FIVE RIDERS VS KING DARK/HANUMAN AND THE FIVE RIDERS (1974)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

It's not often that a thief makes better use of his ill-gotten goods than the original owner. But such seems to be the case-- in an aesthetic though not moral sense-- regarding what the Thai company Chaiyo did with respect to the property of the Japanese Toei Studios.

Readers of this blog may recall my recent review of THE SIX ULTRA BROTHERS VS. THE MONSTER ARMY. This tokusatsu movie was a legitimate inter-company collaboration, in which the Japanese company Tsuburaya contracted to loan out its Ultraman franchise to Chaiyo, who crossed over the six brothers of the title with a Thai super-being, Hanuman, based upon the monkey-god of Asian mythology. As I noted in the review, Chaiyo eventually attempted to use that collaboration to make a legal claim upon the Ultraman property, but I believe that came some years later.

Apparently BROTHERS made money, so Chaiyo reached out to another Japanese company, Toei, and asked to do the same sort of project with the company's "Kamen Rider" franchise. But Toei turned the Thais down. Toei had enjoyed years of popularity with that property-- which, like Ultraman, brought in a new protagonist each season, keeping only a tenuous connection between each show through the overriding concept. In 1974, the current "Kamen Rider" show was titled KAMEN RIDER X, and Toei was confident enough in the franchise's moneymaking power that (from what I can glean) they released a half-hour special to movie theaters. This was FIVE RIDERS VS. KING DARK, which featured Kamen Rider X but also had the previous four Kamen Riders of other seasons as guest stars. 

I've watched an unsubtitled Japanese YouTube featurette that may or may not be the same release seen in theaters in 1974-- though I speculate that at most that show might be missing a few short scenes. King Dark, the regular opponent of Kamen Rider X, sends forth his "Myth Cyborgs" to capture ordinary Japanese citizens so that the King can drink their blood-- even though he's a giant robot who's usually seen lying on his side like a Buddha-statue. For reasons not clear to me, the other four Riders join Kamen Rider X to beat down the King's assorted monsters, including "Frankenbat," who looks like the Frankenstein Monster in a Man-Bat suit. In the end the King gets away, just as he would in a regular TV episode.

According to this review, Chaiyo decided to ignore Toei's refusal and made their crossover film anyway, in part by pilfering some of the footage from FIVE RIDERS. Most of this footage appears in the first thirty minutes of HANUMAN, and in later sections, the company used its own actors wearing replicas of the Kamen Rider costumes. The most one can say of the film's use of the Riders is that the heroes are pretty dull both in their original forms and in these unflattering imitations.

The writers for HANUMAN, however, interpolated scenes taken from ULTRA BROTHERS (solely scenes dealing with the Thai creation Hanuman) and devised new scenes in which King Dark also manifested in a human-sized form, garbed in armor and a big helmet. This version of King Dark rants like a maniac about feeding on virgin blood, and the viewers (some of whom were surely kids) see many victims, mostly female, being exsanguinated for the corpuscles. But the Riders begin cutting off the King's supply of blood-banks, so he demands a solution from one of his subordinates. Said flunky says that there's a scientist, Doctor Wisut, who can create new monster-pawns for the King. Yet the flunky asserts that for some vague reason, the only way to capture Wisut is to free a dead man from Hell.

This is where the recycled footage from ULTRA BROTHERS comes in. In that film, three bandits killed a young Thai boy. "Ultra Mother" brought the boy back to life by fusing him with the monkey-god Hanuman, who for whatever reason only appears a skyscraper-sized fighter. Flashbacks show how the giant hero avenged his murder by finding the three bandits, whom he slaughters mercilessly. These three men's souls end up in Thai Hell, and it's the head bandit, Kaan, whom King Dark's flunky claims to be the only one they can use to obtain Wisut.

There follows a brief tour of the tortures of the wicked in Hell-- very gory stuff for a kids' film-- and then we see the King of Hell railing at the three bandits, who I guess are new arrivals. One of King Dark's agents infiltrates Hell and rescues Kaan. The Hell-King's okay with that, because he knows Kaan will end up in his hands sooner or later.

