WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: The Boxer's Omen 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.439 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:15.000 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.200 This is Rod Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:20.560 today on Weird House Cinema, we are going to be 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:24.880 talking about the nineteen eighty three Hong Kong action horror 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:29.480 film The Boxers omen directed by Kwai Chi Hung. This 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:31.360 movie is a lot of things. First of all, it 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:34.959 is just a lot through one lens. It is an 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:39.159 action packed martial arts revenge film. Through another. It is 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:47.040 magical insanity, just an overwhelming storm of rituals and magical 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:53.960 items being combined, magical recipes, necromancy. You've got creaky bat skeletons, 0:00:54.480 --> 0:01:01.080 needlenosed tarantulas, red devils, skin balloons, crocodile skulls, rotten guts, 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:08.600 bikini mummies, just all kinds of stuff. Basically more unhinged sorcery, slop, gore, 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.120 and wizard battles than you could imagine being crammed into 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:13.440 a single film. 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:18.200 That's right, it's pretty wall to wall, and the connective 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:26.240 tissue in there is when when the film isn't being 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:30.080 just absolutely crazy, there's some very well crafted connective tissue 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.679 that I think also adds to the weird feeling you 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:35.040 get watching this picture. 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:37.560 Yeah, well, I was going to say, I wonder if 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.200 this is what you're alluding to through yet another lens. 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:45.120 It's a kind of interesting exploration of like Buddhist monastic 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:47.920 piety and the quest for immortality. 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:50.760 Yeah, yeah, I don't think now. To be clear, you're 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:55.120 not going to learn much about Buddhism watching this picture. 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.000 But as we'll point out, there's some very nice locations here. 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:01.880 There's some nice almost docu mintary style scenes of like 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:06.600 street processions and normal people going about their everyday business 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:10.640 in Nepal and in Thailand and also in Hong Kong, 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:13.400 which you know, I can I can kind of like 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:17.880 provide this real world setting that really works to make 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:21.480 all the crazy stuff feel like a real injection of 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:22.799 another world into ours. 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:23.400 Yeah. 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:28.240 Yeah, that's right. Though, I also want to acknowledge what 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:33.320 this movie is mainly known for, which is just wet madness. 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:38.520 It has a reputation among the midnight movie crowd for 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.480 being an exercise in extremes. It's kind of like, oh, 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.239 you like Hong Kong horror movies, I have got one 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.440 you're not ready for. And maybe you're not ready. I 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:51.200 would not recommend, as I told I watched this one first, 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:53.960 and as I told Robin JJ, I would not recommend 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:56.960 watching this while you're eating, though I think maybe you did. Anyway. 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.000 I ate during part of it, and JJ ended up 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:00.880 eating doing part of it. 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.000 Yeah, that could be a bad move, depending on how 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.480 strong your stomach is. But I would recommend watching it 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:10.760 to some extent if you have a tolerance for this 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:12.600 sort of thing, at least, because it is one of 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:18.560 the most amazingly stupendously bizarre and remarkable films I've ever seen. 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:23.480 Absolutely it is pure magic. And it's fitting because we 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:28.680 say that because the film's original title is Mo, which 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:32.400 just means magic or devil and can certainly mean dark 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.600 magic depending on the context. We get to see both 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:39.440 light and dark magic here. Mo is also part of 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.640 the word magwai, just to give it a little more 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:43.360 clarity there. 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.240 Oh, I see, did you have a notice like the 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.960 character the Chinese character Mo is the thing that appears 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:51.240 at the beginning of the film. 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:54.400 It is, and I think it's really interesting here, and 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:58.440 maybe Mandarin readers can break down what's happening here a 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.520 little bit. But we Yeah, they're gonna they're gonna put 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:05.640 up the kanji for mo, but they kind of roll 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:09.600 it out in three phases, and so initially the character 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:14.120 that is added is the character that means ghost, and 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:16.600 then and then the rest of the character is added 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:20.239 that spells out the pure I mean, the full title magic. 