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The Demon Concubine Is After the EVIL Power of Demon Summoning Upon Earth! “Saga of the Phoenix” reviewed! (88 Films / Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Own “Saga of the Phoenix” on Blu-ray from 88 Films!

For 660 years, Ashura, the Holy Virgin of Hell, has used her powers to resurrect demons from the underworld.  With the help of virtuous fighters Lucky Fruit and Peacock from the spirit realm, has renounced her temperamental intentions to use her powers for evil ever again and live beside the mortals under the warmth of sunshine.  When she accidently summons demons on Earth, Ashura is brought before Master Jiku and the Divine Nun to access the damage and reign judgement.  They sentence her to live in cell of the relaxed Buddha for all of eternity, but she persuades them one chance to live amongst the humans for seven days, just enough time to live under and enjoy the only thing she wants, the sun.  The Demon Concubine has a different plan for Ashura.  Seeking her demon resurrection powers, the Demon Concubine aims kill her but with the help of Lucky Fruit, Peacock, and her new human friends, Ashura will battle against the Demon Concubine and her demonic forces. 

“Saga of the Phoenix” is the Golden Harvest produced, 1989 released sequel following quickly behind the 1988 released “Peacock King.”  Based off the Japanese manga “Peacock King” written by Makoto Ogino from 1985 to 1989, the action-fantasy film was codirected by returning “Peacock King” director Ngai Choi Lam (“Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky,” “The Cat”), aka Lam Nai-Choi, and newcomer to the series Sze-Yu Lau (“Forced Nightmare,” “My Neighbors are Phantoms!”) with “Game of Death” actor Biao Yuen stepping away from writing the follow-up and be more involved on the acting by returning to one of the main roles from “Peacock King.”  The script is from a confluence of Japanese and Hong Kong screenwriters, initially scripted by Japanese manga adaptation to television screen writer Hirohisa Soda and then adapted by Tsui-Wah Wong, You-Ming Leung (“Once Upon a Time in China”), and Sau-Ling Chan, none of whom were involved in “Peacock King.”  Hong Kong’s cult and genre film product Lam Chua (“Erotic Ghost Story, “A Chinese Torture Chamber Story”) serves as producer on the Golden Harvest and Paragon Films Hong Kong-Japanese coproduction. 

Gloria Yip returns as the Holy Virgin of Hell, Ashura.  Having never seen “Peacock King,” I’m not sure what type of temperament Ashura donned in a role where the character seems like one of the main antagonists according to the synopsis, but for “Saga of the Phoenix,” Ashura is joyful, childlike mischievous, and humble and is the center focus between the forces of good versus evil.  Als returning is Biao Yuen, but not in his screenwriter role.  Yuen, known for starring alongside female martial artist and star Cynthia Rothrock in “Righting Wrongs,” reprising Peacock, a fierce spirit realm guardian who befriends Ashura along with fellow guardian Lucky Fruit, played by Hiroshi Abe (“Godzilla 2000”) who replaced Hiroshi Mikami from the first film.  Much of Yuen is taken out of the story while being in frozen captivity by the Demon Concubine, leaving Abe and Yip to better struggle one-on-one connecting in the human world, facing human problem, and accessing the threat from the Demon World.  Yip’s candid antics exact the innocence of a young child like making snarky faces when corrected or obsessing over trivial things like sunshine, and especially when Ashura befriends a small, gremlin-like troll or creature named Tricky Ghost and holding it like a favorite stuffed toy, and this leaves Abe to be the role model, or the parental guardian if you will, stoic in stance and a reasonable thinker for his character.  It all comes off as silly until Ngai Suet and the Demon Concubine enters the frame.  The “The Ghost Ballroom” actress Suet takes on the evilly empowered role armed with seven demon subjects to do her bidding, such as trying to kidnap Ashura, and Suet runs with the role caked in a pale makeup, high pointy eyebrows that open up her eyes, and shoulder-padded dark dress.  Embroiled in the spirit world clash are two mortal siblings in Chin (Loletta Lee, “Mr. Vampire Saga IV”), who saves unintentionally saves Tricky Ghost, and her mad scientist brother Tan (Shek-Yin Lau, “Resort Massacre”) who finds himself in bitter rivalry with Tricky Ghost’s mischief ways spurring some comic relief into the fantastical brew and they represent the workable relationship between man and godlike individuals.  “Zatoichi” series actor Shintarô Katsu is in the role of Master Jiku, “Carmen 1945’s” Yûko Natori is the Divine Nun, and Noriko Arai (“Death Note”), Megumi Sakita (“Bodyguard Kiba”), and Yukari Tachibana (“The Scissors Massacre”) as the three nun warriors to round out the Hong Kong-Japanese cast.

If you’re familiar with director Lam Nai-Choi, then it comes no surprise to you the kind of practical effects juggernaut “Saga of the Phoenix” can become and, in the end, doesn’t disappointment.  Choi often overscales the effort of tangibility, bringing unbelievable imagination and larger than life objects to manifestation without much, if any, assistance from computer generated imagery, and in the late 1980s, that technology wasn’t exactly perfected to what modern cinema sees today with skilled visual artistry and the introduction of artificial intelligence that’s on the verge of possibly shoving itself into the actor pool once the kinks are worked out.  In “Saga of the Phoenix,” the palpable physical presence involved is mostly at the finale third act where good versus evil face off between Ashura, Peacock, and Lucky Fruit and the ravenously aggressive Demon Concubine, the latter transforming like a Power Ranger Megazord into a gray-skeletal winged creature large enough to tower over the heroes and wide enough to swallow them nearly by three times.   Of course, this is not to say there hasn’t been other practical effects along the way which include demons inhabiting dragon statues, high wire acts of characters soaring during fight sequences, and the little mischievous imp, Tricky Monkey, from being a manipulated puppetry that weirdly reminisces Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth.”  The painted optical tricks to render color bolts of energy weaponry are a nice classic touch toward a pop of color as well as creating the inherent superhuman element of the principal players.  For someone going into “Sage of the Phoenix” headfirst without having seen or any knowledge of “Peacock King,” room for the film to standalone is rather thin but not egregiously reliant on the first film.  There’s a bit of recapping at the begging with narrative voiceover and get some clue-ins about the past from the dialogue but there’s still quite a bit unexplained, such as Ashura’s behavior fabled to be a powerful demonic necromancer who has somewhere along the way had a change of heart and we’re not privy to why.  That sense of uncertainly never really goes away through the comedy, action, and laser-firing, high-flying martial arts sinew, that something is innately missing from the story that’s saturated with wuxia themes. 

If looking to increase your bicep’s muscle mass, 88 Film’s limited-edition Blu-ray is weighty with content and it’s only one disc!  The AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition resolution, BD50 is encoded with a cherished updated 2K restored transfer from the original 35mm negative that looks unquestionably majestic on screen.  Vibrant and diffused evenly colors, high decode rate, and flawless textures, there’s nothing to dislike about this release, visually technical.  Deep in the color range and Chi-Kan Kwan’s sundry cinematography that offers vast length shots and a warm neon haze of blue and magenta through tint or gels, with a matted golden peacock rising against the monstrosities of the demon world, “Saga of the Phoenix” resurrects an aesthetic only Lam Nai-Choi could manifest from pure imagination.  The original negative is virtually pristine with no signs of damage or wear to note, nor any compression issues to note.  The uncompressed PCM Cantonese 2.0 mono offers a forward heavy diegetic sound that separate each layer favorably diversified. Clean and clear ADR make for easy discernability, capturing every bit of dialogue despite the post-production mis-synchronous acceptance. Laser action, creature roars, and other detailed measured sounds really give “Sage of the Phoenix” body, depth, and range that makes it an overall A/V highlight amongst its wuxia genre counterparts that tend to omit the smaller particulars of a scene. English subtitles pace just fine and are errorfree in a UK text. Most of the heavy lifting is done by the physical presence of the 88 Films Blu-ray that’s housed in a rigid slipbox and sheathed in a cardboard O-Slip, both containing new arranged illustrated artwork by R.P. “Kung Fu Bob” O’Brien that’s takes the true elements from the film and places them on the cover in a sure-fire canvas of what to expect. The clear Amaray cases also has O’Brien artwork as the primary cover art with the reverse side featuring the original Hong Kong poster art. Along with the O-slipcover, other limited-edition contents include a two-sided collectible art card and a 40-page illustrated book with color pictures and essays from Andrew Heskins (From Panel to Screen) and David West (The Japanese Connection), along with featured Japanese cover art Kujakuoh-Legend of Ashure. If the physical properties were not enough, the encoded content, available on the LE and Standard Edition, will bring this set home as it details with an audio commentary by Hong Kong Cinema Experts Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto, alternate footage from the Japanese cut of the film, executive producer Albert Lee discusses the international distribution plan from Golden Harvest Sage of Golden Harvest – The International Connection, an image gallery, and the original trailer. The 88 Films release is unrated, has region A and B playback, and has a runtime of 94 minutes.

