Peacock King

If you watch this movie to get some kung fu action out of Yuen Biao, you'll be pretty disappointed. Except for a couple of evasive flips and spins here and there, the is only one fight sequence in this movie, and it comes about an hour into it. This is a supernatural tale, neither funny nor scary, but with lots of pretty bad special effects.

The story is unclear and messy; yet another example of the fact that Hong Kong commercial cinema has never discovered the importance of a clear plot. Action, helpless women and funny effects seem to be all they think the audience wants.

Also, an already weak story is completely destroyed by the horrid English subtitles. Why can't they get someone who actually knows the language to at least rephrase the subtitles into something that makes sense? My theory is that the English subtitles are not for Western audiences at all, but for those Asians who happen not to speak Mandarin or Cantonese or any of the other five Asian languages this DVD was subtitled in.

Anyway, a main reason to watch this movie is Gloria Yip, perhaps the cutest Asian actress of all time. But she hardly has any lines here, nor much of anything to do - you should catch her in Flying Dagger (1993) instead, or Saviour of the Soul (1992).

All in all, this movie really hasn't got a lot going for it. Amazingly, it spawned a sequel, Saga of the Phoenix, where the entire cast returned. I haven't seen it yet, and, truthfully, I may not bother, because it looks like it's more of exactly the same.

Peacock King is yet another movie in which Yuen Biao is pretty much wasted. Why has he done so many bad movies? Was it just bad luck that none of them were hits, or does he actually like this kind of thing?

My rating: 3 out of 10.

This is a rather fun little action fantasy film from Hong Kong and Japan, about two monk brothers, Kôngquè (Biao Yuen) and Kujaku (Hiroshi Mikami), separated at birth and later reunited to fight the King of Hell.

The pacing is not really fast, but there are some engaging and entertaining scenes where Kongque and Kujaku try to blend in the modern days in Hong Kong and fight off the evil witch Raga (Siu-Fung Wong) and save their friend, Ashura (Gloria Yip). Ashura is unwittingly the apprentice of Raga and is the daughter of the King of Hell.

There are plenty of mythical elements and magical action, though the special effects were pretty average to me. A nice good vs. evil story line nonetheless, and some decent martial arts action.

Grade B-

Despite reasonably pitiful special effects, this was still quite an entertaining martial arts movie. Quite a good amount of fighting, acceptable acting and an unremarkable plot, this was an acceptable way to pass the time.

If you like Yuen Biao or Hong Kong martial arts movies, you will probably get enough entertainment out of this without being blown away. The first time I saw this I think I must have been pretty tired as I fell asleep. The second time it seemsd a lot better...!!

I think it deserves a 6 out of 10 which is pretty good going.

This was one movie where acting of Hong Kong actors and Japanese actors interaction went extremely smooth. Usually in HK movie made in Japan have HK actor doing lion share of the dialog, and Japanese actors are relegated to small roles where they speak only few simple Japanese words. Not this movie. It's amazing that the actors just went playing their role as if it was done in their native language, and somehow it all looked natural.

When you look at this movie its really difficult to tell who's the Japanese actor and who's from Hong Kong. Genetically, all Asians must be pretty close to one another.

In Cantonese version Yuen Bao is the main character, but in the Japanese version Hiroshi Mikami is the main character. They wrote the script very cleverly that the two characters are interchangeable.

Based on a comic by Makoto Ogino, Peacock King, or Kujyaku Oo is a good translation of the original comic into a movie. The original comic's ordinary person, or situation suddenly morphing into a demonic entity is also translated well into this movie.

I liked Narumi Yasuda's acting as a department worker suddenly finding herself embroiled in the world of Vajirayana Buddhism vs demons of the underworld.

World looked really peaceful and healthy in Japan around the time this movie was made. It truly was the best of times.

Really well made movie of its kind. It's a treat to watch.

I sat down here in 2021 to watch the 1988 movie "The Peacock King" (aka "Hung cheuk wong ji") without ever having heard about the movie, much less knowing about its existence. But a chance presented itself for me to watch it, so of course I took the opportunity, especially with this being a Hong Kong movie.

Plus, the movie also had Biao Yuen on the cast list, so I thought that I would at least be sitting down to watch something adequately entertaining.

Turns out that "The Peacock King" wasn't particularly entertaining. Sure, it was watchable, but it was hardly an alluring movie, nor was it a particularly enjoyable movie.

The movie faltered with a less than mediocre storyline and having characters that were particularly bland - if not downright pointless at times. So it was hard to submerge myself fully into the story and enjoy it.

It should be said that the pacing of the movie was fair enough, but the storyline just didn't really bring enough contents to the table to make it full-out appealing and interesting.

If enjoy Hong Kong movie, then "The Peacock King" is not the best that the Hong Kong cinema has to offer. And taking the movie's age into consideration, then there are far more enjoyable movies from the late 1980s available.

My rating of "The Peacock King" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars.