(1982)
Reviewed By-David Zuzelo IVL/Celestial Pictures DVD Region 3 NTSC Directed by Taylor Wong Tai Loi
With comic books becoming more and more a viable medium for adaptation in movie theaters these days, any filmmaker who would like to see what a true comic come to life would be should grab Buddha's Palm and stare at it...twice! Part of the Shaw Brothers restorations on DVD, this film is a combination of exhilarating sequences melded with "huh what how what hey woah" moviemaking. Audacity has a cinematic face and it's looking like this film. Everything that captivated me as a young 'un(who refuses to grow up) about cinema in general comes blaring off the screen here. Amazing feats, special effects that don't try to be extraordinary -simply special- along with a sense of wonder that constantly left me thinking that each scene was my "favorite part" as they would unfold. And a whole lot of things unfold, unbend and smash apart!
To give a plot synopsis blow by blow is near pointless, but to summarize...
Flaming Cloud Devil is a mean guy with a mastery of Buddha's Palm technique-and a bunch of other wacky characters who will all reappear start out to fight him...yet they don't finish him off. Jump ahead some years later as said Ole Devil is hanging out in his cave...he needs a student to call him Sifu every other minute naturally, and this will make him happy. Said student appears in the guise of Long Jianfei, who is having some domestic issues that involve him falling into some smoke (urr...Twilight Mist I mean!). Rescued by a creature that looks like that creature from The Neverending Story at a Lion Dance named Dameng-he ends up in the cave of Kung Fu. After acceptably groveling at the feet of Flaming Cloud Devil and wearing his cape, Jianfei is the new recipient of The Buddha's Palm techniques. This technique involves special effects technicians drawing in little hands to fly out of his on a regular basis-which is very cool and fun to look at, and probably effective in the films logic. Then we have two sisters who get to fly about fighting a flattened Buddha spirit (amazing), a guy with a giant extending foot who beats down EVERYONE in his path (astonishing), Exploding heads, Melty people, Fighting and more fighting and spinning and four devils who play music that kills and a giant bell that requires Buddha fu to lift and amazing strokes of the Palm and and and and and...and.
See what I mean? The cinema of "AND THEN"...
Flaming Cloud Devil is a mean guy with a mastery of Buddha's Palm technique-and a bunch of other wacky characters who will all reappear start out to fight him...yet they don't finish him off. Jump ahead some years later as said Ole Devil is hanging out in his cave...he needs a student to call him Sifu every other minute naturally, and this will make him happy. Said student appears in the guise of Long Jianfei, who is having some domestic issues that involve him falling into some smoke (urr...Twilight Mist I mean!). Rescued by a creature that looks like that creature from The Neverending Story at a Lion Dance named Dameng-he ends up in the cave of Kung Fu. After acceptably groveling at the feet of Flaming Cloud Devil and wearing his cape, Jianfei is the new recipient of The Buddha's Palm techniques. This technique involves special effects technicians drawing in little hands to fly out of his on a regular basis-which is very cool and fun to look at, and probably effective in the films logic. Then we have two sisters who get to fly about fighting a flattened Buddha spirit (amazing), a guy with a giant extending foot who beats down EVERYONE in his path (astonishing), Exploding heads, Melty people, Fighting and more fighting and spinning and four devils who play music that kills and a giant bell that requires Buddha fu to lift and amazing strokes of the Palm and and and and and...and.
See what I mean? The cinema of "AND THEN"...
Buddha's Palm is one of those things you need to experience to appreciate. But if you are new to Fu, or you have a hard time following a movie, do not blink during this one. You'll miss two special effects and one plot point if you feel the need to look for your drink in the dark. That said, it is all blissfully linear if not terribly simple to follow. As I said about comic adaptations this film is similar to reading a Chinese comic. While many fans of sequential storytelling get jazzed about the zippy way someone like Goseki Kojima can compress an action scene, even the Japanese artists tend to be less frantic than Chinese comic artisans. I've had to read through these volumes more than once on occasion-and you can find some Jademan Buddha's Palm comics (as Force of Buddha's Palm in the English Translation) to get a closer view of what I mean. Did I mention the opening sequence? Evoking far better what Marvel Comics is trying to do with the page flipping logo, the titles unspool over an array of cut out drawings backlit with explosions and fire...so cheaply done you'll stare at it in disbelief, but it is as fine a conveying of pen and ink art on screen in my memory. Also, the film has it's roots in an earlier series which featured more bizarre Buddha's Palm techniques-and the Shaw Brothers update was a great bit of cinematic reinvention using every camera trick and effect in the book as it existed then. Truly a film that only Hong Kong in the 80's could have produced. As Starcrash and Yor-Hunter From the Future summarize the bizarre cinema of Italy in that time period, Buddha's Palm does the same for me now. Good to know that madness is truly a cinematic virus, and it spreads out more and more as these films are released to a wide audience.
For the viewer who likes to think they have seen it all, the Shaw Brothers DVD from Celestial presents a gorgeous transfer (non-anamorphic sadly) in 2:35:1 Shawscope, the rather driving original trailer (if I had seen this in 1982 my head would have exploded with the need to go to Hong Kong), a reissue trailer and the poster art. The audio is in Mandarin and Cantonese, though it appears I've learned from hard experience that the Mandarin version is followed in the subtitles. The Cantonese tracks narration falls out of synch with the subs at points. Other Shaw Bros. films are listed as well. Region 3 releases abound these days (Deltamac have joined the Shaw Fracas), so let's hope an all code version is forthcoming. If you can't wait (and why would you?), a VCD edition is available for next to nothing! May Buddha bless you and his palm not strike you too hard while you watch...but beware of foot monsters!
Film: 5 Bitch Slaps Picture 4 Bitch Slaps Sound 3 Bitch Slaps Extras 3 Bitch Slaps Overall 4 Bitch Slaps