Last Rites: Wuxia movies like “Saga of the Phoenix” are no surprise to where John Carpenter found influence for “Big Trouble in Little China” and it’s the director Lam Nai-Choi who didn’t shy away from the difficulties and inauthentic problems of physical effects but the film has its own innate issues with story that downgrade from a saga to just being an epic picture with winged creatures, bright energy blasts, and a lovely Gloria Yip succumbing to age, and status, regression with her Holy Virgin From Hell role.

Own “Saga of the Phoenix” on Blu-ray from 88 Films!

A Young Man Has to Become Someone Else to Exact Revenge on EVIL! “The Adventurers” (Eureka Entertainment / Special Limited-Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Limited Edition “The Adventurers” Now on Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment!

A Cambodian boy’s family is brutally murdered by the family friend and covert colleague Ray Lui, in front of him.  Alone and distraught, Wai Lok-yan is taken under the wing of his Uncle Shang, a CIA operative living in Thailand, and grows up to be a military fighter pilot still haunted by the violent death of his family.  When a newspaper headline names the now wealthy-by-gun-smuggling Ray Lui is to attend a public event, Wai Lok-yan is hellbent to kill Ray Lui at any cost, despite his career and his life, but a horribly failed assassination attempt puts his life in danger.  Uncle Shang strikes a deal with the CIA, who also want Ray Liu dead, to allow Wai Lok-yan in the United Staes in exchange to be an undercover operative named Mandy Chan, a gang boss seeking to kidnap Liu’s estranged daughter Crystal to get closer to the murderous arms smuggler.  However, what Wai Lok-yan didn’t expect in his mission was to fall in love.

The 1995 Ringo Lam gun action-thriller “The Adventurers” starring Andy Lau is in no way related to the 2017 Stephen Fung gun action-thriller “The Adventurers” also starring Andy Lau.  I just wanted to get that out there and over with.  Moving on.  Ringo Lam, director of the Jean-Claude Van Damme films “Maximum Risk,” “Replicant,” and “In Hell,” cowrites what is known in Hong Kong as a heroic bloodshed feature with “Supercop 2’s” Sandy Shaw and Kwong-Yam Yip.  Heroic bloodshed is a popular subgenre stemmed and coined from the 1980s that surrounded themes of duty, honor, and violent gunplay while embroiled in a web of drama and plot complexities that make it seem almost impossible for the hero to come out alive.  The internationally filmed production, spearheaded between China Star Entertainment and Win’s Entertainment Ltd., is produced by “Black Mask’s” Tiffany Chan and Charles Heung.

As stated earlier, Andy Lau stars as the protagonist lead playing a dueled dual life as the orphaned Woai Lok-yan seeking vengeance through the pseudonym of Mandy Chan, criminal boss infiltrating as a spy and assassin against his family’s murderer Ray Lui, played by the longstanding actor Paul Chun (“In the Line of Duty III,” “Hong Kong 1941”).  The “Internal Affairs,” Hong Kong action star Lau seizes and harbors his character’s plotted difficult choice:  to do whatever it takes to get within arm’s length trust of the man who killed his family versus falling gradually in love with that same murderer’s innocent daughter.  There’s plenty of back and forth for Lau to engage in both footsteps that teeter a line between duty, responsibility, and the heart but one side does swallow the other and in a negative way as the romance with love interest Crystal (Chien-Lien Wu, “Beyond Hypothermia”) is sorely underplayed against the Ray Lui mission and a competing love interest in Lui’s arm candy flavor of the month Mona, played by Rosamund Kwan (“The Head Hunter”).  Mona’s desperation to leave or kill Ray Lui, and subsequently be with Wai Lok-yan, is to the point of letting the mission and the love between Mandy and Crystal burn to the ground and that greatly built up and infringes upon the lack of genuine connection provided to give Mandy and Crystal a sympathetic understanding, especially when Ringo Lam’s storytelling isn’t scene successive and time is basically nonexistent.  Less detrimental to story, Mona’s subplot also does take a bite out of the whole operative mission itself, as it creates more complexities for Mandy when a gun smuggler’s woman wants out and will reluctantly do anything to achieve that goal, even backstab the Mandy who she wants to be with.  As the zippy story hits all the highlights, one downside aspect is also zipping through interesting supporting roles from David Chiang (“Murder Plot”), Ben Ngai-Cheung Ng (“The Eternal Evil of Asia”), Victor Wong (“Big Trouble in Little China,” “Tremors”), George Cheung (“Robocop 2”), Van Darkholme, Ron Yuan (“Godzilla 2000”), Phillip Ko (“Cannibal Curse”) and Andy Tse (“Naked Ambition”).

