

1066
00:59:45,440 --> 00:59:49,040
Speaker 1: twins in our past lives. That's why your fate is

1067
00:59:49,080 --> 00:59:52,240
Speaker 1: similar to mine in this life. So whatever happens to

1068
00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:56,320
Speaker 1: me will happen to you. Uh oh. So because of

1069
00:59:56,360 --> 00:59:59,920
Speaker 1: the golden needles in his eyes, if there were normal people,

1070
01:00:00,160 --> 01:00:03,840
Speaker 1: the Abbot's body would already have decomposed, and Chanhung would

1071
01:00:03,880 --> 01:00:06,480
Speaker 1: already be dead because the same thing would happen to

1072
01:00:06,560 --> 01:00:09,960
Speaker 1: him that happens to the abbot, But the body is

1073
01:00:09,960 --> 01:00:13,400
Speaker 1: not decomposed and Chanhung is still alive, and the abbot

1074
01:00:13,400 --> 01:00:17,480
Speaker 1: explains this is because of his practice of Buddhism. He says,

1075
01:00:17,520 --> 01:00:20,560
Speaker 1: I almost achieved immortality, but because I was hit with

1076
01:00:20,600 --> 01:00:23,760
Speaker 1: the poison spell, I couldn't succeed. But by the time

1077
01:00:23,800 --> 01:00:26,800
Speaker 1: my body decomposes, it will be your time of death.

1078
01:00:27,160 --> 01:00:30,520
Speaker 1: You can't avoid it. So that's the setup. These two

1079
01:00:30,600 --> 01:00:33,840
Speaker 1: are magically linked as twins from a past life. The

1080
01:00:33,880 --> 01:00:36,840
Speaker 1: abbot can no longer fight this battle because he is dead,

1081
01:00:37,160 --> 01:00:40,600
Speaker 1: and only Chanhung can save them both. If Chanhun can

1082
01:00:40,640 --> 01:00:43,760
Speaker 1: defeat the evil magic, his life will be saved and

1083
01:00:43,800 --> 01:00:47,120
Speaker 1: the Abbot will be able to achieve immortality. Otherwise it's

1084
01:00:47,200 --> 01:00:48,200
Speaker 1: curtains for them both.

1085
01:00:48,680 --> 01:00:52,480
Speaker 2: Yeah Yeah, and don't really worry about the kickboxing revenge anymore.

1086
01:00:53,040 --> 01:00:54,640
Speaker 2: It's less important at this point.

1087
01:00:54,840 --> 01:00:57,680
Speaker 1: Yeah. Chenhung doesn't want to hear this, of course. He

1088
01:00:57,720 --> 01:01:01,160
Speaker 1: cusses out the monk and he leaves that night. In

1089
01:01:01,400 --> 01:01:04,760
Speaker 1: the hotel room, he has some eel vomiting issues. He

1090
01:01:04,840 --> 01:01:07,960
Speaker 1: vomits up a live eel in the sink. Doesn't like that.

1091
01:01:08,560 --> 01:01:11,800
Speaker 2: Ye great sequence would be the most memorable scene in

1092
01:01:11,880 --> 01:01:14,919
Speaker 2: many other movies. Here it can become a little lost

1093
01:01:14,920 --> 01:01:15,480
Speaker 2: in the shuffle.

1094
01:01:15,680 --> 01:01:18,280
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. So next day he's like, Okay, I don't

1095
01:01:18,320 --> 01:01:20,360
Speaker 1: want to do that again. So he goes back to

1096
01:01:20,400 --> 01:01:22,439
Speaker 1: the temple and he says, I will help you fight.

1097
01:01:23,120 --> 01:01:25,640
Speaker 1: But then the next shoe drops. In order to have

1098
01:01:25,760 --> 01:01:28,120
Speaker 1: the magical abilities he's going to need in order to

1099
01:01:28,120 --> 01:01:31,040
Speaker 1: fight this battle, he has to become a monk, and

1100
01:01:31,040 --> 01:01:33,960
Speaker 1: that means shaving his head, giving up his life of crime,

1101
01:01:34,640 --> 01:01:37,920
Speaker 1: giving up sin and earthly pleasures. Oh no, but he

1102
01:01:38,280 --> 01:01:41,120
Speaker 1: does it, and we see a ceremony where he is

1103
01:01:41,560 --> 01:01:43,840
Speaker 1: led into the temple complex riding on the back of

1104
01:01:43,880 --> 01:01:47,440
Speaker 1: an elephant with dancers marching all around. He makes an

1105
01:01:47,440 --> 01:01:50,760
Speaker 1: offering and he bows before the Buddha and he begins

1106
01:01:50,800 --> 01:01:54,200
Speaker 1: his practice. And this part of the movie is kind

1107
01:01:54,200 --> 01:01:57,960
Speaker 1: of like a long Buddhist monk magic warrior training montage.

1108
01:01:58,040 --> 01:02:01,479
Speaker 1: He goes through the rituals, he humble himself and even

1109
01:02:01,520 --> 01:02:03,920
Speaker 1: receives a new name that the monks at the temple

1110
01:02:04,000 --> 01:02:08,480
Speaker 1: call him, Kaidi Baluo. The training has several different things.

1111
01:02:08,840 --> 01:02:11,320
Speaker 1: One is enduring leeches in a river. He has to

1112
01:02:11,360 --> 01:02:13,200
Speaker 1: like get in a river where he gets covered in

1113
01:02:13,320 --> 01:02:16,680
Speaker 1: leeches and the is you know, his master is like

1114
01:02:16,920 --> 01:02:20,400
Speaker 1: you stay there. This is played for laughs, by the way, Yes, hilarious.

1115
01:02:21,400 --> 01:02:24,480
Speaker 1: And then there's also a scene which was so strange,

1116
01:02:24,520 --> 01:02:26,680
Speaker 1: but I wonder if this is based on anything real

1117
01:02:27,280 --> 01:02:31,400
Speaker 1: where he gets inside of a giant clay pot that

1118
01:02:31,520 --> 01:02:34,960
Speaker 1: starts to glow. The pot is covered with sacred writing,

1119
01:02:35,480 --> 01:02:37,520
Speaker 1: and then chan Hung is on the inside and his

1120
01:02:37,640 --> 01:02:40,919
Speaker 1: hands are wrapped in ropes and the ropes go out

1121
01:02:40,920 --> 01:02:43,400
Speaker 1: of the pot and are held by monks all around

1122
01:02:43,520 --> 01:02:47,360
Speaker 1: him who are chanting. And then he is absorbed in

1123
01:02:47,520 --> 01:02:51,960
Speaker 1: a scripture tornado where the sacred writing on the pot

1124
01:02:52,040 --> 01:02:54,840
Speaker 1: spins all around him and like becomes a funnel, and

1125
01:02:54,840 --> 01:02:57,600
Speaker 1: then the lines of scripture flow down his arms and

1126
01:02:57,680 --> 01:02:58,600
Speaker 1: into his blood.

1127
01:02:59,000 --> 01:03:02,439
Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's pretty great animate use of animation here,

1128
01:03:02,960 --> 01:03:04,840
Speaker 2: and I really think it's a it's a great element

1129
01:03:04,840 --> 01:03:06,640
Speaker 2: of the film here that yeah, with the black magic

1130
01:03:07,120 --> 01:03:10,000
Speaker 2: is consistently like gross and over the top and just

1131
01:03:10,080 --> 01:03:14,200
Speaker 2: completely mind rending, but also the good guy magic is

1132
01:03:14,240 --> 01:03:16,120
Speaker 2: also so visually impressive here.

1133
01:03:16,440 --> 01:03:18,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, and and there is a strong I mean,

1134
01:03:19,240 --> 01:03:25,840
Speaker 1: even esthetically, the two different schools of magic really emphasize

1135
01:03:25,880 --> 01:03:29,560
Speaker 1: themes of like order versus chaos, Like the sorcerers are

1136
01:03:29,600 --> 01:03:33,520
Speaker 1: doing chaos magic. And there is something that feels very

1137
01:03:34,040 --> 01:03:39,280
Speaker 1: traditional and ordered and structured about the magic practiced by

1138
01:03:39,280 --> 01:03:39,960
Speaker 1: the monks here.

1139
01:03:40,320 --> 01:03:43,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's centered around language, you know. I mean,

1140
01:03:43,440 --> 01:03:44,320
Speaker 2: it's it's.

