Xi shen bao chou (1983) User Reviews

Should Have Been Better, But Entertains Oddly!!

[Movie-Misfit · 5/10 · 8 May 2020]

When a few of the Venoms broke off to create their own production company, Attack Of The Joyful Goddess was one of their first. Obviously having worked for many years with Chang Cheh and on so many hit films, they were able to bring him on-board as a producer and director - although truth be told, I don't believe he did much on the directing side of things, leaving that to Shaw's stars Chiang Sheng and Lu Feng.

Having left a Goddess Doll upside down, releasing its spirit that possesses a young girl of the theatre troupe, things start to turn sour as curses and murders plague the actors. It doesn't help that their manager is trying to impress some local big-wig and offers to kill off their leading man, Handsome White (no, really), so the creepy official can have his girl...

Attack Of The Joyful Goddess is one strange production!

It doesn't help that the seemingly, only available release in the West is a cropped version with an English dub that is so stilted and poor, its almost offensive. It would be interesting to see an original language version in widescreen to see if it helps! Short of kung-fu action, the film is very heavily drama-based, set in the world of the impressive Peking Opera, full of murder and ghostly goings-on. While it does try to be different in what it offers, the film just seems to come a little too late, looking out-dated in a period where Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung were offering such titles as Project A, Winners & Sinners, and Zu Warriors.

I did really want to like this given who's involved, but it certainly falls flat compared to the films the same team made with Shaw Brothers many years before. It is worth at least one watch I'd say, as there is some interesting stuff going on. It really starts to pick up just after he 30 minute mark, with some Shakespearian style murder, leading to a better hour of haunting's and mystery, but its the last 10 minutes that really grabs your attention!

Offering a crazy finale that is so mental, its like the film was trying to redeem itself for its flaws, one can only wonder what just happened to ones eyeballs as the Venom team mix great kung-fu with wild horror elements - but its insanely fun at the same time...

Overall: I wouldn't mind seeing a modern remake of it, but this original should have been much better!

WTH?

[dafrosts · 5/10 · 21 January 2018]

I wanted to watch this because it was Titled Attack of the Five Venoms for American Audiences. ATTACK OF THE JOYFUL GODDESS is the actual title. The only thing resembling any reference to the Five Venoms is two actors from those movies are in this one. I needed a score card to keep track of what's going on in this movie. The shady theatre owner is bribed to bring the leading lady, Lily, to the local General for his personal amusement. Lily, unfortunately, is in love with an actor, Handsome. Yup, according to CC, his name is Handsome. The only way to get Lily to the General is to get rid of Handsome. It's a Murder On the Orient Express deal to get rid of Handsome. It gets really weird afterwards. I do mean weird. It dragged on for the initial 30 minutes then, changes to a bad Scooby Doo episode. There's a pregnancy mentioned that has nothing to do with the storyline. The woman is mentally ill, gets struck by lightning in the middle of the night an gives birth to - wait for it- a Doll. Yup, a doll. The Joyful Goddess to be exact. Another actor, Shaw, who is great with knives, is brought in to replace the now dead Handsome, who keeps popping up in ghostly form to give Lily and his friends a head's up while also helping to eliminate those who helped kill him. I adore Chang Cheh's productions This one, though. I just don't know. I watched it from beginning to end, hoping something would make sense. It never did. The final fight scene, which in Chang Cheh movies are usually incredible to watch, is beyond Mulder and Scully odd. I gave it five stars because of the appearances of the Venom Brothers' actors. It would get a 10 if we were on going for totally weird.

Exciting if confusing

[phillip-58 · 6/10 · 11 November 2007]

The outline of the plot has been given by the other reviewers. Chang Cheh had a love of Chinese Opera and puppets and both take their parts here along with rather primitive (even for the time) supernatural effects. But it tells a good story and though not a kung fu film as such the fights at the end (which needs watching several times to make any sense at all, as Gods, demons, ghosts and actors all fight it out) are well done. Chang Cheh and Robert Tai worked together on this film and it shows a quality (done few favours by the print and even less by the dubbing) not often found in such films. It could be considered an opera within an opera and the notes at IlluminatedLantern.com reveal a lot of hidden meaning. Ricky Cheung is a good leading man - chosen apparently for his background in opera - and Lee Chung Yat is good as 'Handsome' who won't allow the love of his life (played by Chan Bik Fung in her last film) to prostitute herself to the wicked local Commander. Chiang Sheng plays the effeminate leading lady of the troupe (played by men in such opera companies). Watching the 'bit' actors perform you can clearly see where people like Yuen Biao got their skills and the basis for the weapons fights in kung fu films. An unusual film but I really enjoyed it - but don't expect a fighting film or many concessions to us gweilo's.

