a.k.a LONG WANG SAN TAI ZI
?? [1977] 87′
drector: Sing Yan Gam / Fu-wen Chung
cast: Chia Ling, Hsing Hsi,
cast: Chang Chi-ping, Hsi Wei Chen
Here’s something you don’t see every day – a Taiwanese martial arts and giant monster fantasy from the late 70’s, made in much the same vein as Poon Lui’s earlier and super-obscure YOUNG FLYING HERO and DEVIL FIGHTER. The Hong Kong Movie Database suggests that the monster footage is recycled from the earlier fantasy effort TSU HONG WU from 1971, a fact I have no reason to dispute, and much of that same footage appears to have been culled for the later [and somewhat less obscure] FAIRY AND THE DEVIL as well.
Original monster footage or not, the oddly titled SEA GOD AND GHOSTS is a hell of good time either way. The film begins with a dragon flying out of the ocean and shooting lasers out of its eyes at nothing in particular – a good start, to say the least. After that display of weirdness we are introduced to our heroine Cheng Chin-fung [Ling, THE SUPER GIRL OF KUNG FU] as she wanders through a forest. There she stumbles upon two men, and a kung fu battle erupts at random. After having shown the men up with her crazy fighting skills, Chin-fung tosses them a gigantic pearl and goes on her way. The two men are soon harassed by some local thugs, who kick the crap out of them again and take the pearl from them. Chin-fung pops up, leading to another kung fu fight that ends with her getting back her pearl – which is promptly stolen by a thieving passer-by.
Chin-fung eventually meets up with card shark [or domino shark, in this case] and trickster Yung Chung-lung [Hsi], who decides to help her in the hunt for the man who stole her pearl. Along the way they encounter a variety of thugs and even find some time to cheat a rich noble woman out of a good deal of her valuables. Just as things feel like they may be slowing down, an angry old man turns into a huge ogre with red hair starts fighting with a giant white monkey. The monkey is defeated, and Chung-lung turns into the dragon from the beginning of the film and kills the red-haired ogre. Chin-fung continues the quest and winds up in a losing battle against an old man and his cadre of kung fu masters, one of whom is the man who stole her pearl.
Enter Chung-lung who, after a mysterious absence, returns in dragon form and starts fighting with the old man – now also a dragon. The old man is killed, his palace destroyed, and Chung-lung returns to normal just in time to tell Chin-fung that he’s really a prince before wandering off.
With that, SEA GOD AND GHOSTS [which has nothing at all to do with the title as far as I can tell] comes to an end. If Chin-fung ever got her pearl back then I missed it, but it doesn’t really matter anyway. The paper-thin narrative is obviously only here to tie the multitude of action set pieces and occasional monster stock footage together, a task it quite entertainingly accomplishes. The finished product is a family friendly mess that, while utter nonsense in every respect, never fails to be good time.
There isn’t a whole lot of monster footage to be seen in SEA GOD AND GHOSTS, but what is here is pretty good. The 1971 film the scenes are culled from obviously had something of a budget behind it, and the miniature and suit work – while ridiculous – is handled pretty well. I liked the dragons particularly, and the puppets used to bring them to life look to have been quite large. Effects original to the production are in much shorter supply, and amount to a few bits of animation here and there and some practical explosives work. Doing much to make up for the lack of fantasy-oriented content is the fine fight choreography of Phillip Ko Fei [THE KILLER METEORS] and Chin Shih-Wei [ONE ARMED BOXER].
SEA GOD AND GHOSTS is a pretty good-natured affair in terms of its depictions of violence, with its makers obviously wanting to make something appropriate for their young target audience. As such, there is very little blood to be had beyond the requisite bit that dribbles from the good guys’ mouths just before they get back up to kick ass. There are also numerous comic moments, including an unexpected scatological diversion in which Chung-lung takes a rather noisy poop. I know it’s juvenile, I know it’s stupid, but it had me in stitches either way. I’m just happy Sampote Sands wasn’t on board, else I’d probably have been looking at that poop, and in loving close-up no less.
It shouldn’t be terribly surprising that this one isn’t available officially on home video, here or elsewhere. The DVD-R I screened it from was sourced from a timecoded and terribly pan-and-scanned tape source, and I doubt that it exists anywhere in a transfer that’s much better. That said, the film itself looked to be in good shape at the time the transfer was made. Perhaps some enterprising cult distributor could pick this, FAIRY AND THE DEVIL, and the two Poon Lui films up and release a Taiwanese kung-fu fantasy collection? Not likely, I know, but let me have my dreams.
Unabashed nonsense from start to finish, SEA GOD AND GHOSTS made for an immensely entertaining watch. If you’re a fan of giant monsters, kung fu, or just the random and bizarre, then this one comes highly recommended.
