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General Invincible (1983) & Wolf Devil Woman (1982) directed by Pearl Chang
10 Plays3 years ago
On this episode of The Stream Queen, we dive into wuxia kung fu movies directed by Pearl Chang. I'm joined by film journalist, Stewart Smith, to talk about our obsession with kung fu films and the wild ride we took watching Pearl Chang's movies.
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Transcript
Introduction to Stream Queen Show
00:00:00
Speaker
to all the ladies I am big it's the pictures that got small
00:00:14
Speaker
All this way for my advice, I feel like Oprah. A woman! Person your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night. What the hell? I'm not going to worry about if people accept me or not. I'm going to make Hollywood wherever I am at.
Introducing Stuart Smith and Female-Directed Kung Fu Films
00:00:32
Speaker
Oh, as if. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Stream Queen, where we select films by female directors to watch and discuss on the show. I am your host, talk to you later, people. And every week, I invite a friend to join me
00:00:44
Speaker
watching movies directed by women and as a whole just indulge in our love of cinema. Today the stream cleaner watches a double feature. We have two exciting movies from you from director Pell Chung Ling and we'll go into it in a minute but first of all I just want to introduce you to my guest today. His name is Stuart Smith and he's a
00:01:06
Speaker
journalist, film critic. So this is probably the best person we can have to talk about this film. All I can call you is that we're going to be talking about Kung Fu movie directed by a woman.
00:01:16
Speaker
And I know that's probably going to blow your mind.
Why Are Female-Directed Kung Fu Films Rare?
00:01:19
Speaker
It blew my mind when I tried to find a Kung Fu film directed by women. Turns out those are a lot more rare than I would have liked. But before we dive in, let me just turn it over to Stu. I'm going to get you to introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit more about where we can find you on the internet, what kind of films you review. Yeah.
00:01:46
Speaker
Well, first of all, I am flattered that you would think highly enough of me to bring me on your show. I am legitimately honored to do this. I always am amazed when people think, yes, he is who I need to talk to. So thank you.
00:02:02
Speaker
But yeah, I am I am a film critic film writer I work for a local TV news station and they let me review films so I pretty much about you know, a lot of mainstream stuff, but then I also have a
00:02:18
Speaker
All to infrequently recurring column at a website called CultSpark, where I put together the Van Damage report, which is a chronological examination of the entire filmography of Jean-Claude Van Damme.
00:02:33
Speaker
Oh, I'm a fan. I'm a fan. That's amazing. I love him so much. It's been a long journey, you know, going from ironically loving Van Dam to genuinely loving Van Dam, but it's, you know. I'm not sure what anyone thinks.
00:02:52
Speaker
Yeah, I know. He's great. He's got so much good stuff. I don't think a lot of people appreciate him in the way that he deserves. So that's really kind of the crux of that column is to really examine the meat of a lot of his films. So coltspark.com, check it out there along with a lot of
Spotlight on Pearl Chung Ling's Unique Filmmaking Style
00:03:13
Speaker
other great writing that goes on there.
00:03:14
Speaker
And I just I love I love kung fu films. I love martial arts films action films You know, and I I don't know it's they're great. There's nothing else really quite like them, you know, especially Martial arts films from around, you know from this era from the 70s 80s and 60s You know
00:03:39
Speaker
It was kind of like a minor revolution whenever superhero films kind of got their start in Hollywood, but that's really what a lot of these are. A lot of these, you know, Taiwanese and Chinese Kung Fu movies are superhero movies, especially, you know, within the Wuxia subgenre, which is what, you know, the two movies that we're going to be talking about today really fall under that subcategory of Wuxia. So,
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, this is precursor to a lot of familiar elements that we see so prevalent, breaking box office record now. But yeah, I love these movies. I love that. I wouldn't call myself anything even remotely close to an expert on them. The genre is
00:04:27
Speaker
far too vast. Yes, I think the current expert on these movies is RZA, but I don't think we could afford to have Oh my God. Yeah, I mean, I couldn't even come close to having, you know, that kind of encyclopedic knowledge. Yeah, that guy has
00:04:44
Speaker
But I do have a passion for them. I love them. I hope that much at least comes through in our discussion. And I'll tell you how this all got started. So I went to Fantastic Fest last year. Fantastic Fest, for those who are not aware, is this genre film festival in Austin.
00:05:04
Speaker
And it's just got all the bizarre stuff. Anything that's not mainstream, you're going to find it there. It's wonderful. And RZA was actually there promoting his book, These Fists Break Bricks, that he co-authored with a bunch of other people, which talks about the history of kung fu, the history of martial arts, and how it kind of
00:05:26
Speaker
kind of sipped its way into Western culture from like Hollywood to pop culture to music and how he was inspired by it. And I just remember watching Master of the Flying Guillotines as he did this whole like mystery science theater commentary with it. And I was like probably one of the best experiences of my life. And so it kind of, and this was like last summer. So it kicked off this desire to ask this question like,
00:05:53
Speaker
Are they all male, the directors, or was there a woman who said, you know what? I'm going to, I'm going to do it. I'm going to make a Kung Fu film for films. And it took me probably the best part of four to five months to find her Chang. And, um, yeah, like it's her movies are incredibly bizarre. Um, I don't know what she's putting it mildly.
00:06:18
Speaker
or drinking, but, you know, I feel like this is a movie that you probably need to get high to. Like it's not a sober type of movie. I mean, I don't, you know, I don't indulge myself in substances, but if I did, if I did, and that is, you know, that's an important caveat. If I did, I would absolutely, I would watch the hell out of these
Analyzing 'General Invincible' - Creativity on a Budget
00:06:40
Speaker
movies. These are the movies to watch.
00:06:43
Speaker
As I found these movies, I remember speaking to my husband, I was like, so I really want to do an episode about this. And I just don't know who should be on the show. He was like, there's only one person. I was like, who's that? He's like, it's got to be Stu. I was like, what do you mean? He was like, have you read the Van Damage report? And I was like, no. And then I took a look. I was like, you're right. It can only be Stuart. He is the one for this. And here you are. Here I am. It's amazing.
00:07:12
Speaker
And I know you dropped kind of a word that is probably not familiar to people who are fresh to kung fu called the Wushai. Like style of kung fu martial art movies. Can you expand on that?
00:07:28
Speaker
So it's my understanding and apologies if I have misunderstood or misread the history of the word, but Wushub from my understanding translates to martial heroes. In other words, it's basically just kind of a genre of fiction that where the characters go on
00:07:52
Speaker
big adventures. It's analogous to, in a lot of ways, the fantasy genre, Western fantasy, Lord of the Rings, that kind of thing. It's all in ancient China, swords and wizardry and all this kind of stuff. So it's
00:08:13
Speaker
high adventure, everybody gets into fights, you know, you have all these bizarre encounters and stuff. So it's it is very much a heightened reality within these. So, you know, other examples would be like, you know, hero or crouching tiger, hidden dragon. You know, those are those are more recent contemporary examples of Wusha, you know, where they can run up trees and, you know, more or less fly. And that sort of thing. So, you know, that in my life.
00:08:42
Speaker
Look, I would love to run through trees with Cheyenne Fat and Michelle. Sign me up. And the Shaw Brothers have been probably the biggest producers of those kind of films. So guys, if you are trying to even delve into kung fu and you're interested and you want to know the history, going back to some of the Shaw Brothers' stuff from the 80s, there was some fantastic stuff back then.
00:09:08
Speaker
Well, and even further back than that, I mean, you've got, let's see, when did it come out? Like, come drink with me, which is, I mean, that probably wasn't the first Wuxia film, but it was probably like the first, like really huge notable Wuxia film that came out in 1966.
00:09:32
Speaker
directed by King Hu. I mean, he's definitely one of the most prolific directors within the Chinese wuxia sub-genre. And that actually, one, you should watch it anyway, especially if you're a fan of like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There are so many elements of Come Drink With Me that are found in
00:09:53
Speaker
Crouching Tiger. In fact, that film star, Chang Pei Pei, played the villain of Crouching Tiger. Yeah. So it's just, it goes back, I mean, decades. I mean, this is, you know, that Woosha has been around, you know, as stories for even longer, but as films, I mean, that's probably really, you know, 1966, about really when it really started to rise to prominence, I would say. Absolutely.
00:10:21
Speaker
And yeah, so there's like, um, a lot of times I've been able to find, uh, these movies on Amazon, you know, I'm a stream queen, so I got a rep where I stream these movies. Um, Amazon, uh, has some great stuff on there. Um, you know, you either probably some smaller, um, Amazon's Amazon's a great resource. Uh, to be is where we watched one of these.
00:10:43
Speaker
Yeah, Tubi. And Pluto TV actually has a whole channel dedicated to martial arts, kung fu movies. So yeah, there's stuff out there. And like, Tubi and Pluto TV are free. Because at some point, you got to like put a stop to how much streaming you're paying for.
Can 'General Invincible' Shine with a Bigger Budget?
00:11:05
Speaker
If I can get it for free, I usually do. And so just a little bit about our director today. The movies that we're talking about are General Invincible, which was the first one that I initially found. And I think it was on Amazon for like $0.99. So I was like, I can do that. That's fine.
00:11:27
Speaker
And I shared that with you, and you went down this rabbit hole, and we were able to find another movie by her that I didn't even know was available for streaming, because initially, because I used, like, Leto Box and Just Watch as my way to find things. And so, you know, if you guys want me to do an ad for you on my podcast, there is a space. But yeah, so I wasn't able to find, I knew she had done, I think she's directed, like, six movies, five or six movies.
00:11:56
Speaker
um and what's amazing about her is like she's not just a director she's an actor and in some of the cases she actually wrote these movies so she's like a triple threat she's like yeah director writer producer so more like four i don't know what the number for four is but this is like
00:12:15
Speaker
It's like multiple flat. In the 80s where they were like, oh, women can do kung fu. It's just, it's amazing to see somebody just kind of come out left field and say, well, actually, even if I don't do it great, I'm going to try and do it anyway. And that's, that's really kind of, it's so, it's fascinating to me that there are so few female directors when, you know, I mean, the,
00:12:39
Speaker
women stars of Kung Fu movies. I mean, that's been, I mean, they've had prominence in those movies for ages. Yeah. You know, so it was really interesting to me to hear that you had such trouble, you know, finding anything that had been directed by women. I'd be I'd be fascinated to learn, you know, why there was that kind of a disparity in the behind the camera talent when in front of it. I mean, it was extremely common.
