THE NINJA VIXENS: THE FINAL CONSPIRACY (1991)

 

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

Forget: "final conspiracy"-- it's finally the end of this awful series, at least for me. I've watched a shit-ton of subtitled Japanese movies and TV shows, and I've never seen such a complete lack of storytelling talent as I behold in the NINJA VIXENS series. The writers and directors of this series of TV-films seem to be positively in love with talking-head scenes that essentially SAY NOTHING. The actors for that matter communicate the same indifference to their material, and the series doesn't even succeed as simple sex-and-violence offerings.

There are two scenes that engaged me a little, though they seem to be unrelated to the rest of the film, which is again just a lot of blah court intrigue. One of the lady ninjas-- Gincho I believe-- has two encounters with a demonic-seeming fellow who can perform two marvelous-seeming feats. First, he can project his head off his body, so that the head can attack victims with biting teeth. Second, the fellow can send a pair of separate arms burrowing through the topsoil, holding a sword in the hands-- possibly a variation on the "burrowing ninja" seen in some earlier flicks. But though these scenes are technically better than anything else in all three telefilms, they're no explanation as to whether the magician-guy has real powers or is faking his stunts. So even the two scenes that are a little arresting also manage to be disappointing. So based on the mediocrity of the authors, I'm gonna guess there was some BS "uncanny" explanation for these miracles.

Avoid avoid avoid.   

 

THE NINJA VIXENS: VEIL OF ILLUSIONS (1990)

 

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

In my review of the previous NINJA VIXENS installment, I scoffed at Kagero's power to call up cartoon butterflies. However, VEIL could have used them, or something comparable, to keep from being even duller than SQUAD. The phenomenality here just barely enters the uncanny domain, through one ninja girl's use of a thrown needle to kill someone and the not-quite-Edo-period outfits the Vixens wear.

This time they're investigating a smuggling operation on behalf of their shogunate patron, However, as in the previous story the ladies are also acting to avenge some criminal deed against one or more private citizens, just so the Squad doesn't seem like cops. This time the older male ninja of the team doesn't appear often, and some of his screen time may've gone to a hot new female member, name of Gincho. The added femininity, though, doesn't mark any improvement in the underwhelming fight-scenes, while the seduction sections are just as vanilla as in the previous TV-film. Cast info is spotty online, so I'll guess that the names "Misa Shimizu" and "Kaori Yuki" might go with the actresses playing Gincho and Akane, but then, they might belong to two other actresses. Both actor-names do appear in the IMDB credits for the third movie, though.

Once again, the makers spotlight lots of lame talking heads and very little sex or violence, and the villains are even duller this time. There is one henchman of the bad guys who wears white makeup and whips a captive ninja-girl briefly, but he's quickly offed.

Possibly someone somewhere made an exciting film about the crime of smuggling, but this isn't one. Avoid.

        

THE NINJA VIXENS: THE KAGERO SQUAD (1990)

 

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

There may be as many as nine films in this cheapie series of TV-films, but only three are currently streaming. KAGERO SQUAD, named for the leader of the ninja-team, might be the first in the series, but if so, its creators didn't feel any impulse to provide an origin.

Kagero (Hiromi Takagawa) has on her team just two other ninjas, a female named Akane and an older man who sometimes wears a puppet on one hand. The trio receives word of a plot by an Evil Clan (not sure of the name) to usurp power in a particular domain of the shogunate, so the squad informs their superior, a woman highly placed at court. The squad then initiates attacks on the Evil Clan for the rest of the movie.

The court-intrigue story is very talky, and the action scenes are poorly staged. There's no strong villain-- just an enforcer-guy with a neck-brace and a redbearded foreigner who practices black magic. Speaking of magic, Kagero has one of the goofiest ninja-powers of all time: she can sic big yellow butterflies (crudely animated) on her enemies.

The Land of the Rising Sun has produced lots of junk, but usually it's at least lively junk. Avoid.

             

EROTIC GHOST STORY 3 (1992)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous* 
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

This was the final official film in this franchise, and since the Big Bad of the first two films went to heaven at the end of EGS #2, it behooved the new raconteurs to devise a new way of combining spirits with Category III sexcapades. It's a shame the filmmakers didn't apply themselves a bit more, since the setup here was a little more promising than those of the first to movies.

Male and female leads Chu and Susu (Ching-wah Cheung, Chik King-man) are quickly established. The two medieval-era youths have been betrothed to one another by Chu's father, but though Susu is more than willing, Chu is not. She follows Chu to an inn and is almost raped because the martial skills of Susu are only so-so. Chu rescues Susu and they later seek shelter at a deserted temple. There they meet a man the size of a candlewick, which is apparently the reason he sports the name "Wick." Once Wick grows to man-size, the duo learns that he's a Buddhist monk (and the movie's comedy relief). 

An hour or so later, viewers see why Chu doesn't want to get married, when a painting comes to life and shows the young fellow three gorgeous dancing-girls. Evidently Chu is so eager to play the field, he's willing to enter a supernatural otherworld to get his ashes hauled. Even more improbably, Wick helps Chu do so.

Althiugh Chu does have great sex with the sexy ghost I-meng (Pauline Chan), his allurement is a plot by the otherworld's queen "Ladyship" (Chi Jing Wen). After having sex Chu visits the queen's court, and in bursts a male Chinese god (possibly) who rapes two of the females. Chu's too drunk to fight, but a little later he invades the god's domicile and kills him. But then Ladyship reveals that she made herself look like the god so that Chu would seek vengeance. With the god dead, Ladyship can do whatever she likes to mortals, which she demonstrates by raping the young man.

However, I-meng has fallen for her handsome bedmate, and both Susu and Wick are endeavoring to return Chu to the mortal world. Amusingly, at one point Susu and Wick succeed in getting Chu back to the temple, but Wick tells Susu that the only way Chu cam recover from sickness is if Susu has sex with his unconscious form. Whatever else one says about EGS 3, its script supports Equal Opportunity for Female Rapists. In due course, Chu, Susu and I-meng (with some "inside help" from Wick) destroy the evil queen. Susu is wounded and dies, but thanks to some double-talk from the monk, somehow I-meng becomes human and goes back to the living world for lots more sex.

