AVENGERS ASSEMBLE, SEASON FIVE ( 2018-19)

  

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological, sociological*

I've made no secret on this blog of my low opinion of the two live-action BLACK PANTHER movies from the MCU. The MCU's ultraliberal agenda was a major betrayal of both the seminal Marvel comics character and two high-quality comics-runs that established the character's sophisticated (for a superhero) appeal. I certainly never thought that around the same time as the first BLACK PANTHER movie, a cartoon teleseries in its last season could outdo the showier live-action effort.

When AVENGERS ASSEMBLE debuted in 2013, it replaced a previous AVENGERS series I'd been enjoying, the 2010-2012 AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES. By comparison I found the first two seasons of ASSEMBLE superficial and repetitive. However, as I've noted in my reviews of Season Three and Four, there was some improvement once the previous showrunners, the triumvirate called "Man of Action," departed. But both the short tales and long arcs of those seasons were just fair at best. Strangely, the last season of ASSEMBLE does a much better job than the "mainstream" MCU at translating the best aspects of the Black Panther mythology into a new format. I'm sure the decision to de-emphasize the other Avengers during Season Five in favor of the Panther was made for business reasons: Disney wanted publicity for the 2018 PANTHER movie, so the ASSEMBLE teleseries was drafted for that purpose. But the movies bastardized the two great comics-runs of the Wakandan king-- the 1970s Don McGregor run, which first built up the internal world of Wakanda, and the 1990s Priest run, which showed the Panther taking Wakanda politics onto the international stage. The final ASSEMBLE season gives King T'Challa his best treatment outside comics, so much so that, unlike my reviews of the other seasons, I'll show my appreciation by breaking down each of the 23 episodes.

SHADOW OF ATLANTIS-- This two-parter is more focused than later episodes on showing T'Challa's activities with the New York-based Avengers. Nevertheless, the writers elaborated an aspect of the comics-Panther that later appeared in the 2022 live-action film: conflicts between Wakanda and the subsea kingdom of Atlantis. The original King of Atlantis, Namor the Sub-Mariner, never appears in the TV show, but earlier seasons substituted Namor's sparring-partner Attuma in his place, and here another Sub-Mariner villain, Tiger Shark, gives T'Challa a Namor-like opponent. An Atlantean contingent under Tiger Shark's command attacks New York, but the heroes learn that this is a rogue mission, serving not Attuma's Atlantis, but a mysterious conspiracy, the Shadow Council. The Panther is blamed by the US government for fomenting diplomatic tensions with the subsea kingdom, and so King T'Challa resigns from the Avengers. Captain America, who has a spiritual bond with the Wakandan king, promises to lend him aid whenever possible, but T'Challa not infrequently butts heads with Iron Man, which was a major feature of the Priest run. The Panther had appeared in earlier seasons, but in Season Five, the writers get a better lock on his character: an unflinchingly moral aristocrat whose occasional stubbornness is pointed out by his annoying kid-sister Shuri (who plays a similar role in the 2018 movie).

INTO THE DEEP-- Attuma takes Tiger Shark into Atlantean custody, but Panther needs to interview the villain despite Attuma's opposition. With Shuri's help, T'Challa infiltrates Atlantis, and learns from Tiger Shark that the organization he works for is a new iteration of a villain-group that included the original WWII Baron Zemo, a group defeated by Captain America and T'Challa's grandfather. The episode also introduced the McGregor "Big Bad" Killmonger, though here he's just a Wakandan diplomat secretly allied with the Council.

THE PANTHER AND THE WOLF-- Panther and Shuri return to Wakanda, looking for more intel on a relic, the Key of Wakanda, being sought by the Council. They encounter the Dora Milaje, the king's warrior maidens, and The White Wolf, a Caucasian adopted by the father of T'Challa and Shuri and thus raised beside them as a de facto brother. White Wolf is the opposite of the Panther, being more of a scofflaw, though he has the intelligence they want on the Council. But another Council pawn, the super-strong M'Baku, interferes. (In the comics, he dresses up like a gorilla, but this imagery is elided in the cartoon.)

THE ZEMO SANCTION-- Hoping to learn more about the Council's plans, Panther seeks out the modern-day Baron Zemo, son of Captain America's WWII enemy. To I'Challa's surprise, Zemo II renounces his father's ways, and the two men find some common ground re: domineering fathers. But the Council frees Tiger Shark and sends him to wipe out all intel on the Key of Wakanda. This version of Zemo owes more to the Marvel Comics version than the one that appeared in the MCU.

MISTS OF ATTILAN-- Panther learns that one piece of the Key was given, by T'Challa's father, to the Inhumans in their floating city. He invites former fellow Avenger Ms. Marvel to go along with him when he petitions to Black Bolt and Medusa for the artifact's return. The bubbly teen hero finds out that the reason the king invited her is that she's part Inhuman, and that helps T'Challa in his attempt to burgle the object when he's refused custody. However, once again the Council sends a pawn to steal the Panther's prize. This time it's Princess Zanda, a 1970s Jack Kirby character now endowed with shape-changing powers. After Zanda is driven away, the Inhumans agree that their security is unable to protect the artifact, and the Panther gets his treasure.

T'CHALLA ROYALE-- Zemo II becomes a Wakandan house guest as he seeks to decipher the files of his father for intel, but the Council hacks Wakanda's computers. For good measure they send another assassin, Kraven the Hunter, apparently a take on the comics character courtesy of a contemporary SPIDER-MAN cartoon.

THE NIGHT HAS WINGS-- This minor story feels indebted to dozens of old jungle-tales about Europeans manipulating the superstitions of African natives. Here tribespeople are being attacked by what some believe to be traditional boogeymen, but the monsters are giant bats created by Ulysses Klaw. After Panther defeats the villain, the hero leaves Klaw to die at the claws of his bats. However, Klaw survives and appears again, serving Killmonger and the Council.

MASK OF THE PANTHER-- Captain America escorts the Panther to a SHIELD installation to investigate a derelict ship from which, as I recall, the heroes cull the last piece of the Key. Along for the ride are the Avenger Hawkeye, and the former criminal scientist Whitney Frost, now working for the good guys. However, when the quarter investigate the derelict, automated defenses threaten them. Frost tries to control the ship by interfacing with it through a masklike apparatus. The interface drives her nuts, so that she starts calling herself Madame Masque (as in the comics) and makes common cause with Killmonger.

THE GOOD SON-- When Captain America visits Shuri and the Panther in Wakanda, he's attacked by the White Wolf, who believes all outsiders are threats to Wakanda security. The captain is somewhat torqued to learn that Panther is sheltering Zemo II, so almost no one in this episode trusts anyone else. Panther and Wolf end up having a big battle that works out many of their old grievances.

THE LOST TEMPLE-- Panther, Shuri, Captain America and Zemo II learn that the purpose of the Key is to allow access to a hidden temple, which in turn grants one access to a unique artifact, the Crown. Once they enter the temple, it proves to be a disguised spaceship that transports them to the moon's far side, where they find the Crown-- but also four Council villains: Killmonger, Tiger Shark, Klaw, and Madame Masque. The battle of heroes and villains is interrupted when their ship is about the crash-land in New York, and only Masque's interface-talents can save them.

DESCENT OF THE SHADOW-- Though Masque and Klaw are neutralized, the Crown goes missing, so now the heroes must fight Tiger Shark, Killmonger, and Zanda for the prize. Thanks to the crashed ship, Thor and Iron Man make the scene and add to the chaos. Zemo II is first to access the Crown, only to find that the power it bestows has a deleterious effect on the mind. During the battle with Zemo, Captain America appears to be destroyed.   

