multi-headed monster | Monster Zone

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This movie features a many-headed monstrosity! — This movie features a many-headed monstrosity!

Starring Cui Erkang, Zhang Ruiyao, Su Suxia, Cheng Qi, Zhang Ying and Yin Shaosheng. Written by Liu Jiahong and Wang Runz. Directed by Ji Zhizhong and Tony Wei. Tencent Penguin Pictures

One of the hydra-creature's toothy heads — One of the hydra-creature’s toothy heads

A dying general transfers the power of the Cyan Dragon into the body of Xiang, a lowly footsoldier, who must learn to harness the energy to defeat an enemy nation led by a villain capable of beckoning a massive, multi-headed monster. The general’s sister, Ling, tutors Xiang on how to use his powers while they head for the frontline of the war, but Xiang must contend with his instincts to avoid the oncoming danger… and he also starts to fall in love with Ling.

THE CYAN DRAGON is a Chinese-made flick that starts with acrobatic 300-style war scenes, set within green screen-type virtual vistas, that are very cool and exciting to watch, with lots of wirework and characters utilising different powers.

Soldiers are routed by the villain's multi-headed serpent beast! — Soldiers are routed by the villain’s multi-headed serpent beast!

This is where we’re first introduced to a group of masked bad guys who look great on-screen. They each have their own supernatural skills: one killer leaves a smoke-like black trail as he swiftly moves about, another has a hand that transforms into a swollen lava-fist, and the chief villain is able to summon a hydra-creature from beneath the earth.

This dude can turn his hand into a big lava-fist!

The masked bad dudes and their hydra-monster!

During this opening skirmish we also get to see how the power of the Cyan Dragon can be used, as the doomed heroic general restructures the material of his sword, causing it to become super-extended, so that he can skewer many adversaries onto his blade at the same time. This battle set piece is great fun and thrilling to watch, so it’s a pity that it is the only such large scale fight featured in the movie.

With Xiang becoming the host to the Cyan Dragon energy, the plot takes time to show us how the protagonist is initially rather unheroic, needing warrior woman Ling to keep him on track. Xiang, Ling and a couple of escorts set off on their mission, where they are stalked by the masked dudes, who use a kind of floating, brass spying drone-device to track them.

Ling, the fighting femme heroine — Ling is the stern, fighting-femme heroine

The ending sees Xiang and Ling fighting the remaining chief villain in a snowy landscape, trying to survive as the baddie briefly subdivides into three different warriors and then expands in size to become a giant fighter with a fiery halo.

When Ling is killed by the villain, Xiang screams in anger and sadness, zooms upwards through the clouds, out of Earth’s atmosphere, entering the void of space! Then he powers back down to Earth, now dressed as the fully-armoured fighter Cyan Dragon!

Our hero slams back down to Earth and says... "My name is Cyan Dragon!" — Our hero slams back down to Earth and says… “My name is Cyan Dragon!”

Cyan Dragon mauls the masked chief, but the villain has one ace left up his sleeve, as he summons the many-headed super-beast once again!

For a while the villain becomes part of the gigantic monster itself, by melding with its throbbing innards

This finale, with the totally CGI Cyan Dragon warrior battling the CGI hydra monster in a CGI landscape, is little more than glorified computer game footage, but it’s fun to watch nonetheless.

When Xiang becomes encased in his armour he does look very CGI, there's no doubt about that, but the action's fun to watch anyway — When Xiang becomes encased in his armour he does look very CGI, there’s no doubt about that, but the action’s enjoyable to watch anyway

The movie is entertaining and thrilling in places, with lots of wirework and too-cool-for-school villains. It’s a shame, then, that the film is so short. It would’ve been more satisfying to see Xiang spend time to fully explore the growth of his powers, and the notion that his energy can be personified and interacted with (it leaves his body a couple of times and takes on the form of a small dragon-creature) should really have been dwelt on longer.

Above: three shots from a scene where Xiang chats with a tiny dragon, which is the embodiment of the energy now inside him

The movie is also known by the title BLUE DRAGON OF ALIEN BATTLEGEAR.

The armoured Cyan Dragon warrior versus the huge hydra-monster!

Directed by Chang Hsin-Yi, starring Liu Shang-Chien, Chang Yi and Hsia Ling-Ling.

The film is also known as THRILLING BLOODY SWORD

A small fireball zips from space, falls to Earth and enters the belly of a pregnant queen during childbirth. This kills the queen, unfortunately, as a large, red, veined blob of flesh instantly shoots from her womb. The distraught king chooses not to destroy the meaty ball and has it floated away down a river in a basket instead. Seven dwarves living in Happy Forest discover the throbbing flesh-glob, which splits open and becomes a cute baby, who the dwarves adopt and call Yaur-gi. Years later Yaur-gi, now an attractive young woman, encounters Prince Yur-juhn, who is travelling through the forest on his way to visit the king of the Ku Shien kingdom.

Yaur-gi falls in love with the prince and eventually discovers that she’s the daughter of the Ku Shien king, but many trials and tribulations lie in store for her and the prince, as foxy witch-exorcist Gi-err and shifty sorcerer Shiah-ker set out to usurp the kingdom and take over Yaur-gi’s mind.

The seven dwarves contemplate the flesh-blob

Gi-err pretends to be nice... but she's nasty! — Gi-err pretends to be nice… but she’s nasty!

Also known as THRILLING BLOODY SWORD, there’s much to enjoy in this Taiwanese fantasy flick, including a cyclopean demon-monster and a multi-necked, fire-breathing dragon-beast known as the Nine-Headed Siren, which are actually the creations of Gi-err and Shia-ker, who secretly unleash the creatures so that they can look like saviours by destroying them.

It's the Nine-Headed Siren! — It’s the Nine-Headed Siren!

Prince Yur-juhn battles the many-headed beast!

We also have a fun development involving the prince being turned into a bear, then transformed back to his normal self, after which he attains some flamboyant black armour and a weapon called the thunder sword. He subsequently goes on a quest to retrieve a magic box, which involves him fighting a winged monster resembling a low-rent Mahar from AT THE EARTH’S CORE (1976), some folks with flippers called Frog Sirens, some ‘immortal’ warriors who all have a fatal weak spot, a kind of ghost-blob, a giant, floating, gnashing pair of teeth and a couple of disembodied, fleshy monster feet! After a pacy fight with these feet, the limbs finally connect with other body parts to become a bizarre flying figure… that is blown up!

Floating monster teeth! — Giant, floating joke shop monster teeth!

There’s a real crudeness to the effects, that’s for sure, but this doesn’t really detract from the quite charming fairytale nature of the colourful production, which borrows some story beats from Snow White and adds outlandish elements including a genie-like character with a head resembling butt-cheeks, a rabbit which turns into a fairy, a giant devil statue with glowing eyes, plus some perspex weapons you’d expect to see in a THUNDERCATS show.

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Tag Archives: multi-headed monster

The Cyan Dragon (2020)

The Thrilling Sword (1981)

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