When I started the film I was almost sure Chu and Susu would be the eminent heroes, but Chu and I-meng turned out to be "the pair whose love transcends death itself," a la CHINESE GHOST STORY. EGS 3 isn't a great film, even of its kind. But its characters are reasonably well delineated and the scenes of wacky comedy don't overwhelm the story.     

ACES GO PLACES 2 (1983)

 

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

The second ACES movie is more of the same freestyle farce, but with fewer memorable jokes. The producers probably rushed TWO into production to keep the audience interested. 

Unlike the first film, where the only metaphenomenon appeared near movie's end, TWO begins with supposedly reformed burglar Kong (Sam Hui) breaking into a building. He meets, and fights with, a big robot guardian that looks like a Japanese tokasatsu creation. Later, for no reason related, the same robot turns up to fight a bunch of little robots, using ray-beams from its eyes. I think the robots tie into some more amorphous "plot" about a Hong Kong space program, since other jumbled astronaut-stuff appears elsewhere.

Two other very loose plotlines take up more space. Kong is being pursued by the pawns of a hitman called "Black Gloves." He's supposedly the brother of the first film's villain, though the guy's barely seen after his first appearance, played by Joe Dimmick and made to look like Clint Eastwood. Kong is also framed for bank robbery by a cute girl-- not sure what her thing was-- and so he runs for help to his two best friends, Albert and Nancy (Karl Maka, Sylvia Chang). However, Plot One engenders Plot Two, in that Albert and Nancy are trying to be bonded in wedded bliss.

The matrimonial jokes are definitely better than all the forgettable cops-and-robbers hijinks, and there are some decent fights from Hui and Chang, though still too much vehicular chaos. The bloom is off this secondhand rose.

         

ACES GO PLACES (1982)

 

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

Though I'm far from being a great fan of Chinese comedy films, I enjoyed the zany slapstick of the ACES GO PLACES series, and the first film in the series did a good job of setting up the three principals, who I believe remained together for all five entries. The basic idea seems to be "what would have happened if the "Phantom" thief of PINK PANTHER joined forces with two eccentric HK cops in fighting crime.

Hong Kong super-thief King Kong (Sam Hui) rips off a diamond shipment and then finds out he's robbed the Mafia. The aggrieved crime-lords send various assassins to HK to avenge their honor, particularly a master burglar named "White Gloves." To apprehend Kong, the HK government calls in an American cop of Asian extraction, Albert Au (Karl Maka). He more or less takes the place of the wacky Inspector Clouseau of the PANTHER films, though his main physical characteristic is his total baldness, a testimony to the popularity of the KOJAK teleseries in Hong Kong. Albert's HK liaison is lady cop Nancy Ho (Sylvia Chang), who's constantly accused of being "mannish," and who does get the movie's best fight-scene.         

There are a number of nice comic stunts, though nothing particularly stands out, but the film has too many car chases and crash-ups. The finale contains the only metaphenomenal element, when King Kong counters a fleet of Mafia automobiles with a collection of tiny, remote-controlled toy cars, each loaded with explosives. I tend to doubt anyone in 1982 could actually create such vehicular weapons, but since the script believes that, I'll treat the little cars as uncanny devices.  

GHOST SWEEPER MIKAMI (1993-94); GHOST SWEEPER MIKAMI MOVIE (1994)

 

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

I'd seen a few random episodes of this anime teleseries long ago but recently decided to take the plunge and watch all the subbed episodes online, as well as comparing them to the first two years of the 1991-99 manga series. Though some anime serials change many details about the manga-stories they adapt, or even produce totally original installments, all 45 episodes of the SWEEPER series are based on the tales of Takashi Shiina. The biggest changes are slight increases in slapstick violence and the injections of support-characters not in the original stories, probably just to increase their run-time.

Most of the episodes are done-in-one, with the exception of occasional two-parters. Starring character Reiko Mikami is a "ghost sweeper" in her late twenties or early thirties, and she uses a variety of supernatural weapons to exorcise troublesome ghosts and demons who plague modern-day people and businesses. Mikami is as courageous and resourceful as the best heroes, but she's also extremely mercenary, taxing her customers with huge bills so that someday she can become a rich woman. She's also slightly larcenous-- one episode displays her knowledge of burglary techniques-- and she constantly underpays her male assistant, seventeen-year-old Tadao Yokoshima. She gets away with this because she's super-hot and knows that horndog Yokoshima will accept any wage just to scope her out. The fact that she's exploiting the youth, however, does not keep her from doling out brutal punishment to the teen any time he tries to feel her up, or even expresses a negative opinion of her. Yokoshima, for his part, is clearly meant to be the "goat" of the series, the one who has all the terrible things happen to him-- and because he's such an unregenerate perv, his sufferings are funny. As contrast, Mikami also employs a naive young female ghost, Okinu, who's much milder in temperament than either Mikami or Yokoshima, but still generates her share of difficulties.

SWEEPER's cast has a healthy variety of equally wacky support-types, and as I noted, sometimes the writers injected them into adaptations of stories where they didn't appear. Happily, unlike some later manga-concepts, the first couple of years of the manga didn't overpopulate the series so as to distract from the central star and her two primary helpers, which arguably occurred with URUSEI YATSURA. This concentration on the three principals helps generate suspense about their responses to one another. While Mikami never becomes generous, she will fight for her friends, and sometimes even for "friendly enemies." It's not clear from the first two years of stories if she becomes a syndromic sadist through her constant thrashings of Yokoshima, though it will be interesting to see if the character changes at all in the manga as a whole. She does show some regard for his welfare at times, and even respects him a bit, until he inevitably loses that respect thanks to his horniness. 