THE LAST AVENGER-- Black Widow tells her fellows that the Panther caused the Captain's death, but T'Challa can't take time with explanations. He and Shuri have to get the dangerous Crown back to the land of Wakanda, where the presence of ample vibranium will neutralize its ill effects. To do this, T'Challa must fight his way through his old friends, and though he reaches his goal, the battles, for once, aren't just shrugged off. T'Challa resents the Avengers' opposition as much as they resent his, and he closes Wakanda off from contact with the rest of the world.

THE VIBRANIUM CURTAIN-- In this two-parter-- whose title references the "Iron Curtain"-- the whole world believes the accusations against Panther, and all countries, even Atlantis, resolve to arrest him if he appears outside his borders. But T'Challa needs more intel from the captive Klaw, so he sneaks into the US. After Panther's taken down Iron Man and Thor, it's satisfying to see him given a hard time by Ant-Man. He again defeats Iron Man, but the hero unleashes the Winter Soldier on him (though they lack the connection seen in the MCU). Panther's defeated and imprisoned, but this is the way he manages to meet and interrogate Klaw. The villain reveals that Killmonger seeks something called "The Heart of Wakanda," and can help Panther find it in exchange for Klaw's freedom. Both Spider-Man and his enemy the Vulture guest-star, but not to very good effect.

T'CHANDA-- Panther and Shuri take Klaw to an ancient crypt, where Klaw says that Killmonger planned to use the Crown to cull secrets from one of the Wakandan ancestors. A mind-contact lets T'Challa re-experience the events when his grandfather allied himself to Captain America and Peggy Carter to prevent an early version of the Council, who have sent Hydra troops into Wakanda. Both the first Zemo and Arnim Zola make appearances.

YEMANDI-- Not having enough info from the first gleaning, T'Challa taps into the memories of another late ancestor, the warrior queen Yemandi. She has an arena-fight with a young version of the Mighty Thor, and then the two of them team up to look for Thor's hammer. This is the weakest episode of the season, which doesn't substantially affect the main plot, and an appearance by Marvel's version of Morgan Le Fay doesn't improve things.  

BASHENGA-- The third and last "adventure with the ancestors" has the Panther experience contact with Wakanda's first king Bashenga. Panther sees Bashenga and his twin sister Bask when the two are both warriors of the Panther Cult, battling the incursions of Atlantean raiders. They find the meteoric mineral from which the Crown was made, and Bask's exposure to its power pushes her into insanity. After concluding this mental traveling, Panther makes two more discoveries: Bask has been cryogenically preserved in the crypt, and Captain America is still alive.

KING BREAKER, Parts 1-2- No big surprise: the Black Widow who accused T'Challa of murdering Cap is actually the shape-changer Zanda. Panther, allied with White Wolf, infiltrates Atlantis to prevent Zanda from fomenting war between the marine city and the surface world. Zanda is buried by falling debris, but when Panther and Wolf seek to succor Attuma, he picks a fight with them. The Atlantean king finally gets over his Namor fit of pique, but Killmonger frees himself from confinement. Not long after T'Challa, Iron Man and Hawkeye save Attuma, he's killed but his rational daughter takes power, preventing the Council's attempt to generate world war. Killmonger faces off against Wolf and Panther. Defeated, the heroes need to escape with the villain to find out Black Widow's location, and this pisses off Attuma's daughter moments after she pledged her indebtedness. One of Sub-Mariner's old enemies, Orka, pops up in a support-role.

WIDOWMAKER-- Panther, Cap and Iron Man search for the Widow in one of Killmonger's hideaways. The heroes are attacked by plant monsters of the Council, but the rescuers are rescued by Black Widow, who's coincidentally broken free just in the nick of time. Then the villains of the Council assemble, including the newly revived Bask. She dons the super-power Crown and seeks dominion of Wakanda. So maybe she's "The Heart of Wakanda?" She then takes the place of Killmonger in the 2018 movie-- which had debuted in February 2018, a full year before the series wound to an end-- in that super-powered Bask engages Panther in trial by combat. She's not a great villain but at least she's a negative girlboss, something one never saw in the live-action MCU.