00:13:05
Speaker
And you know, it's really interesting because even Michelle you was she was talking about this recently on an interview how like when she first met like Jackie Chan and you know, she was she wanted to not just be the damsel in distress, you wanted to be like a kung fu star. And he was like, no, women don't do that. Like, you know, and so, you know, you're thinking about even at her time,
00:13:27
Speaker
there was still that whole women can't do kung fu women can't be heroes they can't you know and she was like no i i could do it let me let me show you what i can do and really um defied all expectation and is now one of the biggest
00:13:44
Speaker
stars known today. And also just a quick plug for everything everywhere all at once. Please go see it. I haven't seen it yet, but I think it looks fantastic so far. I can't wait. I've heard nothing but gulling things about it. Yeah. So I think that even at the point where she was experiencing that kind of
00:14:03
Speaker
um you know the discrimination or prejudice whatever you want to call it um you know and so i can only imagine that pearl was probably something way worse um back then so uh yeah it is tough i'm glad i found these but uh i want to just jump into it let's talk about general invincible let's do it so i don't even know how to explain this
00:14:31
Speaker
So like, you know, Pearl plays the daughter of a like a ruler or chief or king or whatever. Actually, no, he's like one of the lords or whatever. And they've all been called to protect the king because like a baddie is like, you know, wanting to take over basically. And he's already killed like three out of four of the greatest
00:14:54
Speaker
fighters who are also lords and Her father gets killed but they keep it on the hush because once they know that all the cards are off the table they're gonna like invade and take over this kingdom, right and So she is a general which also was like, okay, bitch badass. Love it And honestly, that's where the story stops making sense
00:15:22
Speaker
And I can't think of what else, but I get a turn of it is to like, what else is in this plot? I mean, there's, you know, learning secret ancient techniques from a possibly dead phantom master. Man, I don't know. It was like, even like I watched it twice.
00:15:46
Speaker
And I have no idea what's happening. All I know is, you know, she's she's on a quest. She has this mute, you know, sidekick, you know, attendant or, you know, whatever, whatever you want to call them. Yeah. You know, she encounters this other roaming swordsman. She has one of them has to learn the crystal dagger technique, which is the only thing that can
00:16:13
Speaker
that can kill the you know the final boss of the final boss of the movie um but it's like it's it's weird it's
00:16:23
Speaker
I don't want to say borderline incomprehensible. It basically is incomprehensible, but it's never boring. It's visually crazy. There's just so much use of color. The costumes, the costumes are amazing in this. I don't know who did the costumes. I would love to be able to give them credit and call them out.
00:16:50
Speaker
Yeah. Almost every single scene, Pearl Chung is wearing something different. It's something really cool and elaborate. It's always great. It's always really neat to look at. I guess the thing that really stuck out to me is the way that it blended real
00:17:15
Speaker
kind of almost Western fantasy elements or just, you know, fantasy elements that you, that I at least am not, you know, that I don't typically see in Chinese films or, you know, Wuxia films like this, you know, like, you know, lightning and magic and, you know, the, the, you know, one of the, one of the assassins pulls a sword out of his arm and it shoots poison at them. I was like, wow, that's, that's awesome. That's so cool.
00:17:41
Speaker
Why didn't I come up with an idea like that? You know, that's cool. And so it's, you know, it's got all, you know, it's got all these familiar tropes in it. You've got warriors caught in plenty of major strength and weakness. And it's funny. It's surprisingly funny. Yes. Lots of gags.
00:18:02
Speaker
You know, lots of gags when the the I can't remember the guy's name, the character's name, the the roaming warrior. Can you remember what his name is? I can't. I can't either. I don't know. There's a there's a there's a there's a scene where he's in a bathhouse and he gets ambushed and he's just he's just totally playing it cool. It's just like, no, I think I'll get out now. I'm about to get all wrinkly. Yeah, you know, he's just it's yeah, it's surprisingly funny.
00:18:30
Speaker
There's a fight during a thunderstorm that I, that was the scene that really made me think, okay, we need a remake of this because there is so much potential here, especially in that scene that it's just like, okay.
00:18:46
Speaker
they had vision when directing this and they simply didn't have the means to fully realize it and god I wish they had the budget no no they I mean I don't know that anyone would have had the budget back then to really pull off you know what you can tell they were thinking when doing this but it you know so it's
00:19:06
Speaker
you know, credit to her, you know, to her direction style. I mean, she, she wanted to imbue this with personality in a way that I hadn't really seen, you know, from a Woosha film, especially from a Woosha film back then. Yeah. You know, I mean, there, you know, there, there's, it's, it's, it's incomprehensible, but there's a lot to chew on here.
00:19:32
Speaker
There is, you know, like, I mean, those special effects were a little cringe, but then you think of the company degree. This looks like a low budget movie and they spent it on costume and probably on choreography. And so, you know, so maybe the lightning doesn't look quite, it looks cartoonish, but, you know, you could definitely tell, you know, like, I believe this is another one that she wrote.
