Review of Peacock King, The

Introduction

It`s often bizarre how the entertainment industry works. I could go off on a meaningless rant about Big Brother here, but I`ll focus on the curious synergy that seems to exist between Japan and Hong Kong. Manga and the related anime are big business in Japan, reaching a universal audience. It is most certainly not the niche audience that comic books and cartoons have in the West. Yet when it comes to live action adaptations of Manga, not all movies are homegrown. Quite a few films based on Manga are made in Hong Kong, films like Story Of Ricky, Wicked City and the forthcoming Initial D movie. This wouldn`t seem that bizarre, but as Yuen Biao states in a featurette on this disc, such films are rarely that successful in Hong Kong, only really gaining an audience in Japan. I wonder why they aren`t made in Japan in the first place. The Peacock King is one such film, based on a Japanese Manga and made as a Japanese Hong Kong co-production.

The end of the world is nigh. The four gates of hell are being opened, and behind the diabolical plan are Hell`s Witch Raga and Hell`s Virgin Ashura. Once all four gates are opened, the King Of Hell will walk freely on this Earth, and it will generally be a really sucky day. Standing in their way are two monks, an arrogant and self-assured man from China named Peacock, cocky and flamboyant, and the devout and focused Lucky Fruit from Japan. Their paths cross at the site of the second gate, and they realise that they have to work together to stop Armageddon. With their monastic training and highly developed powers, you`d think it would be a simple matter, if only Ashura wasn`t so cute and innocent looking.

Video

The words digitally restored and remastered don`t really mean much anymore. You could be forgiven for thinking that you`d be buying a film with a pristine transfer, which will look absolutely astounding on your 50-inch plasma. In this case it doesn`t mean that at all. What it means is that most of the print damage is gone, and that`s about it.

The 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer for The Peacock King is indeed damage free for the most part, but the image is hardly reference quality. It`s clear enough in the brighter scenes, but as soon as there is darkness, the transfer appears grainy, soft with a little colour bleed. To the transfer`s detriment there is also ghosting (pun probably intended) and motion blur.

Audio

You have a choice between DD 5.1 English and Cantonese as well as a DD 2.0 mono Cantonese track. The dub is down to the usual gruesome standards, while the 5.1 Cantonese track that I listened to is clear enough, with a little bit of surround goodness, but nothing spectacular given its mono roots. The English subtitles are of the translated kind, and bear no resemblance to the dub script.

Features

The Peacock King comes with the usual HKL animated menus, as well as trailers and info for 6 other Hong Kong Legends releases.

There are a couple of featurettes on this disc, both featuring Yuen Biao. In the first, he talks about The Peacock King for 12 minutes, the popularity of Hong Kong movies in Japan and the collaboration process behind this film.

The second featurette sees him talk about his role on Zu Warriors and this lasts 9 minutes. He discusses the HK film industry`s inexperience with special effects as well as Tsui Hark`s rather unique directorial style. By all logic this featurette should be on the Zu Warriors disc, but I guess you should take what you can get.

Fantasy Comes To Life contains four snippets of other Hong Kong films, some based on Japanese Manga. Each clip lasts about 2 minutes, and you can see that bit in City Hunter where Jackie Chan becomes Chun Li from Streetfighter 2. Also there are clips of Avenging Fist and Zu Warriors, and you can see a snippet of the forthcoming Initial D: Driftracer movie.

Finally there are a couple of trailers for The Peacock King.

Conclusion

The Peacock King neatly slips into the `so bad it`s good` category. It`s the sort of film that had me laughing at the cheesy effects, the story, and the thoroughly eighties costumes. When your main villain looks like Pat Benatar with Bon Jovi hair, then taking the film seriously becomes an impossible proposition. For the most part, the cast realise this and treat the story with the irreverence it deserves, and as such this film is ideal post pub entertainment.

The laughable special effects aside, this film does have high production values, and a story that takes it to all corners of the Far East, from Japan, via Hong Kong to the highest Himalayas. Also, while the creature effects are enough to send me into a fit of giggles even now, the lightshow effects provided by the supernaturally charged monks when they combat the forces of evil are quite professionally done for 1989.

It`s only approaching the end of the film that it begins to lose its lustre. Around this time, the serious side of the tale kicks in, the King Of Hell is imminent, and the desire to goof around is forgotten in favour of a no holds barred showdown with a hundred foot tall painted man in a nappy. When this film got po-faced and bloated with back-story is when I started to drift off. That still leaves sixty minutes of tacky entertainment though.

The Peacock King is never going to rank highly in the Hong Kong movie hall of fame, but at its best (worst?) it`s bloody hilarious. It`s like The Golden Child on acid, but without the annoying kid. Despite the remastered tag with the transfer, this film isn`t going to put your AV to the test, but as brainless entertainment it`s ideal.