1141
01:03:44,080 --> 01:03:45,280
Speaker 3: It's so orderly.

1142
01:03:45,360 --> 01:03:50,120
Speaker 2: I think this is a great point.

1143
01:03:54,800 --> 01:03:57,560
Speaker 1: Another thing that comes is the vows, So this is

1144
01:03:57,600 --> 01:04:00,680
Speaker 1: an important plot point. In order to maintain purity, he

1145
01:04:00,760 --> 01:04:03,400
Speaker 1: must keep his vows as a monk, so he swears

1146
01:04:03,440 --> 01:04:05,880
Speaker 1: to follow the Buddha and do a bunch of stuff.

1147
01:04:05,880 --> 01:04:11,240
Speaker 1: He has to abstain from prohibited activities such as gambling, murder, sex,

1148
01:04:11,440 --> 01:04:12,560
Speaker 1: and drinking alcohol.

1149
01:04:12,960 --> 01:04:14,960
Speaker 2: But he's up for it. He's like, let's do it, okay.

1150
01:04:16,120 --> 01:04:21,120
Speaker 1: And then the head monk after that says, so you've succeeded.

1151
01:04:21,200 --> 01:04:24,800
Speaker 1: You are now ready to defeat evil. It feels like

1152
01:04:24,840 --> 01:04:27,520
Speaker 1: it comes on so fast. Yeah, but they're wasting no

1153
01:04:27,600 --> 01:04:31,200
Speaker 1: time at all. We cut straight to an amazing wizard battle.

1154
01:04:31,920 --> 01:04:34,040
Speaker 1: I'm not going to narrate this one with as much

1155
01:04:34,120 --> 01:04:37,120
Speaker 1: detail as the last one. Well, the last one in

1156
01:04:37,160 --> 01:04:39,800
Speaker 1: a battle, I guess, but the last ritual scene. But

1157
01:04:39,840 --> 01:04:41,680
Speaker 1: I do want to mention at least some of the

1158
01:04:41,800 --> 01:04:45,000
Speaker 1: incredible sites and developments throughout. First of all, do you

1159
01:04:45,040 --> 01:04:48,240
Speaker 1: know Rob where this takes place. Is it in another

1160
01:04:48,320 --> 01:04:50,680
Speaker 1: plane of existence? It feels like it's kind of in

1161
01:04:50,680 --> 01:04:52,160
Speaker 1: the middle of a void world.

1162
01:04:52,720 --> 01:04:56,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, a place becomes less important here, doesn't it, because

1163
01:04:56,360 --> 01:04:59,560
Speaker 2: it's just like two magical forces doing battle with each other.

1164
01:04:59,600 --> 01:05:02,080
Speaker 2: It could be like, basically the way it's presented here

1165
01:05:02,160 --> 01:05:06,560
Speaker 2: visually is one practitioner seated on one end and the

1166
01:05:06,600 --> 01:05:09,760
Speaker 2: other practitioners seated on the other, and magical effects are

1167
01:05:09,840 --> 01:05:12,240
Speaker 2: kind of going to war between the two of them.

1168
01:05:12,560 --> 01:05:15,720
Speaker 2: So you could certainly interpret this as happening like within

1169
01:05:16,360 --> 01:05:19,240
Speaker 2: like the astral plane, or within the mental realm that

1170
01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:23,360
Speaker 2: exists between their shared minds, or yeah, did they go

1171
01:05:23,440 --> 01:05:26,040
Speaker 2: to some sort of like neutral zone where it's like, okay,

1172
01:05:26,120 --> 01:05:28,520
Speaker 2: we have to go to the battle chamber where the

1173
01:05:28,560 --> 01:05:31,720
Speaker 2: wizards do get out. I guess I lean more towards

1174
01:05:31,800 --> 01:05:36,640
Speaker 2: the idea that it's in some sort of a zone

1175
01:05:36,640 --> 01:05:38,520
Speaker 2: in their head, But I don't know. You go each

1176
01:05:38,600 --> 01:05:39,400
Speaker 2: direction here.

1177
01:05:39,480 --> 01:05:42,080
Speaker 1: So it begins when the evil Wizard flies in Through

1178
01:05:42,120 --> 01:05:45,080
Speaker 1: the Night in his batmsk costume, and then he says,

1179
01:05:45,200 --> 01:05:50,440
Speaker 1: show me what you got, yes, And then by the way,

1180
01:05:50,200 --> 01:05:53,840
Speaker 1: the Evil Wizard has Ultimate Warrior face paint on. It's

1181
01:05:53,880 --> 01:05:58,280
Speaker 1: awesome and like purple satin suit. He's surrounded by an

1182
01:05:58,440 --> 01:06:02,080
Speaker 1: army of crocodile skulls which are animated by chicken blood.

1183
01:06:02,120 --> 01:06:05,640
Speaker 2: He throws, kick and clack and crawl around and eventually

1184
01:06:05,680 --> 01:06:07,640
Speaker 2: chased a chase after a chicken carcass.

1185
01:06:07,720 --> 01:06:12,240
Speaker 1: Oh and warning two people. In this scene, there is

1186
01:06:12,280 --> 01:06:16,440
Speaker 1: what appears to me to be probably an unsimulated beheading

1187
01:06:16,480 --> 01:06:19,320
Speaker 1: of a chicken. I'm not positive about that, but it

1188
01:06:19,360 --> 01:06:21,920
Speaker 1: looks to me like it's real. So I don't know,

1189
01:06:21,960 --> 01:06:23,720
Speaker 1: you get that with some of these older movies.

1190
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:28,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are most of the animal violence in this picture.

1191
01:06:29,160 --> 01:06:31,040
Speaker 2: It does appear to be quite simulated.

1192
01:06:31,760 --> 01:06:32,640
Speaker 1: All of the other stuff.

1193
01:06:32,760 --> 01:06:36,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, but if this chicken and maybe another chicken scene

1194
01:06:36,760 --> 01:06:39,600
Speaker 2: are a little questionable, well, to be clear, the other

1195
01:06:39,680 --> 01:06:44,479
Speaker 2: chicken is definitely dead. Yeah, but also very gross. So yeah,

1196
01:06:44,520 --> 01:06:46,640
Speaker 2: this is a gross movie, just to drive that home

1197
01:06:46,680 --> 01:06:47,160
Speaker 2: once more.

1198
01:06:48,320 --> 01:06:52,320
Speaker 1: So anyway, you've got blooming, blooming red eyes out of

1199
01:06:52,360 --> 01:06:55,640
Speaker 1: these crocodile skulls, you've got bats in the eye holes.

1200
01:06:55,760 --> 01:06:58,280
Speaker 1: And then the wizard is saying, get up, attack the monk,

1201
01:06:58,960 --> 01:07:01,280
Speaker 1: and then the monks of the bats fly at him,

1202
01:07:01,440 --> 01:07:04,800
Speaker 1: but he kind of surrounds himself with a magical force

1203
01:07:04,880 --> 01:07:08,520
Speaker 1: field that becomes a glowing hot glue trap for bats.

1204
01:07:08,960 --> 01:07:12,120
Speaker 1: They get stuck to it and then it incinerates them.

1205
01:07:12,520 --> 01:07:15,840
Speaker 1: And then we get the evil rice. The wizard starts

1206
01:07:16,240 --> 01:07:20,840
Speaker 1: throwing out handfuls of rice over the crocodile heads and saying,

1207
01:07:20,920 --> 01:07:24,480
Speaker 1: dark Lord, grant ultimate power to this rice. And then

1208
01:07:24,560 --> 01:07:27,400
Speaker 1: chan Hung is attacked by a sworn, a swarm of

1209
01:07:27,480 --> 01:07:31,080
Speaker 1: animated crocodile skulls which are chomping like wind up teeth.

1210
01:07:31,280 --> 01:07:34,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he dispatches these by like throwing little Buddhist

1211
01:07:34,800 --> 01:07:36,240
Speaker 2: ambulance into all their mouths.

1212
01:07:36,600 --> 01:07:37,480
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1213
01:07:37,560 --> 01:07:41,400
Speaker 2: So yeah, basically like each wizard is a general commanding

1214
01:07:41,480 --> 01:07:43,480
Speaker 2: these different magical effects against each other.