Forgotten for a reason

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 29 September 2016]

ATTACK OF THE JOYFUL GODDESS is one of the rarer movies in Chang Cheh's filmography as director. Unfortunately it's also by far his worst movie, a near-unwatchable low budget mess of a film which is an embarrassment for all involved. For a start it's not a Shaw Brothers film at all, rather a cheapie made in Taiwan. The presence of a couple of Venoms actors in the cast, including Chiang Sheng and Lu Feng, has seen this film variously re-titled FIVE VENOMS ATTACK and ATTACK OF THE FIVE VENOMS in the US. Anyone expecting anything even approaching the quality of a genuine Venoms film will be sorely disappointed by the material on display here.

This is a gaudy mess of a film which attempts to combine Chinese opera with the supernatural. There's barely any action and that which does occur is poorly choreographed and spoilt by cheesy special effects and general cheapness and ineptitude. The whole film seems to take place in a dark room with a pair of curtains at one wall. The characters are stereotypical and some of the dubbed dialogue is unintentionally hilarious, such as the discussion of an unexpected pregnancy. Even fans of Cheh, and I am one, should avoid this travesty like the plague.

One Attack You Won't Surrender To...

[FilmFlaneur · 3/10 · 22 July 2006]

Rather amazingly this is a late work of veteran, highly regarded director Cheh Chang, responsible in his time for such all-time genre classics (Five Deadly Venoms, Shaolin Temple, Heroes Two etc) Partly because of the impeccable pedigree gained during his heyday, there's a lot of special pleading on its behalf to be found by admirers, who have made it out to be one of the more original efforts from the director's closing period, when his interest in the supernatural - or at least that of the local film industry at the time - came to the fore. There's a strong element of Chinese opera in the film too, about the travails of a troupe in a small town. They find themselves at odds with the local commander who has designs on their leading actress, while she, in turn, has her eyes on 'Handsome' Liu, the leading actor.

In order to simplify matters, a plot is hatched to murder the fellow, hopefully giving their commander a clear run while securing the liberty of the rest of the crew. Meanwhile further complications ensue, this time of an otherworldly kind when Jenny, a dim witted female, initially puts the Joy Goddess (a spooky doll used as a prop) the wrong way up in its storage box - a sure sign of impending bad luck - and then again later, during the unexpected abortion operation that Jenny then has, when the Goddess reappears in a most disconcerting fashion, to be followed separately by the spirit of the unhappy Handsome, intent on wrecking revenge. It all ends in messy, disco-lit fight scenes with second rate special effects (burning hoops of fire, dry ice and the like), which are both bizarre and a bit of a shock after the more elegant, convincing, and tightly choreographed opera moves on show earlier.

If all this sounds messy, confusing and yes, just a bit silly, then that's because it is. None of it is helped by the UK DVD, the presentation of which harks back to the bad old days, when the lovers of martial arts movies had to wade through badly dubbed, murky, pan and scanned films which did neither their intelligence, nor the artistry of the original creators any justice, to find some few nuggets of enjoyment outside of camp. I'd go as far as to say that this film with all its faults, was one of the most annoying that I have seen in a long time, its widescreen visuals cropped so distractingly to 4:3, and voiced so insensitively that 55th Chamber, who brought the disc to market, ought to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

