THE PEACOCK KING has a great cast which includes Yuen Biao, Gloria Yip and Gordon Lui. The script is penned by Izo Hashimoto who co-wrote AKIRA and it’s directed by Ngai Kam Lam who also directed STORY OF RICKY. Unfortunately, THE PEACOCK KING won’t be at the top of any of their CV’s. It’s not a terrible film by any means, but it IS one of those ‘so bad it’s good’ type films.

Yuen Biao takes on the title character of Peacock - a role that he obviously seems to enjoy and have fun with throughout. Although he’s underused in the film that could have utilised his physical skills more, Biao’s is a tongue-in-cheek part and it works well with the rest of the fantasy elements of the film. If only because when they’re terrible it’s easy to laugh. The film uses a mixture of comedy, fantasy, action and horror and feels much more in the style of a Japanese Manga (which was, after all, its source material) rather than your typical Hong Kong action fantasy. It’s unsurprising then that THE PEACOCK KING is a co-production between Hong Kong and Japan, with the main stars of the film Yuen Biao and Gloria Yip hailing from Hong Kong but the films-financiers and many of the supporting cast being Japanese. This actually makes for quite a strange mix as the plot (which at times becomes almost nonsensical in it’s ‘mysticism’ – just go with it), is mixed with your typical eighties Hong Kong cinema moments of ‘visiting a fairground in a musical montage style’ as well as that other familiar eighties Hong Kong cinematic scene: Yuen Biao dancing in a disco. Although on paper it seems that Hiroshi Mikami as the monk Lucky Fruit should take equally billing with Biao, Mikami takes on a much lesser role as Yuen Biao steals all of the funny lines and most of the special-effects laden action. Sadly almost all of the characters are devoid of characterisation – or almost any character at all, for example Gloria Yip appears here in her screen debut - a role which is central to the plot but doesn’t really require her to do much other than show us some pretty scary eyes. THE PEACOCK KING is obviously not the sort of film that is trying to win awards for its acting and script-writing - it’s just a big, silly romp.

In its relatively short running time of only eighty-one minutes, THE PEACOCK KING manages to cram in several action scenes which are a lot of fun to watch. While the special effects are hardly ground-breaking (there’s a whole collection of low-budget special effects techniques involving a lot of stop-motion and the use of puppets) they really work to the films advantage as they have a certain ludicrous charm. A couple of highlights include a dinosaur in a Japanese museum coming to life and Raga’s transformation into a four-legged beast. Although both the monks talk constantly about their martial arts skills, neither gets to display any real talent. There is one martial-arts fight scene quite late in the film between Yuen Biao and Gordon Lui ‘and posse’ (Lui doesn’t have much screen time and even less to do other than sneer and arrive for this fight), and it’s the sort of scene that both of these actors could perform in their sleep. Still, it’s a nice addition in a very mixed-up film.

For fans of fantasy, of Yuen Biao, or dodgy ‘lets-stop-the-Gates-Of Hell-being-opened’ films, THE PEACOCK KING may be a bit of a guilty pleasure. There’s something immediately likeable about the production, if not entirely memorable. It’s not the sort of film that’s supposed to be taken seriously and is far from the worst film that Yuen Biao has made (sadly). At the end of the day it’s a big pantomime and although it won’t scare you it will probably make you laugh a few times - both intentionally and unintentionally.