Kaan is apparently given new powers by King Dark, for he spies on Doctor Wisut and his cute girlfriend Julie. Kaan then transforms himself into the image of Julie and lures Wisut into a trap. The continuity is jumbled-- we next see both Wisut and the real Julie in King Dark's realm. After Kaan fails to force Wisut to cooperate by tickling his feet (!), the evildoer threatens to drain Julie's blood. Wisut caves and creates Frankenbat, who, according to one line of dialogue, supposedly has powers superior to the Riders. Nevertheless, the heroes beat the monster. Wisut obligingly creates a bunch of less memorable monsters, leading to more fights between monsters and riders, with Hanuman eventually joining for his only new scenes. Kaan practically takes over as the main villain, chewing the scenery over and over until he's finally killed and sent back to Hell. There the Hell-King merrily cuts off the heads of all three bandits at once, maybe just for symmetry's sake, and King Dark escapes once again.

Though I'm not making any great claims for the HANUMAN film-- which I've heard only circulated in grey-market copies-- it is a lot more visually stimulating than the original RIDER featurette. That doesn't excuse the outright theft, of course. I can't speak to the overall quality of the Kamen Rider property, as I've barely seen any of the shows, but I'm sure there are a lot of Japanese tokusatsu that can equal the Thai movie for demented-seeming visuals. But the second (and probably last) appearance of Hanuman is still memorably bizarre, especially in comparison to the rather so-so first film.

DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: LEGENDS OF ATLANTIS (2018)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*   

For the last of the DC SUPER HERO GIRLS movies, we're back to the adventure-mythos and the writers and director associated with the first two telefilms. Nevertheless, the last movie in the series shows marked improvement over the first two. Like the two LEGO comedies, there's just one main threat and the heroines aren't tripping over one another this time. Some LEGO influence might also be present in that the script allows for better humor, even though the story employs the old chestnut of heroes having their respective powers switched around just as the new threat presents itself.

In this case, two sisters from an other-dimensional water-world steal a magical book from the high school, planning to use it to invade Atlantis and take control of the underwater city by stealing the trident of Poseidon from the current king, a young-ified version of Aquaman. In the comic books, one of the two sisters is Mera, an iconic member of Aquaman's ensemble in that she eventually marries the Sea King-- but in this universe, she and Aquaman have never met before. Mera's sister Siren is the main villain, forcing Mera to commit crimes for their supposed mutual benefit, and she's a much later addition to the Aqua-verse, established as a villainous sibling to Mera around 2010. Once this version of Siren defeats Aquaman and acquires the magic trident, she launches war upon the surface world and tries to inundate Metropolis in seawater. 

In due time the superheroines (and a few male heroes like Flash and Beast Boy) make an ally of Mera, whom Siren imprisoned because she didn't like sharing power. Though we're back to having about a dozen heroes uniting to fight the menace, there's not as much of a sense of overcrowding. Some additional humor is provided by a version of the emotionally restricted Raven-- making her only appearance in any of the movies-- being forced to interact with the wacky Harley Quinn. I could have done without a subplot in which as a child Wonder Woman encountered some of Siren's horrific monster-pawns and thus became traumatized by the experience. But the action is also the best in all the "serious" movies in the series, so the series as a whole finishes on a relative high point. Mera also goes off to be admitted to Hero High, with only the slightest implications of a future encounter between her and Young Aquaman.

LEGO DC SUPER HERO GIRLS:SUPER-VILLAIN HIGH (2018)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

The second and last of the LEGO versions of this franchise utilizes a lot more of the secondary characters than the other one, such as the Lego-ized versions of Katana, Bumblebee, Beast Boy and the female Green Lantern, Jessica Something. However, it sticks with just one villain, Lena Luthor, who's well-crafted as a third-rate villain trying to up her reputation. (Lena does have one henchperson from a previous telefilm, Lashina of the Female Furies, but because she functions only as a henchperson, she doesn't overburden HIGH with too many divergent antagonists.

I've mentioned in previous reviews that the franchise takes place in its own continuity, where the students at the hero-forging institution include all sorts of de-aged DC heroes and villains-- the implication being that the villains attempted to be heroes before going down the wrong path as adults. Lena Luthor, resenting her previous defeats by the Hero High students, decides to infiltrate the school and corrupt five "future villains" to her way of thinking. As it happens, Lena's timing is spot on, for five students-- Catwoman, Cheetah, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Killer Frost-- get irritated with Supergirl, Batgirl, Wonder Woman and the "Jessica Cruz" version of Green Lantern. While Principal Waller is on vacation, Lena impersonates her and lures the disaffected students to another school, "Uber High."

The three main heroes decide they want to investigate Uber, and they send Green Jessica to spy on the new high school. Eventually the heroines learn Lena's dastardly (and comparatively original) scheme: to break into the Rock of Eternity (where dwells the wizard formerly known as Shazam) and steal seven magical gems. However, the removal of the gems sets loose the demons known as the Seven Deadly Sins, who have the power to influence mortals with negative emotions. On the positive side, the five proto-villain girls begin to miss their good times at Super Hero High. and eventually they're all brought back into the fold. Though the heroes foil Lena's plot to use the magic gems for (I think) world dominion, she escapes justice and plots to found her universe's version of the Legion of Doom.

Both the jokes and the fights here are on a par with the best Lego-flicks for other DC characters, making this the best of the comedy versions of the franchise. 

LEGO DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: BRAIN DRAIN (2017)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological* 

The first of two LEGO-ized versions of DC SUPER HERO GIRLS avoids one of my main criticisms of the regular franchise by concentrating on just three heroines: Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Batgirl. 

Like all of the other LEGO films I've reviewed, BRAIN DRAIN is a comedy first and an adventure second. However, the jokes aren't on a par with the best humor of Lego's versions of Batman and Justice League. This may be because the writers were too narrowly following the very limited cosmos of the "straight" HERO GIRLS series, which is a little bit like the old idea of "copying the shadow of a shadow."

BRAIN DRAIN does have an intriguing opening. The three main heroes investigate a burglary and find that the culprits are their schoolmates Katana and Bumblebee. Then all three girls wake up and it seems that they just dreamed the whole thing. However, they've all lost 24 hours of time, during which they apparently committed various offenses against other students and against Principal Amanda Waller.

After this promising start, though, things soon settle down into a routine meet-and-beat. The trio tracks down the author of their troubles, Lena Luthor from the second "straight" telefilm, and she's made common cause with Eclipso, one of the two main evildoers from the first telefilm. Again, the two villains are using a combination of "open a dimension portal to gain power" and "enslave regular people and superheroes alike with a mind-control thingie." But reducing the number of super-foes down to two is also a big improvement, and Lena Luthor gets the movie's best lines.

Even though the animators here are dealing with "brick-mation" rather than drawings, the LEGO raconteurs map out much better fights than were seen in the two adventure-oriented movies. Aside from that, it's just another routine Lego-flick.   

DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: INTERGALACTIC GAMES (2017)

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*    

The second SUPER HERO GIRLS telemovie is a marginal improvement over the first one. The fight-action is a little better, there are a few less extraneous characters, and there's less clumsy exposition and bad melodrama. But the writers still shoehorned too many irons into the fire (to mix metaphors flagrantly).

The titular games sound like they'd involve a lot of different contestants, but there are only two competing teams of note here: the students at Super Hero High on Earth and a motley crew of aliens under the command of the "renegade Green Lantern" Sinestro. He's not a villain here yet, just an asshole, but the "Korugar team" also includes Blackfire, the snide sister of the Hero High student Starfire. The subplot involving Starfire's attempt to connect with her snooty sibling is moderately well handled.

The main plotline seems to concern inventor Doc Magnus's invention of three crimefighting robots, who are based on the comic-book heroes The Metal Men. The three robots go on a rampage due to faulty systems, and two are permanently taken out of action by the super-heroines, leaving only the one female, Platinum. Magnus's invention is pursued by two separate villains: the Female Furies of Apokolips and the scientist Lena Thorul. The latter works at the high school as an "IT girl," concealing the fact that she's actually the sister of Lex Luthor under a pseudonym-- and even concealing that she's as bald as her brother. The writer seems to build up to some conflict between Lena and Supergirl, simply because the characters had an intimate buddy-relationship in the comics, but the script never justifies this. Big Barda, a former Female Fury who switched from evil to good in order to join the school for superheroes, has a predictable run-in with her former compatriots from Apokolips, but this too goes nowhere fast. Then, as if to compensate for my comment that there were fewer heroes stuffed into the continuity, the last act includes another familiar fiend who's pulling the strings for Lena Luthor.