00:19:58
Speaker
as well, you know, she had the vision, she directed it and she, you know, she was in it. And it's just, you know, I know that if she was here today and she was able to make it with the budget that we're going for, you know, these hundred million dollar budgets, that we would get something as close to like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Like, I feel like, you know, she probably was trying to be economical because it is, I think it's
Unveiling 'Wolf Devil Woman' - A Tale of Transformation
00:20:24
Speaker
like 90 minutes long. It's not
00:20:26
Speaker
If that. Yeah, it's it's it's tiny. Yeah. So I mean, they would have that that movie needed to be at least two hours long. It had so much that was going on and there was so many things that were moving so many like subplots and storylines like when they like, you know, the whole girl on girl fight over this roaming warrior that basically was a moniker and brandy music video.
00:20:57
Speaker
A boy is mine. And she's like, I'm not even that much into him. He just really loved me. And I was like, we needed more for these two. We needed to see them interact. We needed to see the showdown. I'm calling them brandy now because it's canon.
00:21:16
Speaker
Two very talented women, martial artists, you know, showing their skill, yes, they're fighting over a guy, but whatever. And I just feel like there's just so much potential if it was a much longer film, but I could also see how she's like, okay, this is how much money I have, so we're just gonna make it short, we're gonna get it out, and then get as much money as we can to recoup, and then we're gonna make the next one. Yeah, so, okay, tell me, were you able to make sense of, you know, as to,
00:21:45
Speaker
why they chose to like give her epilepsy. I mean, was that, yeah, I couldn't, I couldn't decide if that was just like, okay, we've got to, we've got to put something in there to like humanize her. And so I don't know. It was, I just seemed like a really weird, right? Like she has, you know, again, I think it kind of made her character
00:22:09
Speaker
you know, not perfect, right? She is a general's daughter, but it makes her a bit more vulnerable. And the weakness makes her vulnerable. And the whole thing throughout the film with the master, that's maybe a ghost or whatever, those amazing eyebrows, my God.
00:22:30
Speaker
They don't give you those eyebrow extensions at the salon, I'll tell you that. But the whole idea was about transcending, like, you know, overcoming
00:22:41
Speaker
your physical, mental, emotional limitations. Because who's that word a lot? Transcend, beyond. And I think that was put in there to show she has this journey to go through. No one can really transcend epilepsy, FYI, medically speaking. But in this situation, I think it was like, you know, because it's a magical, you know. And that's what I love about kung fu. There is no such thing as limitation.
00:23:11
Speaker
for the imagination. Anything you can think of is possible. I've literally seen written letters in Cantonese on the floor come to life and start attacking someone with martial arts skills in a completely different movie. So imagination is something where they're like, if we think about it, it can happen. And so I think that for them, this was her arc in order to be the best
00:23:37
Speaker
the greatest, overcome it. And, you know, she had to transcend beyond what her body was doing. Right. You know, every now and again, in not the best situations, you know, when she was really stressed, she would have an attack. So
00:23:56
Speaker
No, no, that feels that feels spot on. That's my explanation. I did not read it anywhere. No, you're right. I mean, I mean, there's there's all there are countless examples through kung fu films of, you know, people who have I mean, there's one of my favorite kung fu films is called the one armed swordsman. Oh, yeah. Missing an arm doesn't matter. No, there's a I mean, I mean, and it gets really bizarre. Like there's one God, I can't remember the name of it.
00:24:25
Speaker
uh there's one where um what it's called like drunken wolf maybe i can't remember but it's a fight between a between a guy like two guys one of them is uh i believe he doesn't have the use of his legs so he gets around in a rowboat on wheels and he's fighting in the rowboat
00:24:45
Speaker
on wheels and it's one of the greatest fight scenes I've ever seen. It's incredible. So yeah, limitations are nothing in these movies. Yeah, no. Even human limitation, I think one of the common messages in Kung Fu is that with great practice and
00:25:04
Speaker
great discipline. You can overcome whatever it is that the world sees as a limitation for you. And I feel like that's such a beautiful message, right? Yeah, absolutely. For a lot of kids who
00:25:20
Speaker
You know, they've been told they're never about to anything or they have this limitation and stuff and you have kung fu that says actually You could be you can only have one arm and you could be the greatest fighter and no one be able to beat you And i've seen that movie. No one was able to beat him You know, you could have epilepsy you could be blind um, I think the master of the fine gee team was blind and yet was able to like was
00:25:47
Speaker
No one could defeat him. And I think that that's a beautiful message that it sends to kids who are getting into kung fu or whatever. It's not ableist, I guess. And I think that's pretty cool. No, absolutely.
00:26:07
Speaker
Yeah, there was some there was some beautiful moments, like, again, like you're talking about the costumes, the outfit changes were all kind of connected to her, like what she was feeling and the plot. There was a moment where she was like questioning herself, like, who am I? Like, am I this great general blah, blah, blah, like I have this epilepsy thing and there was a costume change for that. And as soon as she like overcame it, there was a costume change for that. And it was just like, man, I wish I had a costume change every time I had a Christ.