SWEEPER is always light-hearted and non-serious, though manga-artist Shiina comes up with some creative concepts from time to time. For instance, when the team accidentally injures Santa Claus. they have to complete his rounds for him, though Shiina mentions that in modern times there are so many kids in the world, Santa has to choose recipients by sheer chance. A wilder sort of folklore-crossover has Mikami take on the Pied Piper of Hamelin-- albeit one put through a mythic mix-master, since his abilities include the power to turn adults into little kids (Mikami being his first victim) and to summon rats as his minions. The final episode adapts a story in which the ghost-sweepers get trapped inside a movie, interacting with fictional characters who are fully aware of being fiction. Something about the way treats the movie characters reminded me of the Japanese folklore-idea of the *tsukumogami,* an inanimate object that takes on a pseudo-life thanks to associating with humans. Neither the manga nor the anime is interested in any existential questions. But even ideas with potential unused can supply a sense of the creators' raw creativity. In conclusion, even before finishing my survey of the manga series, I like SWEEPER enough to say that its feminine protagonist ought to rank more highly in the lists of "best heroines ever."

ADDENDUM: After the teleseries ended the producers finally wrote what seems to be, from available info, an all-original story for the franchise. This hour-long OAV is also a very peculiar crossover, for it pits Reiko and her team, as well her usual support-cast, against the vampire Nosferatu. There's no resemblance between this monster and the character from the silent film classic, but it's implied that the spirit of the vampire somehow traveled to medieval Japan and possessed the body of the famous lord Nobunaga Oda. A contemporary exorcist seems to have slain the vampire-lord, but he reincarnates in modern Japan, along with his aide Ranmaru. Both Nobuaga and Ranmaru were real historical figures, though so far as I can tell most later expansions on their careers were not "fictionalized" enough for them to comprise crossover-icons. Anyway, the dead exorcist also appears in modern times and gives Reiko a magical spear with which to vanquish the demon. Reiko is her usual money-grubbing self but still steps up when Nosferatu endangers her world. None of the support-characters do much and Reiko's cowardly assistant Tadao only gets substantial time because the exorcist-ghost possesses him, using his body to help Reiko. The film recycles the usual tropes of the manga with no originality, though anyone in 1994 "shipping" Reiko and Tadao would have been pleased that when Reiko's life stands in danger, she thinks of her assistant moments before "he" shows up to save her. This Galahad fantasy, however, does not keep Reiko from beating up Tadao several times for his horndog behavior. There are a few decent scenes but overall, the movie-- given the subtitle "The Resurrection of Nosferatu" in a dubbed English version-- lacks the charm of the teleseries and the original manga.             

                                     

THE ANGEL STRIKES AGAIN (1968)

 

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

I suppose ANGEL WITH THE IRON FISTS must have made money, for by next year director Lo Wei was back again with more of the same thing in this sequel. He used a number of the same actors, albeit in different roles, and for some reason changed the name of Lily Ho's main character from "Luo Na" to "Ai Si." I can't fathom any reason for the change, since Ho's playing the same basic character, with the same low-tech arsenal (the most impressive item of which is a small flamethrower).

This time the "angel" is taking on opponents who seem more in tune with the heroine's role as a government agent: the Bomb Gang, whose leader Hsiang Hsiang (Shen Yi) uses explosives to extort businesses, which sounds a little like terrorist activity to me. That said, everything in STRIKES is a candy-confection with little resemblance to real espionage.

Both Ai Si and Hsiang Hsiang assume peculiar guises at one point, the secret agent dressing as a man for no good reason and the Bomb Gang leader wearing some sort of snaggletooth in her mouth, which I guess was supposed to be funny. The pace is a little better than it was in FISTS, and there are more fight-scenes, though they're all very basic uses of punches, kicks, and karate chops. Both of the ANGEL films would be quickly overshadowed as Hong Kong's kung fu genre developed and brought forth an amazing variety of flicks starring chopsocky divas.

           

ANGEL WITH THE IRON FISTS (1967)

 

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

If you know in advance that ANGEL is primarily a modern-day superspy flick, you may think that the title suggests a blend between that genre and the nascent genre of the Hong Kong chopsockie. What the viewer gets, though, is a pretty low-wattage effort, even if it's one of the few 1960s secret agent flicks to focus on a female hero.

Lily Ho plays Luo Na, alias "Agent 009," and her assignment is to infiltrate a gang of crooks called the Dark Angels. They really seem to be nothing but crooks, with no ties to international espionage and no plans to conquer the world. Nevertheless, even though Luo is doing the job of a police undercover agent, she has a smattering of uncanny spy-weapons, like a metal-edged card that can be used to disarm enemies or a perfume-spray filled with knockout gas. 

 I have no information on the films that director Lo Wei helmed before ANGEL, so it's not impossible that this was one of his first movies that needed strong action sequences. Lily Ho does project pretty good authority in her few fight-scenes, but the only one that catches fire is a battle with a mobster's jealous girlfriend (Fanny Fann). Later Lo Wei would distinguish himself with entries like Bruce Lee's big success FIST OF FURY and my personal favorite of the works I've seen, VENGEANCE OF A SNOW GIRL. But ANGEL is no more than a period curiosity, made risible by the repeated use of musical passages from the library of 007 cinema.       

THE SEVENTH CURSE (1986)

 

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

Most of the Western attempts to cash in on the popularity of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK-- most of which appeared in the 1980s-- were low-level formula at best. The two Duncan Jax films have the virtue of being the wackiest emulations of Indiana from the West-- meaning the US and Western Europe-- and I favorably compared the Jax films to many of the more brain-friend Japanese adventure-films. But what about Hong Kong? Certainly, that Asian  powerhouse could outdo the Westerners in sheer insanity?

Well, two of the laborers on THE SEVENTH CURSE, co-writer Wong Jing and director Lam Nagai Kai, did indeed produce their share of absurd adventures. But this specific film, adapted from a Chinese book-series, isn't a rival to Duncan Jax, much less Indiana Jones.

Just as Indiana's career is all about confronting specters of remote cultures, the hero of CURSE, Doctor Yuen (Chin Sui-ho) seems similarly constituted. He ventures to Thailand in search of AIDS medicine but has an ill-fated encounter with a local cult of "worm priests" when he tries to liberate a sacrificial cult victim. For Yuen's effrontery, the cult inflicts on him seven "curses," which manifest in his body as suppurations of flesh and pus, tormenting him until the seventh and last curse kills him. Yuen escapes Thailand and cheats death thanks to a female priestess who shares a piece of her breast-flesh with him (!) But to foil the curse permanently, he must return to the cult and somehow get the curse reversed, this time with the help of bazooka-toting Chow Yun-Fat and spunky reporter Maggie Cheung.

I don't take issue with the fact that the film's creators meant CURSE as "leave your brain at the door entertainment." But aside from a couple of big fight scenes, most of the time the heroes are fleeing from crude, practical-effects menaces like living skeletons and killer fetuses. CURSE is certainly okay escapist divertissement as it stands, but it's awfully predictable, not only in terms of the menaces but also in terms of the rather dull heroes. Compared to the most absurd films Hong Kong has been able to muster in the past, CURSE is third-rate at best.   

          

SWORDSMAN III: THE EAST IS RED (1993)

 

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

I assume that if the subtitle "east is red" is accurate with respect to the Chinese original, there's some pun involved on the name of the villain, Invincible Dawn, because he/she unleashes so much bloody carnage.

The third and last of the SWORDSMAN films dispenses with the starring characters of Ling and Kiddo from the first two films. In SWORDSMAN, both of them were young practitioners of a particular kung-fu school and they became involved in the battles of other schools to obtain a world-conquering manual of martial arts. I criticized that film for not really establishing the ethos of the main characters, but SWORDSMAN II did much better, in that Ling and Kiddo attempt to flee the fractious kung-fu world and appear to succeed by film's end. Taking their place here is a new viewpoint character, a court official named Ku (Yu Rongguang of IRON MONKEY), but he's not the central figure. That honor goes to the aforementioned male-turned-female kung-fu master Invincible Dawn (Brigitte Lin, returning to reprise her role from the second film). 

As EAST begins, it's been some years since Dawn appeared to perish at the end of SWORDSMAN II. The various martial clans lack a strong leader, and perhaps this lack encourages another attack of Japanese forces on the Ming rulership. It's possible that the Ming court seeks an alliance with Spain, for when we first see Ku, he's escorting a contingent of Spanish sailors to the last known location of a sunken Spanish ship from the second movie. (It was said to be Dutch in that movie's subtitles, but whatever.) Ku guides the Spaniards to the area where the ship was lost, which (in this film at least) is also the location where Dawn appeared to perish. 

For some reason Ku also guides the foreigners to the reputed gravesite of Dawn, where they all encounter a mysterious old man. At this point, the Spanish leader reveals that he wants to plunder the grave and steal the martial-arts manual, which he assumes was buried with the evil kung-fu master. I don't know how a bunch of Europeans with no kung-fu training could possibly have harnessed the book's powers, but anyway Ku takes exception to profaning the grave of a deceased master. However, Ku finds a new ally in the old man, who turns out to be Dawn in disguise, and who kills all the Spaniards.

Ku seems thrilled to see Dawn alive again, though he's not thrilled at his penchant for wholesale murder. Ku has some harebrained of enlisting Dawn to straighten out the chaos of the kung-fu world, for almost the first words out of his mouth is the news that a lot of martial masters are assuming the identity of Invincible Dawn in order to gain prominence. Indeed, we later find out that one of Dawn's courtiers, name of Xue (Joey Wong), has taken on Dawn's mantle.

After that setup, the rest of the film devolves into just one magical battle after another, with Dawn vanquishing nearly everyone with her special wuxia skills. Ku is more or less the guy who uncorks the genie but can't control it, but he doesn't seem to be conscious of his mistake, possibly because he's such a flat character. Ku also gets into some fights with the only slightly less powerful Xue, and in the background there's some indication that the Spaniards and Japanese have become allies against China. But from that point on, the filmmakers' only desire is to overawe the audience with a few dozen wuxia wonders. In the end Dawn regrets all of his misdeeds and retires from the kung-fu world-- which might disappoint some fans who felt some more exacting punishment was due.

While EAST is more interesting than the first movie by virtue of showing the near-impossibility of reining in such superhuman fighters, it's still not that impressive even in comparison to the better "chopwackies" of the 1970s and 1980s.

   
            

     

SWORDSMAN II (1992)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

It's a minor puzzle to me that the 1990 Swordsman is so mediocre next to its sequel. They used the same characters (though barely any of the same actors) and the same source material. Two of the credited directors for S2, Tsui Hark and Ching Sui-Ting, had forged major pathways for Hong Kong cinema of the late eighties, particularly with the stylish, wonder-filled CHINESE GHOST STORY trilogy. I mentioned that the 1990 film had some mixed backstage history, in that original director King Hu departed the project, but why weren't Hark and Ching able to pull the 1990 film together? 

Whatever the reasons for the first film's failures, S2 finds an admirable way to provide some dramatic compass for the movie, even though this movie like S1 still focuses upon the often-confusing interplay between various kung-fu clans. During the Ming dynasty the generals of a Japanese militia, expelled from their own country, land in China and conspire to usurp the rule of the Emperor. These invaders, at least some of whom are ninjas, join forces with a kung-fu clan seen in the first film, the Sun Moon Clan. This alliance is made possible when the "good" masters of the Clan, one of whom is Ren Yingying (Rosamund Kwan), get expelled by a new master, Invincible Dawn (Brigitte Lin). Though Dawn is male and speaks with a deep voice, he underwent one of those many mystical transformations possible in wuxia movies, becoming female in terms of outward appearance-- though only his courtiers know his true nature. 

After this conspiracy is detailed, the script focuses upon the same two main characters of the first film, Ling (Jet Li) and Kiddo (Michelle Reis). Though both are still young albeit skilled members of the Hua sect, they're thinking about ditching the constant strife of the martial arts world. Kiddo, secretly in love with Ling, wishes that he could see her as a woman, though I have no idea why she constantly runs around in men's attire in the first place. Ling for his part has some romantic attachment to the aforementioned Ren. I confess I barely remember Ren from the first film, but she's a more interesting character this time, having some fun badinage with her serving-woman Blue Phoenix (Fennie Yuen, returning from the 1990 film). 