Having said that, with some perseverance, there are a still a few things for the viewer to enjoy here. The cheap and ridiculously finale is worth fast forwarding to, although it has to be said it hardly replaces the director's best work elsewhere. The film opens on UK DVD promisingly - and tantalisingly - in the correct ratio, without much intrusive dubbing either, providing what are probably its best scenes this way. It features therein the ritual pulling off of a chicken's head by hand - something I am surprised the eagle eyed UK censor (who has apparently whittled down the chicken shoot at the start of the new special edition of Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid, for instance) has let pass without comment. Its a film full of chock-socky stereotypes which may, or may not, be a source of entertainment for those who relish the oft used conventions, such as the bespectacled, pencil thin moustached 'boss' with a fine line in sexual sneering, the simpering heroine, the somewhat gormless inflexible hero, and so on. But then there is also a somewhat surprising, fey female impersonator (stern hero to this doubtful figure: "I've no need for your type!" then "You are like a wondering cloud, this is the Commander's home, not a playground!") as well as Handsome's blunt and unromantic recognition of the troupe's fate "We're just a squalid group playing the trash holes."

Finally, the poor dubbing and transliteration, as always, bring their own excruciating pleasures, my favourite being the discovery of Jenny's predicament by a matron who exclaims, with outraged and hilarious mystification, to a medical man: "Pregnant! You mean with child? She's an unmarried virgin, how did this happen?" Only to be told, "I'm a doctor - not a detective!" Ultimately, though, this is a very much a lesser Cheh Chang film, complete with uncharismatic acting, choppy editing and unconvincing story, brought even lower by such poor presentation. Little of the director's characteristic martial vision, including an impressive use of the 'scope frame, inventive clashes and a range of dignified, principal, combatants remain in evidence here. If one is still desperate to see The Joyful Goddess I would suggest, as so often is the case on such occasions, scouring overseas sources instead for alternate editions that may do the original many more favours. As for this present issue, except to die hard followers of Cheh's estimable talents, I would not recommend it at all.

Often Shakespearian in scope...

[poe426 · 7/10 · 19 March 2012]

There are a number of interesting things about ATTACK OF THE JOYFUL GODDESS: the history behind the "God of Joy," for instance: a young Emperor-to-be who is accidentally locked in a trunk and suffocates and whose restless spirit wanders the land; the puppet that represents said young Emperor; some great on-stage acrobatics by members of the opera troupe (operabatics, if you will); the hilarious interplay between "Rainbow" and the dastardly General who would have his way with him... until he realizes that Rainbow is male; the sometimes Shakespearian scope of the backstage intrigues (think JULIUS CAESAR by way of HAMLET with a bit of MACBETH thrown in for good measure); Chang Cheh's always interesting take on things. The only real complaint I have here is, again, the cruelty to animals thing: this has to be a first: not once but TWICE do we see a chicken get its head ripped off.

Set your expectations aside, this is one of the finest films in world cinema, ever!

[winner55 · 10/10 · 8 October 2008]

The low rating for this film indicates bias against Hong Kong cinema, kung fu, and Chang Cheh, largely remembered as director of spectacular action films, emphasis on spectacle. Don't be fooled.

This is the finest ghost movie to come out of Hong Kong, ever, and among the finest such films ever made, world-wide.

That Chang made this film so late in his career, and with a trail of undeniably cartoonish action films just behind him, is miraculous.

It's an amazing film, certainly as amazing as any similar film coming out of Japan (and why we in the West tolerate such films from Japan but not China is part of the bias I am here railing against). The tension sustains from start to finish, yet the drama never gets sidetracked by it.

It is not a kung fu film. It is a ghost story. The scene in which the hero dies is truly horrifying, as much so as the death of Ceasar in Shakespeare's play. And this film has an awful lot of resonance with Shakespeare.

It is a very dark drama (the whole film takes place at night) about men and women put into impossible positions by the abuse of power. And it is about the responses such abuse evokes and the responses it deserves.

It is also, almost by the way, but by no means trivially, about the tradition of Chinese Opera, how it functioned, what it needed to do to survive.

There's nothing out of place in this movie, not a frame. Indeed, it is the best filmed and edited Chang film since One Armed Swordsman.

Absolutely stunning. See this movie with an open mind. I chanced upon it by accident (under the title "Attack of the Venoms"), perhaps that's the best way. But see it, especially if you love ghost story movies or Asian cinema.

Bravo Chang Cheh! You fulfilled your promise!