00:26:37
Speaker
of confidence. I guess I do, it's called my sweats. Today is like a t-shirt and like slacks day or whatever, you know, like I'm just gonna like lay down and just think about whether I'm good enough. So there was that and yeah, I just, for me it was the kung fu and the martial arts. Like I could really tell that she knew her stuff. I could really tell that whoever was the choreographer
00:27:06
Speaker
really spent a lot of time making sure that those fight scenes were legit. They were great. And it's similar to any fight scene that I would see in any movie directed by a man doing kung fu, so that was also pretty fantastic. What would you say are your favorite part of that movie?
00:27:30
Speaker
conceptually I mean it's it's really it's two again it's it's two scenes that you know conceptually are amazing execution I mean again it you can't really hold it against it because of the budget but uh the lightning and thunder uh fight scene is still sticks in my mind but then the part where they're trying to cross the river oh my god yes and then they're throwing like uh
00:27:55
Speaker
Sparrow is, I think, Pearl Chung's character's name is. Sparrow and her A, they get knocked off the side of the waterfall. But then she sticks her sword in the side of the waterfall, and they keep throwing each other back up to the top. It's just like, OK, that's awesome. And I want to see that done in high fidelity.
00:28:23
Speaker
Yeah, because that is just like that, like that is incredibly cool. Yeah, no, it totally is. I think for me, like if I could remake this movie, it would be to give it more budget for special effects. Like I don't think that the only the story was too convoluted. I think that because of how short a time it was told in and
00:28:47
Speaker
Well, the the length and then I mean, you know, you're always going to have, you know, localization and translation issues, especially especially back then, you know, and then, you know, and then you've got the hurdle of, you know, the really cheesy English voiceover. Exactly. It adds a lot of charm, but it doesn't really, you know, it doesn't do the story itself a whole lot of favors that's in that that movie. I almost wish like they wouldn't and they would just leave it with subtitles because I feel like
00:29:17
Speaker
The energy and the vibe of that movie would have carried a lot better without the- No, yeah, almost certainly. But yeah, that would be it for me. Make it longer, give it more budget, and that way we can really see where the story can go. Because like you said earlier, there's just so many fantastic elements in this. It's like, why not? So I mean, is there anything else you would change about it?
00:29:44
Speaker
I mean, you know, the structure of it, the bones of it are good. It's got good bones, you know, the way that they say on one of my wife's home TV shows.
00:29:55
Speaker
But yeah, no, I mean, structurally, I mean, it works. You know, I like the vibe of what it's going for. I like the blending of, you know, of Eastern and Western kind of fantasy elements. And yeah, it has so much potential to be like a legit classic if it had just had, you know, even a little bit more money behind it even back then.
The Quirky World of 'Wolf Devil Woman'
00:30:18
Speaker
Yeah. So then this takes us to the next movie that we watched, which I believe if you were looking for it on IMDb or whatever, it's called Wolf Devil Woman. But you were able to find it on 2B under the name Wolfen Ninja, which is
00:30:37
Speaker
Completely different than what- Both awesome names. Wolf Devil Woman is probably a bit more accurate to what the movie actually is. Yeah, it's pretty accurate. And just to summarize what that movie is about, because that would probably be like scratching your head. That's my fair lady.
00:31:02
Speaker
I was thinking more Miss Congeniality. But yeah, you have basically a lady who her parents died in the wilderness. Not just died in the wilderness, died fleeing a demon cult.
00:31:19
Speaker
A demon cult, yes, that's very specific. And they basically commit what could be called Harakiri. They committed suicide and it was like, let the gods protect our child, which is putting a lot of faith. And then they headbutt several times this mountain to create an avalanche.
00:31:39
Speaker
uh to protect their child um as parenting goes i have so many questions but that's for later um but it sounds like you're making this up but i assure you listeners she is not this is this was just the first five minutes um and then um so this child grows up and is raised by wolves
00:32:01
Speaker
literally raised by wolves, not not a metaphor and not the Apple TV show. But, you know, then you have, you know, this this evil demon cult is still roaming around and wanting to take over another kingdom because that's a theme in Kung Fu. There's always a bad villain trying to take over someone else's kingdom. I mean, you know, it's it's ancient China and you're a bad guy. What are you going to do? You got to take over some kingdoms.
00:32:29
Speaker
Yeah, you know, you're not going to take it when you're in the business for it. Anyway, so the the son of the king is like, hey, you know what? There's this magical jingsing route that's up in the mountain somewhere. I need to go get it because this is the only way we can defeat this.
00:32:48
Speaker
Evil villain and he's like, yeah, I'll take my psychic. I don't know his name, but he was hilarious. I loved him Lee Lee is the Lee is the adventurer's name and Wong is his I believe. Okay. So, you know, Lee and Wong they I feel like that should be like a comic book or so. Yeah.
00:33:06
Speaker
They go up to the mountain and come across this girl who's raised by wolves, who doesn't have hygiene, doesn't know how to speak, doesn't know how to act. I'm still thinking about the first time you see Snowflower, which is Pearl Chung's character name in this.
