The Boxers Omen is a 1983 Hong Kong horror film directed by Kuei Chih-Hung. And staring Phillip Ko, Shao-Yen Lin, Kar-Man Wai, Lung-Wei Wang, Tien-Chu Chin, You-Hsing Lai, Wai Lam and Hak-Shun Leung. The film centres around a man who goes to Thailand to avenge his brother who was badly beaten in a fight with a corrupt Thai boxer and gets caught up in a story of fate, Buddhism and lack magic. The Boxers Omen is one of my favourite films it is a crazy over the top insane film that is one of the maddest, original, and entertaining films ever made.
The direction in the film is good. The film gets straight into the action with a boxing match showing a good use of slow motion and sped up effects, before transitioning into a gangster movie. The film has a very 80s feel to it with an over the top and stylistic look. Buddhism is a big part of the film as spirituality and Asian mysticism is a theme throughout the film as well as this idea of destiny. The film is full of 80s sleaze, sex and nudity combined with great imagery. The film is weird and surreal with a use of Asian mysticism throughout using these crazy effects as this Asian mysticism further links into the film’s themes of journey and destone. The film is very much a revenge story however there is classic Asian storytelling themes within the film such as honour. The film is full of accent Asian mysticism and Buddhism with the use of monks and temples, the film is a weird surreal b movie body horror film as when the guy who beat is brother is defeated, he melts as bits of his body inflates like balloons before turning into an old person as a bat flies out of his mouth, the film is batshit insane filled with surreal imagery making for one of the most unique films ever made.
The Asian mysticism themes of Buddhism are shown in the brilliant production design in the film with the amazing look of the villain’s lair with a statue of the devil bathed in red and green lighting with the statue having four hands holding different figures with the head of the statue being that of a big skull. The film is very much a b-movie mixed with Asian mysticism the b-movie humour in the film is great with the evil magician’s bat get killed causing him to get angry. The film is full of weird surreal Asian mysticism and magic mixed with comedy. Hung ends up accreting his destiny to become a monk to defeat the black magicians to help him achieve immortality linking into the film’s themes of spirituality and mysticism. Hung accepts his destiny as his path of enlightenment and spirituality is shown in a bizarre surreal way. In a brilliant and insane segment of the film Baluo fights against the evil sorcerer in a weird and surreal sequence. To make the demons attack Hung the priest uses chicken blood to make demon bats go inside crocodile skulls to attack him witch Baluo defeats by with the film’s themes of Buddhist magic and spiritualism as the earn glows red and is covered in lettering killing the bats. This crazy Asian mysticism is shown in when the evil sorcerer makes crocodile skulls comes alive and attacks him witch the monk defeats again showing b-movie insanity combined with Asian mysticism. The film has the most unique magic battles in film. when the evil sorcerer eats the chicken and vomits it up causing a green demon to come out of the pink gunk witch Baluo explodes with spiritual energy defeating the black magician. The film is unique and surreal with these magic battles combing b-movies with surrealism creating a unique film. The film has the most brilliantly bizarre fight scenes ever. This is shown in the climax of the scene were the black magician uses skewers to remove his head as the string flesh attacks Baluo by wrapping his head around him when he is defeated by exposing him to the sun as his head explodes. The film has bizarre surreal over the top body horror fight scenes creating a Higley unique visual experience. The film is a perfect combination of spirituality and sleaze as shown with the weird b movie Asian mysticism when the wizard east and spits out animal innards as part of a disgusting ritual.
Baluo fights Bu Bo and defeats him, however the Asian mysticism power by the evil wizard blinds Baluo as he sees hellish vision with his eyes full of maggots. The main character lies about not having sex Infront of the monk’s which blows the candle out witch links up to the traits of Asian mysticism. In breaking the vowels, it further links up to these themes but with Baluo gone against these teachings it subverts the traditional elements of this sort of story. Baluo has become a sort of spiritual thief with a pre-ritual before the theft as he now has spiritual power Again Asian mysticism is a big part of the film as the statues of the gods act like guards in this climatic action scene, witch again highlights he film use of Asian mysticism with accent weapons and talisman. There is this idea of angering the gods in the film, as the sleazy sexed up priestess villain attacks Hung in a weird surreal fight scene. This surrealness in what make these scenes so visual great as he is trapped in another dimension with the priestess shooting her hands out of her arms witch again is great unique imagery and effects with is also apparent when she summons A alligator to fight him. He then gets controlled by an evil sorceress that summons insects to attack him as they burrow inside of him in a weird surreal unique fight scene.
He then wakes up in the temple as the light shines into the buddha that gives him the relic reenforcing the themes of destiny, spirituality, and eastern mysticism, which causes an explosion. From this the buddha God comes down from the shrine and attacks the witch using his lighting power the attack her skinner her to her veins as she urinates lobule urine and melts away in a crazy urine fight scene, from this the evil wizards hatch from the sludge as buddha forces them to kill each other reflecting the themes of mystic and spirituality in the film. monsters then hatch from the sludge blasting the buddha witch blinds him, but he defeats them as the temple is in ruins, but the evil is defeated which shows the absolute insanity of the climax. Balou wins his final battle and uses is psychic buddha powers removing the stingers from his eyes so he can see. Form this he is transported back to the monetary as he both fought in real life, but it was also in his head, he has completed his character arc in the film, reaching enlightenment he thanks his master and exists the temple as the rest gather to prey.
The acting in the film is good. Phillip Ko does a good job as Chan Hung the protagonist of the film that sets off on a revenge quest against his brother. His crazy journey of becoming a spiritual warrior is the most entertaining element of the film and allows for the films insanity to take hold. Shao-Yen Lin does a good job in the film. Kar-Man Wai does a good job as Chan’s girlfriend. Lung-Wei Wang does a good job in the film as Uncle Qi. Tien-Chu Chin does a good job as the Bellman of the film. You-Hsing Lai does a good job in the film. Wai Lam does aa good job in the film. Hak-Shun Leung does a good job in the film.
The writing in the film is good. The film gets straight into the action witch a boxing match with a guy who is very powerful and destroys the main characters brother even when he wins causing his brother to run into the ring and fight him, this brother is Hung a gangster that sets up a meeting with rival gangsters. The gangsters end up ambushing him and kill his uncle. The gangsters waterboard him until a monk appears and uses his powers to get rid of them and he follows him, Hung then goes home to have sex with his girlfriend as the film is full of 80s sleazy sex nudity. Through a symbol of light Hung receives a message about becoming a disciple, as this happens his brother becomes permanently paralysed as a result making this a personal revenge story his brother getting revenge for him giving this film a good dose of personal heart. From this he goes to Thailand and confronts the boxer that caused this to a fight with he agrees. Baluo then goes to a temple and meets with monks and learns that his brother went to Hong Kong a year ago to kill a magician that used black magic again giving the film a personal through line.
The villains lair consists of a statue of a red devil bathed in red and green lighting with four hands holding different figures and a big skull being amazing set design a monk the drives a steak though a bats heart and exorcizes it. The evil monster then arises which is an evil priest. He splits blood of a rat on a Skellington to raise it form the dead, as monks find it and kill it. Again, the film has a sense of humour about it as the sorcerer uses snake charming to get poison form a snake as well as the brain from a skull to grant him evil powers. Qing the evil sorcerer then breaks into the monk’s temple and assassinates the head monk by getting a spider to sting him in the eye when he is sleeping. In a great sad twist of fate, he was about to achieve immortality, but his soul sill sustained through his powers as he predicted Chung would break the evil spell. He tells him that they were twins in past lives and have a similar fate. He managed to cheat death through Buddhism but not all the way as his not immortal and when his body decomposes, they both will die. Chung wants to run away but after black magic gets a hold of him and he vomits up an eel with again shows great surrealist imagery he realises he must accept his fate linking into the themes of Asian mysticism and spirituality. When he becomes a monk his training ranges from normal to brutal where he must endure weird surreal exorcises where he is placed in a large earn as the monks give him their energy for him to reach enlightenment in a visually fascinating and unique scene, as well a cool addiction of if he lies, he blows a candle out.
Blaou ends up in a magic fight against the person who killed Qing and kills him, Baluo then returns home to Hong Kong and has sex with his girlfriend breaking one of the Buddhist tenants. The sorcerers the practice black magicians gather to take their revenge on Baluo by raising an evil spirit warrior to defeat him, as the back magicians steal a crocodile and puts a corpse in it brilliantly combing weird b movie imagery with Asian mysticism which is one of the best bits of the film. Baluo then fights Bu Bo as evil sorcerers are summoned and brought back to life by. The black magicians. Bu Bo is about to defeat Baluo in a bloody fight but baluo ends up winning, however during the match a sorceress blinds Baluo using voodoo magic. He goes back to the temple to explain what happened but lies that he broke the rules and ends up losing his powers. Qing tells Baluo that they will both die shortly to him breaking his vows unless he retrieves the ashes of one of Qing’s past selves’ witches is a relic in Nepal ceasing Baluo to travel there. Baluo find the ashes in the palm of the giant buddha which can only be seen for one minute when the sun shines into the buddhas hand which reflects into the palm and because this is protected by supernatural forces no robbery has ever occurred. To protect himself Baluo cuts his arm open and puts the invulnerability potion in his body creating his power again showcasing the use of eastern mysticism within the film that makes it unique. From this he breaks in as the statues moves as guards seeing him off. They then throw their weapons at him pinning him to the barrier but using his spiritual power he manages to repel the weapons back to the guard statues.
Baluo the uses the weapons that gain have an interesting and unique use of Asian mysticism acting like talismans repelling the guards linking into the idea of angering the gods. The film has a great sleazy style to it as the sexed-up priestess villain fights with the main character in a weird surreal fight scene with great imagery as they are trapped in another dimension with weird surreal imagery such as the priestess shoots her hands out of her arms and summoning an alligator to fight him as ends up being controlled by the evil sorceress. The sorceress summons insects to attack him and they get inside him, as he wakes up in the temple as the light shine onto the Buddha giving him a relic that causes an explosion linking into the themes of eastern mysticism and destiny. The buddha God then comes down from the shrine and attacks the witch and uses lightning power to attack her, skinning her and exposes her veins as she urinates blue urine and melts away in a scene with surreal, unique imagery combined with a b-movie style making this one of the most unique films ever made. This is also show in the imagery the evil wizards hatching from her sludge and killing themselves due to the Buddhists power which is scene that reenforces the themes of eastern mysticism in the film. the monster then hatch dorm the sludge again showcasing great weird b-movie imagery which blinds the buddha that then fatality kills the wizard with blood gushing from his blind eyes showcases the b-movie elements that underpins the mysticism making the film entertaining, as the temple crumbles into ruins and the evil is defeated. From this Balous arc is completed and he reaches enlightenment. This is shown by the spider stinger being removed from his eyes so that he can both psychically and metaphorically see. The film ends with him finding himself being back in a ministry as he fought in real life but also in his head linking to the spiritual elements of the film as he is transported back as he has reached enlightenment, this is shown with him thanking his master showing his character growth and exits the temple as the rest gather to pray.
The cinematography in the film is good. Most of the cinematography in the film is decent nothing special but it is very much competently shot film, there are very interesting unique and surreal cinematography thought-out the film. The film uses slow motion throughout the film to help punctuates the fight scenes. There is a great use of red and blue lighting in the film which looks cool. There is a good strobe effect in the film as well as a beautiful look to the temple which seems immense with the use of gold lighting giving it a mystical look. The green and orange lighting in the film as well gives the film a surreal arthouse quality. There is a great POV vison of the statue with pink lighting one one of the statue guards as well as great use of blue thunder with the lightning effect.
The special effects in the film are great in a b-movie way but incredibly creative. The blood effects in the film are good in an enjoyable 80s way as well as a symbol in the film has light limiting from it which is common in Asian films from the 70s and 80s. There is great light effect in the film such as the monk bathed in light and Buddhist temple glowing rainbow lighting effects as well. There is also a great b-movie style to the effects when the brother’s killer dies bits of his body melts and inflates like balloons as the effects in the film are highly unique. There is also a good use of old people make up and a bat effect. The production design in the film is great especially with the villain’s lair. Decorated in statues of the devil bathed in red and green light with the four-hand holding different figures with a big skull on top showcasing great production design with is also when with the effect with the statue melting. The monster costumes warn by the priest looks good as well as good looking b movie props with the bat Skellington waking up and coming alive. The film is full of good b-movie prop effect such as fake spiders and vomiting up an eel. There is a very interesting effect were text forms all over the protagonist’s body as his urn as he reaches enlightenment as well as cool b-movie effects of demon bats controlling crocodile skulls. There is an interesting use of ghostly overlays in the film, as well alighting up mushroom showcasing a unique surreal b-movie effect. The film uses an old Asian film effect of light showcasing magical blasts as well a great effect of big statues coming alive which showcases good costumes in the film. the weapons in the film have good spiritual look to them with a spear and a throwing star being covered in blue light as well as a good use pyrotechnics on a talisman with causes explosions defeating the guards. There are also great b-movie effects with the priestess shooting hand out of her arms as well as an alligator prop. There are tons of great b-movie effects throughout the film such as a crawling hand, a skinned suit when the witch is skinned showing her veins as well as her urine being blue.
The Boxers Omen is one of the most insane films ever made. This craziness however leads to one of the most unique cinematic experiences ever that is unlike any other film ever made.