A powerfully engaging opening, heighted for full empathetic effect and visceral distress, of little Wai Lok-yan’s family being mercilessly slaughtered right before his eyes immediately has audiences on his side, especially when the boy, whose no more than 6-8 years old, bawls and collapses right into the arms of Uncle Shang shortly after the bloody aftermath.  What ensues is a flash forward to years later with Wai Lok-yan, now a grown man and a Thai fighter pilot, haunted by his past when his family’s killer Ray Lui surfaces in the paper.  At this point is where the story begins to snowball downhill, gaining speed at an inconceivable rate and growing bigger and bigger by the scene.  The action is pleasingly palatable with excellent gunplay and hand-to-hand fight choreographies that’s squib-tastically bloody and hard-hitting.  Where the story struggles typically reside, perhaps on a more subjective level, is the pacing that’s aimed to fly through the Wai Lok-yan/Mandy Chan timeline at a breakneck speed in order to capture the loops and hoops the hero has to jump through to reach Ray Lui but the way he infiltrates the public ceremony to assassinate Ray Lui, being integrated into the San Francisco Asian street gang, and even his sudden marriage to Crystal without the imprinting buildup of romance shocks the critical thinking system, tricking the brain into a stagnant state by time lapsing forward not in days or in weeks but in months or in years of time passed without the ease of a better transition to work into the time and space in-between.  Also, “The Adventurers” severe lack the motorized mayhem in the land, air, and sea, and despite the film’s select advert one sheets of Wai Lok-yan in full fighter pilot gear and his soaring adult introduction, hurts the image the film portrays that’s more grounded in melee combat or in a barrage of bullets with only bookend combat jet and helicopter sequences and a brief car chase in the middle that impress just above the par bar. 

UK label Eureka Entertainment brings to North American shelves, and audiences, a special, limited-edition Blu-ray edition of “The Adventurers,” stored onto an AVC encoded, high-resolution, 1080p, BD50.  Visual aspects on the Eureka’s brand new 2k restoration release is impeccable with a clear delineation, a sharp detail-driven style, and a clean, desaturated color scheme that’s hard, gritty, and muted, catering extensively to the intense violence and fast-paced action themes of the heroic bloodshed subgenre film.  Lam’s Dutch angles are dramatically harnessed in the Hi-Def scan with additional pixels emphasizing every element in the frame that makes the scene that more dramatic and a concentrated actioner in the anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio.  Even the jetfighters are clearer and distinct with the camera and object movements that render the plane as a fighter plane rather than the vague blur that maybe is a plane or could be bird.  There are three Cantonese audio tracks, including a restored LPCM stereo, a restored DTS-HD MA 5.1, and the original unrestored stereo.  The unrestored stereo is quite indelicate with plenty of flawed rudiments that have a hard time sustaining with “The Adventurer’s” range.  The restored stereo is an efficient, effective, and adequate exaltation of the original audio track but A/V enthusiast will definitely be pleased with the surround sound DTS-HD 5.1 that completely is immersive where it counts, such as the bookend aerials and channel diffused gunplay that brings the action’ to your ears rather than your ears trying to capture the action.  The 5.1 absolutely feels more robust without being artificially broached.  Newly translated English subtitles are optionally available for an inhouse dialogue that’s clear and present at all times throughout the story.  Special features include a new audio commentary by film critic David West, a new interview with Asian Journal’s editor-in-chief Gary Bettinson Two Adventurers, unearthed archive interview with writer and producer Sandy Shaw, and the theatrical trailer.  What’ makes Eureka Entertainment’s release a limited edition is the cardboard O-card slipcase overtop the clear Blu-ray Amaray case with new artwork by Time Tomorrow, which is a composition of stills bathed in yellow and shadowed in black.  The Amaray has the more egregiously misleading original poster art of the protagonist in jetfighter attire and the New York City’s twin towers in the background for the pre 9/11 film; however, Andy Lau is only briefly in the gear during his adult character’s introduction and his character does not end up in New York City, but rather San Francisco.  A collector’s 19-page booklet resides in the insert section with color photos, more misleading promotional stills, an essay by Hong Kong cinema scholar Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park from the University of Hong Kong, film credits list, Blu-ray credits list, and tips and tricks for viewing the film properly according to your cinema setup settings.  The release is not rated, has a runtime of 110 minutes, and is encoded with a region A and B playback.

Last Rites: Eureka Entertainment brings Andy Lau back into the spotlight with a slick new transfer for “The Adventurers,” action-packed revenge bottled to be less romantic and more fervid in nature.

Limited Edition “The Adventurers” Now on Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment!