August 14, 2024 • 52 mins
It's Shawgust once again and we were feeling brave enough to cover another Hua Shan film. We let go of common sense, talked about how watching this and Portrait ain Crystal is basically the same as taking acid, and highlighted some of our favorite moments from the film.
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDP__OTquew
Join our discord! https://discord.gg/F8WsTzE9qt
Follow this podcast on Instagram and Facebook @unsunghorrors.
Follow Lance on Instagram and Letterboxd @lschibi
Lance’s shop: https://lanceschibi.bigcartel.com/
Follow Erica on Letterboxd or Instagram @hexmassacre
Order The Sweetest Taboo: https://thesweetesttaboobook.bigcartel.com
Logo by Cody Schibi
Run and Kill Screening in New. York: https://www.spectacletheater.com/the-sweetest-taboo-book-party-with-a-screening-of-run-and-kill-1993/
The Untold Story Screening in Philly: https://dice.fm/partner/web/event/pyo7nw-the-sweetest-taboo-book-release-untold-story-screening-24th-aug-philamoca-philadelphia-tickets?dice_id=3155024&dice_channel=web&dice_tags=organic&dice_campaign=Web&dice_feature=mio_marketing&_branch_match_id=626198917703866632&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXz8nMy9ZLyUxO1UvL1S8uT00tSS0uKUlMys8vyMjMSczNT04EAI1E89wrAAAA
Next Episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0B5ACFF396BE22E8
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDP__OTquew
Join our discord! https://discord.gg/F8WsTzE9qt
Follow this podcast on Instagram and Facebook @unsunghorrors.
Follow Lance on Instagram and Letterboxd @lschibi
Lance’s shop: https://lanceschibi.bigcartel.com/
Follow Erica on Letterboxd or Instagram @hexmassacre
Order The Sweetest Taboo: https://thesweetesttaboobook.bigcartel.com
Logo by Cody Schibi
Run and Kill Screening in New. York: https://www.spectacletheater.com/the-sweetest-taboo-book-party-with-a-screening-of-run-and-kill-1993/
The Untold Story Screening in Philly: https://dice.fm/partner/web/event/pyo7nw-the-sweetest-taboo-book-release-untold-story-screening-24th-aug-philamoca-philadelphia-tickets?dice_id=3155024&dice_channel=web&dice_tags=organic&dice_campaign=Web&dice_feature=mio_marketing&_branch_match_id=626198917703866632&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXz8nMy9ZLyUxO1UvL1S8uT00tSS0uKUlMys8vyMjMSczNT04EAI1E89wrAAAA
Next Episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0B5ACFF396BE22E8
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Prepare yourself for the terror, the prison of madness. We
have a few inter and Nonritter. Welcome to Unsung Horrus with Lance.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And Deerica.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Leave all your sanity behind.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It can't help you.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome to another episode of Unsung Horrors, the podcast where
we discuss underseen horror films, specifically those with fewer than
one thousand views on Letterboxed. I'm Erica, I'm Lance, and
sh August is here, and that means we are watching
(01:06):
Shaw Brothers horror films or horror adjacent the horror elements,
you know whatever.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, it's mostly like fantasy horror with Shaw Brothers.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah it is. Unless. I mean, I feel like when
we first started with Shaw Brothers horror, it was very
clearly like Corpsemania, Bewitched, stuff like that, that's horror. Right now,
we're having to be a little bit more liberal with
our with our definitions and just say it's got a
horror tag on it, just count it.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah, exactly. If there's blood in it, it's horror.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Someone got possessed, it's horror. There's a hopping vampire, horror,
count it. But so this episode we're going to be
talking about bloody Parrot from nineteen eighty one. This is
available to watch on YouTube. We'll have a link in
show notes and as of this recording, it has four
hundred and ninety four views on letterboxed. So a quick
(01:59):
summary if I can try, Okay, I know this is
this is gonna be tough. This is gonna be like
Portrait and Crystal and me trying to summarize that film.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I still have nightmares trying to figure that movie out.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So my okay, So my favorite Shaugust memory slash moment
is just how committed you were to watching Portrait and
Crystal before we had a version that didn't have.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
The title of the films.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Burned into the like across the top of the screen,
and you watch the whole thing that way.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, it's funny with Bloody Parrot. When I was watching it,
that happened like Portrait and Crystal just started for me
on the screen. Because they're very we'll talk about it,
but these these wash on movies are geez Louise.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, there, they are a lot to take in if
you're coming here after watching it looking for some sort
of explanation and breakdown and like way to make it
make sense. I'm gonna apologize in advance and say you're
not going to get that.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, let's see if you can break you down on
the story.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
All right, all right, Swordsman Yie ting Fang goes on
a mission to find the Emperor's missing treasure, with a
side quest of tracking down the legendary Bloody Parrot, which
is said to grant three wishes if you see it.
Along the way, new characters are introduced every five minutes,
so the viewer's mission is to either attempt to keep
all of them straight or just stay focused on the
(03:26):
two to four main characters. Choose your own adventure.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That's it. That's about all I got out of this.
Note Now, that was good. That was really good. But yeah,
it's essentially just new character after new character.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
It's impossible to keep them straight. I've watched this movie
three times. I watched it, you know, the first time
a few years ago, and then rewatched it, like, okay,
you're trying to take notes while watching this is like
constantly pausing, rewinding take It's it's so fast paced. It's
so just non limit I mean it it's linear in
(04:06):
the sense that like events are happening in the order
that they you know, in progression, but so much happens
and so many new characters are introduced that it's impossible
to keep anyone straight. So I just stopped and I'm
just like, nope, I just fuck it. Just let it
be the movie that it's trying to be, and that's
just to be complete nonsense.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, it's visually stimulating, and I'll probably be referring to
a lot of the characters of the guy wearing red
or the old lady or yep. So it's a lot
of characters to keep track of. But yeah, like you said,
it's just the experience. Sit back and enjoy the trip.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, I mean, that's really what it is. And it's
funny because my double feature pick is something that's kind
of along the same line. So Laird's theme for Weird
Wednesday this month is bad trips and that's funny.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
I have some notes that were I'll talk about a.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Minute, but like, and it was perfect because he one
of the films he showed was a Hong Kong film.
It's not Shaw Brothers, but it perfectly fit and I
was like, laired, this is perfect fucking timing for my
double feature picks. So thanks to him for that. We'll
get to that at the end of the episode though,
when we go through double feature picks we've done. This
is our fourth year of Shaw Brothers or sh August.
(05:25):
So we have talked about Shaw Brothers studios, who they are,
how long, how many movies they've done, Well over six hundred.
I think it's close to seven hundred, all the sort
of key players, many of the directors. So you know,
so we don't go repeating ourselves because I don't want,
like I do want every Show Brothers sh August episode
(05:48):
to be unique as much as it can be. I
don't want to go back and repeat a lot of
what we've done. I will say though, the Shaw Brothers
Volume two set that Arrow put out on the Disciples
and return to thirty six Chamber disc. There is a
documentary on there that was really great and I definitely
(06:09):
recommend it. It's you get some behind the scenes of
run run Shaw and him talking and about like the studio,
and you kind of get to walk around while they're
filming something and you see a lot of familiar faces.
You may not be able to name them, but you're
definitely like, I know that guy. So if you have
that set, really really great documentary on there. It's hard
(06:33):
because like every year, I'm like, I'm not going to
see anything new or learn anything new, and I always
do and that's the nice thing about sh August.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Right, Yeah. So, but we're not going to spend much
time on the cast and crew like as much as
we have in the past episodes, because like you just said,
it's a lot of the same directors just pumping out, yeah,
twenty movies a year, and the actors even more.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, so I do want to touch on just a
few just so that I can bring up some of
my recent Shawgust watches. Notssarly horror movies, but they are
Shaw Brothers. So Bloody Parrot was directed by Hwhon. We
covered one of his previous films, Portrait in Crystal from
nineteen eighty three. Ian was our guest for that one, right,
because I feel like we were just all like, we
(07:14):
can't wrap our head arounds this is too much.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Well yeah, yeah, obviously every Shaugust, you know, spoilert my pick.
I try and bring in Ian for his expertise. I
do remember though, he was impressed with my summary of
Portrait and Crystal, which yeah, I had the dry erase
board like I was when I was putting that thing together.
I spent years on that. Yeahwahon did do portrait in Crystal.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So we might talk about him a little bit more
in that episode. If you would like to go listen
to the seat. This is our Every New Shaugust episode
is a reason to go back and listen to our
previous ones if you have not already. He's most well
known for directing Super Inframan from nineteen seventy five, Kung
Fu Zombie, which we've both seen and really enjoy. I
did just watch Flying Guillotine two eighty eight films or Eureka.
(08:01):
One of the two has a release of that. T
Lung is a hero in that, And there's a child
death in this, but it's hidden behind a tree, so
it counts, all right, it counts, But yeah, it happens.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
I liked it.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
It's fine. I would recommend checking it out. He also
did Soul Brothers of Kung Fu from nineteen seventy seven.
Oh yeah, this one's not in the Bruce ploitation set,
but it is on to b Lance. I know you've
seen this one. I think a couple of years ago
you watched it.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, I remember, I think they used the rocky theme
throughout every so often. Yeah, I really enjoyed that it
has Carl Scott in it. He's also in Sun Dragon
or A Hard Way to Die. But yeah, it's it's
not like I mean, wash On films are crazy, like
like Kung Fu zombies and stuff like even Inframan those
(08:49):
are super fast paced, a lot like Portrait. These are
a little more low key, yeah, a little more exploit
exploitation type films, a lot of choreographed fighting. It's fun.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, definitely check it out. The screenwriter here is Ni Kwang.
I think he's probably written every film that we've covered
in Fuockcust. I mean, the man has done so much.
And spoiler, I do have a booklet essay coming out
for an upcoming release about him specifically and some other
(09:21):
things that he has written, so I can't talk about
it yet, but that's be on the lookout for that
and I will announce that on my Instagram page and
when it comes out. The editor is somebody who I think,
again we've talked about before, Chang saying Lung and five
hundred and twenty eight film credits on letterbox alone. He's
(09:42):
basically like churning them out for Shaw Brothers. He's just
a machine.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's insane looking at his filmography.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, and then our cast again, we're probably just going
to be referring to people based on a physical characteristic
in this. But the main character in this Jason or
just Paypo. He's got over eighty film credits on letterbox.
He plays the main character in this. He plays Ye
(10:11):
ting Fang, the guy who's going on the mission to
find the treasurer who.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
He's carrying the coffin around.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, he's carrying the coffin around. He's jangling it around,
and he falls in love with the sex worker played
by Jenny Lang Liang zou Nu. I think is how
it's pronounced. You know. He paints her wall, if you will.
(10:38):
We also have Tony Lou. He's been in a ton
of Bruce Lee films like Enter the Dragon, The Big Boss,
and Human Lanterns, which there are definitely some parallels to
Human Lanterns in this film. Here one of the many
things that happen in this movie, which is just a
progression of things happening in this movie.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Everything everything you've seen in a Shaw Brothers horror fantasy
is in this movie, Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
It's it's a lot. So again, I'm not going to
go into full cast and crew of more butchering of names.
There are a lot of people that we've talked about before. Again,
we're just going to be referring to most of them
by what their character looks like or is doing.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
So.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I know that sounds lazy, but honestly, if you've seen
this movie, you understand, you understand the struggle. I did
want to mention a few of the films that I
did watch for a few of the other like sort
of Shaugust watches that I've done so far, and I've
tried to make all of them so far this month
related to the films that we're going to be doing.
(11:42):
So I did watch Angel Force from nineteen ninety one.
That's the Girls with Guns Flicked darring Moonlely.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I watched that one as well.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
It was good, Yeah direct that one's directed by Huashan
and that one is again more of a straightforward it's
not completely off the wall. I watched Disciples of the
thirty six Chamber. That's how I came across that documentary
because I wasn't really paying attention to what was on
the whole set, and I was like, Oh, there's this
documentary on Shaw Brothers. I'm gonna check that out. And
(12:11):
that one has Jason Peipiao in that one. He's also
an Angel a Vengeance too. That's another Girls with Guns film.
He plays the dad slash cop and that which he
tended to do sort of later in his career, Like
he made the transition from all these martial arts films
into like this sort of he has this like cop
(12:32):
look to him as he gets older, and like he
doesn't have like the you know, all the wig and
mustache and all that look. I'm like, he actually looks
like a Hong Kong cop. Like just you put that
like members only jacket on him and it's like, yeah,
fucking cop.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah. That's what I liked about Angel Forces because it's
not like it has a lot of action, but it's
more like Rambo style action with oozy's and grenades and
you know, it has a cop putting together a task force.
I really liked Angel Force more so than a lot
of the reviews on Letterbox. I think it's because I
haven't been able to catch as many Shagas movies, so
far this month been a little busy, but Angel Force
(13:07):
has been good. And I watched one called what was
it called Vengeance of Snow Made Oh, which is in
preparation for my Shaugus. Okay, pick and I'll talk about
that one too, But that that one was okay, Yes,
it's fun.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I watched another one just actually this morning before we
started recording, called The Duel also Duel of the Iron Fists,
I think is the alternate title of it.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Yeah. That has Tee Lung and David Yeah. I love
them to ye.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah. Tea Long and David chang together in this, and
it's just it's so good, like they're at each other's throats,
but like they have to team up because they have
a common enemy, and they basically like put their beef
aside until like the very end for them to have
their battle. It's super bloody, you know. It's fast paced moves.
(14:01):
I mean it's an hour forty something too, so it's
longer than it technically should be for these types of movies,
but still moves really well. And I mean, I just
I love Tea Long. He's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, he's he's one of the best. When you put
them together though, with you know, him and David together. Yeah,
it's a perfect dynamic. Could you watch this on two B?
I thought I remember trying to watch this on two
B and something was up.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
I did it. It's a dubbed version. It's not great,
but yeah, I watched it this morning on two B.
So yeah. I think there's probably much better versions out there, though,
So if it exists, I would definitely check it out.
It's probably got a blue why I released at this
point I would guess to be too B. We'll take
(14:46):
a sponsorship to be either you or Letterbox, and Letterbox
isn't getting back to me.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, where are you?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Seriously? Come on? So yeah, not getting more into the
cast and crew unless there's anyone you wanted to bring
up or mention. No, okay, I'd love to bring up
the parrot, but we'll get to why we don't bring
up the parrot at the end.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I want to talk about the cat. It's my least
favorite part of the film. I get the fuck out
here with that shit.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I know it's terrible. I think your probably your favorite
part of this though, is just the very opening, like
the opening animated credits.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yes, yeah, when I first watched this. I think I
even said that maybe in my Letterbox review or when
we talked about it in Portrait for Portrait and Crystal.
But yeah, the parrot, it feels very Italian, kind of
spaghetti western type, you know. I love any type of
animated credits, even National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, which makes no
(15:44):
sense to the movie. It's so odd. It's such an
odd spot. But I think Oscars so Lester's Someone's Oscar
might have that too, opening animated credits. But the parrot
turning into the is it Zoo Zoo new, you know,
turning into the naked, large breasted woman, I.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Think so.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Perfect way to open up any film. Yeah, every film
should be doing that.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Yeah, it's just like all these animated, beautiful credits and
then all of a sudden there's just a freeze frame
of a real woman naked, and I'm like, oh, well, yes,
that's that's how you get my attention. I'm there.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yeah, I was immediately sold. And then they threw a
curveball at me, like for the rest of the movie.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah, so we start with I'm going to try with
some plot, and then we'll talk about like horror elements
and favorite parts, because I don't really know how else
to tackle a film like this. So we have a
guy in the beginning, guofan who sees the bloody parrot
(16:44):
and he gets three wishes, and his first wish is
that the stolen treasure the Emperor had treasure stolen that
that gets recovered, so it is it shows up. And
then immediately after his son is found dead after falling
from a horse. So you think, like, oh, is this
going to be some sort of like monkeys Paw type
movie where like a bunch of different people like see
(17:06):
the parrot and they get wishes and all these fucked
up things happen. I would like that movie too, by
the way, to happen anyone, well back in during this era,
Like I would like wash On in the eighties to
make this movie.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Because they would just be madness.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah, everybody getting there. That's an amazing idea.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
You know what, you could call it the parrot's claw.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Oh. I like the parrot idea, but I'm thinking, you know,
do some other random animal.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Okay. I was just thinking it could be like a
sort of unofficial sequel to this.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, Okay, I like that that works.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Okay, I accept it. I appreciate you accepting it. Okay.
So he thinks his son is alive again after using
after making that his second wish, but then his wife
kills him or so we think, to prevent him from
opening the coffin, and then she kills herself because she
(18:05):
killed her husband. That's all like the opening. Then the
bloody parrot and the treasure disappears. Our main character, Ye
ting Feng is then somehow accused of being involved with
stealing the treasure. So he's like, no, I'm going to
go track it down and prove my innocence. And so
we're just following him for the rest of the film
(18:28):
until we get to the end. I'm skipping around a
lot because this movie is chaos and you can't not.
We get to the end and it turns out that Guofong,
the guy who saw the parrot and made the wishes
and then his wife killed him and then killed herself,
she didn't actually kill him or herself. It was just
a ruse to get the treasure at some point, and
(18:51):
the parrot is we're spoiling it and it can't spoil
this movie. Whatever, it doesn't matter, nothing makes sense.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Yeah, not even what we're telling you.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
The parrot is just a light illusion, Like they use the.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Lamp illuminated like parrot.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, and they like they even show it on the
ground as like this red lamp with a parrot cut
out on it, and it's it's a little disappointing that
it's not like a real supernatural thing. I wish it was,
But there is enough other weird horror supernatural elements going
on in the film to make up for the lack
of supernatural parrot.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
I think, yeah, that's yeah, you nailed it again. It's
a literal Scooby Doo moment where they're pulling the face
pulling faces. Their disguise is off, like it's like boomsins
like it's It's something that I love about these movies,
but it does make them very cartoony, and you do
kind of wish for, you know, that supernatural element.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, you don't get that in like the more straightforward
horror movies like Bewitched or hex or things like that,
those are much more like here is a bloated man
who's stumb It opens and a pile of maggots fall
out of it. Yes, you get, I mean, we get
like some gross like maggot and corpse disintegration and autopsy
(20:09):
scenes and stuff like peppered throughout the film, which is
how this actually gets.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
That cannibal in the cave.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, great, Yes, there's there. And so there's so many
these moments throughout that technically, like if you took all
of them out, you would have just a more sort
of straightforward Woosha fantasy film and so, but you add
these in, so they don't really fit in it, but
I'm glad that they're there.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, I mean, it's what well, first off, it's what
allows for us to pick a movie like this right
on cors which is yeah, awesome. All my favorite parts
are pretty much what you just kind of nailed. But
is there such thing as too much of a good thing? Is?
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I think I feel like Quash on Movies proves this
too much of a good thing can be a bit
distracting and he needs to pull back because there is
so much. It's convoluted as hell. It's fun, it's fun
to watch. It's a lot like Portrait and Crystal, But
like I had said, with Portrait and Crystal, it's like
it moves so quickly that your brain can't comprehend so
(21:15):
it becomes frustrating. So it's a difficult watch at times.
You have to be I don't think you'll ever be
in the right mindset for a movie like this, but
you have to prepare yourself, like you have to accept
what's happening and unfolding.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Yeah, I think anyone who legitimately tries to follow the
plot and all of the characters is just going to
be extremely frustrated and hate this movie.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
There's no way to have fun with it if you're
trying to watch it like that instead. And I tried
to do that because I was like, I want to
just take notes that make sense, and then I gave
up about twenty minutes in. I was like, you know what,
fuck it, I'm just watching it again. I'm just going
to make note of like my favorite like things that
I want to talk about.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
That's it exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Not going to try to explain this movie to anybody.
I'm not going to be here for anyone that wants
an explanation.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
It's like when you know, was Schwan's Portrait and Crystal again,
when I was trying to summarize that and thought I
felt like it was impressive, but I remember I nailed
it for about like the first half, and then I
was like and then I just gave up. I was like,
that's as far as I got. Yeah, that's and it's
funny that you brought that. Laird brought up a bad
acid or a bad trip. Yeah, because when I was
(22:30):
like eighteen or nineteen, I took black gel acid, right,
very strong stuff, and you know, I'd get lost in
whatever visuals I'm looking at, whether it be like a
terrible likee late nineteen nineties screensaver of like lights trailing
bouncing off, and I you know, I would remember thinking
like visually I am lost, I am totally engrossed, but
(22:51):
still thinking like what the hell am I doing? Like
this isn't this isn't natural. And then like after the
trip the next day, I would think like this is
I remember the trip being incredibly enjoyable, but kind of
something that was also frightening because like my brain isn't
isn't comprehending what's happening? Yeah, and something I don't really
want to do again. Yeah, that's like watching Bloody Parrot.
(23:14):
But I've watched Bloody Parrot twice and I did do
Black Gael a couple of times after that, but Hua
wash on films like Portrait and Crystal, Bloody Parrot, Comfy Zombie,
I watch again, but these two his Shaw brothers stuff
is just it is like a bad trip.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
It is and I but I do think that, and
I'm going to use my own in my in my
younger days doing acids, you know, examples to for this
point is I did a lot when I was in
high school and there would be times where what did okay,
(23:52):
what did you guys call it here? We called it frying.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, we would fry.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Okay, So there would be times where you're frying and
you're like you have the most fucking like you figure
something out and you're like, holy fucking shit, I am
a goddamn Jeane. Did you guys know the X? And
then like you just go off on a thing and
it makes complete sense to you. And then when you're
(24:18):
the next day, you're like, what the fuck was I
even talking about?
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Right?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
But like that's this movie because you get to a
point where you're like, I have this figured out. I
know what's happening, and then they throw something at you
and it's just it's gone.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Right.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
All the work you just did to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
You figured out the meaning of life. Yeah, you figured
out the meaning of Bloody Parrot. It's gone, It's gone.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
But yeah, it's it's definitely like that. And I wouldn't
necessarily say like a bad trip, but definitely one where
you're like, it's definitely just it's just a trip, is
what it is. It's just like it's drugs. It's one
where it's like I wouldn't know what to do with
myself if I if these two worlds collided, if I
(24:58):
did acid and watch the this movie, I don't know
that the brain can handle that much chaos.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Yeah, that would be Yeah, I don't know that would
that would be a strange sensation. I don't. I don't
partake anymore. Same, but anybody who listening that does you
know to be safe if you do, report back to us,
if you live to do that there, Like I mean
(25:24):
it's either I mean we're talking about how you know
it's not a bad trip. It's either the worst worst
trip ever or it's the most eye opening experience that
very few humans have have gone through. And I would like,
oh man, you really got me going here, like you
got me scared, Like it's like it's almost like a
(25:45):
dare because I would I would watch you know, I
would watch some stuff while on acid, and obviously that
changes your whole perspective. First time I watch Firewalk with Me,
I binge the entire Twin Peaks series on VHS, popped
in fire Walk with Me, took acid and I thought
ray Wise Leland Palmer was my dad. Oh, I can realize.
I was like, oh my god, like you know with
(26:06):
Mike Yonitch your father, I'm like, oh my god, I'm
looking at the spinning fan. I mean it was it
was again. It's like it's something that you walk away from.
You're like, okay, I don't need to do that for
a while, you know, And to go back to Bloody Parrot.
It's like as soon as you ended, you're like, okay,
I don't I'm good for a while. I don't need
to watch this movie again. Like I think, I think
(26:28):
one time's enough. But I have returned to it.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
So I wonder if, like what you're saying is if
somebody did try this and then came out on the
other end, like Homer Simpson after he took the kran
out of his brain, and it's just like yeah, and
he just like clearly explains everything like a fucking genius,
Like this is bloody parrot. Why is this so hard
for you guys to understand it?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Exactly? Like whoever whoever goes through this experience should run
for president like that they're qualified to run the country.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
All right, please please, You know, we're not encouraging drug
use by any means unless it's you know, legal and
all that, all that stuff where you are uh.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
A lot the dance, but if you've done it or
if you play yeah, well you know you'll remain anonymous
for sure.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
So some of my favorite I guess we'd just talk
about some of my favorite scenes so well. The autopsy
scenes are are fun to me. You have the old
man who told the guy about the bloody parrot. It
seems to have been poisons, but they cut him open
after the gecko drops on him and they find a
piece of anti poison jewelry That made sense to no
(27:39):
one even if you've seen the film five times. Sorry,
but there's also another autopsy scene later that's in a
restaurant of an inn, and the owner is really upset
like that there's autopsies just like taking place in his restaurant.
He's like, hey, you can't open these dead bodies in
my restaurant, and they just kill him. Yeah, And I'm like,
why why this scene? Who are these dead people? What
(27:59):
is happening? I don't understand is the vampire?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
I think, is what are you talking about it? If
he's crazy?
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Before we started this episode, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, no, but I do respect how those type of
why is this happening moments are quickly moving the story along. Yeah,
Like they make no sense. It almost feels lazy. And
if you take a step back and you know, you
you don't have a moment to just think of what's happening,
so you can't think like this is too silly or
this is too lazy, like a little kid's just making
(28:33):
up stuff on the fly. Yeah, but like when a
ting thing is at the end and having a drink,
you know, for his friend in the coffin, Yes, and
he's attacked by some guys and then the bloody parrot
light the red light kind of pops up the red light.
The parrot. The bloody parrot kills all the people that
are attacking what's his name, I don't know, guy, the
(28:56):
main guy, and you know, they see the red pair,
red light. They all die. It kills the real parrot
that like the bartender.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah, I know, and it was like devil something.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yeah, and the main guy's like where did you get
this parrot? Like? Who else that? And he's like, Oh,
I got it from somebody from a whorehouse, you know.
And okay, well let's go to the let's go to
the brothel. Let's go to the parrot Like it just
moves it, Yeah, the parrot brothel. And it's just like
why does that? Who would say like if that happened,
(29:28):
who would be like, oh, where'd you get that parrot? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Where'd you get your dead parrot?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah? And then that's the next part they go and
then he shows up and then he's like, I'm gonna
paint over this wall.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
It's just like what is happening with all this stuff?
It moves the story along, but it doesn't make a
whole lot of sense. Yeah, but he has to paint
over the wall to meet Roundworm, which is a great
character who who has a significant part. He's he's actually
the Scooby Doo guy that rips his face off. Yeah.
It's and then like an hour and you get the killer,
(30:00):
old lady hung you pop up and it's like there's
so much like what the fuck is happening?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
I was so, I was like, okay, I thought that
the old lady witch who lives next door to the
sex worker was her milkmaid or whatever she was called,
the nurse wet nurse. Okay, I thought I heard milkmaid
at some point, and I was like, ill, gross cow juice,
but well, I guess you know, woman juice in this
(30:28):
point even worse.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Anyway, I was like, okay, we have the old is
the old lady the same as a young lady who
just showed up with the thing and like the leather
face fucking embroidery mask thing that she's working on.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
No, they're two separate women for no fucking reason whatsoever.
What is the witch doing there living next door to
the sex worker? I can't.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Yeah, there's a lot. I do love her stinky though,
like she's just like walking around like she does not
like anybody.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, so I don't want to downplay at Johnny's performance
in the Subway in Possession, right, but when Zuou yes
the blood rock and puts the night pearl in her vagina,
she is fucking going for it.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yes, that's that's that's definitely one of my favorite scenes.
And it feels like, you know, she's it has like
blue lighting, a lot of close ups. Wachean does concentrate
I remember in Portrait and Crystal on close ups and
zoom in's, especially during dialogue scenes, which really just keeps
the whole movie dynamic. Yeah, you know, there's a lot
going on in here, and even as scenes are just
(31:41):
people talking, it's like slow down. But in that scene particularly,
she is just puking. It's possessed, and it feels very
sam Raimi Evildad. Yes, this has to be a direct
inspiration because later on one of the like a guard
touches a dead body and then the hand starts kind
of because I mean possessed, yes, and he cuts it off. Yes,
(32:02):
it's very ash evil Dead too, which obviously would be
a you know, a great double feature either Evil deads
because it does have a lot of that same type
of vibes.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Absolutely, But that possession scene is one of my favorites obviously,
and she stuffs the night Pearl inside her as well
after eating the rock. Yeah, yeah, like all.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Right, you know what I appreciate too. In this movie,
and this is something that you don't see a lot
of in Shaw Brothers movies.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Bush there is a lot of nudity.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
And not just you know, not just like topless, but
like bush like full like especially in the mirror scene
at the end where there's like seven of her and
I was like, Wow, they are not shy about the
bush in this movie.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
I love that scene where at the end where they're
in that little cavern with all the snakes. That felt
very Indiana Jones, with all the booby traps. Yeah, the
maze mirror and I totally respect I think more, I
think everybody should do this if you're lost and you're
trying to get out of an area, strip naked like Zunu. Yep,
she obviously she was covering the mirrors to find her
way out and know if she's been there before. But yeah,
(33:05):
I love how Bloody Perry kind of opens and ends
with her just naked. Yeah, And you don't get that
in Shaw Brothers a lot. If you do see a
naked body, like in Corpse Mania, it's just it's a
dead body laying there. Yeah, but Zoo, she loves being
naked and I respect it.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Yeah, absolutely So there's a couple of scenes where like
corpses get dissolved. I don't even know who the first
one was. I feel like the subtitles were telling me
that it was the town mayor.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
That was doing the dissolving of the course. Yeah, that's
what he said.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Okay, He's like, I'm the mayor and I'm dissolving this corpse.
Why what are you? Just are you here because you
want your town to be clean, and you're clean.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
He's mentioned later on too, like he's working with the
main guy in Red.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yeah. Who.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
He's a very attractive man.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
That guy.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
He's like a scene stiller. But you know, I guess
he ends up dying, Like I don't. I don't he
system pop up. He's not the guy. I don't know
where he went. I don't know what happened to him.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
I don't know. I do like the corpses dissolving though.
I always love that effect.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Yeah, I have that.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
It's another evil dead connection there too.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Absolutely. Yeah, there's a lot. It has to be a
direct inspiration. There's a lot of sword fights in here
that are really great, awesome choreography. Hung you the girl
who's doing like the skin embroidery, she slices or punches
a guy and his eyeballs are hanging out of his face.
I mean, there's a lot of horror elements in this,
(34:34):
and it's mainly you know, all the maggots and stuff,
and all the autopsy scenes are my favorite too. There's
multiple autopsy scenes with all the cutting open stomachs and
all the fucking gross guts and whatever the AT's popping out.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, I do have.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
I had a note here too. That was one of
my favorite scenes is when the main guy is in
the bottom at the end in the cave and there's
like a little a bunch of snakes and a cobra
up yeah. Yeah, well it squeaks like a rat. I
think they use the same sound effect for the parrot,
but it and then a fake back attacks, yes, and
(35:12):
that fake I know you love your fake I love
the fake bats. Again. That scene just reminded me kind
of like an Indiana Jones, which I was. You can
never go wrong when watching especially a Shaw Brothers who
from the eighties, because they have the best set designs
and obviously they reuse them. Yeah, but yeah, the lighting,
it's it's just eye can't It's a visual experience. Because,
(35:34):
like we said, you're not going to make sense of
this story, right.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Yeah, the fake that I love. There's a scene in
my double feature pick that has a swarm of fake
bats and then at a certain point they have actually
real bats that look like they might really be getting hurt.
And so I got really upset, I.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Know, speaking of really getting hurt. That one scene of
that cat being choked. God, I know, and I don't
you know, it shows the cat dead afterwards, it's clearly
not dead. It's breathing. Yeah, it just has a little
drop of fake blood on it, but she's really choking
the cat. Yeah, which maybe the cat liked.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
No, animals don't like that. You know. People, you do
your thing with your kinks, but you keep that away
from fucking animals. I'll say that right now.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Yeah, it was. It was a very sweet heead.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah. So one thing about the under the cavern scenes,
like the mirror trap underground cave, I forgot to go
back this morning and actually time it. But I feel
like there's a really long extended period with no dialogue
save from like a few grunts and screams and stuff
(36:39):
like that when they the two of them get separated,
when main guy and Zunu get separated. Yeah, I feel
like no dialogue. They're both just like searching around. Maybe
a few grunts she might scream, but like no spoken words.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah. I did recall that I did a rewatch last night,
and it is very I think that time period was
when I was really watching the camera angles and the
dynamic because it was still moving at an incredible pace. Yeah,
and there's no dialogue in that those few minutes.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Which oddly makes it feel like it's still like you're right,
it is still moving very fast based on the camera
movements and the events that are happening, But it feels
like it's moving slower because there's no dialogue. And I
think it's because you don't have that one added element
to be paying attention to. You just have this to
(37:31):
focus on now, and so it feels slower, but it's not.
It's still moving at fucking breakneck speed.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Right. And the original score too. I think it was
Eddie Wang, who also did Corpse Mania, Bewitched, Bewitched both
we did an episode on and I remember when we
were talking about Bewitched in some of his music made
me feel like I was watching like an Italian zombie film,
like a Fulcy film or something. And his music in
(37:58):
this as well, is is what kind of helps make
like the fantasy elements or kind of the goofy Scooby
Do Scooby Do elements become horror. And I felt that
during you know, the slower they're not slower, but yeah,
the less dialogue scenes or just any scene that that
doesn't have a horror element. He kind of reminds you
like boom Stick with this baggots and grossness. Yeah, but yeah, no, Yeah,
(38:22):
I love what wash On does in all his movies
because it is it's exhausting, but it's worth it.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah, absolutely, So It's one of those movies that I
would never recommend it to someone who's just getting into
Shaw Brothers because I don't want them to think like
this represents that that studio or that genre or anything
like that. I wouldn't even recommend it to someone who's
just starting with Shaw Brothers horror films either, like this
(38:49):
is you know, this is like intermediate level.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I think, Yeah, I mean, like, you know, Boxer's Omen's
one of my favorites, but I don't even know if
I would say start with that like it that one
is so crazy as well, but visually it's it's the
best thing on the planet.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Yeah, I feel like you never start with like the
best one, like you know, you got to build up
to that. So I would still I would say, like
start out like horror wise, you know, with like the
Bewitched and the Hexes, and I don't know if I recommend,
you know, Corpsemania, depending on how you feel about neck
everyone should be problem.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Black Magic was a good black magic.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Black Magic two those are like those two actually would
be where I would tell people to start with Shaw
Brothers horror and then go from there. And then when
they maybe start being like yeah, okay, be like okay
Boxer's omen.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Right, Yeah, okay, good luck with this. Try try try
Bloody Parrot.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
But yeah, once you're in what's you're in the Shaw
Brothers horror movies, Like I want to watch all the
movies like this. You know, it's it's fun, like I said,
but it's still it exhausting, it is.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
And you need you need a break for a while
from it. And so you just go and you watch
one of the sort of standard not standard, but you know,
one of their well martial arts films rather than get
away from like sort of the fantasy element. It's like,
just give me a good old fashioned master got killed
student out for revenge, or two dueling schools of kung fu, Like,
(40:10):
just give me that for a few more Shaw Brothers
films after this, because it is exhausting to try to
keep up with this film, to try to explain it
to other people. I don't know why I picked this
one episode because it's hard to talk about.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
I mean, it's you know, like we I'm not saying
that the Shaw Brothers horror pickens are getting slim, but
they are. And I think was it last year we
chose not even a Shaw Brothers It was kind of
a yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
It was a Cheng che film, so I was like, well,
he's well known as the Shaw Brothers, so yeah, Nine
Demons wasn't even a Shaw Brothers movie. Like that's me,
you know, usually it's cheating. So but like there's plenty
that have the horror movie tag on them. The problem
is that with Shaw Brothers films, the martial arts ones
are prioritized as far as like restoration and exactly, and
(41:05):
then it's a matter of like do the elements even
still exist because goddamn fucking Mona Fong went around destroying
a bunch of prints all over the place after you know,
they decided they were shutting down. So you know, yes,
this the pickings are getting slim, and so maybe like
future Shaugust will just be like you know what, june'sploitation.
(41:26):
We just we don't necessarily watch horror movies, so like
I don't. I'm fine with us like venturing outside of that.
You know, yeah, yeah, whatever happens happens, but like who knows,
maybe like a bunch of their horror, lesser known horror
movies will get released.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
And it should, it should happen. It's like I've always
thought of Kung Fu Zombie as being what it's washed on,
but I think it's like about fifty views away from
a thousand, so people just wait, just just wait to
watch it.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, nobody will nobody watch it, But you know.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
I'm glad you picked a bloody parrot. I think I was.
I think it was between this and Portrait and Crystal
one time for me and I was like I watched
Bloody pairt. I'm like, oh, well fuck that. Well we'll
get back to you. Yeah, but Portrait and Crystal. Again,
it's just it's I mean, they're very they're very both
test to decipher. But I'm glad you picked it.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
I mean, it's still one that I recommend, but again
it's not one that I recommend for someone new to
Shaw Brothers Horse And honestly, the first time I watched it,
I gave it four stars, and this watch I bumped
it down because, like, it is so hard to decipher
and follow that it can be frustrating even if you
do let go and just say, you know what, I'm
(42:38):
not going to try to follow it. There's something to
be said for adding a little bit of order to
your chaos, just a little bit, just a little bit,
so that you know, we can we can follow along
a little better.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Yeah. I agree. First time I watched it a couple
of years ago, I didn't even rate it. I was
I was stunned. I was in a daze. I did
get it three and a half though on yesterday's rewatch,
So I agree with that rating.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
All right, r Insanc. What about a double feature pick lance?
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Okay, so I did. I already mentioned I think The
Evil Dead one and two, for obvious reasons, would be great.
I also thought of Bob Clark's Dead of Night or
Death Dream from nineteen seventy four about the parents dead
son coming back from Vietnam. You know, but I just
decided to go with something that makes it doesn't make sense.
(43:30):
I'm picking The Prey from nineteen eighty three. Oh okay,
and this is something that you can fall asleep too.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
I did completely shut your brain off, allow you to
focus on your breathing, get you back to slow pace
real life. Because when I finished watching Bloody Perry, I
didn't want to watch anything afterwards. Honestly, I just wanted
to like take a ticke a nap, like I needed
to clear my head. So I would pop on The Prey.
And you know, it's an eighty minute runtime. Most of
(43:59):
it is beautiful nature scenery, close ups of animals and insects,
just to pad the short eighty minute runtime. Yeah, there's
a slasher a week slasher plot in there somewhere, but
watch Bloody Parrot and if you're forced to watch a movie,
put on something like The Prey, so you could probably
(44:20):
fall asleep, collect your thoughts, get your bearings. I know
you're in a daze. Yeah, So yeah, The Prey directed
by Edwin Brown. Yeah, it's guaranteed to kind of reset
you just shut you down. It's not good. I think
a lot of people like it, which I'm very happy for.
But for me, it's something that, Yeah, I just wanted
to doze off and think about nothing.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
That movie does absolutely do that. Yeah, that's so I
feel like that. Yeah, it's like if you're if you're
on a bad trip, if there is some sort of
anecdote that you can take to level set yourself to
come back to normal, then the prey would be that drug.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Yeah. I didn't want to pick something like, you know,
Pink Floyd Live at POMPEII or something like that. I
wanted it to stay horror adjacent. But yeah, what about you.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
So I talked about it quite a bit already without
naming it, and I am not allowing people to escape
their trip. We are continuing it with The Magic Crane
from nineteen ninety three. This is a wusha produced by
Choi Hark starring Tony Lyng. I will not even try
(45:28):
to explain the plot of this one other than there
are a lot of different schools of kung fu that
come to meet in one place, and then there are
multiple side plots related to this, including a daughter's revenge
in a giant turtle's gallbladder. I know, I saw this
(45:48):
on thirty five last week for Weird Wednesday. You know,
Laird said in his intro, who likes when things happen
in a movie? And of course, you know we all clap,
We're like, I like that, and he said, good, because
lots of things happen in this movie.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
And that's what this is.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
It's just like Bloody Parrot. It's a series of like
things happening to move you to the next plot point
or event that's happening. But it's so extremely fast paced
that you don't even have time to stop and think
about what's happening. I honestly think this one might even
move faster than Bloody Parrot, and faster than Portrait and
(46:25):
Crystal like that. Like that's the insanity that this one is.
And it has a giant crane in this bird, not
like the forklift thing machine that helps the princess. So
you've got this is a bird is the word double feature.
(46:46):
They also both have fake bats. Like I mentioned, There
is a copy on YouTube with English subs, but I
think it was seven minutes shorter. Than another version that
I found on YouTube that didn't have subs. You can
try that if you want, or maybe wait and hope
that this print in particular, Laird said it was from
someone's private collection, but it was played at the Hong
(47:06):
Kong Methon a few years ago in New York. Maybe
it'll make its way to your city. But if you
have a chance to see it, I definitely recommend checking
it out. I don't recommend taking drugs before seeing it, though.
You don't need them to watch this film. So that's
Magic Crane nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
But if you decide to record back, yes, all right, movie,
next movie, lamb okay. So my showguest pick is one
that is very light on the horror, which has lately
been the trend for Shaw Brothers. But I'm comfortable saying
that some of our listeners might find it a little slow,
especially after watching if you watch Bloody Parrot, and I
(47:44):
understand why people think it's slow paced. It's The Enchanting
Ghost from nineteen seventy. It's a slow paced melodrama slash
fantasy horror that concentrates on a young scholar who finds
himself evicted from his home and he decided to move
into a remote, abandoned house where he meets a mysterious
woman and they.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Fall in love.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
And it's a history of that house where the horror
element comes into play and the tenants who used to
live there. But what makes us film interesting and it's
something that we see in a lot of other Shaw
Brothers horrors and Hong Kong movies, is the male protagonist
character is played by a woman actor, adding kind of
perhaps an unintentional queer twist to the haunted love story.
(48:28):
It only has two hundred and eighty four views on
Letterbox and it's probably one that would sit on the
bottom of a Shaw Brothers watch list, So this is
kind of the main reason I want to pick it.
It's early, you know, it's nineteen seventy. I just want
to shed some light on it. As mentioned, it's a
drastic step down in energy, action, special effects or anything.
(48:50):
Huah On is directed like Bloody Prayrot or Portrait The
Enchanting Ghosts, It's directed by Cho Hu Chang. Play a
love story at its core, I find it very relaxing.
I think it's a good way to break up and
always fun, action filled Shaugusta, and so since this is
a love story, I have to bring someone who I
(49:11):
love so and it wouldn't be Shaugust without him. And
of course I'm talking about Ian Jane from Rock Shock
Pop and The Queen's Party comic podcast. Of course he's
on a boatload of commentaries for Shaw Brothers, releases from
Shop Factory and eighty eight Films. We always have a
ton of fun chatting with him. So something I love
(49:33):
to do, something I'm looking forward to. So, yeah, The
Enchanting Ghost. Will add the YouTube link where you can
watch it broken up into ten segment playlist, but you
can play it straight through. It's an okay quality with
decent subtitles. The subtitles are a little faded and digitized,
sometimes hard to read, but it's good enough to watch.
Eighty eight Films did release a Blu ray and DVD
(49:53):
version that you can find out there. I think for
resell if anybody has region free players, because it is
re philm So, yeah, The Enchanting Ghost nineteen seventy.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
I am looking forward to slowing it down. Yeah all right,
if you're not already, you can follow this podcast on Instagram, Twitter,
and Facebook. All at Unsung Horrors. You can follow me
on letterbox, Instagram, and Twitter at Hex Massacre.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
You can follow me on Instagram and letterboxed at El Shiby.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Thanks everyone for listening. We'll see you back for our
next sh August episode with Ian Jane. Bye bye you,
It's okay.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
I'll be cool.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
I guess.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Bye bye bus.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
You say.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
The true I did not dreams again.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
Un game no way did means but chall explain. I
think it's.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Say to you.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
With our film, I can't say you know, I can explain.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
I can explain unto where long time at.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
Our regard spread
Prepare yourself for the terror, the prison of madness. We
have a few inter and Nonritter. Welcome to Unsung Horrus with Lance.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And Deerica.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Leave all your sanity behind.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It can't help you.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome to another episode of Unsung Horrors, the podcast where
we discuss underseen horror films, specifically those with fewer than
one thousand views on Letterboxed. I'm Erica, I'm Lance, and
sh August is here, and that means we are watching
(01:06):
Shaw Brothers horror films or horror adjacent the horror elements,
you know whatever.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, it's mostly like fantasy horror with Shaw Brothers.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah it is. Unless. I mean, I feel like when
we first started with Shaw Brothers horror, it was very
clearly like Corpsemania, Bewitched, stuff like that, that's horror. Right now,
we're having to be a little bit more liberal with
our with our definitions and just say it's got a
horror tag on it, just count it.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah, exactly. If there's blood in it, it's horror.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Someone got possessed, it's horror. There's a hopping vampire, horror,
count it. But so this episode we're going to be
talking about bloody Parrot from nineteen eighty one. This is
available to watch on YouTube. We'll have a link in
show notes and as of this recording, it has four
hundred and ninety four views on letterboxed. So a quick
(01:59):
summary if I can try, Okay, I know this is
this is gonna be tough. This is gonna be like
Portrait and Crystal and me trying to summarize that film.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I still have nightmares trying to figure that movie out.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So my okay, So my favorite Shaugust memory slash moment
is just how committed you were to watching Portrait and
Crystal before we had a version that didn't have.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
The title of the films.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Burned into the like across the top of the screen,
and you watch the whole thing that way.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, it's funny with Bloody Parrot. When I was watching it,
that happened like Portrait and Crystal just started for me
on the screen. Because they're very we'll talk about it,
but these these wash on movies are geez Louise.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, there, they are a lot to take in if
you're coming here after watching it looking for some sort
of explanation and breakdown and like way to make it
make sense. I'm gonna apologize in advance and say you're
not going to get that.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, let's see if you can break you down on
the story.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
All right, all right, Swordsman Yie ting Fang goes on
a mission to find the Emperor's missing treasure, with a
side quest of tracking down the legendary Bloody Parrot, which
is said to grant three wishes if you see it.
Along the way, new characters are introduced every five minutes,
so the viewer's mission is to either attempt to keep
all of them straight or just stay focused on the
(03:26):
two to four main characters. Choose your own adventure.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That's it. That's about all I got out of this.
Note Now, that was good. That was really good. But yeah,
it's essentially just new character after new character.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
It's impossible to keep them straight. I've watched this movie
three times. I watched it, you know, the first time
a few years ago, and then rewatched it, like, okay,
you're trying to take notes while watching this is like
constantly pausing, rewinding take It's it's so fast paced. It's
so just non limit I mean it it's linear in
(04:06):
the sense that like events are happening in the order
that they you know, in progression, but so much happens
and so many new characters are introduced that it's impossible
to keep anyone straight. So I just stopped and I'm
just like, nope, I just fuck it. Just let it
be the movie that it's trying to be, and that's
just to be complete nonsense.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, it's visually stimulating, and I'll probably be referring to
a lot of the characters of the guy wearing red
or the old lady or yep. So it's a lot
of characters to keep track of. But yeah, like you said,
it's just the experience. Sit back and enjoy the trip.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, I mean, that's really what it is. And it's
funny because my double feature pick is something that's kind
of along the same line. So Laird's theme for Weird
Wednesday this month is bad trips and that's funny.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
I have some notes that were I'll talk about a.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Minute, but like, and it was perfect because he one
of the films he showed was a Hong Kong film.
It's not Shaw Brothers, but it perfectly fit and I
was like, laired, this is perfect fucking timing for my
double feature picks. So thanks to him for that. We'll
get to that at the end of the episode though,
when we go through double feature picks we've done. This
is our fourth year of Shaw Brothers or sh August.
(05:25):
So we have talked about Shaw Brothers studios, who they are,
how long, how many movies they've done, Well over six hundred.
I think it's close to seven hundred, all the sort
of key players, many of the directors. So you know,
so we don't go repeating ourselves because I don't want,
like I do want every Show Brothers sh August episode
(05:48):
to be unique as much as it can be. I
don't want to go back and repeat a lot of
what we've done. I will say though, the Shaw Brothers
Volume two set that Arrow put out on the Disciples
and return to thirty six Chamber disc. There is a
documentary on there that was really great and I definitely
(06:09):
recommend it. It's you get some behind the scenes of
run run Shaw and him talking and about like the studio,
and you kind of get to walk around while they're
filming something and you see a lot of familiar faces.
You may not be able to name them, but you're
definitely like, I know that guy. So if you have
that set, really really great documentary on there. It's hard
(06:33):
because like every year, I'm like, I'm not going to
see anything new or learn anything new, and I always
do and that's the nice thing about sh August.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Right, Yeah. So, but we're not going to spend much
time on the cast and crew like as much as
we have in the past episodes, because like you just said,
it's a lot of the same directors just pumping out, yeah,
twenty movies a year, and the actors even more.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, so I do want to touch on just a
few just so that I can bring up some of
my recent Shawgust watches. Notssarly horror movies, but they are
Shaw Brothers. So Bloody Parrot was directed by Hwhon. We
covered one of his previous films, Portrait in Crystal from
nineteen eighty three. Ian was our guest for that one, right,
because I feel like we were just all like, we
(07:14):
can't wrap our head arounds this is too much.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Well yeah, yeah, obviously every Shaugust, you know, spoilert my pick.
I try and bring in Ian for his expertise. I
do remember though, he was impressed with my summary of
Portrait and Crystal, which yeah, I had the dry erase
board like I was when I was putting that thing together.
I spent years on that. Yeahwahon did do portrait in Crystal.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So we might talk about him a little bit more
in that episode. If you would like to go listen
to the seat. This is our Every New Shaugust episode
is a reason to go back and listen to our
previous ones if you have not already. He's most well
known for directing Super Inframan from nineteen seventy five, Kung
Fu Zombie, which we've both seen and really enjoy. I
did just watch Flying Guillotine two eighty eight films or Eureka.
(08:01):
One of the two has a release of that. T
Lung is a hero in that, And there's a child
death in this, but it's hidden behind a tree, so
it counts, all right, it counts, But yeah, it happens.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
I liked it.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
It's fine. I would recommend checking it out. He also
did Soul Brothers of Kung Fu from nineteen seventy seven.
Oh yeah, this one's not in the Bruce ploitation set,
but it is on to b Lance. I know you've
seen this one. I think a couple of years ago
you watched it.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, I remember, I think they used the rocky theme
throughout every so often. Yeah, I really enjoyed that it
has Carl Scott in it. He's also in Sun Dragon
or A Hard Way to Die. But yeah, it's it's
not like I mean, wash On films are crazy, like
like Kung Fu zombies and stuff like even Inframan those
(08:49):
are super fast paced, a lot like Portrait. These are
a little more low key, yeah, a little more exploit
exploitation type films, a lot of choreographed fighting. It's fun.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, definitely check it out. The screenwriter here is Ni Kwang.
I think he's probably written every film that we've covered
in Fuockcust. I mean, the man has done so much.
And spoiler, I do have a booklet essay coming out
for an upcoming release about him specifically and some other
(09:21):
things that he has written, so I can't talk about
it yet, but that's be on the lookout for that
and I will announce that on my Instagram page and
when it comes out. The editor is somebody who I think,
again we've talked about before, Chang saying Lung and five
hundred and twenty eight film credits on letterbox alone. He's
(09:42):
basically like churning them out for Shaw Brothers. He's just
a machine.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's insane looking at his filmography.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, and then our cast again, we're probably just going
to be referring to people based on a physical characteristic
in this. But the main character in this Jason or
just Paypo. He's got over eighty film credits on letterbox.
He plays the main character in this. He plays Ye
(10:11):
ting Fang, the guy who's going on the mission to
find the treasurer who.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
He's carrying the coffin around.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, he's carrying the coffin around. He's jangling it around,
and he falls in love with the sex worker played
by Jenny Lang Liang zou Nu. I think is how
it's pronounced. You know. He paints her wall, if you will.
(10:38):
We also have Tony Lou. He's been in a ton
of Bruce Lee films like Enter the Dragon, The Big Boss,
and Human Lanterns, which there are definitely some parallels to
Human Lanterns in this film. Here one of the many
things that happen in this movie, which is just a
progression of things happening in this movie.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Everything everything you've seen in a Shaw Brothers horror fantasy
is in this movie, Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
It's it's a lot. So again, I'm not going to
go into full cast and crew of more butchering of names.
There are a lot of people that we've talked about before. Again,
we're just going to be referring to most of them
by what their character looks like or is doing.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
So.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I know that sounds lazy, but honestly, if you've seen
this movie, you understand, you understand the struggle. I did
want to mention a few of the films that I
did watch for a few of the other like sort
of Shaugust watches that I've done so far, and I've
tried to make all of them so far this month
related to the films that we're going to be doing.
(11:42):
So I did watch Angel Force from nineteen ninety one.
That's the Girls with Guns Flicked darring Moonlely.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I watched that one as well.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
It was good, Yeah direct that one's directed by Huashan
and that one is again more of a straightforward it's
not completely off the wall. I watched Disciples of the
thirty six Chamber. That's how I came across that documentary
because I wasn't really paying attention to what was on
the whole set, and I was like, Oh, there's this
documentary on Shaw Brothers. I'm gonna check that out. And
(12:11):
that one has Jason Peipiao in that one. He's also
an Angel a Vengeance too. That's another Girls with Guns film.
He plays the dad slash cop and that which he
tended to do sort of later in his career, Like
he made the transition from all these martial arts films
into like this sort of he has this like cop
(12:32):
look to him as he gets older, and like he
doesn't have like the you know, all the wig and
mustache and all that look. I'm like, he actually looks
like a Hong Kong cop. Like just you put that
like members only jacket on him and it's like, yeah,
fucking cop.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah. That's what I liked about Angel Forces because it's
not like it has a lot of action, but it's
more like Rambo style action with oozy's and grenades and
you know, it has a cop putting together a task force.
I really liked Angel Force more so than a lot
of the reviews on Letterbox. I think it's because I
haven't been able to catch as many Shagas movies, so
far this month been a little busy, but Angel Force
(13:07):
has been good. And I watched one called what was
it called Vengeance of Snow Made Oh, which is in
preparation for my Shaugus. Okay, pick and I'll talk about
that one too, But that that one was okay, Yes,
it's fun.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I watched another one just actually this morning before we
started recording, called The Duel also Duel of the Iron Fists,
I think is the alternate title of it.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Yeah. That has Tee Lung and David Yeah. I love
them to ye.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah. Tea Long and David chang together in this, and
it's just it's so good, like they're at each other's throats,
but like they have to team up because they have
a common enemy, and they basically like put their beef
aside until like the very end for them to have
their battle. It's super bloody, you know. It's fast paced moves.
(14:01):
I mean it's an hour forty something too, so it's
longer than it technically should be for these types of movies,
but still moves really well. And I mean, I just
I love Tea Long. He's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, he's he's one of the best. When you put
them together though, with you know, him and David together. Yeah,
it's a perfect dynamic. Could you watch this on two B?
I thought I remember trying to watch this on two
B and something was up.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
I did it. It's a dubbed version. It's not great,
but yeah, I watched it this morning on two B.
So yeah. I think there's probably much better versions out there, though,
So if it exists, I would definitely check it out.
It's probably got a blue why I released at this
point I would guess to be too B. We'll take
(14:46):
a sponsorship to be either you or Letterbox, and Letterbox
isn't getting back to me.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, where are you?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Seriously? Come on? So yeah, not getting more into the
cast and crew unless there's anyone you wanted to bring
up or mention. No, okay, I'd love to bring up
the parrot, but we'll get to why we don't bring
up the parrot at the end.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I want to talk about the cat. It's my least
favorite part of the film. I get the fuck out
here with that shit.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I know it's terrible. I think your probably your favorite
part of this though, is just the very opening, like
the opening animated credits.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yes, yeah, when I first watched this. I think I
even said that maybe in my Letterbox review or when
we talked about it in Portrait for Portrait and Crystal.
But yeah, the parrot, it feels very Italian, kind of
spaghetti western type, you know. I love any type of
animated credits, even National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, which makes no
(15:44):
sense to the movie. It's so odd. It's such an
odd spot. But I think Oscars so Lester's Someone's Oscar
might have that too, opening animated credits. But the parrot
turning into the is it Zoo Zoo new, you know,
turning into the naked, large breasted woman, I.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Think so.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Perfect way to open up any film. Yeah, every film
should be doing that.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Yeah, it's just like all these animated, beautiful credits and
then all of a sudden there's just a freeze frame
of a real woman naked, and I'm like, oh, well, yes,
that's that's how you get my attention. I'm there.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yeah, I was immediately sold. And then they threw a
curveball at me, like for the rest of the movie.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah, so we start with I'm going to try with
some plot, and then we'll talk about like horror elements
and favorite parts, because I don't really know how else
to tackle a film like this. So we have a
guy in the beginning, guofan who sees the bloody parrot
(16:44):
and he gets three wishes, and his first wish is
that the stolen treasure the Emperor had treasure stolen that
that gets recovered, so it is it shows up. And
then immediately after his son is found dead after falling
from a horse. So you think, like, oh, is this
going to be some sort of like monkeys Paw type
movie where like a bunch of different people like see
(17:06):
the parrot and they get wishes and all these fucked
up things happen. I would like that movie too, by
the way, to happen anyone, well back in during this era,
Like I would like wash On in the eighties to
make this movie.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Because they would just be madness.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah, everybody getting there. That's an amazing idea.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
You know what, you could call it the parrot's claw.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Oh. I like the parrot idea, but I'm thinking, you know,
do some other random animal.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Okay. I was just thinking it could be like a
sort of unofficial sequel to this.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, Okay, I like that that works.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Okay, I accept it. I appreciate you accepting it. Okay.
So he thinks his son is alive again after using
after making that his second wish, but then his wife
kills him or so we think, to prevent him from
opening the coffin, and then she kills herself because she
(18:05):
killed her husband. That's all like the opening. Then the
bloody parrot and the treasure disappears. Our main character, Ye
ting Feng is then somehow accused of being involved with
stealing the treasure. So he's like, no, I'm going to
go track it down and prove my innocence. And so
we're just following him for the rest of the film
(18:28):
until we get to the end. I'm skipping around a
lot because this movie is chaos and you can't not.
We get to the end and it turns out that Guofong,
the guy who saw the parrot and made the wishes
and then his wife killed him and then killed herself,
she didn't actually kill him or herself. It was just
a ruse to get the treasure at some point, and
(18:51):
the parrot is we're spoiling it and it can't spoil
this movie. Whatever, it doesn't matter, nothing makes sense.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Yeah, not even what we're telling you.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
The parrot is just a light illusion, Like they use the.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Lamp illuminated like parrot.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, and they like they even show it on the
ground as like this red lamp with a parrot cut
out on it, and it's it's a little disappointing that
it's not like a real supernatural thing. I wish it was,
But there is enough other weird horror supernatural elements going
on in the film to make up for the lack
of supernatural parrot.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
I think, yeah, that's yeah, you nailed it again. It's
a literal Scooby Doo moment where they're pulling the face
pulling faces. Their disguise is off, like it's like boomsins
like it's It's something that I love about these movies,
but it does make them very cartoony, and you do
kind of wish for, you know, that supernatural element.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, you don't get that in like the more straightforward
horror movies like Bewitched or hex or things like that,
those are much more like here is a bloated man
who's stumb It opens and a pile of maggots fall
out of it. Yes, you get, I mean, we get
like some gross like maggot and corpse disintegration and autopsy
(20:09):
scenes and stuff like peppered throughout the film, which is
how this actually gets.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
That cannibal in the cave.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, great, Yes, there's there. And so there's so many
these moments throughout that technically, like if you took all
of them out, you would have just a more sort
of straightforward Woosha fantasy film and so, but you add
these in, so they don't really fit in it, but
I'm glad that they're there.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, I mean, it's what well, first off, it's what
allows for us to pick a movie like this right
on cors which is yeah, awesome. All my favorite parts
are pretty much what you just kind of nailed. But
is there such thing as too much of a good thing? Is?
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I think I feel like Quash on Movies proves this
too much of a good thing can be a bit
distracting and he needs to pull back because there is
so much. It's convoluted as hell. It's fun, it's fun
to watch. It's a lot like Portrait and Crystal, But
like I had said, with Portrait and Crystal, it's like
it moves so quickly that your brain can't comprehend so
(21:15):
it becomes frustrating. So it's a difficult watch at times.
You have to be I don't think you'll ever be
in the right mindset for a movie like this, but
you have to prepare yourself, like you have to accept
what's happening and unfolding.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Yeah, I think anyone who legitimately tries to follow the
plot and all of the characters is just going to
be extremely frustrated and hate this movie.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
There's no way to have fun with it if you're
trying to watch it like that instead. And I tried
to do that because I was like, I want to
just take notes that make sense, and then I gave
up about twenty minutes in. I was like, you know what,
fuck it, I'm just watching it again. I'm just going
to make note of like my favorite like things that
I want to talk about.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
That's it exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Not going to try to explain this movie to anybody.
I'm not going to be here for anyone that wants
an explanation.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
It's like when you know, was Schwan's Portrait and Crystal again,
when I was trying to summarize that and thought I
felt like it was impressive, but I remember I nailed
it for about like the first half, and then I
was like and then I just gave up. I was like,
that's as far as I got. Yeah, that's and it's
funny that you brought that. Laird brought up a bad
acid or a bad trip. Yeah, because when I was
(22:30):
like eighteen or nineteen, I took black gel acid, right,
very strong stuff, and you know, I'd get lost in
whatever visuals I'm looking at, whether it be like a
terrible likee late nineteen nineties screensaver of like lights trailing
bouncing off, and I you know, I would remember thinking
like visually I am lost, I am totally engrossed, but
(22:51):
still thinking like what the hell am I doing? Like
this isn't this isn't natural. And then like after the
trip the next day, I would think like this is
I remember the trip being incredibly enjoyable, but kind of
something that was also frightening because like my brain isn't
isn't comprehending what's happening? Yeah, and something I don't really
want to do again. Yeah, that's like watching Bloody Parrot.
(23:14):
But I've watched Bloody Parrot twice and I did do
Black Gael a couple of times after that, but Hua
wash on films like Portrait and Crystal, Bloody Parrot, Comfy Zombie,
I watch again, but these two his Shaw brothers stuff
is just it is like a bad trip.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
It is and I but I do think that, and
I'm going to use my own in my in my
younger days doing acids, you know, examples to for this
point is I did a lot when I was in
high school and there would be times where what did okay,
(23:52):
what did you guys call it here? We called it frying.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, we would fry.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Okay, So there would be times where you're frying and
you're like you have the most fucking like you figure
something out and you're like, holy fucking shit, I am
a goddamn Jeane. Did you guys know the X? And
then like you just go off on a thing and
it makes complete sense to you. And then when you're
(24:18):
the next day, you're like, what the fuck was I
even talking about?
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Right?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
But like that's this movie because you get to a
point where you're like, I have this figured out. I
know what's happening, and then they throw something at you
and it's just it's gone.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Right.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
All the work you just did to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
You figured out the meaning of life. Yeah, you figured
out the meaning of Bloody Parrot. It's gone, It's gone.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
But yeah, it's it's definitely like that. And I wouldn't
necessarily say like a bad trip, but definitely one where
you're like, it's definitely just it's just a trip, is
what it is. It's just like it's drugs. It's one
where it's like I wouldn't know what to do with
myself if I if these two worlds collided, if I
(24:58):
did acid and watch the this movie, I don't know
that the brain can handle that much chaos.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Yeah, that would be Yeah, I don't know that would
that would be a strange sensation. I don't. I don't
partake anymore. Same, but anybody who listening that does you
know to be safe if you do, report back to us,
if you live to do that there, Like I mean
(25:24):
it's either I mean we're talking about how you know
it's not a bad trip. It's either the worst worst
trip ever or it's the most eye opening experience that
very few humans have have gone through. And I would like,
oh man, you really got me going here, like you
got me scared, Like it's like it's almost like a
(25:45):
dare because I would I would watch you know, I
would watch some stuff while on acid, and obviously that
changes your whole perspective. First time I watch Firewalk with Me,
I binge the entire Twin Peaks series on VHS, popped
in fire Walk with Me, took acid and I thought
ray Wise Leland Palmer was my dad. Oh, I can realize.
I was like, oh my god, like you know with
(26:06):
Mike Yonitch your father, I'm like, oh my god, I'm
looking at the spinning fan. I mean it was it
was again. It's like it's something that you walk away from.
You're like, okay, I don't need to do that for
a while, you know, And to go back to Bloody Parrot.
It's like as soon as you ended, you're like, okay,
I don't I'm good for a while. I don't need
to watch this movie again. Like I think, I think
(26:28):
one time's enough. But I have returned to it.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
So I wonder if, like what you're saying is if
somebody did try this and then came out on the
other end, like Homer Simpson after he took the kran
out of his brain, and it's just like yeah, and
he just like clearly explains everything like a fucking genius,
Like this is bloody parrot. Why is this so hard
for you guys to understand it?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Exactly? Like whoever whoever goes through this experience should run
for president like that they're qualified to run the country.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
All right, please please, You know, we're not encouraging drug
use by any means unless it's you know, legal and
all that, all that stuff where you are uh.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
A lot the dance, but if you've done it or
if you play yeah, well you know you'll remain anonymous
for sure.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
So some of my favorite I guess we'd just talk
about some of my favorite scenes so well. The autopsy
scenes are are fun to me. You have the old
man who told the guy about the bloody parrot. It
seems to have been poisons, but they cut him open
after the gecko drops on him and they find a
piece of anti poison jewelry That made sense to no
(27:39):
one even if you've seen the film five times. Sorry,
but there's also another autopsy scene later that's in a
restaurant of an inn, and the owner is really upset
like that there's autopsies just like taking place in his restaurant.
He's like, hey, you can't open these dead bodies in
my restaurant, and they just kill him. Yeah, And I'm like,
why why this scene? Who are these dead people? What
(27:59):
is happening? I don't understand is the vampire?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
I think, is what are you talking about it? If
he's crazy?
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Before we started this episode, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, no, but I do respect how those type of
why is this happening moments are quickly moving the story along. Yeah,
Like they make no sense. It almost feels lazy. And
if you take a step back and you know, you
you don't have a moment to just think of what's happening,
so you can't think like this is too silly or
this is too lazy, like a little kid's just making
(28:33):
up stuff on the fly. Yeah, but like when a
ting thing is at the end and having a drink,
you know, for his friend in the coffin, Yes, and
he's attacked by some guys and then the bloody parrot
light the red light kind of pops up the red light.
The parrot. The bloody parrot kills all the people that
are attacking what's his name, I don't know, guy, the
(28:56):
main guy, and you know, they see the red pair,
red light. They all die. It kills the real parrot
that like the bartender.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah, I know, and it was like devil something.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yeah, and the main guy's like where did you get
this parrot? Like? Who else that? And he's like, Oh,
I got it from somebody from a whorehouse, you know.
And okay, well let's go to the let's go to
the brothel. Let's go to the parrot Like it just
moves it, Yeah, the parrot brothel. And it's just like
why does that? Who would say like if that happened,
(29:28):
who would be like, oh, where'd you get that parrot? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Where'd you get your dead parrot?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah? And then that's the next part they go and
then he shows up and then he's like, I'm gonna
paint over this wall.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
It's just like what is happening with all this stuff?
It moves the story along, but it doesn't make a
whole lot of sense. Yeah, but he has to paint
over the wall to meet Roundworm, which is a great
character who who has a significant part. He's he's actually
the Scooby Doo guy that rips his face off. Yeah.
It's and then like an hour and you get the killer,
(30:00):
old lady hung you pop up and it's like there's
so much like what the fuck is happening?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
I was so, I was like, okay, I thought that
the old lady witch who lives next door to the
sex worker was her milkmaid or whatever she was called,
the nurse wet nurse. Okay, I thought I heard milkmaid
at some point, and I was like, ill, gross cow juice,
but well, I guess you know, woman juice in this
(30:28):
point even worse.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Anyway, I was like, okay, we have the old is
the old lady the same as a young lady who
just showed up with the thing and like the leather
face fucking embroidery mask thing that she's working on.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
No, they're two separate women for no fucking reason whatsoever.
What is the witch doing there living next door to
the sex worker? I can't.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Yeah, there's a lot. I do love her stinky though,
like she's just like walking around like she does not
like anybody.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, so I don't want to downplay at Johnny's performance
in the Subway in Possession, right, but when Zuou yes
the blood rock and puts the night pearl in her vagina,
she is fucking going for it.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yes, that's that's that's definitely one of my favorite scenes.
And it feels like, you know, she's it has like
blue lighting, a lot of close ups. Wachean does concentrate
I remember in Portrait and Crystal on close ups and
zoom in's, especially during dialogue scenes, which really just keeps
the whole movie dynamic. Yeah, you know, there's a lot
going on in here, and even as scenes are just
(31:41):
people talking, it's like slow down. But in that scene particularly,
she is just puking. It's possessed, and it feels very
sam Raimi Evildad. Yes, this has to be a direct
inspiration because later on one of the like a guard
touches a dead body and then the hand starts kind
of because I mean possessed, yes, and he cuts it off. Yes,
(32:02):
it's very ash evil Dead too, which obviously would be
a you know, a great double feature either Evil deads
because it does have a lot of that same type
of vibes.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Absolutely, But that possession scene is one of my favorites obviously,
and she stuffs the night Pearl inside her as well
after eating the rock. Yeah, yeah, like all.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Right, you know what I appreciate too. In this movie,
and this is something that you don't see a lot
of in Shaw Brothers movies.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Bush there is a lot of nudity.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
And not just you know, not just like topless, but
like bush like full like especially in the mirror scene
at the end where there's like seven of her and
I was like, Wow, they are not shy about the
bush in this movie.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
I love that scene where at the end where they're
in that little cavern with all the snakes. That felt
very Indiana Jones, with all the booby traps. Yeah, the
maze mirror and I totally respect I think more, I
think everybody should do this if you're lost and you're
trying to get out of an area, strip naked like Zunu. Yep,
she obviously she was covering the mirrors to find her
way out and know if she's been there before. But yeah,
(33:05):
I love how Bloody Perry kind of opens and ends
with her just naked. Yeah, And you don't get that
in Shaw Brothers a lot. If you do see a
naked body, like in Corpse Mania, it's just it's a
dead body laying there. Yeah, but Zoo, she loves being
naked and I respect it.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Yeah, absolutely So there's a couple of scenes where like
corpses get dissolved. I don't even know who the first
one was. I feel like the subtitles were telling me
that it was the town mayor.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
That was doing the dissolving of the course. Yeah, that's
what he said.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Okay, He's like, I'm the mayor and I'm dissolving this corpse.
Why what are you? Just are you here because you
want your town to be clean, and you're clean.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
He's mentioned later on too, like he's working with the
main guy in Red.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yeah. Who.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
He's a very attractive man.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
That guy.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
He's like a scene stiller. But you know, I guess
he ends up dying, Like I don't. I don't he
system pop up. He's not the guy. I don't know
where he went. I don't know what happened to him.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
I don't know. I do like the corpses dissolving though.
I always love that effect.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Yeah, I have that.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
It's another evil dead connection there too.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Absolutely. Yeah, there's a lot. It has to be a
direct inspiration. There's a lot of sword fights in here
that are really great, awesome choreography. Hung you the girl
who's doing like the skin embroidery, she slices or punches
a guy and his eyeballs are hanging out of his face.
I mean, there's a lot of horror elements in this,
(34:34):
and it's mainly you know, all the maggots and stuff,
and all the autopsy scenes are my favorite too. There's
multiple autopsy scenes with all the cutting open stomachs and
all the fucking gross guts and whatever the AT's popping out.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, I do have.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
I had a note here too. That was one of
my favorite scenes is when the main guy is in
the bottom at the end in the cave and there's
like a little a bunch of snakes and a cobra
up yeah. Yeah, well it squeaks like a rat. I
think they use the same sound effect for the parrot,
but it and then a fake back attacks, yes, and
(35:12):
that fake I know you love your fake I love
the fake bats. Again. That scene just reminded me kind
of like an Indiana Jones, which I was. You can
never go wrong when watching especially a Shaw Brothers who
from the eighties, because they have the best set designs
and obviously they reuse them. Yeah, but yeah, the lighting,
it's it's just eye can't It's a visual experience. Because,
(35:34):
like we said, you're not going to make sense of
this story, right.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Yeah, the fake that I love. There's a scene in
my double feature pick that has a swarm of fake
bats and then at a certain point they have actually
real bats that look like they might really be getting hurt.
And so I got really upset, I.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Know, speaking of really getting hurt. That one scene of
that cat being choked. God, I know, and I don't
you know, it shows the cat dead afterwards, it's clearly
not dead. It's breathing. Yeah, it just has a little
drop of fake blood on it, but she's really choking
the cat. Yeah, which maybe the cat liked.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
No, animals don't like that. You know. People, you do
your thing with your kinks, but you keep that away
from fucking animals. I'll say that right now.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Yeah, it was. It was a very sweet heead.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah. So one thing about the under the cavern scenes,
like the mirror trap underground cave, I forgot to go
back this morning and actually time it. But I feel
like there's a really long extended period with no dialogue
save from like a few grunts and screams and stuff
(36:39):
like that when they the two of them get separated,
when main guy and Zunu get separated. Yeah, I feel
like no dialogue. They're both just like searching around. Maybe
a few grunts she might scream, but like no spoken words.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah. I did recall that I did a rewatch last night,
and it is very I think that time period was
when I was really watching the camera angles and the
dynamic because it was still moving at an incredible pace. Yeah,
and there's no dialogue in that those few minutes.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Which oddly makes it feel like it's still like you're right,
it is still moving very fast based on the camera
movements and the events that are happening, But it feels
like it's moving slower because there's no dialogue. And I
think it's because you don't have that one added element
to be paying attention to. You just have this to
(37:31):
focus on now, and so it feels slower, but it's not.