The assault of Dawn's forces on Ren's Sun Moon court provides one of the film's most memorable scenes, as ninjas ride into battle on their own flying nunchakus and toss scorpions at the guardians, who in turn toss snakes back at the invaders. Ren has to flee. Slightly later, Ling and Kiddo show up at the Hua pavilion and almost get into a fatal fight with their own young colleagues. Once they recognize one another, the martial artists-- all of whom plan to foreswear the martial life-- nevertheless enjoy their old camaraderie, though Kiddo finds herself not embracing being "one of the boys" so much. The youths all get a false message that Ren is being held by Dawn's forces, so they attempt to rescue her, only to get directed to the real location of the exiled Sun Moon luminaries. 

Somewhat later Ling makes a solo assault on Dawn's stronghold, but when he meets the "master," he mistakes him for a female prisoner and tries to shield Dawn from his own guards. Ling apparently falls for Dawn, who remains silent to conceal her deep voice. (Later the evil martial master learns how to modulate his voice into a feminine register, allowing Brigitte Lin to use her own speech.) Later, during a fractious encounter with Woxing, the father of Ren-- who's secretly colluding with Dawn-- Ling refuses to marry Ren, clearly breaking her heart (but giving Kiddo new hope).

The final battle shows the original Sun Moon acolytes and their Hua allies taking on Dawn's forces, and this results in Dawn's apparent death (though Lin returns as the character in the final sequel). In a nice if acrimonious scene between Ling and Woxing, Woxing mocks the younger man's naivete, saying it's impossible to really leave the martial world. "As long as there are people, there will be grievances. Where there are grievances, there is the martial arts world." I found that such realistic assessments of the Nature of Man acted as a pleasing counterpoint to the many wild wuxia wonders--- killing opponents with thrown needles, uprooting trees when opponents hide inside them. Additionally, though often I think that "queer theory" proponents overstate the significance of male characters masquerading as women, or even transforming magically into women, here t Ahe screenwriters might've had some "genderfluid" ideas going on in their conception of Dawn, though it should be noted that he is still an unregenerate villain as a woman.  At the end of the film, Ling and Kiddo depart the Sun Moon Sect and don't return for the sequel. This may imply that Kiddo's constancy may finally be reciprocated once they leave behind the world of senseless strife.                   

SWORDSMAN (1990)

 

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

I've seen reviews touting this 1990 Tsui Hark film as starting Hong Kong's wuxia craze of the 1990s. Historically, this may well be true; maybe it's the first expensive film of the period to focus on the battles of wuxia practitioners, who can wreak all sorts of magical phenomena with their kung fu. But for me SWORDSMAN is all but indistinguishable from a dozen other chopsockies in which martial masters show off incredible powers-- often in stories that throw far too many characters at the audience.

 In addition, SWORDSMAN is mostly about two or more clans fighting over a prized item: one of those tomes of martial lore with which the possessor can Take Over the Kung Fu World. This unoriginal plot-setup is not that much of a deficit, but to get past that predictability, a kung-fu film needs one or more likable protagonists, with whom to identify even when one can't keep track of all the rest of the cast.

Producer Hark chose to adapt a work by popular novelist Louis Cha, and his original director of choice was the celebrated King Hu, though Hu departed the project after some time and SWORDSMAN had to be finished up by other hands. The change in creative administrators may be responsible for the sponginess of the two main characters, though it might also be a factor stemming from the original novel. Though I'm unlikely to ever read a Cha novel even in translation, I can form some tentative conclusions based on my experience of his works in movies-- such as DRAGON CHRONICLES. Like SWORDSMAN, CHRONICLES offered a lot of wild FX, but barely any characters worth identifying with.

After the Big Book of Kung Fu is stolen from the emperor's library, two young kung-fu students of a particular school travel to meet with a noble named Lam, master of a divergent school. Ling (Sam Hui, apparently best known as a comedy actor) and Kiddo (Michelle Reis, a female masquerading as a young man) eventually find their emissary-duties compromised when Lam involves them in caring for the missing tome. Okay-- but why is Lam's theft of the volume justified, and why do Ling and Kiddo feel honor-bound to help him keep hold of stolen merchandise? Later the duo is attacked by two distinct killers, one sent by the emperor and one from their own school. What greater good do Ling and Kiddo serve by keeping hold of the book for the betterment of Lam's school?

A lot of Chinese kung-fu movies have come up with good takes on the schtick of a female masquerading as a male in the company of men, but SWORDSMAN seems routine at every pass. Even a scene in which Kiddo is bathing and Ling refuses to get out of the room seemed tedious. Later, another female, Blue Phoenix (Fennie Yuen) seems to be competing for Ling's interest, but this too doesn't seem to get started-- though Phoenix has the most noteworthy wuxia stunt, somehow projecting snakes out of her gown-sleeves. The various kung-fu magicks lacked panache, and I've frankly seen more interesting effects in much cheaper chopsockies. 

I saw this over 20 years ago and remembered nothing about it, but I must admit that the same is true of the purportedly superior sequel SWORDMAN II, which used the same characters but kept almost none of the actors from the original film.       

WAR OF THE WIZARDS (1978)

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

WAR OF THE WIZARDS is an underrated magical fantasy that, while not meeting my criteria for high-mythicity, ranks in my book with similar charming (albeit child-friendly) productions by masters like Ray Harryhausen and Aleksandr Ptushko. WAR absolutely is not in any way a "space opera" just because there are a few opening scenes showing "spirits" in the starry heavens. It's true that co-director and FX-guy Sadamasa (DESTROY ALL MONSTERS) Arikawa worked out some effects-scenes that bore passing resemblance to the juggernaut that was the 1977 STAR WARS. But the universe of this WAR was predicated on the sort of folktales that genuinely took place "a long time ago," but in an archaic world far from space-lasers and FTL ships.  

Despite some opening narration, the movie takes some time to establish that universe. The most one can say is that at some time in the past, two great magical items get concealed in the ocean by parties unknown: a vessel of plenty, that will conjure up anything the owner wishes for, and a book of knowledge. The narration suggests that "three spirits" come to Earth looking for these items, but evidently the narrator can't count, because it's more like ten or twelve different questers.  I *think* the various spirits may have been alerted because humble fisherman Tai (Hsui-Shen Liang) finds the magic vessel on the ocean floor, fetches it up, and soon begins making wishes to benefit both himself and the local townfolk. Oddly, though the opening is careful to show that the poor fisherman is an avid reader of books, he apparently does not notice the book of knowledge in the same area as the vessel.

Tai's use of his endless wishes attracts several murderous agents who want the items. Some of them kill one another in competition for the prizes, and the last of them are slain by two beautiful fairy-sisters, Hyacinth and Violet. Tai is taken with the sisters and invites them to serve as his bodyguards, and they agree. There's like one more scene in which the girls beat up a couple of malcontents-- one of the few usages of martial fighting, since most of the spirits have magical, transformative powers. Tai is so taken with the girls that he offers to marry them both, and they agree. However, they fool him so that he doesn't get with either of them and the reason seems to be that they too were sent to collect the magical treasures by an evil fairy, name of Flower Fox (Betty Pei Ti).

I think Flower Fox gets tired of waiting for the sisters to deliver on their mission. She shows up at Tai's house, kills two other seekers with flame-breath, and cancels out the sisters' powers. Flower Fox captures her pawns and the magic vessel, but she doesn't know where the bamboo book is. In response, Tai dives into the ocean again and locates the book. Some timely advice tells Tai to "ride the Phoenix," and sure enough, when he surfaces a giant red bird sweeps him away from Flower Fox.

Up to this point, Tai has been a fairly passive protagonist, a lot like the original Aladdin of the Arabian Nights. However, the Phoenix takes Tai to some cloudy domain. Tai comes across some peaches and eats them, only to be reproved by an old man who meant the magical peaches for someone else. Both in Chinese and Japanese folklore, peaches often confer special powers and/or immortality, but the dubbed version of WAR just drops the point and goes on to the next thing: Tai asking to become the old immortal's disciple. I suspect that the dubbed version may have cut some training montage for time. In no time Tai, the former layabout, has mastered the use of a magic sword that fires ray-bolts, and even gets a suit of snazzy clothes from his master. He has at least become a temporary hero, though it's unclear if he made this ascension through training or through eating magical peaches.

Flower Fox threatens to flood Tai's hometown to get the book, but he temporizes until he's powerful enough to beard the evil fairy in her lair. With some help from the Phoenix, Tai vanquishes a rather impressive rock monster. However, the villainous fairy also has a human henchman, the mighty Steel Hand (Richard Kiel, who apparently played this part immediately after his star-turn in 1977's THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. released in the US three months after STAR WARS). The battle between Tai and Steel Hand-- so called because the henchman wears metal gloves-- is interesting because Tai has absolutely no kung-fu moves at all; he's like an ordinary guy fighting a colossus, except for having a magic sword to even the odds. The fight looks like it's modeled on those of the James Bond franchise, maybe even with some thoughts of GOLDFINGER in mind. Regardless, Tai defeats (but does not slay) Steel Hand. The hero goes looking for his captive wives, but now he has to fight Flower Fox, who conjures up multiple swordsmen out of the magic vessel. (Oddly Steel Hand is seen bringing the two fairy girls out of captivity.) Tai's then beats the villain by flinging the bamboo book at her. The book binds her arms and Tai prepares to kill her. However, two new spirits show up and surround Flower Fox with a force-shield that breaks his sword. The two new guys then send the evil fairy flying to heaven, and then they themselves fly into the sky with Violet, Hyacinth, and the two magical items. Violet and Hyacinth don't look like they're happy to be leaving, though it's anyone's guess if they'd rather stay with Tai. One of the "good spirits" invites Tai to join them all in heaven. However, the invitation may be sarcastic, for when Tai flies after them, his powers and costuming vanish. He falls into the same bay where he found the items, while a voice tells him, "You gained tremendous knowledge and great skillful powers. Be satisfied!" The film ends with Tai sputtering in the water while a fishing-boat comes to his rescue, assuring that he will survive to return to the workaday world. A fortune-cookie phrase that also appeared near the opening is repeated: "He who desires to possess everything must learn to be content with nothing."

I've no idea if WAR might owe anything to established Asian folklore. In Western terms, the "moral of the story" seems stuck somewhere between "Aladdin," in which a lazy loafer gets all his wishes fulfilled," and the Grimms' "Fisherman and His Wife," in which the greedy wife of the fisherman prevents their profiting from the wishes given them by a magical fish. My best guess is that the filmmakers wanted to give the audience some of the thrills of wish-fulfillment, while stopping short of total apotheosis. Thus Tai only gets a brief time to dally with the powers of the immortals, though I think he at least earns some of them, up to a point. Possibly the movie makes its message clearer in the original Taiwanese. But even if WAR isn't as clear as I might like it, I think there was some theme being invoked, that it wasn't just an endless, meaningless stream of marvels like those Asian films I've called "chopwackies."                      

THE KNIGHT OF SHADOWS (2019)

 

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

Considering how awful some of Jackie Chan's 21st-century productions have been, whether from the East or the West, KNIGHT OF SHADOWS is certainly way ahead of any of those embarrassments. Though it's almost entirely formulaic, at least there's some sense of what the formula is supposed to be.   

We're in medieval China, probably around the 17th century, since Chan's character Pu Songling is based on a famous storyteller of that era. The author's stories, particularly the supernatural ones, were often adapted in China, most famously in the original CHINESE GHOST STORY movie. But this fictionalized version-- I'll call him "Pu" for short-- isn't content to write about the supernatural. He also travels from town to town, exorcising demons whenever he comes across them. Pu's principal weapon is the "Yin-Yang brush," a calligraphy-brush with which he can sketch mystic patterns that in turn banish demons. He also travels with three goofy CGI demons, and the fact that one demon is named "Farty" aptly describes the level of humor the film's shooting for. This accords with Chan playing Pu as a jolly bumpkin, seemingly more concerned with selling his story-pamphlets in every town to which he travels. He's not a dedicated demon-hunter but just fights the critters wherever he happens across them.    

In one town, Pu gets mixed up in with a demon that rips off some precious jewels, but that's just an excuse to have him encounter a comic foil, a naive young village cop (Lin Bohong) who eventually becomes Pu's apprentice, little as Pu wants one. However, the more crucial support-character is another demon-hunter, Yan (Ethan Juan). Yan is on the trail of a pair of female demons, Xiaoqian (Elane Zhong) and Jin (Lin Peng). These two demons feed on human souls by promising immortality to young women and then imprisoning them in a painting for eternity. Yan has had a romantic relationship with Xiaoqian that one source claims is derived from the same story that gave rise to CHINESE GHOST STORY. However, KNIGHT adds some confusing business that I don't think would've occurred to a 17th-century teller of tales: that Yan apparently used to be a demon and Xiaoqian used to be a human. These needless complications, happily, don't distract from the strong melodrama of the Yan-Xiaoqian love scenes, which are as ripely melodramatic as anything in CHINESE GHOST STORY.

Between the heavy panting of the romance scenes and the wacky comedy of the funny demon hunters, KNIGHT forces viewers to put up with a lot of tonal shifts. The script compensates with a very episodic structure, making those shifts fairly tolerable. Not much of the comedy works, except for a bravura sequence with Pu in a room full of mirrors. Not only can Demoness Jin strike at Pu through the mirror-surfaces, slapping or choking, she also cuts him off at the waist, literally, so that Pu's two halves run around the room doing silly things. Given that sixty-something Chan can't possibly ever duplicate the martial feats for which he became famous, it's fun to see him try to come up with wild stunts via CGI. KNIGHT is never in the least profound, but it's highly colorful and lively, and that makes it worth a look.

   

            

DRAGONBALL: THE MAGIC BEGINS (1991)

 

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

This Taiwanese-Philippine production, the second live-action adaptation of the DRAGONBALL franchise, seem party patterned on the first anime film, CURSE OF THE BLOOD PEARLS, at least in terms of giving the main hero a more formidable first foe. Further, the tyrant looking for the wish-granting Dragon Balls, a bull-man named "King Horn," seems based on the folkloric Chinese figure sometimes translated as "Bull Devil King," whom I don't recall ever seeing in the manga from which the franchise arose.

Despite the overall cheap look of the production, the film tries to channel the "Star Wars" look at the opening. King Horn, who already possesses two of the legendary Dragon Balls, uses a giant spaceship and an army of costumed minions to ravage the countryside. For some reason he thinks the other five can be found in the same general area, which happens to be the case (largely for the convenience of the narrative). Despite all the sci-fi trappings, Horn's future antagonist, young Son Goku (Chi-Chiang Chen), seems to dwell in a bucolic fantasy-world with his kung-fu teacher, which reflects the fairy-tale atmosphere of the early manga stories. Goku has fantastic fighting-abilities and a magical battle-staff, though in the dubbed version I watched, he's called "Monkey Boy" but there are no obvious references to the manga's concept that the hero's a monkey-like ET who was adopted by a human teacher. 

Other familiar characters from the manga, such as Bulma and Yamcha, get such new names as "Seetoo" and "Westwood," which may have some relevance to the licensing status of the movie. Seetoo is a feisty young woman who owns one of the dragon balls and seeks to find others, though for less villainous motives than King Horn. In the manga Bulma and Yamcha hook up, but the hour-and-a-half film can only touch on this romantic subplot. Seetoo's main function here is to get Goku out of his rural rut so that he's ready to oppose evil when King Horn comes calling. A few other characters appear-- Piggy, a pig-demon, and "Turtle Man," another kung-fu teacher-- but they're probably there largely to appeal to the DRAGONBALL fan base. There's another character, possibly derived from BLOOD PEARLS, and she wants the Dragonballs to revive all the people of her village, whom King Horn slew. There aren't that many more characters here than in the anime movie, but in the live-action movie, the support-characters seem to be tripping over one another.

If one can overlook some really bad FX work (Seetoo uses a bazooka to blow up an enemy, who's clearly a dummy being blasted). BEGINS is at least a watchable mediocrity, at least for the lively though not distinctive fight-scenes. Chen's naive young hero has a certain amount of charm, but he too seems to get lost in the overburdened plot. I can't imagine why anyone would want to watch this version than one of the Japanese cartoon-movies.

             

SHIN ULTRAMAN (2022)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*                                                                                                                                                  Though I grew up watching dubbed US reruns of the sixties ULTRAMAN series, the show didn't grab me as it did so many others here and in many parts of Asia. I found the episodes too repetitive, so I've watched almost none of the later serial shows or movie adaptations. But the producers of SHIN ULTRAMAN suckered me with their title, which made me think that this production might be a radical rethinking of the original concept, as 2016's SHIN GODZILLA was for that franchise.                                                                 

Instead, aside from a cute joke about the movie's title in the opening credits, everything about this SHIN seems like a tedious recycling of the TV show's already repetitious tropes. Once again, giant kaiju perpetually menace Japan, bringing about the formation of a monster-fighting task force, the SSSP. Once again, a helpful alien named Ultraman descends to Earth to help the locals with their infestation, but during one battle with a big beastie, SSSP officer Shinji (Takumi Saitoh) is slain. And again, Ultraman then merges with Shinji's body and takes on the Earthman's identity at the SSSP. My impression is that Ultraman's imposture simply went on from the first episode of the sixties teleseries to the last, with each story hinging on Fake Shinji morphing into gigantic Ultraman to battle a titanic creature. But since a feature film needs more closure than that, SHIN ends with Ultraman sacrificing his life to bring the innocent Shinji back to life. (Sorry if I spoiled the big revelation.) In between the start and the finish, there are various conflicts as to various alien presences, and which are or aren't good for Earth, but none of them stuck with me. There was a moderately entertaining sequence wherein a young female SSSP officer gets transformed into a giant woman, but this didn't involve any interesting plot-action. The movie made a lot of money, and given the limitations on my knowledge of ULTRAMAN trivia, I might be missing all sorts of nuanced references. But as reboots of ancient franchises go, I'd like to give this one a kick in the SHIN.    