00:33:27
Speaker
the first time that you see groan snowflower she is wearing and i get it it's supposed to be like a wolf pelt headdress but it's just like a stuffed german ship
00:33:42
Speaker
It's amazing. She has a whole face of makeup. Her eyeshadow was incredible for someone that lives in a cave. I know. Yeah, fantastic. I'm jealous of it. I don't even wear makeup. The lipstick red color was, I don't know where she got that from, but I especially- It's probably animal blood, probably. Yes. So, you know, and they accidentally kill her mom, who is a wolf,
00:34:09
Speaker
Plot twist. And then they have to, you know, then they stay with her for a bit. And I think this is where Stuart's hole, like their lady situation comes in, because they teach you how to talk, how to dress, how to be proper, so that when she goes out into the world, she's not just growling at people. I'm just going to say that as a woman who walks down the street, growling is an acceptable response. I mean, look, I can't argue with that.
00:34:39
Speaker
If you have ever been catcalled, please growl back. Growl back. Now, I don't know about walking up to them and like eating raw meat in front of them. But, hey, if it scares them off, do whatever you got to do. It is the way to go. So, you know, they they do that and they're like, hey, you know about this jing-sing-roo. And by the way, at this point, I don't know how long they've been with her, but she's speaking fluent human language. And she's like, hey, I ate it. Didn't know what it was. Felt sick.
00:35:07
Speaker
And, um, I feel like we've all been there, you know, this is like, who's among us, whom's among us has not eaten a mystical evil destroying ginseng root when we had the rumblies. I mean, come on. And then whom's tomorrow.
00:35:24
Speaker
Who was among us has not and survived to tell the tale. Right. And then told an evil wizard after, you know, it's exactly what you do. And so he's like, yeah, come down, come down, come see my parents, which, you know, after the first date, that's a bit much.
00:35:40
Speaker
And she's like, now I'm gonna stay up here with my mom and grieve her, but she has this like dream and it's like, no, you gotta go down there. And, you know, it's kind of her figuring out how to be among people. And it really does, I think that's where I got lost after. Because then it was just per camp. It does kind of go off the rails. The music keeps sounding like it's from a Scooby-Doo episode. Yeah.
00:36:11
Speaker
It's a bit easier to follow just kind of in that it I don't know kind maybe I don't know it's it's all kind of a mess but Yeah, I mean she Yeah, I don't know
00:36:27
Speaker
It was, yeah. I mean, I think ultimately what happens is that they find out that by her eating a root, she has actually become the root and she can repel magical attacks and also gives her fantastic martial arts skills. And amazing white hair. Amazing white hair. So she kind of goes through this whole Hulk-like transformation where when she's upset or
00:36:56
Speaker
like something something that tips her emotional balance forms into this whitehead like kung fu master that can repel magic. She basically turns into into a white haired kung fu goddess.
00:37:13
Speaker
Yeah, pretty much. I mean, that's the easiest way of explaining it. Yeah. And she just she figures out how to like master that, I guess, and channel it because she has to go save her her new friend, Lee, who is now been taken, captured by the demon cult leader and maybe under his spell, maybe not. It's hard to tell. And spoilers. I think he was he might have been undercover. He might have been in this fight.
00:37:40
Speaker
but he was he was you you yeah i mean he was kind of kind of faking it kind of not yeah it's like if they hadn't if they hadn't gotten there when they did he might have like kind of gone in too deep yeah but again down with down with pearls theme of you know whatever we do guys the costume has just got to be lit like it's got to because the the evil demon
00:38:08
Speaker
The Red Devil, I think, is what they call him. The Red Devil. You remember names one night. My brain was just like, what a costume. That thing is incredible. A beautiful gold veil, a coat of many colors like Dolly Parton would have sang about. Nails that Cardi B would be jealous of. He was just beautiful. Freddy Krueger looked at those knife hands and was like, damn.
00:38:34
Speaker
Yeah, I was like what it was like, but then that hat, that pointy hat that's like taller than he is, it was amazing. I don't know how they, I don't know how that guy walked around like that. I know. Like, you know, he didn't really have to do a lot of work. He just had to like throw some powder in your face and you were under his spell. But the rest of his, the rest of his like, like stormtroopers, I'm going to call them were, were there to take care of any fighting. So he didn't have to break a sweat, you know, right? Yeah. You just kind of sit there, throw some poison.
00:39:02
Speaker
Yeah. And his dream, his goal was very basic. I just want to take over the world and live forever. Period. I mean, I mean, who doesn't want that? It's important to have great career goals.
00:39:15
Speaker
It is important to have goals. Yes. So yeah, it was a fantastical film, but I also want to hear from you. What do you think about it? What was great about it for you? This was a lot of fun. I love
00:39:35
Speaker
I love the concept of it. You know, I love, I don't know, it feels like even though she's the lead in both movies more or less, Pearl just feels a lot more prominent in this movie. Like she just feels, you know, like she's just got a bit more to do. Her fight scenes are a lot more interesting and brutal. That was the thing that kind of surprised me about this is how bloody this movie is. It was very like Kill Bill bloody.
00:40:04
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, this was, you know, there is no shortage of the red stuff. And her fighting style was really interesting, you know, using those, you know, the claw ropes that she had that were made out of like animal pelts and, you know, and in actual animal claws. I mean, that was always really cool. It's just really, it's a lot of fun. It feels, it just feels really imaginative.
00:40:27
Speaker
Yeah. No. And they didn't try to pack too much in to one film. Like it felt like they did enough because for that 19 minutes. Whereas like with General Invincible, it felt like there were just so many subplots. Right. Yeah. Yeah. This one's definitely a lot more strict. Wondering Stranger with the women that she's fighting over. Wondering Stranger with. And it just seems like and they said they kept it very
00:40:55
Speaker
straight and narrow and they followed a path and it was like wolf girl to the guy who killed him killed her parents straight line um you know there was some kind of yeah it's definitely it's definitely a lot more straightforward
00:41:09
Speaker
Yeah, a lot more straightforward. So like that one felt like it was a little more easier to follow. You know, I was getting like Mowgli, Jungle Book, but with wolves. Mowgli, but deadly. But deadly. Like the Mowgli that Disney will never show you. Never.
00:41:27
Speaker
And these are very self-conscious wolves because they literally tore her parents to pieces, but somehow managed to dig her out of the snow on scave and decided that they would take care of her instead of having her for lunch. Which, to be honest, I didn't know that wolves could make that distinction. See, this movie is even educational. What can't it do? Yes. Learn something new every day. And I loved that ice cave. It made me think about Superman 2.
00:41:56
Speaker
Yeah. I was like. It's a nice little ice bridge just like right in the middle. Whoever does, whoever, you know, whatever animal plan that ice cave, you know, it's very. I know. Whoever is their architect, I need a number because that was fantastic. But yeah, there was just like really interesting choices. You know, I think my husband commented when we were watching it, it was like, if she was raised by wolves, why is she conscious enough to cover herself? Surely she would just be naked.
00:42:24
Speaker
And I was like, is that for you? Is that for me? But yeah, so there's definitely some interesting choices. But, you know, I think for the economy of the movie, they had to get her speaking very quickly.
00:42:42
Speaker
I almost felt like maybe we should have just had her not be able to communicate at all in, I don't wanna say, I'm just gonna assume Cantonese, but there's something about, and maybe it's because I've recently watched films like Coda and Drive My Car, where sign language is such a powerful way of communicating. And at the beginning, they were kind of trying to do that, but I wonder if that would have made her
00:43:10
Speaker
character even more, I don't know, something, right? That she just wasn't able to just suddenly speak and communicate with humans, but they really had to, there was kind of this gap in understanding and they had to like bridge it somehow, you know? Yeah, well, I mean, having your lead, one of your lead actors only progressively be able to communicate
00:43:37
Speaker
Um, cause yeah, I mean, probably character wise, the smarter thing to do would have been like to, okay, maybe she learns one or two words at first. And then by the end of the movie, she can, you know, talk in a couple sentences or something like that, but you know, given the restraint, given the restraints of what they're working under, that's probably putting a bit more thought into it than, you know, maybe they had the, that the latitude to be able to do back then, you know, this is, this is, this is borderline exploitation type cinema.
00:44:06
Speaker
I know no one's thinking that way. Right.
Celebrating Creativity in Kung Fu and Pearl's Legacy
00:44:11
Speaker
But yeah, the you know, I think my one of my favorite parts of the movie was the what I call my Miss Congeniality moment where there's all of these ways they're trying to teach her to be human and they put the flower in her hair. And somehow that makes it easier for her to learn Cantonese. I also get transformed into a beautiful, modern day princess, I too, speak fluently in
00:44:37
Speaker
intelligent language. The power of a glow up is what I call it. Absolutely. But yeah, no, the sidekick was also one of my favorite Wong because he was just so silly. And you know, like, that's, that's nothing that's a very typical kung fu movies. There's always some, the clown, right? The class clown. The one that, you know, he can fight, but he's going to be,
00:45:04
Speaker
He's there for laughs. Yeah, he's there for laughs. He's falling over. He's tripping over. There's so many gags. And then he kind of was just out there with his little like pigtail like ponytail. And it was just I just I enjoyed him so much. Like every time he came on scene, I just knew that I would I would laugh. I would just have like such a good time. And yeah, like he was he was definitely a great addition to the movie for sure.
00:45:31
Speaker
And it's really kind of, I'm glad that I was able to watch both of these back to back just because it really kind of showcases
00:45:40
Speaker
how interesting the choices Pearl Chung made are. Because these are not like, you know, contrasting it against, you know, even other films of its time, at least that I've seen anyway, again, it's hard to speak definitively because there are so many of these movies out there. But just in my experience of watching these, you know, the female heroes of Kung Fu movies and stuff,
00:46:06
Speaker
aren't often portrayed as, you know, these types of just oddball characters. Yeah. And that was the thing that really stuck out is just how much personality is in, you know, in both Sparrow and in Snowflower, you know, the ways that she didn't seem to have a problem
00:46:26
Speaker
playing these utter weirdos in a lot of ways, who are awesome and capable and feral and deadly and yet still just have such distinction about who they are and what their goals are and what they want to do and how they do it.
00:46:43
Speaker
And she really did play like the opposite of the women that you would see in kung fu movies who are her delicate and elegant. And even when they're fighting, they're just floating. And she was like, no, I rip a rabbit in half. I will rip a dude's throat. I don't even care.
