It starts with leggy ladies singing and dancing to Chinese opera music. Camera shots that maximize the view of the ladies bare legs are used frequently. Cut to the folks on the journey west as this is the third part of the tale.
My copy is a VCD, video compact disk that is. Yes, they made VCDs for a few years between laser disks and DVDs. This format this time had no subtitles and I do not speak Chinese. It does not matter. Understanding the dialog is not necessary to follow the simple story line. Whatever happens visually is all that matters.
Back to the travelers, I easily recognize Piggy, the Monk, and the Monkey King. They stop at a waterfall where the colorfully dressed girls are singing. Piggy joins in and then chases them to get a lot closer. Monkey fights the girls and the monk just gets captured. The fight sequences are very Chinese opera style.
Some of this was filmed outdoors beyond the property line of Shaw Studios. Shaw preferred to film on a sound stage and the movie cuts, often abruptly and obviously, between outside and inside. The fight ends when the ladies start shooting spider webs out of their finger tips and escape.
Does this movie hold up after 50 years? I can find only one reason for someone today to watch this movie. I am a hardcore Shaw Brothers movies fan. I watched this movie once to say I watched it. I doubt I will ever watch it again. If this was 1967 I would rate the movie just above average for the genre at 6 out of 10 stars.
Review of The Cave of the Silken Web