It's still moving at fucking breakneck speed.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Right. And the original score too. I think it was
Eddie Wang, who also did Corpse Mania, Bewitched, Bewitched both
we did an episode on and I remember when we
were talking about Bewitched in some of his music made
me feel like I was watching like an Italian zombie film,
like a Fulcy film or something. And his music in
(37:58):
this as well, is is what kind of helps make
like the fantasy elements or kind of the goofy Scooby
Do Scooby Do elements become horror. And I felt that
during you know, the slower they're not slower, but yeah,
the less dialogue scenes or just any scene that that
doesn't have a horror element. He kind of reminds you
like boom Stick with this baggots and grossness. Yeah, but yeah, no, Yeah,
(38:22):
I love what wash On does in all his movies
because it is it's exhausting, but it's worth it.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah, absolutely, So It's one of those movies that I
would never recommend it to someone who's just getting into
Shaw Brothers because I don't want them to think like
this represents that that studio or that genre or anything
like that. I wouldn't even recommend it to someone who's
just starting with Shaw Brothers horror films either, like this
(38:49):
is you know, this is like intermediate level.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I think, Yeah, I mean, like, you know, Boxer's Omen's
one of my favorites, but I don't even know if
I would say start with that like it that one
is so crazy as well, but visually it's it's the
best thing on the planet.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Yeah, I feel like you never start with like the
best one, like you know, you got to build up
to that. So I would still I would say, like
start out like horror wise, you know, with like the
Bewitched and the Hexes, and I don't know if I recommend,
you know, Corpsemania, depending on how you feel about neck
everyone should be problem.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Black Magic was a good black magic.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Black Magic two those are like those two actually would
be where I would tell people to start with Shaw
Brothers horror and then go from there. And then when
they maybe start being like yeah, okay, be like okay
Boxer's omen.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Right, Yeah, okay, good luck with this. Try try try
Bloody Parrot.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
But yeah, once you're in what's you're in the Shaw
Brothers horror movies, Like I want to watch all the
movies like this. You know, it's it's fun, like I said,
but it's still it exhausting, it is.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
And you need you need a break for a while
from it. And so you just go and you watch
one of the sort of standard not standard, but you know,
one of their well martial arts films rather than get
away from like sort of the fantasy element. It's like,
just give me a good old fashioned master got killed
student out for revenge, or two dueling schools of kung fu, Like,
(40:10):
just give me that for a few more Shaw Brothers
films after this, because it is exhausting to try to
keep up with this film, to try to explain it
to other people. I don't know why I picked this
one episode because it's hard to talk about.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
I mean, it's you know, like we I'm not saying
that the Shaw Brothers horror pickens are getting slim, but
they are. And I think was it last year we
chose not even a Shaw Brothers It was kind of
a yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
It was a Cheng che film, so I was like, well,
he's well known as the Shaw Brothers, so yeah, Nine
Demons wasn't even a Shaw Brothers movie. Like that's me,
you know, usually it's cheating. So but like there's plenty
that have the horror movie tag on them. The problem
is that with Shaw Brothers films, the martial arts ones
are prioritized as far as like restoration and exactly, and
(41:05):
then it's a matter of like do the elements even
still exist because goddamn fucking Mona Fong went around destroying
a bunch of prints all over the place after you know,
they decided they were shutting down. So you know, yes,
this the pickings are getting slim, and so maybe like
future Shaugust will just be like you know what, june'sploitation.
(41:26):
We just we don't necessarily watch horror movies, so like
I don't. I'm fine with us like venturing outside of that.
You know, yeah, yeah, whatever happens happens, but like who knows,
maybe like a bunch of their horror, lesser known horror
movies will get released.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
And it should, it should happen. It's like I've always
thought of Kung Fu Zombie as being what it's washed on,
but I think it's like about fifty views away from
a thousand, so people just wait, just just wait to
watch it.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, nobody will nobody watch it, But you know.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
I'm glad you picked a bloody parrot. I think I was.
I think it was between this and Portrait and Crystal
one time for me and I was like I watched
Bloody pairt. I'm like, oh, well fuck that. Well we'll
get back to you. Yeah, but Portrait and Crystal. Again,
it's just it's I mean, they're very they're very both
test to decipher. But I'm glad you picked it.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
I mean, it's still one that I recommend, but again
it's not one that I recommend for someone new to
Shaw Brothers Horse And honestly, the first time I watched it,
I gave it four stars, and this watch I bumped
it down because, like, it is so hard to decipher
and follow that it can be frustrating even if you
do let go and just say, you know what, I'm
(42:38):
not going to try to follow it. There's something to
be said for adding a little bit of order to
your chaos, just a little bit, just a little bit,
so that you know, we can we can follow along
a little better.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Yeah. I agree. First time I watched it a couple
of years ago, I didn't even rate it. I was
I was stunned. I was in a daze. I did
get it three and a half though on yesterday's rewatch,
So I agree with that rating.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
All right, r Insanc. What about a double feature pick lance?
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Okay, so I did. I already mentioned I think The
Evil Dead one and two, for obvious reasons, would be great.
I also thought of Bob Clark's Dead of Night or
Death Dream from nineteen seventy four about the parents dead
son coming back from Vietnam. You know, but I just
decided to go with something that makes it doesn't make sense.
(43:30):
I'm picking The Prey from nineteen eighty three. Oh okay,
and this is something that you can fall asleep too.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
I did completely shut your brain off, allow you to
focus on your breathing, get you back to slow pace
real life. Because when I finished watching Bloody Perry, I
didn't want to watch anything afterwards. Honestly, I just wanted
to like take a ticke a nap, like I needed
to clear my head. So I would pop on The Prey.
And you know, it's an eighty minute runtime. Most of
(43:59):
it is beautiful nature scenery, close ups of animals and insects,
just to pad the short eighty minute runtime. Yeah, there's
a slasher a week slasher plot in there somewhere, but
watch Bloody Parrot and if you're forced to watch a movie,
put on something like The Prey, so you could probably
(44:20):
fall asleep, collect your thoughts, get your bearings. I know
you're in a daze. Yeah, So yeah, The Prey directed
by Edwin Brown. Yeah, it's guaranteed to kind of reset
you just shut you down. It's not good. I think
a lot of people like it, which I'm very happy for.
But for me, it's something that, Yeah, I just wanted
to doze off and think about nothing.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
That movie does absolutely do that. Yeah, that's so I
feel like that. Yeah, it's like if you're if you're
on a bad trip, if there is some sort of
anecdote that you can take to level set yourself to
come back to normal, then the prey would be that drug.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Yeah. I didn't want to pick something like, you know,
Pink Floyd Live at POMPEII or something like that. I
wanted it to stay horror adjacent. But yeah, what about you.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
So I talked about it quite a bit already without
naming it, and I am not allowing people to escape
their trip. We are continuing it with The Magic Crane
from nineteen ninety three. This is a wusha produced by
Choi Hark starring Tony Lyng. I will not even try
(45:28):
to explain the plot of this one other than there
are a lot of different schools of kung fu that
come to meet in one place, and then there are
multiple side plots related to this, including a daughter's revenge
in a giant turtle's gallbladder. I know, I saw this
(45:48):
on thirty five last week for Weird Wednesday. You know,
Laird said in his intro, who likes when things happen
in a movie? And of course, you know we all clap,
We're like, I like that, and he said, good, because
lots of things happen in this movie.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
And that's what this is.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
It's just like Bloody Parrot. It's a series of like
things happening to move you to the next plot point
or event that's happening. But it's so extremely fast paced
that you don't even have time to stop and think
about what's happening. I honestly think this one might even
move faster than Bloody Parrot, and faster than Portrait and
(46:25):
Crystal like that. Like that's the insanity that this one is.
And it has a giant crane in this bird, not
like the forklift thing machine that helps the princess. So
you've got this is a bird is the word double feature.
(46:46):
They also both have fake bats. Like I mentioned, There
is a copy on YouTube with English subs, but I
think it was seven minutes shorter. Than another version that
I found on YouTube that didn't have subs. You can
try that if you want, or maybe wait and hope
that this print in particular, Laird said it was from
someone's private collection, but it was played at the Hong
(47:06):
Kong Methon a few years ago in New York. Maybe
it'll make its way to your city. But if you
have a chance to see it, I definitely recommend checking
it out. I don't recommend taking drugs before seeing it, though.
You don't need them to watch this film. So that's
Magic Crane nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
But if you decide to record back, yes, all right, movie,
next movie, lamb okay. So my showguest pick is one
that is very light on the horror, which has lately
been the trend for Shaw Brothers. But I'm comfortable saying
that some of our listeners might find it a little slow,
especially after watching if you watch Bloody Parrot, and I
(47:44):
understand why people think it's slow paced. It's The Enchanting
Ghost from nineteen seventy. It's a slow paced melodrama slash
fantasy horror that concentrates on a young scholar who finds
himself evicted from his home and he decided to move
into a remote, abandoned house where he meets a mysterious
woman and they.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Fall in love.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
And it's a history of that house where the horror
element comes into play and the tenants who used to
live there. But what makes us film interesting and it's
something that we see in a lot of other Shaw
Brothers horrors and Hong Kong movies, is the male protagonist
character is played by a woman actor, adding kind of
perhaps an unintentional queer twist to the haunted love story.
(48:28):
It only has two hundred and eighty four views on
Letterbox and it's probably one that would sit on the
bottom of a Shaw Brothers watch list, So this is
kind of the main reason I want to pick it.
It's early, you know, it's nineteen seventy. I just want
to shed some light on it. As mentioned, it's a
drastic step down in energy, action, special effects or anything.
(48:50):
Huah On is directed like Bloody Prayrot or Portrait The
Enchanting Ghosts, It's directed by Cho Hu Chang. Play a
love story at its core, I find it very relaxing.
I think it's a good way to break up and
always fun, action filled Shaugusta, and so since this is
a love story, I have to bring someone who I
(49:11):
love so and it wouldn't be Shaugust without him. And
of course I'm talking about Ian Jane from Rock Shock
Pop and The Queen's Party comic podcast. Of course he's
on a boatload of commentaries for Shaw Brothers, releases from
Shop Factory and eighty eight Films. We always have a
ton of fun chatting with him. So something I love
(49:33):
to do, something I'm looking forward to. So, yeah, The
Enchanting Ghost. Will add the YouTube link where you can
watch it broken up into ten segment playlist, but you
can play it straight through. It's an okay quality with
decent subtitles. The subtitles are a little faded and digitized,
sometimes hard to read, but it's good enough to watch.
Eighty eight Films did release a Blu ray and DVD
(49:53):
version that you can find out there. I think for
resell if anybody has region free players, because it is
re philm So, yeah, The Enchanting Ghost nineteen seventy.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
I am looking forward to slowing it down. Yeah all right,
if you're not already, you can follow this podcast on Instagram, Twitter,
and Facebook. All at Unsung Horrors. You can follow me
on letterbox, Instagram, and Twitter at Hex Massacre.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
You can follow me on Instagram and letterboxed at El Shiby.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Thanks everyone for listening. We'll see you back for our
next sh August episode with Ian Jane. Bye bye you,
It's okay.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
I'll be cool.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
I guess.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Bye bye bus.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
You say.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
The true I did not dreams again.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
Un game no way did means but chall explain. I
think it's.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Say to you.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
With our film, I can't say you know, I can explain.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
I can explain unto where long time at.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
Our regard spread
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.