Golden Harvest | Monster Zone

Starring Yuen Biao, Gloria Yip, Loletta Lee, Shintaro Katsu, Hiroshi Abe and Ngai Suet. Directed by Lam Nai-Choi and Lau Sze-Yue. Action by Yuen Bing. A Golden Harvest production.

This not-so-hot sequel to PEACOCK KING (1988) has Ashura (Yip), aka Hell’s Virgin, walking the earth, while Peacock (Biao) gets frozen in a block of ice in Hell.

Things to look out for in this movie include some (iffy) Buddhist lion statues that come to life, a Mogwai-like imp (which farts yellow gas), a matter transportation device and a huge gargoyle.

The imp picks its teeth after scoffing all the food

For much of the movie the imp creature is merely a rubber, hand-operated model, but, thankfully, in later scenes an animated, more effective version of the critter is used.

I'm not sure you should kiss that thing, you don't know where it's been — I’m not sure you should kiss that thing, you don’t know where it’s been

The gargoyle that Hell Concubine (Suet) transforms into is actually quite an off-the-wall, full-scale model creation. This big beastie has wings, an external ribcage, a glowing eyeball in its abdomen and Hell Concubine’s face situated in its forehead!

The gargoyle's glowing green eye opens — The gargoyle’s glowing green abdomen-eye opens

All in all, the action and effects in the original film were better than what is on show here. Oh well.

It's a shame this sequel seems so rushed, lacking the cool fights and superior creature effects seen in the first flick — It’s a shame this sequel seems so rushed, lacking the cool fights and superior creature effects seen in the first flick

Starring Yuen Biao, Hiroshi Mikami, Wong Siu-Fung, Narumi Yasuda, Gloria Yip, Eddy Ko, Gordon Liu and Philip Kwok, directed by Nam Nai-Choi for Golden Harvest.

It goes without saying that various people in this flick have special powers

Two young monks, Peacock (Biao) and Lucky Fruit (Mikami), must prevent the Hell King from destroying the world. Supernatural forces are able to enter the world via four holes to Hell, and the bulk of the tale concerns the hunt for these entrances. In fact, the film’s main weakness is that too much time is given over to whizzing to Japan, Hong Kong and Tibet, fracturing what chance there is of linear plot development.

However, the movie’s fun special effects more than compensate…

Early on we see small, many-eyed crawly thingies called ‘womanising ghosts’, which resemble more interesting versions of the stop-motion models crafted for the hologram chess game in STAR WARS.

These lil’ critters run around a sidewalk, chased by a dog.

Stop-motion ‘womanising ghost’ creatures peer out from a discarded fast food burger box

Another animation model comes into play when Hell’s Envoy Raga, played by Wong Siu-Fung, gets injured. Raga arches her back, develops telescopic, insectoid forearms and claws, and then, best of all, causes her now reptilian, elongated face to split lengthwise into a gaping, vertical, toothy maw!

Stop-motion puppet version of the split-faced monster

Animatronic model of the monster, used for close-ups

This very cool monster acrobatically leaps around the place as it battles the protagonists, with full-scale props and animatronics used in conjunction with the stop-motion puppet to bring this beast to the screen. This is definitely the standout sequence in the movie!