00:47:03
Speaker
Yeah, I drink five kegs of beer and I pass out like it was just she just kind of showed a different way to be a woman that wasn't about being a delicate flower, even when she finally did, you know, transcend. Right. Right. Even when she's in these very ornate, flowery, you know, flowing dresses and the like. I mean, she's still like at the like at the end of Wolf Devil Woman when she's in that final costume.
00:47:29
Speaker
And she's still just ripping people apart. You know, she's like this idyllic vision with, you know, flowing white hair and this amazing costume. And yet she's still just, I mean, just ruck shot. It's, you know, it's a delightful contrast.
00:47:44
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, like, she also adds a level of vulnerability in her fighting, because, and I think that we also see this in General Invincible, where she's not just fully powerful. Like, there are moments where she's like, I don't know that I can survive this. I don't know that I can keep this up. And
00:48:07
Speaker
And that's that's amazing because I think like sometimes you watch like hero movies and like the heroes kicking everybody's ass just gets boring after a while. And I love the movies where a hero is like, oh, I'm exhausted. Oh, my God. That was a really hard hit. I'm like, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it. And then something intrinsic, something motivational.
00:48:29
Speaker
something that is just beyond my core brass power. It's like, oh, I'm being pulled by my love for this person and I'm going to push it at extra distance to get it.
00:48:44
Speaker
I feel like she tried to show that in her movies, because there was a moment there I was like, are you okay? Because I don't think you're gonna make it. Like, are you gonna be able to defeat this guy? Right. And she just, you know, she pulls it out at the last minute. And I love stuff like that, you know, even though I know the hero is gonna win, I like that they suffer a little bit, it gives realism that they're not always
00:49:07
Speaker
successful. They're not always, um, powerful. And, and there'll be times where like, they're going to be down and you're going to worry about whether they're going to ever be able to get up. Um, you know, Black Panther is like a great example of that. Um, and, and then it just turns around and you're like, yes, achieved. I can go home. I'm happy. Yeah. So,
00:49:34
Speaker
Yeah, those were some of the things that I really loved about him. I hope that more of her movies are available for streaming because I do want to watch everything. What's really interesting to me is that Wolf Devil Women came before General Invisible only by like a year. And maybe just the release date, but I don't know if one was made before the other. But it is interesting that the one that seems to have the most clarity
00:50:02
Speaker
is the one that came first and not second. When she did a sequel to this to Wolf Devil Woman, but I haven't been able to find it. Yeah, so apparently there are, and I can't remember which ones there are, but there's almost like a trilogy and they kind of flow out of each other. Like they're different films individually, but when taking together it's almost like
00:50:28
Speaker
a saga. And so I that's why I'm hoping that I can, that that's something that comes down the road and maybe we could do another podcast where we're like, we're back to talk about the rest of this craziness. Because she's not she, you know, she's definitely doing things different. She's doing things her way. But in terms of like, the bunkers ness of like,
00:50:49
Speaker
of the movies, I feel like this is just Kung Fu. This is what Kung Fu does. It's why I love it. Like, I just don't know. When I go in, when I press play, I do not know where I'm going to go, what I'm going to see. It's just a wild ride. And I'm just here for it. I just I surrender completely to it. And it's all you can do, really. It's all you can do. And maybe that's why I love it so much.
00:51:17
Speaker
Well, is there anything else you want to say about this movie before we close? I think that I think we kind of covered it pretty well. And I think we hopefully have taught people about Kung Fu and got them so interested that they they're going to have to like go look for, you know, it doesn't have to be necessarily pills. But, you know, the Shaw brothers, like I said, go back to the 60s, like just just indulge. It's such a great genre. If anyone is looking for a great entry point into just
00:51:46
Speaker
classic Kung Fu, go watch 36 Chamber of Shaolin. That's probably my favorite, you know, pure Kung Fu movie. Great intro to it. Watch that. And then if you want a good intro to classic Wuxia that isn't something, you know, more modern like Crouching Tiger, go watch Come Drink With
Conclusion and Call to Explore Female-Directed Films
00:52:07
Speaker
Me.
00:52:07
Speaker
Yeah. Great movie. Great movie. Thank you so much for the suggestion, Stu. It was so great to have you on the show. Oh, thank you for having me on. My God, I am flattered. Happy to be a guest. Yeah. Assuming I didn't sound like a moron, I'll be happy. Oh, yeah. Whatever you'll have me.
00:52:27
Speaker
I feel like I learned something new, and you know, we'll have more films where you can come and be our guest, because I think that you have such a great insight, particularly if we do some action movies, because I really do want to have you on for those. But yeah, and also thank you everyone for listening. I hope that this was a completely different episode for you. I try to keep things moving and keep the genres
00:52:51
Speaker
different. So they usually just get such a breadth of just how broad the categories are for women who direct, right? We're everywhere. So it's important that we support. It doesn't have to be great. It doesn't have to be the best quality. But just to show that the work is out there, the ideas are out there, and they can be so fun to watch. So
00:53:14
Speaker
Remember, you can subscribe to this podcast and get notified for our next episode. But until then, thank you. And this is your stream queen. Bye.