This Spring, we blew the fuzz off of our audiences with our Taiwanese action fantasy series featuring the kung fu cult classics CHILD OF PEACH (1987) and its sequel, MAGIC OF SPELL (1988). Now as the seasons turn and the peach trees beam red, we bring you this companion series showcasing the work of one of the chief architects of the PEACH series, Taiwanese cinematographer Chuang Yan-chien.

Chuang burst out the gate in the 1970s as the director of photography on several popular productions by Hsu Tseng-hung (THE INVINCIBLE SWORD, THOUSAND MILE ESCORT) as well some of the earliest Taiwanese productions by recent HK transplants Jimmy Wang Yu (TIGER & CRANE FIST) and Kao Pao-shu (THE JADE FOX), before linking up with the insanely prolific Lee Tso-nam (THE TATTOO CONNECTION, THE CHALLENGE OF THE LADY NINJA, KUNG FU WONDER CHILD) for a collaborative relationship that would span upwards of 25 films over 15 years.

Yet Chuang’s biggest success would come in collaboration with a different filmmaker, Chiu Chung-hing, on Chiu’s massively successful, multiple sequel-spawning kiddie horror movie, HELLO DRACULA (1986). DRACULA’s success led to a continued working relationship between Chuang and its studio, Chin Ke Film Company, including CHILD OF PEACH and its sequels, where Chuang’s eye for lush colors and dynamic lighting were crucial to maintaining those films’ fantastical settings and atmosphere on a limited budget.

Chuang’s work with Chin Ke resulted in Chuang making his own directorial debut (co-credited alongside his closest collaborator, Lee Tso-nam) on the third installment in the PEACH series, MAGIC WARRIORS (1989). Although his directorial career was short-lived, with his final films released just a few years later in 1994, as the films in this series demonstrate, Chuang’s penchant for period detail, over-the-top action, and death-defying stuntwork are a sight to behold.

SHY SPIRIT (九月初九之重見天日)
Chuang Yan-chien, 1991
Hong Kong. 93 min.
In Cantonese with English subtitles

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7 – 5 PM
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20 – 7:30 PM

TICKETS

A tale of family, destiny, and ghostly nudity that tells the story of Sing & Long-Life, the sons of the heads of two rival martial arts schools whose fates have intertwined since birth. Their competitive relationship takes a turn when the two find themselves vying for the affection of the same young woman, but when Long-Life literally scares her to death in a Peeping Tom incident, the two now have to work together to help lay her spirit to rest (and possibly get her some clothes).

Chinese supernatural schenanigans meets the 80s boner comedy with three amazing action scenes holding everything up. The Alexander Lo-Rei choreographed climax is one for the books! There’s no way stunt men didn’t die, right?
–Justin Decloux via Letterboxd

21 RED LIST (21紅色名單)
Dir. Chuang Yan-chien, 1994
Taiwan. 89 min.
In Mandarin with English subtitles

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17 – 7:30 PM

TICKETS

In 1915 republican China, a group of bandits is tasked with stealing a Japanese-authored secret treaty that would ultimately spell doom for Chinese independence. They travel to Shanghai to intercept the document, but quickly realize that a traitor may be operating among them. What starts off as a riff on Hong Kong heist comedies quickly takes a much darker, more violent turn, with our four heroes confronted with the limits of their own loyalty, humanity, and trust in one another at a time of war.

A back-breaking, bone-crunching historical epic based on real events from World War I-era China, featuring a truly jaw dropping amount of swordplay, gunplay, room wreckage, and a few dozen more injured stuntmen.

REVANCHIST (新報仇)
Dir. Chuang Yan-chien, 1994
Hong Kong. 90 min.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13 – 5 PM
MONDAY, DECEMBER 15 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19 – MIDNIGHT

TICKETS

Two brothers, Fay & Fong, emigrate to Shanghai in the 1930s in search of a better life, where they soon end up mixed up in gang activity. Fong winds up in prison while Fay rises through the ranks of his criminal organization. But when Fay is killed by a rival gang, the newly-freed Fong must once again delve deep into Shanghai’s criminal underworld to seek vengeance for his brother.

Filmed at the same time as Chuang’s 21 RED LIST and involving much of the same creative team (including a few recycled sets), REVANCHIST leans hard into its CAT-III rating with its blend of period gangster drama, sleazy exploitation, and brutal violence, all of which culminates in a wild wire-fu & weapons-filled finale that’s guaranteed to blow away even the most seasoned action movie diehards.

A GRAND MOCKERY
Dir. Adam C. Briggs & Sam Dixon, 2024
Australia. 105 min.
In English.

DIRECTOR ADAM C. BRIGGS IN PERSON DECEMBER 11th, 12th & 13th.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11 – 7:30 PM (Q&A w/ Director Adam C. Briggs)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12 – 7:30 PM (Q&A w/ Director Adam C. Briggs)
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13 – 7:30 PM (Q&A w/ Director Adam C. Briggs)
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18 – 10 PM

TICKETS

Josie, a depressed cinema worker leads a mundane, dead-end life with his girlfriend Nelly in Brisbane. Faced with the daily drudgery and repetition of his job, his existence consists of little more than drowning his sorrows away with his friends and longing for escape. Slowly, Josie begins to lose grip on reality and embarks on a strange and surreal journey that takes him from the fluorescent hellscape of the city to the outer reaches of Queensland.

Shot on Super 8mm in true DIY fashion, A GRAND MOCKERY subverts the normal portrayal of Queensland as a laid-back, beach bum oasis and uses the disaffected reality of the lower class as a springboard into a world that is much harsher and more strange. Synthesizing familiar influences like Kubrick and Buñuel with the Australian Gothic tradition, A GRAND MOCKERY defies easy categorization by rooting its psychic nightmare fully in a landscape that feels fresh and untapped, creating one of the most exciting visions of a world slipping away in recent memory.

“Grand Mockery is a dream space, a living hangover bad party breakup nightmare. Intense and effecting. Relax and let it drag you through the mud and sediment of regret and the sweet shame of a 3 day bender. Technically a marvel of super 8 goodness.”
-Ben Wheatley

Special thanks to Yellow Veil Pictures

 

God Told Me To
dir. Larry Cohen, 1976
United States. 91 mins.
In English

ONE NIGHT ONLY FRIDAY NOVEMBER 21 7:30PM IN 16MM

$10 TICKETS

Filmmaker, writer, and iconoclast Larry Cohen ranks among America’s most unhinged – and prolific! – auteurs. Born and raised in New York City at the height of the Great Depression, Cohen cut his teeth as an NBC page during the network’s Eisenhower-era heyday. Like many of his contemporaries, including fellow landsmen John Frankenheimer and Sidney Lumet, Cohen got his start directing and writing for the nascent medium of television.

After nearly two decades on the small screen, Cohen broke out with the 1972 Yaphett Kotto vehicle Bone, effectively launching a career that would come to include 18 features – including Q, the Winged Serpent, The Stuff, and one of his most beloved: God Told Me To.

Cohen was an expert raconteur, spending his later years regaling audiences at retrospective screenings and conventions. The author of several books on the art of film craft, Cohen’s unpublished memoir I Killed Bette Davis will finally see the light of day with a spanking-new edition available from Sticking Place Books, edited by Gavin Smith.

To celebrate the posthumous publication of I Killed Bette Davis, Spectacle is thrilled to present this special one-night-only screening of Cohen’s God Told Me To on gritty 16mm, with an introduction from Smith.