1215
01:07:43,640 --> 01:07:46,840
Speaker 1: That's right. So the bad Wizard he starts eating rotten

1216
01:07:46,920 --> 01:07:50,040
Speaker 1: guts and vomiting them and eating them and saying, I'm

1217
01:07:50,040 --> 01:07:53,080
Speaker 1: full of power now. And then there's pink vomit from

1218
01:07:53,120 --> 01:07:56,560
Speaker 1: a giant pot that's bubbling and becoming a green martian

1219
01:07:56,680 --> 01:08:00,920
Speaker 1: head with this giant cranium and pointy ears and this

1220
01:08:01,080 --> 01:08:03,400
Speaker 1: like rises up out of the pot. Where does this

1221
01:08:03,720 --> 01:08:05,080
Speaker 1: green Martian come from?

1222
01:08:05,160 --> 01:08:09,360
Speaker 2: Words cannot describe how bizarre this point and an already

1223
01:08:09,640 --> 01:08:13,800
Speaker 2: just completely crazy sequence is Like, this is such an

1224
01:08:13,920 --> 01:08:18,080
Speaker 2: ultimate WTF moment in this film. Just my jaw literally

1225
01:08:18,160 --> 01:08:20,640
Speaker 2: drops at this point in the movie. And then it

1226
01:08:20,800 --> 01:08:21,679
Speaker 2: just keeps happening.

1227
01:08:21,800 --> 01:08:24,519
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then it becomes scanners because the monk uses

1228
01:08:24,560 --> 01:08:28,240
Speaker 1: his scanner's powers to make the green Martian head explode.

1229
01:08:28,880 --> 01:08:31,960
Speaker 1: The Wizard then pokes himself in the neck with needles

1230
01:08:32,000 --> 01:08:34,960
Speaker 1: and then severs his own head and his severed head

1231
01:08:35,000 --> 01:08:37,920
Speaker 1: flies away from his body with arteries dangling out of

1232
01:08:37,960 --> 01:08:41,600
Speaker 1: the ragged neck, and then attacks the monk by strangling

1233
01:08:41,720 --> 01:08:44,519
Speaker 1: him with the arteries. And then the monk fights back

1234
01:08:44,880 --> 01:08:47,439
Speaker 1: and makes the Wizard's head melt with the power of

1235
01:08:47,479 --> 01:08:48,200
Speaker 1: a red son.

1236
01:08:49,000 --> 01:08:51,679
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then this is the finish to the match.

1237
01:08:52,040 --> 01:08:54,080
Speaker 2: This Wizard is now for real dead.

1238
01:08:54,880 --> 01:08:58,240
Speaker 1: That's right, that part is over. So Chan Hung is

1239
01:08:58,760 --> 01:09:00,840
Speaker 1: like after the battle, he's talking to the head monk

1240
01:09:00,840 --> 01:09:03,519
Speaker 1: who tells him Evil is defeated. The abbot can achieve

1241
01:09:03,520 --> 01:09:06,400
Speaker 1: immortality and you can go back to Hong Kong. So again,

1242
01:09:06,479 --> 01:09:10,320
Speaker 1: it's pretty It's like, wow, that was sudden. But as

1243
01:09:10,360 --> 01:09:13,200
Speaker 1: soon as he gets home to Hong Kong Chan Hung,

1244
01:09:13,360 --> 01:09:15,240
Speaker 1: he like comes in through the door, he sees his

1245
01:09:15,280 --> 01:09:18,559
Speaker 1: girlfriend in the shower, and he has overcome with lust.

1246
01:09:18,840 --> 01:09:21,759
Speaker 1: And at this point I think he was wondering, wait,

1247
01:09:22,120 --> 01:09:24,160
Speaker 1: do I still have to keep all those vows I

1248
01:09:24,240 --> 01:09:27,719
Speaker 1: made to the Buddha? Unclear? Don't know if I'm still

1249
01:09:27,720 --> 01:09:28,360
Speaker 1: bound by that.

1250
01:09:28,600 --> 01:09:29,639
Speaker 3: I think yeah.

1251
01:09:29,680 --> 01:09:33,760
Speaker 2: I mean it's my understanding, especially in Thai Buddhism, like

1252
01:09:33,800 --> 01:09:37,280
Speaker 2: you know, you can enter the priesthood and become a

1253
01:09:37,320 --> 01:09:40,000
Speaker 2: monk for a certain period of time, such as like

1254
01:09:40,080 --> 01:09:43,559
Speaker 2: before you become married and so forth, or perhaps later

1255
01:09:43,600 --> 01:09:46,160
Speaker 2: on if you're changing something up in your life, that

1256
01:09:46,280 --> 01:09:50,320
Speaker 2: sort of thing. So we can't really apply some of

1257
01:09:50,360 --> 01:09:53,360
Speaker 2: the same thinking that we would apply to say, Western

1258
01:09:53,520 --> 01:09:58,000
Speaker 2: Christian monastic traditions. So my understanding here is it's kind

1259
01:09:58,040 --> 01:10:01,080
Speaker 2: of like he's in the clear. Rights he did the Yeah,

1260
01:10:01,120 --> 01:10:04,320
Speaker 2: he fought evil, he defeated evil. They told him he

1261
01:10:04,320 --> 01:10:07,960
Speaker 2: could go home. He is totally in the clear here

1262
01:10:08,160 --> 01:10:10,320
Speaker 2: to get naked with his already naked girlfriend.

1263
01:10:10,520 --> 01:10:13,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, so lust wins out. He gets in the shower

1264
01:10:13,400 --> 01:10:17,240
Speaker 1: with her, and also there's some funny dialogue in the scene,

1265
01:10:17,240 --> 01:10:19,600
Speaker 1: but she's basically like, did you cheat on me a

1266
01:10:19,640 --> 01:10:21,759
Speaker 1: lot in Thailand? And he says, I was a monk

1267
01:10:21,800 --> 01:10:24,559
Speaker 1: for three months, and as she goes, it's about time.

1268
01:10:27,640 --> 01:10:29,360
Speaker 2: In the end, right, they live happily over half?

1269
01:10:29,560 --> 01:10:32,960
Speaker 1: Oh you would think so. No, they live happily for

1270
01:10:33,040 --> 01:10:36,040
Speaker 1: a bit, but then there is more wickedness to come.

1271
01:10:36,840 --> 01:10:39,800
Speaker 1: So we get a funeral for a bad wizard. I

1272
01:10:39,840 --> 01:10:42,920
Speaker 1: think this is supposed to be the evil Wizard's body

1273
01:10:43,000 --> 01:10:46,920
Speaker 1: burning on a big funeral pyre head. Yeah, who's burning it?

1274
01:10:47,640 --> 01:10:47,800
Speaker 3: Uh?

1275
01:10:47,880 --> 01:10:51,040
Speaker 1: Oh? We see three more wizards of the Black Magic

1276
01:10:51,080 --> 01:10:54,160
Speaker 1: School looking on. Are they are they supposed to be

1277
01:10:54,240 --> 01:10:59,360
Speaker 1: colleagues or apprentices of the main wizard, maybe like underlings.

1278
01:10:58,840 --> 01:11:00,920
Speaker 2: Or they could have even been in in these but hey,

1279
01:11:01,040 --> 01:11:05,120
Speaker 2: once a holy monk takes out one of your own, like,

1280
01:11:05,160 --> 01:11:09,559
Speaker 2: that's that's that's a uniting principle. They are clearly hell

1281
01:11:09,600 --> 01:11:13,160
Speaker 2: bent now on seeking vengeance against those who took out

1282
01:11:13,880 --> 01:11:15,160
Speaker 2: this dark wizard.

1283
01:11:14,880 --> 01:11:17,240
Speaker 1: And then they're gonna ratchet up the craziness. So these

1284
01:11:17,439 --> 01:11:20,360
Speaker 1: three they go to a spooky house in the woods

1285
01:11:20,400 --> 01:11:23,479
Speaker 1: with owls hooting outside, and then from under the house

1286
01:11:23,560 --> 01:11:26,960
Speaker 1: they retrieve a mummy, you know, from the mummy storage cellar.

1287
01:11:27,120 --> 01:11:29,559
Speaker 1: It's a wet mummy, by the way, wrapped in vines.

1288
01:11:29,720 --> 01:11:33,679
Speaker 2: It's like a bog mummy, swamp mummy, nasty swamp corpse.

1289
01:11:34,000 --> 01:11:36,559
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. Can do you describe what happens

1290
01:11:36,600 --> 01:11:37,000
Speaker 1: from here?