MONKEY KING REINCARNATION (2018)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*                                                                                                                                                I confess I only checked out this subtitled streaming item because I looked it up on IMDB and didn't really see much information on it, aside from the name of the director and three of the actors. The plot description was entirely generic, and I thought, "Maybe I'll play explorer and find out if there's some hidden quality in this thing."       

 Surprise, surprise-- the reason almost no one on the Net has written about this oddity is because there's nothing much to it, even in comparison to the daffy old chopsockies of the 1970s. The main plot does have something to do with reincarnation. A swordsman called "Sage of Sword" in the subtitles and "Gong" on IMDB (Bernard Sen Jun) has a chance encounter with Yue, a nutty young woman (played by an actress with the risible name of "Haha He") who can throw darts with deadly accuracy. She drugs Gong for some reason so that he's out of it when she's attacked by the henchmen of her father. Seems that august gentleman wants Yue to marry someone she doesn't love. Yue escapes her pursuers and gets separated from Gong for a bit, and then for no reason I can see, the two of them team up for various comic adventures that go no place fast. At some point, Gong divines that Yue-- whose martial skills are nowhere near as good as his-- is the reincarnation of his lost love-- I think. Then there's an end fight with the henchmen of the father and Yue dies.                   

 The most interesting thing about this flick-- which admittedly is colorful and pleasant to look at, as long as one doesn't try to comprehend the plot-- is that it's a total fakeout with its allusions to the popular "Monkey King" narrative. Only a frame story, in which Monkey is suffering some sort of torments from some goddess, possibly Kuan Yin, alludes to the traditional story at all. I think someone tried to sell the movie by adding the notion that Monkey became incarnated in the body of the mortal Gong so that he could learn about love, or something. I think I need a dose of Brucesploitation to get this one out of my system.         

CREATION OF THE GODS I: KINGDOM OF STORMS (2023)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*                                                                                                                          Of the various posters I saw for the first part of this lavish Chinese fantasy-trilogy, I like the one above, since it shows the poster fairly bursting with an avalanche of characters-- which probably represents about a fifth of all the named personages in this extravaganza. I don't know a lot about Chinese culture, but I have over the years noticed, through reading two or three of their older novels and seeing a lot of cinematic works, that the Chinese people always think more characters are better than less.                                                                

 CREATION adapts a voluminous 16th-century Chinese novel which focuses on the interaction of gods and demons with mortals during the Shang Dynasty, one of China's earliest periods. Wiki's translation of the novel's title as "Investiture of the Gods" may be more accurate than the word "creation" in the streaming title. The gods already exist in this world, though the subtitling of CREATION calls them "Immortals of Kunlun." But even the entities of Heaven apparently need some sort of process of renewal, and that's what makes all the entangling conflicts of the story significant in a cosmic sense. One such earthbound conflict, in which a vassal ruler rebels against the Shang Emperor, becomes the hub around which all the cosmic events revolve.                                                                                         

  Although the forces of Shang, led by the Emperor's son Yin Shou (Fei Xiang), conquer those of the vassal, the outbreak of human violence releases an evil fox-spirit from confinement. At the same moment of the spirit's escape, the princess of the rebel lord takes her life to avoid capture by the enemy. The fox possesses the dead woman and allows Shang's forces to take her prisoner. If I understood the sometimes confusing continuity, she stage-manages the murder of the Emperor so that Yin Shou will take his place. In due time she becomes the new Emperor's concubine and begins bending Yin Shou to evil ways-- though I for one was never sure how much of Yin's evil was of his own will.                                           

 At this same time, the Immortals of Kunlun fear that because of some vague archaic "Curse," the stability of the universe will be imperiled unless the Emperor of China performs a ceremony of investiture for the gods. To this end, the Immortals must send one of their number down to Earth with a special scroll used for this installation ceremony. The price of descending to Earth is that the chosen Immortal reverts to mortality and loses his fantastic powers. Two or three of the gods volunteer for the mission, but "The Supreme One" chooses an Immortal who hasn't been meditating in Kunlun that long: Jiang Ziya (Huang Bo). Down to Earth goes Jiang with the scroll. Yet he's not totally on his own, for two other Immortals follow to grant him assistance with their super-powers-- so Jiang's not precisely on his own in the mortal world. After some minor adventures Jiang and his comrades get an audience with Yin Shou, and Jiang explains how the scroll stabilizes reality by interacting with human souls. However, an evil sorcerer-tempter named Gongbao persuade Yin to use the scroll for his own advancement. Jiang takes back his offer to give Yin the scroll and flees the forces of the enraged emperor.                                                 

 While I'm not about to try accounting for all the side-characters in CREATION, the person who's been merely a viewpoint character up to this point, a young lord named Ji Fa, becomes more intimately entangled in Jiang's resolve to keep the scroll from Yin's hands. Initially, Ji is loyal to his king, but over time he's convinced that Yin has become a tyrant. This would have been a good central conflict for at least this first installment of the film-series to pursue. Unfortunately, the "embarrassment of character-riches" causes CREATION to divert to many other characters under Yin's sway-- Ji's father, Yin's queen, etc etc. I confess I didn't even try to follow them all, but I assume they all contribute something to what seems to be the dominant theme: the chaos that results from the abuse of the powers of Heaven and Earth.                                                                 

 I think CREATION is a serious attempt to plumb the meaning of China's archaic mythology, but since I've not read the source novel, I don't know how successful PART 1 is in its mission of adaptation. I recognize a lot of familiar tropes here, but I can't say I feel like it all comes together, though seeing the other two parts-- one of which has not debuted yet-- could make a difference. My biggest complaint is that I don't know whether any single character is the main one, or if CREATION is built around an ensemble that might at the very least include Yin Shou, Ji Fa and Jiang Ziya. Ji Fa kills Yin at the conclusion, but the Fox revives the evil ruler, so he may or may not function as part of a centric ensemble. Time, and the availability of streaming purchases, may tell.