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:22.839 So I don't know if if if a if a 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.720 Mandarin reader, a native Mandarin reader would interpret that as 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:29.400 like ghost magic, Like does that affect the the title 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:33.039 of the movie as you read it or or what, 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.520 because we don't. I guess we sometimes have things like this, 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:39.320 and like like English language titles for pictures where it 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:40.919 looks like it's gonna spell one thing and then it 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.800 spells another. But I don't think i'd seen this done 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:46.040 before in like a Chinese or. 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:47.320 A Japanese film. 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.800 Yeah, that that is interesting. But it's also interesting just 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:54.000 thinking about the title being in one sense magic or 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:58.680 you know, sorcery, enchantment, whatever this refers to, uh, because 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.080 that is like actually the main theme of the movie. 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.240 And so in English, we've got this title the Boxer's Omen, 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.760 which paired with the opening scene makes it seem like 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.719 this movie is going to be about kickboxing, which is 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:12.960 a real bait and switch. 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:13.440 Yeah. 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.640 Yeah, it does seem very concerned with kickboxing for a 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:20.440 little bit there, but then really goes goes off the off, 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.440 the off the cliff here into realms of magic and 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:27.680 demons and sorcery and all sorts of gross and mind 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:30.279 bending things that are pretty far removed from kicks to 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:30.640 the head. 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.200 Not only that, does it not only moves mainly away 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:38.200 from the kickboxing plot, it literally like forgets to conclude 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:42.200 the kickboxing plot. Yeah, there's a kickboxing thread running through. 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:45.760 It's like a revenge thing, and it never it never finishes. 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:47.680 We never get the final showdown. 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.520 Yeah, we were we were joking about this off Mike 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:55.200 that perhaps Shaw Brothers came to the director Kuwaiti Hung 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:57.760 and said, hey, we want you to make a kickboxing movie, 0:05:57.760 --> 0:05:58.720 and he's like, got it. 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:08.120 Yeah, yeah, this is about as much about kickboxing as 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.919 like The Shining is about hotel maintenance. 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:15.000 Yeah yeah, what if they had called The Shining like 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:16.320 the Hotel Manager. 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.600 But I like the way in which this movie is 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:26.520 about magic. You know, It's like there's a healthy balance 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:30.800 of treating magic as on one hand, of course just 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:36.000 an object of absolutely insane spectacle and exploitation, but then 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.560 also as an object of what feels like genuine respect. 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:40.359 Yeah. 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:44.279 Yeah, the magic systems in this film are fascinating. Like, 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.960 this movie takes its magic seriously. We've all seen movies 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.880 where evil wizards like dabble and necromancy, and I was 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.120 thinking about this too. We were a lot of people 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:55.960 I think played dungeons and dragons and you know, there's 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.280 spell components in there, and your spell, your character is 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.080 supposed to their arms and say certain things. But we 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.200 often just skip over all that and say you cast 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.680 a fireball. And that's the way movies sometimes do as well. 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:12.360 This movie does not. There's almost a really like a hypnotic, 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:16.840 ritualistic way that especially the dark magic spells are presented, 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.560 and in general, like the light and dark of these 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.720 different magical schools is just oh man, it's just so 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:24.560 well executed. 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:24.840 Here. 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:29.080 It's almost more focused on the rituals that evoke the 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:31.600 magic than on the magic effects themselves. 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:36.360 Yeah yeah, And and the way that the spells are 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:38.880 generated to tell you a lot about it about the practitioners. 