1291
01:11:37,200 --> 01:11:38,120
Speaker 3: Like? All right?

1292
01:11:38,160 --> 01:11:41,439
Speaker 2: So yeah, they they really get to cooking basically, so

1293
01:11:42,920 --> 01:11:44,680
Speaker 2: they don't do a lot of describing, so we just

1294
01:11:44,680 --> 01:11:48,400
Speaker 2: have to sort of follow along. But what they're going

1295
01:11:48,479 --> 01:11:51,280
Speaker 2: to try and do apparently is either create a body

1296
01:11:51,320 --> 01:11:54,480
Speaker 2: for an evil spirit to inhabit, or they're gonna resurrect

1297
01:11:54,520 --> 01:11:58,320
Speaker 2: an old or powerful sorceress. And so what they're gonna

1298
01:11:58,360 --> 01:12:01,439
Speaker 2: need would for this, which whichever route we're taking here,

1299
01:12:01,680 --> 01:12:03,639
Speaker 2: is they have to get that dead body from the swamp,

1300
01:12:03,960 --> 01:12:07,120
Speaker 2: and then they need to steal or acquire a crocodile,

1301
01:12:07,760 --> 01:12:10,920
Speaker 2: and then they are going to get that crocodile corpse.

1302
01:12:11,520 --> 01:12:16,080
Speaker 2: They're going to put the dead human body inside the

1303
01:12:16,120 --> 01:12:20,160
Speaker 2: crocodile corpse, sew it up, and then all.

1304
01:12:20,080 --> 01:12:22,480
Speaker 1: Men crocodile Wellington, yes.

1305
01:12:22,280 --> 01:12:24,800
Speaker 2: Yes, and then all manner of depravities have to be

1306
01:12:24,840 --> 01:12:28,559
Speaker 2: committed in order to complete the spell. Like I mean,

1307
01:12:28,560 --> 01:12:34,320
Speaker 2: there are a flayed human heads just hanging around watching on. Meanwhile,

1308
01:12:34,360 --> 01:12:36,920
Speaker 2: I guess the body is kind of like cooking inside

1309
01:12:36,920 --> 01:12:40,679
Speaker 2: of the dead crocodile while the three wizards conduct foul

1310
01:12:40,760 --> 01:12:44,120
Speaker 2: rituals and prepare quote unquote food for the soon to

1311
01:12:44,200 --> 01:12:47,080
Speaker 2: be revived body of the demon Sorceress.

1312
01:12:46,880 --> 01:12:50,280
Speaker 1: Which involves a lot of chewing up and eating disgusting,

1313
01:12:50,320 --> 01:12:52,960
Speaker 1: gross stuff and then either spitting or vomiting it out,

1314
01:12:53,040 --> 01:12:55,960
Speaker 1: and then maybe another one of them eating it and chewing.

1315
01:12:55,720 --> 01:12:59,400
Speaker 2: It up again, Yeah, in the same shot. So you

1316
01:12:59,439 --> 01:13:02,000
Speaker 2: can't suspec disbelief on that. So it's like, yeah, they're

1317
01:13:02,040 --> 01:13:07,519
Speaker 2: chewing up pieces of chicken entrails, Durian fruit, I'm assuming

1318
01:13:07,560 --> 01:13:10,240
Speaker 2: like rotten durian fruit, because Durian fruit in and of

1319
01:13:10,280 --> 01:13:15,000
Speaker 2: itself is perfectly tasty, if not a little fragrant. But

1320
01:13:15,240 --> 01:13:18,280
Speaker 2: so for these guys, normal Durian fruit clearly is not

1321
01:13:18,320 --> 01:13:20,320
Speaker 2: going to work. This is probably something that's rotted a

1322
01:13:20,360 --> 01:13:20,760
Speaker 2: little bit.

1323
01:13:21,120 --> 01:13:26,800
Speaker 1: So yeah, just madness, gross, madness. Amazing. And then we

1324
01:13:26,840 --> 01:13:29,839
Speaker 1: see the effects of their evil work in two different

1325
01:13:29,840 --> 01:13:32,880
Speaker 1: intercut scenes. First of all, we've got the monks at

1326
01:13:32,920 --> 01:13:35,760
Speaker 1: the abbey or at the temple. They are preparing the

1327
01:13:35,800 --> 01:13:39,479
Speaker 1: Abbot's body for immortality. They're like covering it with gold

1328
01:13:39,560 --> 01:13:42,960
Speaker 1: and chanting all around it. I meanwhile, Chan Hung is

1329
01:13:43,400 --> 01:13:47,439
Speaker 1: remember the kickboxing grudge match. Oh, yeah, happening. Now it's happening.

1330
01:13:47,760 --> 01:13:51,479
Speaker 1: He's fighting the tie boxer for revenge. So while these

1331
01:13:51,479 --> 01:13:55,120
Speaker 1: things are happening, the demones awakes and they give her

1332
01:13:55,160 --> 01:13:58,360
Speaker 1: Freddy Krueger fingers by the way, and she wakes up

1333
01:13:58,400 --> 01:14:00,639
Speaker 1: and they guide her over to I guess it's supposed

1334
01:14:00,680 --> 01:14:03,400
Speaker 1: to be a statue of the abbot, and she pokes

1335
01:14:03,439 --> 01:14:06,960
Speaker 1: the eyes of the statue with her claws and then,

1336
01:14:07,080 --> 01:14:11,200
Speaker 1: oh no, that inflicts simultaneous curses. First of all, the

1337
01:14:11,280 --> 01:14:14,880
Speaker 1: gold falls from the Abbot's corpse and seems to signal, oh,

1338
01:14:14,920 --> 01:14:18,679
Speaker 1: he's not incorruptible anymore. He's going to decompose. And then

1339
01:14:18,840 --> 01:14:21,919
Speaker 1: in the middle of his kickboxing match, Chan Hung loses

1340
01:14:21,920 --> 01:14:25,320
Speaker 1: his sight and not only loses his sight, but acquires

1341
01:14:25,479 --> 01:14:26,240
Speaker 1: maggot vision.

1342
01:14:26,600 --> 01:14:29,360
Speaker 2: This is so glorious because yes, suddenly he goes blind

1343
01:14:29,439 --> 01:14:31,719
Speaker 2: during the match. You know, he's having the blind punch

1344
01:14:31,760 --> 01:14:35,759
Speaker 2: and kick while Bolo pummels him, and you might wonder

1345
01:14:35,760 --> 01:14:37,599
Speaker 2: that it's viewer, Well what does he see? And yeah,

1346
01:14:37,600 --> 01:14:40,480
Speaker 2: we get the POV shot of it, and it's just maggots.

1347
01:14:40,800 --> 01:14:44,200
Speaker 2: It's like a visor shape on the screen and it's

1348
01:14:44,320 --> 01:14:48,000
Speaker 2: just maggots rolling around there. And then later on he's

1349
01:14:48,040 --> 01:14:51,479
Speaker 2: going to get a backstage like mirror vision where he

1350
01:14:51,520 --> 01:14:55,799
Speaker 2: sees maggots just falling out of his eye sockets. So, yeah,

1351
01:14:55,840 --> 01:14:57,559
Speaker 2: there are a lot of gross worms in this movie.

1352
01:14:57,840 --> 01:15:00,360
Speaker 1: Yeah. So chan Hung is beaten badly.

1353
01:15:00,600 --> 01:15:02,599
Speaker 2: But he pulls out the victory though.

1354
01:15:02,920 --> 01:15:04,320
Speaker 1: Oh he does, he does.

1355
01:15:04,520 --> 01:15:08,599
Speaker 2: Yeah, he somehow kicks Bolo over the top rope. Bolo

1356
01:15:08,720 --> 01:15:10,200
Speaker 2: goes through a table.

1357
01:15:10,760 --> 01:15:12,759
Speaker 1: And okay, okay, and then our.

1358
01:15:12,640 --> 01:15:16,080
Speaker 2: Hero runs backstage with his maggot eyes and then we

1359
01:15:16,160 --> 01:15:17,559
Speaker 2: you know, he looks in the mirror and he sees

1360
01:15:17,720 --> 01:15:18,800
Speaker 2: maggots falling out.

1361
01:15:19,640 --> 01:15:21,799
Speaker 1: I totally missed that he actually beat Bolo.

