Kung Fu Wonder Child
Director: Lee Tso-nam
Year: 1986
Rating: 6.5
Ever since I read
the short and extremely favorable review in Asian Cult Cinema a few years
ago I have been dying to see this film. Fantasy films with female fighters,
hopping vampires, sorcery, ghosts, zombies and flying just sounded like my
kind of film – especially one with a very young Yukari Oshima in it. It is
not an easy film to locate – this is actually a Taiwanese production and
that tends to make films more difficult to find – but finally with the help
of a friend I was able to see it. I must admit to being a bit
disappointed – perhaps my expectations were too high – but it is not nearly
the deliriously over the top film that I had been hoping for, but it was
still an enjoyable low budget fantasy romp full of good deeds and evil intentions.
There are in fact hopping vampires and zombies and ghosts and much flying
about – but with a budget too low to give them much justice.
Much of the film
is actually comedic in nature – full of magic pranks and tacky humor (dog
urinating on unconscious man/vampire falling face first into a cow pie sort
of thing) – than an action fantasy. After a slow build-up the last thirty
minutes finally gets fairly serious and there is some fun action towards the
end. A very petite Taiwanese actress by the name of Lin Hsiao Lan
starred in a few of these Taiwanese fantasy films during the 1980’s (Magic
of Spell being another) and she has some nice kung-fu moves – though much
of the kung-fu in this film is augmented with wires. She and her grandfather
work in a Taoist school and temple as a cook and his assistant. Lin works
around the temple doing chores but spends most of her time with her two student
friends using her knowledge of magic that she has picked up to play tricks
on people. Unknown to her, there is a great evil lurking within the temple
with plans to gain great powers. Fortunately, where evil resides so sometimes
does good – and her grandfather turns out to be much more than a cook.
Yukari enters the story all dressed in white
and flowing locks and she is looking for her sister and grandfather who have
been kidnapped by the evil one and stuffed in a jar. Yukari, Lin and the
grandfather all team up to try and save her family and defeat the evil before
he is too strong. Magic spells and kung-fu are utilized to fight the evil
one and his servants – red headed twins and a blue zombie with green hair.
Though the film didn’t really meet my expectations,
it is a nice example of the low budget comedy/fantasy films that were being
made around that time. It is also great of course to see Yukari in one of
her earliest roles – a few years before becoming a star in Angel. She looks
great, has some nice scenes (though she is clearly not the focus of the film)
and it’s great to see her in a non-Girls with Guns flick.