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:43.200 So the Buddhist magic is the pure expression of noble virtue, 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.800 while the black magic is the exact opposite. It's just 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:52.480 pure degeneration, madness, and self destruction. So in the same 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.000 way that the Abbot is on the verge of achieving 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:59.560 enlightenment and immortality through righteousness and equanimity, the wizards in 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:01.760 the picture seem to be doing everything they can to 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:03.680 just kind of like bottom out, as if they're not 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.880 only you know, plunging into the hells, but doing everything 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:09.360 they can to accelerate their descent so they can like 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.000 blast through the floor and come out the other side 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:14.680 in a kind of perverse counter enlightenment. 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.520 Yeah. Yeah, in more than one way. I noticed this. 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:22.520 The bad wizards in this movie practice magic and do 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:26.640 their rituals not with the kind of scary solemnity we're 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:29.520 used to seeing Satanists do their stuff in the movies 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:33.000 where it's like oh, you know, no, no, in furnace 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:36.040 and being very serious while they're lowering the dagger like 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:39.240 in what was it Which Empire of the Dark. It's 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:43.040 not like that at all. It is a They basically 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:47.760 have two modes of ritual. They have depraved, chaotic frenzy 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:52.600 and then they also have impatient annoyance. That I made 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:54.560 the comparison I was going to talk about this later, 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:57.320 but there's one part where we see the first main 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.520 evil wizard doing a bunch of rituals when he's like 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.559 trying to get a bat to revive after it has 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:07.360 been destroyed, and he's talking at the ritual like somebody 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.200 talks at their car when they can't get it to start. 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:15.000 You know, it's just this familiar impatient annoyance, not somber 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:17.520 satanism with chanting, and. 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.720 At times there's also a detached defilement to what they're doing. 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:22.720 You know, it's like they're doing like really gross and 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:26.280 debased things, but it is it is also just kind 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:28.560 of like what they do, and you know, it takes 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:30.600 hours to pull this off, but it's in these are 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.920 necessary steps in order to achieve their sorceress goals. 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.360 Yeah, that's more in the chaotic frenzy era, because they're 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:41.400 just frantically kind of I don't know, picking up guts 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:43.880 and chewing them and cutting things off of animals and 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:47.320 chewing them and spitting them out and cutting things open, 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:49.840 and it seems half the time like they're barely paying 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:51.080 attention to what they're doing. 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:55.600 Yeah, Now, the magic systems that are depicted in the film, 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:59.440 they seem to have many connections to magical traditions and 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:04.079 Thailand and East Asia, real or attributed. And to be clear, 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.480 in the case of black magic, as we've discussed before, 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.760 we're certainly not always talking about practices that were ever 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:13.880 necessarily practiced, even by a thin minority of people. But 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:15.959 you know, you end up with these tales about these 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:18.199 the sorts of things. These are the sorts of spells 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:22.120 that the dark wizards and witches engage in. 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:24.839 Right, a lot of times, what we might mean by 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:30.679 calling something authentic culturally authentic evil sorcery does not mean 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.120 it's what people, what like sorcerers of that culture actually did. 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:38.640 It's what people of that culture actually thought sorcerers. 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.679 Did, Right, And then you have levels of like what 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:44.760 did outsiders and foreigners think about the things that they 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.559 heard about about magical practices, real or imagined? And then 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.240 in this exercise, how is all that amplified through the 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:56.280 lens of exploitation cinema, because this is exploitation cinema, to 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:57.000 be clear. 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:58.560 That's right. I feel like with this one, maybe we 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.480 should start with the plots at the top, because in 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:03.360 the plot section we're probably just going to talk a 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.400 lot about these wizard battle scenes and the rituals, so 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:12.959 the plot is basically takes this form. A Hong Kong 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:17.880 criminal named Chan Hung is drawn into a quest for 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:23.520 revenge against a cruel Thai kickboxer who paralyzed Chan Hung's 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.960 brother with an illegal strike during a match, actually after 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.160 a match was over, and then at the same time 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:34.160 he is drawn by dreams and visions to a Buddhist 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:38.199 monastery in Thailand, where he discovers that he has a 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:42.880 spiritual connection to the recently deceased abbot of that temple. 