1362
01:15:21,960 --> 01:15:25,480
Speaker 2: Okay, So I guess maybe maybe that is the conclusion

1363
01:15:25,560 --> 01:15:27,200
Speaker 2: of Vengeance is Acquired here.

1364
01:15:27,280 --> 01:15:29,760
Speaker 1: I could be Okay, Now I feel bad. I feel

1365
01:15:29,760 --> 01:15:31,400
Speaker 1: like I was totally wrong about the fact that it

1366
01:15:31,439 --> 01:15:34,080
Speaker 1: doesn't tie up the kickboxing thing because I was under

1367
01:15:34,080 --> 01:15:37,439
Speaker 1: the misimpression that he lost in this match because of

1368
01:15:37,520 --> 01:15:38,559
Speaker 1: what happened to his eyes.

1369
01:15:38,760 --> 01:15:41,160
Speaker 2: Well, he doesn't get to savor the victory, that's for sure.

1370
01:15:41,320 --> 01:15:44,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean I was paying attention. I thought,

1371
01:15:44,240 --> 01:15:46,519
Speaker 1: I guess his victory is short enough that I looked

1372
01:15:46,520 --> 01:15:48,120
Speaker 1: away and looked back, and yeah.

1373
01:15:48,360 --> 01:15:52,040
Speaker 2: It's It's easy to lose sight of the mundane plot

1374
01:15:52,640 --> 01:15:55,640
Speaker 2: at this point because the crazy magic plot is just

1375
01:15:55,800 --> 01:15:56,839
Speaker 2: growing in size.

1376
01:15:57,160 --> 01:15:59,599
Speaker 1: Anyway, he goes back to the temple to find out

1377
01:15:59,640 --> 01:16:02,680
Speaker 1: what went wrong, and the monk there is like, you

1378
01:16:02,720 --> 01:16:04,760
Speaker 1: didn't break any of your vows, did you.

1379
01:16:06,080 --> 01:16:08,000
Speaker 3: He's like, no, no, of course not. Oh.

1380
01:16:08,040 --> 01:16:10,840
Speaker 1: He doesn't admit to it immediately, but they will eventually

1381
01:16:10,880 --> 01:16:13,400
Speaker 1: figure it out with the help of a supernatural fire

1382
01:16:13,439 --> 01:16:21,080
Speaker 1: based lie detector test. But anyway, first the monks they

1383
01:16:21,120 --> 01:16:24,000
Speaker 1: think he has still been faithful, and the head monk says,

1384
01:16:24,040 --> 01:16:27,519
Speaker 1: don't worry, I'll arrange another duel for you. But first

1385
01:16:27,600 --> 01:16:29,360
Speaker 1: they're going to do a power up scene.

1386
01:16:30,479 --> 01:16:33,120
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right, They're going to need some sort

1387
01:16:33,120 --> 01:16:38,000
Speaker 2: of extra power, and so they go out to search

1388
01:16:38,080 --> 01:16:41,880
Speaker 2: for the thousand year old Ganoderma. So again, it's easy

1389
01:16:41,920 --> 01:16:43,920
Speaker 2: to get caught up in all the hideous rituals of

1390
01:16:43,960 --> 01:16:48,280
Speaker 2: the dark Wizards, and so caught up in it that

1391
01:16:48,280 --> 01:16:51,360
Speaker 2: we can forget the sublime wonder and weirdness of the

1392
01:16:51,439 --> 01:16:55,479
Speaker 2: Buddhist magic scenes. So that's exactly what we have here

1393
01:16:55,560 --> 01:16:58,000
Speaker 2: with the quest for the thousand year old ganoderma that

1394
01:16:58,160 --> 01:17:02,680
Speaker 2: is presumably racie mushroom. It is in the genus Ganoderma,

1395
01:17:03,160 --> 01:17:06,280
Speaker 2: So the Rachi mushroom, if you're not familiar with it,

1396
01:17:06,120 --> 01:17:10,479
Speaker 2: it holds an important place in traditional Chinese medicine, various

1397
01:17:10,479 --> 01:17:13,800
Speaker 2: other Asian folk medicine traditions, and also in general in

1398
01:17:13,840 --> 01:17:17,320
Speaker 2: the world of like alternative medicine and supplements and so forth.

1399
01:17:18,120 --> 01:17:19,960
Speaker 2: A few years back, my wife and I prepared a

1400
01:17:20,000 --> 01:17:23,280
Speaker 2: tea from some racie mushrooms that we foraged. Oh nice,

1401
01:17:23,280 --> 01:17:24,479
Speaker 2: how was that very bitter?

1402
01:17:24,640 --> 01:17:25,080
Speaker 3: Very better?

1403
01:17:25,200 --> 01:17:30,760
Speaker 2: But it enhanced my chi, ease my spirit, and you know,

1404
01:17:30,840 --> 01:17:33,799
Speaker 2: probably promoted longevity. So these are some of the ideas

1405
01:17:33,800 --> 01:17:38,280
Speaker 2: that are held concerning the rachi and you know, it's

1406
01:17:38,320 --> 01:17:40,760
Speaker 2: still consumed all over the world. Paul Stainments is a

1407
01:17:40,760 --> 01:17:43,920
Speaker 2: big fan of the Racie mushroom. But anyway, this is

1408
01:17:43,960 --> 01:17:45,800
Speaker 2: our magical take on it. You know, this is a

1409
01:17:45,920 --> 01:17:49,599
Speaker 2: thousand year old mushroom they're seeking out, so our hero

1410
01:17:49,720 --> 01:17:52,920
Speaker 2: in the current habit, they find this ancient mushroom in

1411
01:17:52,960 --> 01:17:56,960
Speaker 2: a chasm of a great Buddha's eye in an underground temple.

1412
01:17:57,000 --> 01:17:59,559
Speaker 2: And I have to say, this is just a fantastic set,

1413
01:18:00,520 --> 01:18:04,280
Speaker 2: and this is not a real temple location, but just

1414
01:18:04,760 --> 01:18:08,599
Speaker 2: an incredible set. It has this like magic flaming tree

1415
01:18:08,960 --> 01:18:12,120
Speaker 2: growing out of the eye socket as well, and so

1416
01:18:12,160 --> 01:18:14,360
Speaker 2: they kind of like rope down to it, and then

1417
01:18:14,360 --> 01:18:17,000
Speaker 2: they draw the magic out of the mushroom by applying

1418
01:18:17,040 --> 01:18:19,880
Speaker 2: honey to it. And this allows the magic goo to

1419
01:18:19,960 --> 01:18:23,519
Speaker 2: then clear goo to drip down from the mushroom into

1420
01:18:23,520 --> 01:18:27,120
Speaker 2: this little amulet container. That way, our hero can use

1421
01:18:27,160 --> 01:18:29,080
Speaker 2: it later on when he's fighting evil.

1422
01:18:29,160 --> 01:18:31,519
Speaker 1: By apply by doing self surgery on himself.

1423
01:18:31,600 --> 01:18:33,599
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, he's gonna have to terminate or his arm

1424
01:18:33,760 --> 01:18:38,000
Speaker 2: in a really gross scene. So even the good magic

1425
01:18:38,360 --> 01:18:40,639
Speaker 2: practitioners here do get into a little bit of body

1426
01:18:40,640 --> 01:18:41,320
Speaker 2: are for sure.

1427
01:18:41,720 --> 01:18:42,080
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1428
01:18:42,120 --> 01:18:45,439
Speaker 1: But also by the way, before the duel can be arranged,

1429
01:18:45,479 --> 01:18:48,040
Speaker 1: the monks figure out the chan Hung broke his vows.

1430
01:18:49,200 --> 01:18:50,320
Speaker 1: So that's really bad.

1431
01:18:50,439 --> 01:18:50,840
Speaker 3: That's yeah.

1432
01:18:50,880 --> 01:18:54,000
Speaker 2: They're like, you lie to the Buddha. Some serious business

1433
01:18:54,160 --> 01:18:54,559
Speaker 2: it is.

1434
01:18:54,680 --> 01:18:57,400
Speaker 1: They take it seriously and they're like, no, there's nothing

1435
01:18:57,439 --> 01:18:59,960
Speaker 1: you can do now, You're you're just yeah, too bad.

1436
01:19:00,520 --> 01:19:02,680
Speaker 1: But chan Hung doesn't accept it, so he goes to

1437
01:19:02,760 --> 01:19:05,600
Speaker 1: the abbot, to the abbot's body, and he's like, is

1438
01:19:05,640 --> 01:19:07,679
Speaker 1: there anything that can be done? At first he doesn't

1439
01:19:07,680 --> 01:19:09,439
Speaker 1: get an answer, and then he's like, I'll trash your

1440
01:19:09,479 --> 01:19:14,799
Speaker 1: temple and he starts like smashing everything up, and finally

1441
01:19:14,800 --> 01:19:18,040
Speaker 1: the abbots like stop throwing a tantrum, and he tells

1442
01:19:18,120 --> 01:19:20,799
Speaker 1: him there is one way that can be saved.

1443
01:19:20,840 --> 01:19:21,000
Speaker 3: Now.

1444
01:19:21,040 --> 01:19:24,800
Speaker 1: It's the only way is by if chan Hung retrieves

1445
01:19:24,800 --> 01:19:28,519
Speaker 1: a sacred Buddhist relic from a temple in Nepal. These

1446
01:19:28,520 --> 01:19:31,240
Speaker 1: would be the abbot's ashes from one of his past

1447
01:19:31,400 --> 01:19:43,040
Speaker 1: lives when he was a lama there. So let's go

1448
01:19:43,080 --> 01:19:47,320
Speaker 1: to Nepal. Chan Hung travels by plane lands he gets

1449
01:19:47,320 --> 01:19:50,400
Speaker 1: his bearings in Nepal and eventually he finds this temple

1450
01:19:50,400 --> 01:19:54,960
Speaker 1: where the ashes are stored, but they apparently only show

1451
01:19:55,080 --> 01:19:57,840
Speaker 1: up during a special magic time of day. I think

1452
01:19:57,880 --> 01:19:58,719
Speaker 1: maybe it's a dawn.

1453
01:20:00,040 --> 01:20:03,320
Speaker 2: It's going to shine through into this underground temple and

1454
01:20:03,520 --> 01:20:06,759
Speaker 2: it's going to illuminate the ashes. We learned this because

1455
01:20:06,800 --> 01:20:10,559
Speaker 2: he goes on a tour, a tour of the of

1456
01:20:10,600 --> 01:20:14,160
Speaker 2: the temple, and there's a tour guide that's informing him

1457
01:20:14,200 --> 01:20:17,000
Speaker 2: as well as like there's a Western tourist lady there

1458
01:20:17,040 --> 01:20:19,439
Speaker 2: as well, and we get the full rundown on this place.

1459
01:20:19,760 --> 01:20:22,280
Speaker 1: So he does the self surgery, He puts the amulet

1460
01:20:22,360 --> 01:20:25,760
Speaker 1: inside his body, and he goes in during the off

1461
01:20:25,760 --> 01:20:29,160
Speaker 1: hours to collect the ashes. But he is not alone there.

1462
01:20:29,280 --> 01:20:33,160
Speaker 1: First of all, he deals with some magic, some magical

1463
01:20:33,880 --> 01:20:37,400
Speaker 1: security measures where there is like a statue at this

1464
01:20:37,479 --> 01:20:42,559
Speaker 1: big Buddhist shrine that starts yelling intruder alert, intruder alert, which.

1465
01:20:42,360 --> 01:20:45,960
Speaker 2: Is so good, yes, yes, And then like the statue,

1466
01:20:46,040 --> 01:20:49,640
Speaker 2: a multi arm statue comes alive, so we have like

1467
01:20:49,680 --> 01:20:54,400
Speaker 2: a Nepalese Buddhist automaton here that is going to do

1468
01:20:54,479 --> 01:20:58,000
Speaker 2: battle with him, but he makes pretty short work of these.

1469
01:20:58,080 --> 01:21:00,360
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how much of that is that, you know,

1470
01:21:00,400 --> 01:21:02,840
Speaker 2: he's just far above them at this point, or maybe

1471
01:21:02,920 --> 01:21:05,000
Speaker 2: they didn't like the way the effects came together, or

1472
01:21:05,280 --> 01:21:07,280
Speaker 2: we just we were running along on time here and

1473
01:21:07,320 --> 01:21:09,599
Speaker 2: we just needed to get to the final conflict, right.

1474
01:21:09,720 --> 01:21:14,200
Speaker 1: And then the evil Wizard's demonus appears. I don't know, Rob,

1475
01:21:14,240 --> 01:21:18,640
Speaker 1: do you want to describe this? I don't even know

1476
01:21:18,680 --> 01:21:19,160
Speaker 1: how to begin.

1477
01:21:20,479 --> 01:21:25,439
Speaker 2: I mean, skimpy outfit, high heels like a crazy golden crown.

1478
01:21:25,840 --> 01:21:29,240
Speaker 2: She has a long appears to have elongated arms at

1479
01:21:29,280 --> 01:21:33,080
Speaker 2: first glance, and I guess does, but her arms terminate

1480
01:21:33,160 --> 01:21:37,040
Speaker 2: in skeletal claw hands that are either extensions of her

1481
01:21:37,200 --> 01:21:43,599
Speaker 2: arms or being used as weapons. Anyway, A very glamorous, sexy,

1482
01:21:43,840 --> 01:21:49,040
Speaker 2: hellish entrance here for our final boss, equal parts alluring

1483
01:21:49,120 --> 01:21:52,320
Speaker 2: and revolting, all at once, and of course illuminated in

1484
01:21:52,360 --> 01:21:55,360
Speaker 2: all sorts of cool, green and red gels.

1485
01:21:55,800 --> 01:21:59,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I can't describe everything that happens in this conflict,

1486
01:21:59,080 --> 01:22:05,640
Speaker 1: but among other things, she shoots detachable alligator armor hands

1487
01:22:05,720 --> 01:22:09,240
Speaker 1: at our hero, and they grab Chan Hung's chest and

1488
01:22:09,280 --> 01:22:11,519
Speaker 1: grip his pectoral muscles and cut them.

1489
01:22:11,920 --> 01:22:12,520
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1490
01:22:12,640 --> 01:22:14,960
Speaker 2: Later on they're gonna crawl around on the ground and

1491
01:22:15,000 --> 01:22:16,040
Speaker 2: then hold him in place.

1492
01:22:16,400 --> 01:22:21,000
Speaker 1: Yes, she creates a giant crocodile that crawls on the

1493
01:22:21,000 --> 01:22:25,400
Speaker 1: floor and attacks him. Yes, he escapes the giant crocodile,

1494
01:22:25,479 --> 01:22:30,080
Speaker 1: but then she grabs his head with her legs and

1495
01:22:30,120 --> 01:22:32,519
Speaker 1: then he is like pinned down on the ground by

1496
01:22:32,640 --> 01:22:36,439
Speaker 1: the hands, and then, oh god, I forget what happens after. Oh,

1497
01:22:36,520 --> 01:22:37,960
Speaker 1: she puts the caterpillars on him.

1498
01:22:38,080 --> 01:22:40,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, so she kind of she gives him like a

1499
01:22:40,280 --> 01:22:43,280
Speaker 2: thigh squeeze and like kind of shimmys around, and then

1500
01:22:43,320 --> 01:22:46,960
Speaker 2: she stands over him and she continues to shimmy and

1501
01:22:47,040 --> 01:22:49,120
Speaker 2: kind of do a little sexy dance, but then makes

1502
01:22:49,240 --> 01:22:52,400
Speaker 2: caterpillars rain down on him. Yeah, and they crawl over

1503
01:22:52,439 --> 01:22:55,120
Speaker 2: his body and then they begin to crawl into his

1504
01:22:55,280 --> 01:22:58,600
Speaker 2: nostrils and into his ears. Yes, so we get a

1505
01:22:58,600 --> 01:23:01,160
Speaker 2: little wrath of Khan energy in this picture as well.

1506
01:23:01,479 --> 01:23:03,920
Speaker 1: But then there is a kind of intervention right from

1507
01:23:03,960 --> 01:23:08,840
Speaker 1: the shrine itself because the light comes in and it uh,

1508
01:23:09,160 --> 01:23:12,559
Speaker 1: it awakens the spirit of the Lama. Did you understand

1509
01:23:12,600 --> 01:23:13,400
Speaker 1: it that way as well?

1510
01:23:13,479 --> 01:23:13,679
Speaker 3: Yes?

