The Peacock King (1988)

I'll tell you why so serious

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This was one movie where acting of Hong Kong actors and Japanese actors interaction went extremely smooth. Usually in HK movie made in Japan have HK actor doing lion share of the dialog, and Japanese actors are relegated to small roles where they speak only few simple Japanese words. Not this movie. It's amazing that the actors just went playing their role as if it was done in their native language, and somehow it all looked natural.When you look at this movie its really difficult to tell who's the Japanese actor and who's from Hong Kong. Genetically, all Asians must be pretty close to one another.In Cantonese version Yuen Bao is the main character, but in the Japanese version Hiroshi Mikami is the main character. They wrote the script very cleverly that the two characters are interchangeable.Based on a comic by Makoto Ogino, Peacock King, or Kujyaku Oo is a good translation of the original comic into a movie. The original comic's ordinary person, or situation suddenly morphing into a demonic entity is also translated well into this movie.I liked Narumi Yasuda's acting as a department worker suddenly finding herself embroiled in the world of Vajirayana Buddhism vs demons of the underworld.World looked really peaceful and healthy in Japan around the time this movie was made. It truly was the best of times.Really well made movie of its kind. It's a treat to watch.

Manga based Chinese film about two men, Lucky Fruit and Peacock who are the only two people who stand between humanity and the resurrection of the Hell King by the evil Raga and the daughter of the Hell King.Old school action fantasy horror film mixes stop motion, forced perspective, wires, rubber and other non computer effects for use in a slam bang fantasy film. This is a movie that just starts and goes and never worries about all the details, it just pulls you along like a crazy friend who has this idea of how to do a road trip. It may not be the perfect road trip but you can't say you're not having fun. With Monsters that run the gamut from something from John Carpenter's The Thing to Korda's Thief of Bagdad to Krull to schlocky 1980's glowing eyes horror films this movie is a great deal of fun for people who don't mind less then perfect monsters. The martial arts sequences are well done even when they sprinkle in magical aide. Best of all are the characters who seem to all belong together and who banter about with a nice level of wittiness that doesn't fall into cliché or stupidity.I just really like this movie in a rainy afternoon popcorn sort of way. How good is it? I'm thinking of replacing my perfectly fine dollar VCD with a more expensive DVD copy so I can have more options where I watch this.Worth a bowl of popcorn and a soda.

Yuen Biao is a great, underrated martial artist, and personally I prefer to see him fighting against human opponents with his body (which he does ONLY ONCE, after a full hour, in this film) rather than weird stop-motion animated creatures with supernatural fireballs (which he does a lot more often here). The ambitious, large-scale special effects and sets of "The Peacock King" are worth seeing (even if they show their age sometimes, and they're not as good as those of the same director's "Seventh Curse"), and when the Hell King himself appears at the end, he looks pretty impressive. But the story, which has Biao as a sort of adventurer-exorcist-demon hunter who tries to prevent the end of the world with the help of his equally skilled brother, is just incomprehensible claptrap. (**)

Despite reasonably pitiful special effects, this was still quite an entertaining martial arts movie. Quite a good amount of fighting, acceptable acting and an unremarkable plot, this was an acceptable way to pass the time.If you like Yuen Biao or Hong Kong martial arts movies, you will probably get enough entertainment out of this without being blown away. The first time I saw this I think I must have been pretty tired as I fell asleep. The second time it seemsd a lot better...!!I think it deserves a 6 out of 10 which is pretty good going.