On January 24, 1987, the China Times published an incendiary speech delivered by Edward Yang at his 40th birthday celebration a few months prior. Yang’s speech, later dubbed his “Another Cinema” manifesto, was drafted in response to growing domestic criticism of Taiwan’s New Cinema movement (of which Yang was a pioneering figure) for what was seen as arthouse overindulgence and lack of popular appeal. Despite the movement bringing international renown to Taiwan’s film industry, these criticisms became too frequent and forceful to ignore, causing Yang and his fellow New Cinema filmmakers to denounce the globalizing of Taiwan’s film market, effectively ending the New Cinema movement and beginning the pursuit of Another.
Five days later, a movie about a magical fruit-themed kung fu fighting child graced Taiwan’s screens.
Though likely not the alternative that Yang had envisioned, the Taiwanese film industry saw a boom in the number of kid-friendly action fantasy productions throughout the late-80s & early-90s, thanks in part to the rising global popularity of tokusatsu series like POWER RANGERS and a burgeoning home video market that re-introduced entire generations to the action and wuxia films of yesteryear. These releases, many of which were produced through Choi Chung-lam’s Kinko Yingi Co., often incorporated fantastical elements from Chinese literature and folklore already familiar to children, while scratching that tokusatsu itch with plenty of colorful characters, rubber-suited monsters, magic talismans, and mythical powers.
The legacy and impact of these films is still up for discussion— Unfortunately many of these titles have either been lost to time or have only sustained via poorly-translated bootleg VHS & VCD rips— but we at Spectacle see it as an oddly fascinating detour for Taiwan’s film industry during a period of great self-reflection and political & social transition, both within the industry itself and for the country at-large.
CHILD OF PEACH (捉鬼雜牌軍)
dirs. Chen Chun-liang & Chiu Chung-hing, 1987
Taiwan. 97 min.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.
FRIDAY, MAY 2 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, MAY 8 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 24 – 5 PM
THURSDAY, MAY 29 – 7:30 PM
GET TICKETS
High up in the Himalayas lies the Peach Garden, an idyllic paradise where flora and fauna flourish thanks to the natural power of the Sword of the Sun. When the monstrous Demon King (Huang Chung-yu) invades the Garden to claim the sword for himself, the Garden’s master and his wife send their only son down to Earth where he’s endowed with super-human abilities. Years later, the teenage Peach Kid (Lin Hsiao-lu) teams up with former guardians of the Garden— three shape-shifting superpowered children named Tiny Dog, Tiny Monkey, and Tiny Cock— to banish the Demon King once and for all.
Loosely based on the Japanese fairy tale, Momotarō, and incorporating healthy doses of Journey to the West and Superman lore, CHILD OF PEACH has become the gold standard for Taiwanese action fantasy. The film spawned two semi-related sequels and has since become a cult classic for its barrage of ridiculous ideas, spanning everything from witches and zombies to human-shark hybrids and fruit-based mecha. Its directors, Chen Chun-liang & Chiu Chung-hing, each went on to helm some of the genre’s heaviest hitters (as this series demonstrates), while its star, Lin Hsiao-lu, built her own cottage industry out of playing magically-powered children across films like KUNG-FU WONDER CHILD, KING OF THE CHILDREN, and DRAGON KID.
MAGIC OF SPELL (桃太郎大顯神威)
aka CHILD OF PEACH 2
dir. Chiu Chung-hing, 1988
Taiwan. 80 min.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.
SATURDAY, MAY 3 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, MAY 9 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 24 – 7:30 PM
GET TICKETS
Peach Kid (Lin Hsiao-lu) returns for another fruit-bearing adventure. This time he and his buddies, Tiny Dog, Tiny Monkey, and Tiny Cock, must team up to save the recently reborn Ginseng King (no relation to the one from our last foray in Taiwanese action fantasy) from a demon sorcerer intent on using the living plant-child’s powers to restore his lifeforce.
The first semi-sequel to CHILD OF PEACH takes on a much darker tone than its predecessor, pitting our plucky prunus persica against devils, the undead, and jiangshi of all stripes. Though still technically a kids’ movie, the film also boasts some of the genre’s creepiest villains in Chang Shan’s demon sorcerer and his band of henchmonsters, introduced to the audience bathing in the blood of children and inexplicably hellbent on slaughtering the Peach Kid and anyone close to him. But on the lighter side, Peach Kid gets a sweet new theme song in this one!
THE TWELVE FAIRIES (至尊無敵之戰神)
dir. Chiu Chung-hing, 1990
Taiwan. 91 min.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 17 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, MAY 30 – 5 PM
GET TICKETS
Long ago when the world still looked like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, the Buddha staged a race around the world to decide which twelve sacred animals would comprise the Chinese zodiac, leaving behind his young emissary, Bai Mai (Shadow Liu), to help maintain the balance between good and evil. Centuries later, Bai Mai must summon the forces of the zodiac, each of whom takes the form of a human being that embodies the archetypal characteristics of their respective animals, to defeat an army of darkness spawning from Devil’s Island.
From the same team behind the PEACH films comes our deepest, wildest, and most poorly-translated cut of the series. For his final film as director, Chiu Chung-hing goes out with a bang, uniting the stars of his two biggest hits— HELLO DRACULA’s Shadow Liu and Peach Kid him/herself, Lin Hsiao-lu, here playing a completely different magically-powered kung fu fighting child— for a deliriously entertaining blend of animation, puppetry, trippy effects, wire-fu, Rube Goldberg traps, and pyrotechnics, with a climactic sequence that just about tops everything else Kinko Yingi Co. had done to-date. And yes, in case you were wondering, the avatar for the Pig spirit is indeed a cop.
NEW SEVEN DRAGON BALL (新七龍珠)
aka DRAGON BALL: THE MAGIC BEGINS
dir. Chen Chun-liang, 1991
Taiwan. 90 min.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.
SATURDAY, MAY 10 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 16 – MIDNIGHT
SUNDAY, MAY 25 – 5 PM
GET TICKETS
A group of aliens led by the villainous Lord Horn (Philip So) scour the Earth for seven precious orbs known as the “Dragon Balls Pearls” which, once gathered, can summon a wish-granting dragon that can bestow the dark Lord with unlimited power. After inheriting one of the pearls from his grandfather, it falls on the young Son Goku Monkey Boy (Chen Chi-chiang) and his gang of magical misfits to collect the remaining pearls before they fall into Lord Horn’s clutches, in what is definitely not an unauthorized adaptation of a certain hyper popular manga.
For fans of the DB franchise hoping to see live action takes on its iconic characters, go look somewhere else… Because like most Chinese-language adaptations of Japanese manga, this one bears little resemblance to its source material (though ironically brings it closer to the series’ original inspiration of Journey to the West). In lieu of Krillin, Piccolo, and Vegeta, we get new fan favorites like, uh, Piggy, Seetou, and Turtle Man. Action-packed, deeply silly, chronically horny (at least for a children’s movie), and by all accounts, still leagues better than the other live action DB movie out there.