1511
01:23:13,960 --> 01:23:18,240
Speaker 2: And then the Lama kind of like rides down on

1512
01:23:18,320 --> 01:23:24,040
Speaker 2: like a tramas like a laser palanquin and and interferes

1513
01:23:24,080 --> 01:23:28,599
Speaker 2: like saves him from the demoness. And then the demons

1514
01:23:29,600 --> 01:23:32,479
Speaker 2: battles the Lama uh, and they have this kind of

1515
01:23:32,560 --> 01:23:36,680
Speaker 2: like super magical energy stand off. He wins and he

1516
01:23:36,760 --> 01:23:38,519
Speaker 2: because she tries to like wrap him up in her

1517
01:23:38,560 --> 01:23:41,240
Speaker 2: hair and then he just like pulls her hair and

1518
01:23:41,280 --> 01:23:46,960
Speaker 2: her skin off, and that causes her to then flail skinless, uh, defleshed,

1519
01:23:47,280 --> 01:23:49,640
Speaker 2: and fall back onto the floor where she begins to

1520
01:23:49,680 --> 01:23:52,599
Speaker 2: writhe in agony. But oh, she looks like over yet.

1521
01:23:52,840 --> 01:23:55,439
Speaker 1: No, no, but there she looks like just one sniff

1522
01:23:55,479 --> 01:23:57,040
Speaker 1: of that fog and your inside out.

1523
01:23:57,400 --> 01:23:59,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, she does look like she looks like she's inside

1524
01:24:00,160 --> 01:24:03,880
Speaker 2: out a little bit like slim good body too, full body,

1525
01:24:03,880 --> 01:24:07,400
Speaker 2: slim good body, just writhing on the floor. And she

1526
01:24:07,439 --> 01:24:11,240
Speaker 2: begins to leak purple slime everywhere, like the purple slime

1527
01:24:11,439 --> 01:24:13,160
Speaker 2: falling out of her body.

1528
01:24:13,120 --> 01:24:17,120
Speaker 1: And then gives birth to three plastic bags full of eyeballs,

1529
01:24:17,160 --> 01:24:20,439
Speaker 1: which walk around on the floor and then expand and

1530
01:24:20,520 --> 01:24:24,720
Speaker 1: turned into turn into putty mummies that are going and

1531
01:24:24,760 --> 01:24:29,040
Speaker 1: then they turn into the three wizards. That's where they were, okay,

1532
01:24:29,479 --> 01:24:33,640
Speaker 1: But then then they produce knives and stab themselves. One

1533
01:24:33,680 --> 01:24:36,280
Speaker 1: of them cuts open his belly. The other two cut

1534
01:24:36,320 --> 01:24:39,080
Speaker 1: off their own fingers and bleed on the guy's belly,

1535
01:24:39,640 --> 01:24:45,439
Speaker 1: and then that turns his body into little eyeball brontosauruses

1536
01:24:45,560 --> 01:24:46,719
Speaker 1: that attack on the floor.

1537
01:24:47,120 --> 01:24:50,640
Speaker 2: Yes, little pink demons that look kind of like bronosauruses.

1538
01:24:50,640 --> 01:24:53,880
Speaker 2: I've also seen them described as poodle demons. And they

1539
01:24:53,960 --> 01:24:58,160
Speaker 2: began to they begin to begin to crawl toward the Lama,

1540
01:24:58,520 --> 01:25:01,080
Speaker 2: and I mean, at this point, we're just in such

1541
01:25:01,160 --> 01:25:05,120
Speaker 2: crazy town it's almost senseless to try and make any

1542
01:25:05,160 --> 01:25:08,520
Speaker 2: sense out of it. This is just like crazy wizard nonsense.

1543
01:25:08,600 --> 01:25:11,680
Speaker 2: But my interpretation is that in this fact, this is

1544
01:25:11,720 --> 01:25:14,439
Speaker 2: in this final transformation on the part of the Dark Wizards,

1545
01:25:14,680 --> 01:25:17,200
Speaker 2: it's like a last ditch effort to assume a very

1546
01:25:17,240 --> 01:25:22,320
Speaker 2: particular specialized range spell casting demon form, three of them,

1547
01:25:22,439 --> 01:25:24,680
Speaker 2: one for each of them, that might allow them to

1548
01:25:24,760 --> 01:25:28,400
Speaker 2: take out their enemy. So they begin blasting their eyeball

1549
01:25:28,560 --> 01:25:32,160
Speaker 2: bolts at the Llama, and I don't know, maybe they've

1550
01:25:32,200 --> 01:25:34,840
Speaker 2: got a chance, maybe they don't. But that's not how

1551
01:25:34,880 --> 01:25:38,280
Speaker 2: it goes down, because the Lama then causes the statues

1552
01:25:38,760 --> 01:25:44,080
Speaker 2: in the temple to fling their vadras, these little you know,

1553
01:25:44,120 --> 01:25:50,120
Speaker 2: Buddhist thunderbolts artifacts at the Pink demons, which then cause

1554
01:25:50,200 --> 01:25:52,439
Speaker 2: the Pink demons to explode, killing them.

1555
01:25:52,880 --> 01:25:55,360
Speaker 1: And that is our final victory over evil here.

1556
01:25:56,200 --> 01:25:58,719
Speaker 2: And to be clear, the Pink demons very much wind

1557
01:25:58,800 --> 01:26:02,400
Speaker 2: up toys, getting into that wind up toy energy that

1558
01:26:02,439 --> 01:26:05,400
Speaker 2: we keep experiencing throughout the picture.

1559
01:26:05,680 --> 01:26:09,000
Speaker 1: I don't want to because I have to be clear,

1560
01:26:09,000 --> 01:26:11,200
Speaker 1: I'm not an expert in this in any way. So

1561
01:26:11,280 --> 01:26:16,120
Speaker 1: I don't want to overseell the cultural authenticity of the

1562
01:26:16,120 --> 01:26:19,960
Speaker 1: magic depicted here, but I am struck by how much

1563
01:26:20,240 --> 01:26:26,120
Speaker 1: more specifically Buddhist in flavor the magic and the magical

1564
01:26:26,160 --> 01:26:29,320
Speaker 1: conflict in this movie is when compared to the magic

1565
01:26:29,360 --> 01:26:32,120
Speaker 1: you'd see in a lot of other movies. That is, often,

1566
01:26:32,920 --> 01:26:36,559
Speaker 1: I don't know, a lot of the specific real world

1567
01:26:36,640 --> 01:26:40,400
Speaker 1: religious imagery or connections feels de emphasized in favor of

1568
01:26:40,439 --> 01:26:41,879
Speaker 1: a kind of generic appeal.

1569
01:26:42,720 --> 01:26:43,360
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?

1570
01:26:43,880 --> 01:26:45,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know what you mean. This is something we

1571
01:26:45,600 --> 01:26:50,880
Speaker 2: enjoyed to a lesser extent in the Indian horror movie

1572
01:26:50,920 --> 01:26:54,280
Speaker 2: Perana Mandir, in which you know, they're using very like

1573
01:26:54,360 --> 01:27:00,120
Speaker 2: Hindu iconography to overcome spirits of evil. So it is

1574
01:26:59,800 --> 01:27:05,000
Speaker 2: it is nice to get supernatural horror outside of the

1575
01:27:05,320 --> 01:27:08,639
Speaker 2: traditional Western Christian motifs that.

1576
01:27:08,680 --> 01:27:11,120
Speaker 1: Has some cultural specifics actually in it.

1577
01:27:11,320 --> 01:27:15,599
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like it, Like with these Vadra artifacts serving

1578
01:27:15,640 --> 01:27:18,639
Speaker 2: as holy hand grenades to blow up the pink demons. Yes,

1579
01:27:19,120 --> 01:27:22,759
Speaker 2: but with this I believe, and the movie seems to believe,

1580
01:27:23,200 --> 01:27:27,000
Speaker 2: the evil Wizards are now completely defeated. Wizard number one,

1581
01:27:27,280 --> 01:27:32,320
Speaker 2: Dead Wizard number two, Dead Wizards three, four and five

1582
01:27:32,560 --> 01:27:37,759
Speaker 2: Dead demon s sorceress from beyond the Grave also return

1583
01:27:37,840 --> 01:27:38,719
Speaker 2: to being full dead.