A subplot involving Platinum's upgrade from a mechanical consciousness to something approximating humanity is the sole reason that this entry involves a cosmological myth-function.

DEADLY DREAM WOMAN (1992)

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

I admit that I watched a version of this film broadcast on a cable channel that used to show old HK movies, usually with the very rough English subtitles done for Hong Kong's English-speaking residents. So I could be missing lots of subtleties thanks to a subpar translation.

However, I doubt that this inferior "girls with guns" entry had any hidden virtues. DEADLY DREAM WOMAN looks like a lot of HK comedies, with the story cobbled together from all sorts of disparate elements. And one of the biggest is that main character Nightingale Wong (Sharla Cheung Man) waltzes around in a domino mask and costume for no explicit reason. This attire resulted in a number of online sources calling Nightingale a "superhero," even though there's no evidence that she's anything of the kind.

Nightingale is first seen, along with a similarly garbed partner named "Cuckoo," in a meeting of Triad gang bosses. None of these career criminals seem the least bit curious as to why the two women wear weird costumes, but it's not to protect their identities. By way of introducing Nightingale to the other crooks, the chairman of the group-- whom Nightingale calls her "foster dad"-- tells everyone that Nightingale is the daughter of such-and-such a Triad bigwig. Since Nightingale and Cuckoo are later seen to possess considerable fighting skills, the best conclusion is that they're supposed to be either bodyguards or assassins who just like dressing up like a female version of Batman and Robin.     

A young Triad boss, name of "Jaguar," makes his move to gain dominance, bringing in a gang of assassins to murder the chairman and his allies. Nightingale and Cuckoo fight valiantly but both the chairman and Cuckoo are killed. Nightingale escapes in a boat but hits her head and loses her memory. 

At the same time all this is going on, the film introducers viewers to some rather crooked bar-girls, headed by older female Deannie Yip and the younger Chingmy Yau. They find Nightingale and take her in, at least partly hoping to ransom her when they find out who she is. All the scenes with the bargirls are filled with wacky dialogue that HK audiences may've found hilarious, but said scenes were a complete bore to me. Eventually Nightingale recovers her memory and goes on the warpath to get Jaguar, with some assistance from her new girl-buddies. The various action-scenes are certainly better than any of the comedy, but the former are nothing special. The curiosity value of Triad bosses using costumed bodyguards is the only distinguishing aspect of this derivative production.      

         

DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: HERO OF THE YEAR (2016)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

Though I aspire to review everything that fits into the metaphenomenal/combative idiom, DC SUPER HERO GIRLS is one franchise I'm tempted to ignore. I watched random episodes of the show's two seasons from time to time, and found GIRLS to be okay light entertainment for its target audience, girls aged from 6 to 12. But the program's so undemanding that it makes SCOOBY DOO look like advanced cinema. 

The core idea is a high school for superheroes, where various DC characters are leveled to high-schoolers, with a heavy concentration on females, though various junior-ized versions of males like The Flash and Green Lantern appear as a sop to inclusivity. The overall design for all of them follows a sort of fluffy-bunny look in line with the marketing, and the sheer quantity of characters looks suspiciously like an attempt to sell as many plushie toys as possible. That might make sense to toymakers but in HERO there are roughly thirteen characters who play pivotal roles, and another ten or twelve who are background characters. In essence, the students are practically tripping over one another, which doesn't make for a sound ensemble.

The title emphasizes an annual contest in which one of the students gets elected to "hero of the year," but this has only minor consequences for the plot, mostly revolving around parental figures hovering around the heroines. The actual plot deals with two villains, Dark Opal and Eclipso, who steal various item from the girl heroes for some mystical power-plot I've already forgotten.

As a feminist message HERO is nugatory, and the oversaturation of DC heroes and villains has the opposite effect of a smart show like BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD. Either the viewer doesn't know enough about the various icons trundled out to make them interesting, or the writers whip out oddball takes on established continuity-- like associating Eclipso (a female this time out) with the dimension of Gemworld for some random reason. I'll be surprised if the other three telefilms are any better than this one but hope springs eternal.