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:47.400 The abbot was a powerful and holy Buddhist monk who 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.720 died in the middle of a feud with a clan 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:55.200 of evil sorcerers. Chan Hung discovers that in order to 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:59.240 both avenge his worldly brother and protect the immortality of 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.400 his spirit brother through the abbot, and then finally also 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:05.160 to protect himself because we learn that his fate is 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.400 linked to the fate of the abbot, he must renounce 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.880 his hedonistic life of crime, shave his head, and become 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:16.280 a monk, and this practice of piety and self discipline 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:21.319 and self denial will allow him to gain supernatural strength 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:25.120 to fight his enemies both physical and magical, and then 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:29.200 from this ensues a massive series of wizard battles and 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:35.440 escalations of wicked enchantment. Along the way, chan hung faces doubt, weakness, temptation, 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.640 and setbacks, though actually those are kind of limited in scale, 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:44.160 like we get those concentrated in very specific moments in 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.960 the film. But it ends with a sorcerer showdown in 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.680 a Buddhist temple in Nepal, so stupendous that I think 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:55.120 many viewers will probably not even notice that the movie forgets, 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.240 as we said earlier, to tie up the kickboxing revenge plot. 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:02.320 As you speculated, Rob, I mean, you almost wonder if 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.360 the Shaw brothers, you know, we're like, we need a 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:07.240 kickboxing film, and that was just the price of admission 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.400 to get this film financed. But once the wizard re begins, 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.400 like why settle for anything less? Do we really want 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:18.400 to end this film with a kickboxing conflict? Is the 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:23.000 final confrontation when we could have a demoness giving birth 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:26.520 to plastic bags full of eyeballs that turn into putty 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.080 mummies that cut themselves open and cut their own fingers 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:33.240 off to bleed on each other and turn into eyeball 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:34.880 dinosaurs exactly. 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:38.800 Yeah, I don't think anybody's left wondering exactly how the 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:43.800 kickboxing resolved itself. All right, Well, like we said, this 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.600 one is a film that certainly has a reputation. It's 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:50.160 been a very popular midnight movie for quite a while. 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:52.959 So he almost can't provide an elevator pitch for it. 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.400 It is the Boxer's Omen and it casts a long shadow. 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:58.959 But I would say, you know, one man is about 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.319 to be sucked into a world of black magic, convengeance, 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:03.160 and then that's really all you need to know. The 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:06.920 rest is more of a it's more about sensation. Yeah, 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.320 let's listen to just a little bit of the trailer audio. 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:11.400 Though this is one we're just gonna dip in and 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.280 out of it because the trailer is mostly sound effects. 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:16.240 But maybe you'll get just a little bit of a 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:51.360 sonic vibe here. All right. Well, if you would like 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.160 to go and watch The Boxers Omen before proceeding with 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.400 the rest of this episode, it is available. I watched 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.280 it on the Image Entertainment DVD, which I believe came 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:02.680 out in two thousand and seven, and I rented that 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:06.240 from Video Drome here in Atlanta. It was also released 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:10.120 on Blu Ray in the shaw Scope Volume two box set, 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:12.880 which actually seems like it might be the best presentation 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:16.000 of the film with extras, but you have to buy 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.720 the entire ten disc set to get your hands on it. 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.880 There's even a commentary track by the late critic Travis 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:22.760 Crawford on there. 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:23.520 Though. 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:25.920 I believe JJ was telling us that you can also 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:31.240 stream this from Arrow via Arrow's online streaming presence. 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.880 And to be clear, the box set you're talking about 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:38.160 there is the Volume two Shaw Brothers collection from Errow Video. 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.960 Because there are also some Shout Factory Shaw Brothers box 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.120 sets and I was looking at their Volume two. That's 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:45.840 not the same thing. 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.320 Yeah, yeah, make sure you get the right one. I mean, 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:49.880 even if you make a mistake, you can end up 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.640 with a whole bunch of Shaw Brothers pictures which, you know. 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:53.400 Probably a good time. 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:54.640 It's pretty good time. 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.640 Yeah, But yes, I believe it's Volume two that has 0:15:57.760 --> 0:15:59.160 the boxer zoning on it. 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:04.640 It is. 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:10.200 All right, Well, let's talk a little bit about the 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.880 people behind this picture and in this picture. All right, 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:17.240 let's start at the top with Kuochi Hung, the director, 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:20.440 also the story credit and he did the special effects. 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:24.560 He lived nineteen thirty seven through nineteen ninety nine. Hong 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:28.960 Kong movie director active from sixty one through nineteen eighty four, 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:33.040 So Boxers omen is his penultimate film and his final 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.800 horror movie. He directed just one more film with the 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.960 same screenwriter as this picture, an action comedy titled Misfire, 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:47.200 before he apparently immigrated or reimmigrated to the United States. 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.040 I was more on that in just a minute here. 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:55.320 But he apparently ran a pizza restaurant in California for 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:58.120 the remainder of his life. I have so many questions 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.040 about this pizza restaurant. Yeah, I wasn't able to find 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.760 out much about it. I was even looking up interviews 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:09.280 with his son, Ming Beaverque, who is an American film producer. 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:12.399 In fact, he was an associate producer on the Meg movies, 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:14.199 the recent Giant Shark movies. 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.520 Oh, the Owens was Jason Steithem the. 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.840 Very ones, But he didn't really get into it much. 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:28.880 But I mentioned reimmigrated because apparently Ming's grandfather attended Cornell 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:32.199 and he says graduated in nineteen twenty two, worked in 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.280 Detroit in the nineteen thirties, and then went back to China. 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:37.399 During the Second World War, So I don't know, I 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:38.880 found that interesting. 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.640 So from what I understand, Quo Chi Hung was not 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:48.240 originally best known for making like horror or supernatural films, right, 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.000 I mean, this was some of his later work, but 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.840 early on he made a lot of like crime dramas and. 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:54.480 Stuff like that. 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:57.480 Yeah, he did a lot of different stuff, but he's 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:01.640 probably best known internationally for this late career period when 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.960 he did a lot of black magic films, mostly in 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.560 the nineteen eighties, playing off a tradition that was kind 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:11.040 of popularized in the nineteen seventies by the likes of 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:15.600 Oily Maniac director Hominghua, who we discussed. We've discussed this 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:17.800 film previously on Weird House Cinema. This is a film 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:21.520 from nineteen seventy six, but Kuo Chi Hunk takes things 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.760 to just New Dizzeying Heights obviously, so in addition to 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:28.639 the Boxer Zoemen, these black magic films include nineteen eighties Hex, 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:33.440 nineteen eighties Hex Versus Witchcraft, eighty one's Corps Mania, eighty 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:37.000 one's Bewitched, to which this film I've seen sometimes described 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:39.679 as kind of a sequel, eighty two's Curse of Evil 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.920 and eighty two's Hex after Hex. Obviously, these are all 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:47.119 you know, English titles, and one can generally assume that 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:51.320 the actual Chinese titles were maybe a little less silly sounding. 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:54.359 He also directed some horror films in the nineteen seventies 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:58.280 seventy three's The Bamboo House of Dolls, seventy four's Ghost Eyes, 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:03.200 seventy four's The Killers, seventy five's Fearful Interlude, and seventy 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.280 six is Spirit of the Rape. But he also directed 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:11.520 several action films, including nineteen eighties Killer Constable, generally considered 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.960 his only Wushav film, and he also directed the nineteen 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:19.159 seventy four serious crime drama The Tea House and nineteen 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:21.560 seventy six is The Bod Squad, which is a Kung 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:25.800 fu sex comedy. Nice so a popular and obviously daring 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.719 visual Shaw Brothers director here, But it's easy to focus 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:31.600 on the crazy visuals in a film like this. But 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.119 he also valued great locations, which is something we see 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:38.360 in The Boxer z Omen as well as our lead 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:43.800 character travels to Thailand and Nepal, and often he would 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:46.919 have subtle nods to the actual lives of common people, 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.600 which we see here as well, again almost giving it 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:52.879 a kind of documentary vibe in its real world moments, 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:55.920 and I'm to understand. In his other films he also 0:19:56.000 --> 0:20:02.480 tackled two varying degrees the subject of corruption, police, corruption, 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:06.359 and so forth. And yeah, but before he died, he 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.359 apparently immigrated to the United States and ran a pizza parlor. 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:12.000 So again, I wish I could find out more about 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:15.160 that pizza parlor, but it remains a mystery, all right. 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:18.000 Moving on to the screenplay. The screenplay is credited to 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:22.240 Own Setso, who lived nineteen twenty seven through twenty twenty one. 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:28.520 His other writings include Killer Constable, Corps Mania, Bewitched, eighty 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:33.240 two's Buddha's Palm, and also Curse of Evil. Obviously these 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:36.639 two worked together quite a lot, but Setso was in 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.680 general just a very prolific writer. On the Hong Kong 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:42.080 movie database, he has something like two hundred and fifty 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:45.399 nine writing credits. Wow, that's a lot, all right. Getting 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:50.280 into the cast here again, our main protagonist is Chang 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.280 Hung played by Philip Coe. Philip Co lived nineteen forty 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:58.800 nine through twenty seventeen. Hong Kong actor, stuntman and director, 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.720 Active from nineteen six seventy through two thousand and six. 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:05.480 He has an uncredited guard role in nineteen seventy three's 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.399 Enter the Dragon, which this is not surprising. I think 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.080 it's often the case when you look at Shaw Brothers pictures, 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.760 like everybody has some connection to Enter the Dragon. Even 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.159 though Enter the Dragon was not a Shaw Brother's motion picture. 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:22.720 I believe that was a Golden Harvest picture, but anyway. 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:25.800 Philip co His other acting credits include eighty four's The 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:30.399 Eight Diagram Poll Fighter, eighty seven's Eastern Condors, and eighty 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:34.000 eight Dragons Forever. He was also in eighty three Seating 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:37.160 of a Ghost, eighty six is Magic Crystal, and eighty 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:41.960 five's Ninja Terminator starring Richard Harris and we just talked about. 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:47.199 Played the lead cultist in Empire of the Dark. Philip 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:49.360 Co worked with such Hong Kong greats as Bruce Lee, 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:53.520 Jackie Chan, Samo Hung. His directing credits include nineteen eighties 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.000 Killer Romance and ninety two's Hard to Kill, starring a 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:59.840 young Robin Sho of Mortal Kombat fame. 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:01.520 Oh yeah, so. 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:05.399 He often played villains and was married at one point 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:09.120 to Japanese actress Yukari Oshima, who appeared in a number 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.200 of Hong Kong and Filipino pictures, including nineteen ninety one's 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.040 Ricky Oh, The Story of Ricky, in which she plays 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:16.200 one of the Gang of four. 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:18.280 May come back to that movie someday. 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:23.520 Yeah, the connection from one notoriously bloody picture to another. Okay, 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:26.320 so Chanhung is helping out the abbot. I think we've 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:30.439 established that the abbot in question here, the one that 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:35.280 he is connected to, that they are like reincarnations another 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:39.360 twins in her previous life. Yeah, we'll find out. This 0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:43.639 abbot is played by Elvis su Kam Kong born nineteen 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:46.920 sixty one, Hong Kong actor whose other films include eighty 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:51.040 three's Shaolin and Wu Tang. This is indeed the picture 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:55.080 that's one of Rizza's favorite films. Nineteen eighty six is 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:58.760 The Seventh Curse, eighty nine's The Iceman Cometh. I've seen 0:22:58.760 --> 0:22:59.919 that one. I believe that one has a lot of 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.520 sword play in it. Nineteen ninety six is Viva Erotica, 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:06.959 and twenty thirteen's The Grand Master. Now we have multiple 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:09.760 dark wizards in this picture, and I had a hard 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:13.560 time nailing down exactly which character was which, and who 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:16.880 played each character. I was working off of the Internet 0:23:16.880 --> 0:23:19.560 movie database as well as the Hong Kong movie database, 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:22.840 but for this movie in particular, we don't necessarily have 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:26.320 the names of the characters or even a character description 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:28.560 entailed as well. 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:31.160