1584
01:27:39,080 --> 01:27:43,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the abbot can at least attain immortality, in

1585
01:27:43,080 --> 01:27:45,360
Speaker 1: which case, I don't know, maybe he could help again

1586
01:27:45,400 --> 01:27:46,960
Speaker 1: if more wizards appear.

1587
01:27:47,479 --> 01:27:47,679
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1588
01:27:47,800 --> 01:27:51,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, we see the eyes open on the Abbot's body,

1589
01:27:52,479 --> 01:27:55,320
Speaker 2: and then the eyes of our hero are also cured

1590
01:27:55,360 --> 01:27:57,439
Speaker 2: and he's able to We actually get a nice little

1591
01:27:57,439 --> 01:27:59,840
Speaker 2: scene there at the end where the monks are coming

1592
01:27:59,880 --> 01:28:02,720
Speaker 2: in to pray in front of the abbot's body and

1593
01:28:02,800 --> 01:28:04,400
Speaker 2: he gets up and he walks out the door.

1594
01:28:04,960 --> 01:28:09,760
Speaker 1: Actually before that we see him, there's like happy music playing, like, oh,

1595
01:28:09,840 --> 01:28:13,080
Speaker 1: we finally did it. As our hero is pulling needles

1596
01:28:13,080 --> 01:28:14,880
Speaker 1: out of his eyes.

1597
01:28:15,760 --> 01:28:19,920
Speaker 2: Very long needles, like oh yeah, supernatural needles being you know,

1598
01:28:20,640 --> 01:28:22,920
Speaker 2: I don't think he's necessarily pulling them, He's coming like

1599
01:28:23,000 --> 01:28:27,120
Speaker 2: magically excreting them straight through his eyelids.

1600
01:28:27,360 --> 01:28:28,839
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1601
01:28:29,080 --> 01:28:31,479
Speaker 2: So just a little last bit of holy body are.

1602
01:28:31,840 --> 01:28:34,559
Speaker 1: Made me think of those tear drinking moths we talked

1603
01:28:34,560 --> 01:28:37,840
Speaker 1: about last week for their the poking their proboscess into

1604
01:28:37,880 --> 01:28:43,320
Speaker 1: the eyeball. Okay, well that is the boxer z Omen.

1605
01:28:44,520 --> 01:28:48,320
Speaker 2: Absolutely yes, sights and sounds well beyond anything you've tested.

1606
01:28:49,360 --> 01:28:51,880
Speaker 2: Highly recommend this one for anyone out there, though, if

1607
01:28:51,920 --> 01:28:53,519
Speaker 2: you've listened to it all the way here, I think

1608
01:28:53,560 --> 01:28:56,120
Speaker 2: at this point either you are pretty clear this is

1609
01:28:56,160 --> 01:28:58,760
Speaker 2: not a film you want to see, or this is

1610
01:28:58,800 --> 01:29:01,559
Speaker 2: a film you absolutely have to see, or I think

1611
01:29:01,600 --> 01:29:04,160
Speaker 2: in many cases you have seen the film, you love it,

1612
01:29:04,200 --> 01:29:06,240
Speaker 2: and you just wanted to hear our thoughts on all

1613
01:29:06,280 --> 01:29:09,080
Speaker 2: of the just sheer insanity that occurs in this.

1614
01:29:09,080 --> 01:29:14,679
Speaker 1: Movie overflowing with ritual madness. I wonder if I would

1615
01:29:14,720 --> 01:29:20,200
Speaker 1: like recommendations from listeners for movies that show not just

1616
01:29:20,280 --> 01:29:23,640
Speaker 1: the use of magic, you know, like people casting spells

1617
01:29:23,720 --> 01:29:27,120
Speaker 1: and power emanating from them, that show not just the

1618
01:29:27,160 --> 01:29:31,840
Speaker 1: magical effects, but spend as much attention on the process

1619
01:29:32,200 --> 01:29:36,200
Speaker 1: of acquiring magic power, or of like the recipes for

1620
01:29:36,280 --> 01:29:38,240
Speaker 1: spells as this movie does.

1621
01:29:39,320 --> 01:29:39,679
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1622
01:29:39,800 --> 01:29:41,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd be hard pressed to think of one. I mean,

1623
01:29:41,960 --> 01:29:45,040
Speaker 2: I more readily think of examples of the opposite, where

1624
01:29:45,360 --> 01:29:49,000
Speaker 2: wizards and witches just do things and you don't really

1625
01:29:49,200 --> 01:29:52,240
Speaker 2: know much about the preparation that goes into them. There's

1626
01:29:52,280 --> 01:29:55,640
Speaker 2: probably too much of that, whereas I mean, really this

1627
01:29:55,680 --> 01:29:57,880
Speaker 2: gets down to the sort of the Shakespearean roots, right

1628
01:29:58,280 --> 01:30:01,080
Speaker 2: where you know everything that's going in the Witch's cauldron.

1629
01:30:01,479 --> 01:30:05,120
Speaker 1: Yeah that's right. Actually, Yeah, Boxer's Omen in the tradition

1630
01:30:05,200 --> 01:30:05,799
Speaker 1: of Macbeth.

1631
01:30:06,200 --> 01:30:09,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, you could also think of this as a as

1632
01:30:09,240 --> 01:30:14,439
Speaker 2: a black magic procedural, very obsessed with all the steps

1633
01:30:14,439 --> 01:30:19,280
Speaker 2: that go into casting your dark, dank magics. So indeed,

1634
01:30:19,320 --> 01:30:22,680
Speaker 2: if you have suggestions for other examples of this or

1635
01:30:22,680 --> 01:30:24,879
Speaker 2: counterexamples right in, we would.

1636
01:30:24,640 --> 01:30:25,479
Speaker 3: Love to hear from you.

1637
01:30:26,320 --> 01:30:29,000
Speaker 2: We're going to close out this episode. Yeah, we'd love

1638
01:30:29,040 --> 01:30:31,240
Speaker 2: to hear from everyone out there if you have thoughts

1639
01:30:31,280 --> 01:30:34,439
Speaker 2: on the boxers Omen, other films by this filmmaker, or

1640
01:30:34,520 --> 01:30:37,559
Speaker 2: just other great recommendations from Hong Kong cinema in general.

1641
01:30:37,920 --> 01:30:38,240
Speaker 3: Right in.

1642
01:30:39,320 --> 01:30:41,360
Speaker 2: A reminder that Stuffed to Blow Your Mind is primarily

1643
01:30:41,360 --> 01:30:43,719
Speaker 2: a science and culture podcast with core episodes on Tuesdays

1644
01:30:43,760 --> 01:30:46,080
Speaker 2: and Thursdays, but on Fridays we set aside most serious

1645
01:30:46,080 --> 01:30:48,160
Speaker 2: concerns to just talk about a weird film on Weird

1646
01:30:48,160 --> 01:30:52,000
Speaker 2: House Cinema. If you are on letterbox dot com, find us.

1647
01:30:52,080 --> 01:30:54,280
Speaker 2: We are Weird House on letterbox and we have a

1648
01:30:54,360 --> 01:30:56,240
Speaker 2: nice list there of all the movies we've covered over

1649
01:30:56,240 --> 01:30:58,599
Speaker 2: the years, and sometimes a peek ahead at what's coming

1650
01:30:58,680 --> 01:31:01,719
Speaker 2: up next. Again, you can always find Weird House Cinema

1651
01:31:01,760 --> 01:31:04,640
Speaker 2: in the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed but

1652
01:31:04,840 --> 01:31:08,520
Speaker 2: we also have a playlist that is just Weird House Cinema,

1653
01:31:08,560 --> 01:31:10,639
Speaker 2: so you can also look up Weird House Cinema wherever

1654
01:31:10,640 --> 01:31:13,080
Speaker 2: you get your podcasts and follow us that way as well.

1655
01:31:13,320 --> 01:31:17,120
Speaker 1: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

1656
01:31:17,560 --> 01:31:19,200
Speaker 1: If you would like to get in touch with us

1657
01:31:19,240 --> 01:31:22,000
Speaker 1: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1658
01:31:22,000 --> 01:31:24,200
Speaker 1: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1659
01:31:24,400 --> 01:31:27,120
Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

1660
01:31:27,200 --> 01:31:35,040
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com.

1661
01:31:35,160 --> 01:31:38,120
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1662
01:31:38,200 --> 01:31:41,000
Speaker 2: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1663
01:31:41,160 --> 01:31:44,400
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.