ATLANTIS ATTACKS-- Panther is rescued from Bask by White Wolf. Bask prepares to attack the surface nations, but Queen Elanna attacks Wakanda. Panther tells Wolf that, having been defeated, he can't challenge Bask, but that Shuri, the only other person with a royal bloodline, can do so. Instead of fighting, Shuri flips Bask against Killmonger, resulting in another throw-down where Panther and Wolf take on Killmonger's forces. Then T'Challa has to fight the invading Elanna too. Bask dies but pronounces Shuri queen and tells Panther that he alone can save the day by donning the Crown. He does so, but he can't prevent White Wolf's death. 

HOUSE OF M-- After sidelining the Avengers for the last half-dozen episodes, the heroes make their return, in an episode named for a comics-storyline centering on the X-Men. Somehow Thor has suffered, in between his last episode and this one, the loss of an eye seen in one MCU movie. Panther joins the team while they're mopping a bunch of old enemies allied to the Skull, belatedly bringing back the loose Hydra connection. But just to emphasize Panther's arc a bit more, he joins the other heroes while tracking down one escapee from the Wakandan imbroglio, Madame Masque. The final ASSEMBLE episode is mostly a long fight-scene that doesn't play into the geopolitical themes of the season, but it doesn't cancel out all the stronger story-arcs. 

Though the final episodes of Season Five seek to shoehorn too many incidents into the mix, BLACK PANTHER'S QUEST is still much more mature than the grievance-happy liberalism of the live-action movies.  

THE ANGEL STRIKES AGAIN (1968)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny* 
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

I suppose ANGEL WITH THE IRON FISTS must have made money, for by next year director Lo Wei was back again with more of the same thing in this sequel. He used a number of the same actors, albeit in different roles, and for some reason changed the name of Lily Ho's main character from "Luo Na" to "Ai Si." I can't fathom any reason for the change, since Ho's playing the same basic character, with the same low-tech arsenal (the most impressive item of which is a small flamethrower).

This time the "angel" is taking on opponents who seem more in tune with the heroine's role as a government agent: the Bomb Gang, whose leader Hsiang Hsiang (Shen Yi) uses explosives to extort businesses, which sounds a little like terrorist activity to me. That said, everything in STRIKES is a candy-confection with little resemblance to real espionage.

Both Ai Si and Hsiang Hsiang assume peculiar guises at one point, the secret agent dressing as a man for no good reason and the Bomb Gang leader wearing some sort of snaggletooth in her mouth, which I guess was supposed to be funny. The pace is a little better than it was in FISTS, and there are more fight-scenes, though they're all very basic uses of punches, kicks, and karate chops. Both of the ANGEL films would be quickly overshadowed as Hong Kong's kung fu genre developed and brought forth an amazing variety of flicks starring chopsocky divas.

           

LUPIN III: LEGEND OF THE GOLD OF BABYLON (1985)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous* 
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

LEGEND, the third feature-film centered upon the LUPIN III franchise, is yet another treasure-hunt tale, and like many of the 1980s iterations, LEGEND follows the goony-cartoony approach of the Monkey Punch comics rather than the more streamlined adventures of later years. At the same time, there are odd mythopoeic elements here that don't often turn up in either the original manga or in the 1960s gangland stories helmed by one of LEGEND's two credited directors, Seijun Suzuki. Of the two writers, one worked on one Suzuki crime-film and several "pink" movies, while the other seems to have been more invested in television animation projects.

So there's a treasure being hunted by the Lupin Gang (included their on-off ally Fujiko) and by the Mafia, while in turn Inspector Zenigata is on Lupin's trail. There's nothing unusual about the treasure being some remnant of humankind's earliest generations, this time being a fabulous golden trove from ancient Babylon. But the script gives the treasure-trove a grounding in archaic myth: to wit, that in some bygone age, the supreme god of the Babylonians ordered his worshippers to gather together all of their gold into a great mountain, which the deity-- usually just called "God"-- then attempted to lift into heaven. But "God" dropped the tower of gold so that it fell into the uninhabited wilderness of the New World and was buried far beneath the earth of what would much later become New York City. Centuries later, both Lupin and the Mafia learn from ancient cuneiform tablets the possible location of the treasure, and they begin vying to seize the gold. In fact, the first time the viewer sees "Fujiko" seeking to find out what Mafia don Marciano knows about the bounty, the "mountains of Fuji" turn out to be an inflatable disguise worn by none other than Lupin. 

Now it's impossible to conjure with the image of a Babylonian mountain of gold and not think of the Old Testament's account of the so-called Tower of Babel. I don't remember what the LEGEND script says about the Biblical Tower, if anything, but I'm sure we never hear the canonical story in toto:

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. -- Genesis 11: 4-9.

Now, I'll concede that all the twaddle about the Babylonian God-- actually some sort of alien entity-- picking up the gold-mountain and dropping it was first and foremost a writer's means of getting the treasure from the Old World to the New. However, the basic idea of a deity taking some person or object into heaven follows the pattern of humans sacrificing goods to their deities. The original Tower of Babel story follows a parallel but opposing course: mortals are building a great tower that seems to reach to the heavens. God seems vaguely threatened by the project and confuses the languages of the builders so that the tower is never finished. (Some later retellings added the elaboration of the tower being cast down.)

However, the LEGEND script has an extra ET-fillip to add to its "was God an astronaut" concept. During Lupin's peregrinations he keeps encountering a wizened old woman, Rosetta, who makes weird claims about having lived for centuries while simultaneously offering her body to the flustered master thief. No viewer will be surprised to learn that Rosetta isn't just a crazed Earthwoman, and that she's really an ET who's been stranded on Earth since the age of Babylon. The script is never clear about how Rosetta got marooned-- though it would be logical if she was somehow compromised by the same difficulty that caused the gold-mountain to fall back to Earth. It's also never clear why the ET-ship left behind both Rosetta and the mountain and only visited the planet Earth at specific intervals; intervals that Lupin coordinates with the re-appearance of Halley's Comet. Maybe the basic idea was that the ET-ship was entirely automated. This might account for why it kept returning in mechanical fashion, and maybe for why Rosetta needs Lupin's help to gain access to the ship again. In the big climax, Rosetta transforms back into her natural form-- a space-babe, of course-- and she also tries to spirit away the golden treasure (with no mention as to why her people wanted the mineral). However, though Rosetta is able to return to her people (implicitly), she loses control of the treasure, which spills back down upon Earth. I think the script meant to imply that the gold was up for grabs to whoever could get it, so that this time, the Lupin Gang doesn't make an exceptional score.

The obsessed Zenigata furnishes some good laughs. After the inspector bungles catching Lupin in New York at the film's opening, his superior not only takes him off the Lupin case, he forces Zenigata to provide security for a New York beauty contest. Then, by a really weird conceit even for a cartoon movie, the superior gets in trouble for allegedly fixing the contest, so he placates the five runners-up by... talking them into becoming policewomen who help Zenigata track down Lupin again? The young women seem to get into their mission despite being saddled with the inept inspector, and a Chinese kung-fu beauty named Qing briefly tries to conquer Goemon, though she makes more impact on the samurai's heart than on his body. In fact, Lupin gets most of the good LEGEND scenes, with Fujiko and Jigen getting short shrift, while Goemon's most memorable scene has him dueling with a bolt of lightning. Clearly the writers were less beguiled with the regular Lupin gags than with their ambitious story of an astronaut/"god" who manages to leave behind a buried sacrificial treasure and its custodian, who looks like a "loathly lady" until she's reunited with her "dragon-hoard." But while LEGEND doesn't achieve the mythic concrescence of the better Lupin movies, unpredictable Lupin is always better than the predictable kind.                                      

           

FIST OF THE NORTH STAR (1995)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

In my review of the 1986 anime adaptation of this ultraviolent shonen manga, I gave that flick a "fair" mythicity rating, but only because the makers were loosely keyed into some of the philosophical concepts behind certain forms of the martial arts. That said, it was still just a garden-variety fantasy-adventure, in which a brooding hero wandered around a devastated earth, dispensing violent justice to depraved criminals and madmen. I think director Tony Randel and writer Peter Atkins-- reunited since their teaming on HELLRAISER II, which was also the best film on both of their resumes-- tried as best they could to make a decent time-killer on a very modest budget. But the results were less consequential than the sort of efficient-if-average American chopsockies for which star Gary Daniels became best known, such as BLOODMOON and HAWK'S VENGEANCE.

Randel's direction has been attacked by some fans, but he closely followed the storytelling example of his template, as much as did the NORTH STAR anime. The manga, being a typical shonen of the 1980s, leavens its bloody mayhem with scenes of the tormented hero Kenshiro (Daniels) brooding over his sufferings. His stoicism is expressly contrasted with the freakish fiends who sadistically prey upon the weak and helpless, not least a pair of winsome children. Randel and Atkins deliver pretty much the same content in their live-action movie, but somehow it doesn't ring as true as some of the better (but still average) post-apoc films in the Western tradition. It's true that the actors playing the main villain's nasty henchmen, such as Chris Penn and Clint Howard, mug horribly. But such roles don't generally allow for any nuance, so that's not really the performers' fault.

The live-action film's main problem may be writer Atkins' inability to do anything interesting with main villain Shin (Costas Mandylor). He's pretty much the standard ruthless conqueror who plans to rebuild a shattered world in his own image, but his only personal aspect is his history with Kenshiro. Years previous to the film's "present," Shin coveted Julia (Isako Washio), girlfriend of Kenshiro and challenged Kenshiro to possess her. Though both are masters of their respective styles-- "North Star" and "Southern Cross"-- Shin won the battle. The villain then departs with his prize and leaves the hero alive. This is a pretty good reason for the hero to brood, but in most chopsockies, the humiliated protagonist trains like a demon to overcome his enemy in a return match. If Kenshiro trains in the time between his defeat and his rematch, it wasn't depicted-- and I don't think the 1986 anime shows anything similar either. 

Randel's film is also undermined in that Kenshiro's signature move involves rapid-fire blows to his opponent, which transmit such massive stress to a human form as to cause it to explode. Animation can make this fantasy seem persuasive, but in live action, even a greater budget for practical effects could not have pulled off this stunt. So it all comes down to Daniels and Mandylor slugging it out in a boring and predictable climax. The only good thing about the film is, as I said earlier, that it did lead to Daniels-- a mediocre actor but a quality martial artist-- making other films that weren't as ambitious but did not, so to speak, have as far to fall.

               

HEAVENLY SWORD (2014)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

Though there aren't many high-mythicity sword-and-sorcery works in the world of live-action movies, there seem to be even fewer in animation. This situation seems counter-intuitive, since animation in theory would allow producers to get around some of the expense of FX in live-action productions. And HEAVENLY SWORD, a CGI adaptation of a 2007 videogame, certainly looks better than the average animated magical-era fantasy. And for once, the characterization is much better than the average sword-fantasy. So why does it fall short?

I don't know what elements in the screenplay might have come from the RPG and which might have come from scripter Todd Farmer. Given that Farmer's career has not been that outstanding, it's not likely that he added much of his own to the mix. Still, unlike a lot of S&S/D&D animated flicks, SWORD actually comes to a decisive conclusion with respect to the main hero's arc, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

There's a novel idea at the core of SWORD, and it relates to the titular object. Thousands of fantasies have been built around the concept of a "miracle weapon" which is the only means by which the good guys can overcome the superior forces of the bad guys. But SWORD at least poses the question as to how even fundamentally good people might make bad choices in seeking to fulfill destiny.

The Heavenly Sword was previously used to rout an evil deity in the fantasy-verse, so there's no doubt as to how powerful the blade is. However, it contains a supernatural power that can burn out an ordinary person seeking to use the sword. The usual dire prophecy asserts that a Chosen One alone can master the weapon, but how does one find-- or make-- such a Chosen One? Lord Shen, whose warrior-clan has custody of the Sword, tries to beget a Chosen One by inseminating various mothers. But since Shen believes that the only possible champion must be male, he's distressed when his only two children are both female. Nariko at least grows up knowing that Shen is his father, even if he deems her a failure, but Nariko doesn't know about Shen's other attempts. She does grow up in the clan alongside a best female buddy, the eccentric Kai-- only to belatedly learn that Kai is her half-sister.

Then Nariko and Kai must go on the run with the magic sword, for the tyrant Bolan invades the clan's stronghold, seeking the powerful weapon. Almost accidentally, the two females get a new mission beyond just keeping the sword safe, for they learn that Shen did beget a son, whom they presume to be the Chosen One. So this time the heroes must make a quest not for the magic weapon but for the only person who can wield it. Further, Nariko never doubts that the prophecy is true, for every time she uses the sword in self-defense, it drains her energy and threatens her life.

I won't reveal the question of just who the Chosen One really is, or further revelations about the Sword's nature. But even in the extroverted context of the story-- which includes a prison-break as well as the central quest-- there are a lot of good character moments for the two heroines. I downgrade SWORD's mythicity a trifle because it doesn't have any concept as to why the Sword's nature is as it is, which might have provided an apt counterpoint to Nariko and Kai's problematic relationships with their father.

Nevertheless, in terms of blade-action alone, SWORD is excellent, particularly a battle in which Nariko takes on a bulky warrior who fights by turning himself into an "armor-dillo." And the aforementioned conclusion is well-handled, demonstrating that there can be costs for even good guys when they mess around with the powers of heaven. 

THE FACE OF THE FROG (1959)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny* 
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological*

As of this writing I've not seen the first sound film adaptation of Edgar Wallace's FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG, but I did review the sequel. And now, thanks be to streamng, I've seen this 1959 adaptation, which was successful enough to launch a long series of German crime films, called krimis, and also not infrequently adapted from other Wallace works.

As I've said in similar reviews, I've no familiarity with the source novel. However, one online review of the Wallace work-- the second in a brief series of novels about a clever Scotland Yard cop, Inspector Elk-- indicates that the novel is mostly a straight mystery, in which Elk seeks to learn the identity of the frog-masked mastermind whose cutthroat gang has been committing London robberies and eluding capture for at least a couple of years. However, since German crime films had not been successful in the fifties for some time, it seems director Harold Reinl and his crew upped the violence content, making this FROG into a high-jumping adventure. The strategy was a success with German moviegoers and possibly other Europeans as well, so that FROG gave birth to a plethora of krimi films. I note that one of those thrillers that I reviewed previously, DEAD EYES OF LONDON, shows a much more kinetic attitude to the Wallace material than had the previous sound adaptation, THE HUMAN MONSTER.

Further, though clever Inspector Elk was probably the sole star of the book, in FROG he's obliged to share the position of central hero with an amateur detective-- an ironic development, since in his time Wallace was noted for making his detectives police officers rather than amateur sleuths. In the book a character named Richard Gordon, a British prosecuting attorney, is the boyfriend of the story's heroine Ella. But in the movie Gordon (Joachim Fuchsberger, also the doughty hero of DEAD EYES) is the wealthy nephew of another Scotland Yard official, whose romancing of Ella may be more important to the story as a whole, and this Gordon is so serious about amateur crimefighting that he and his stoical butler practice judo holds on one another. In fact, the two of them have a spirited fight with a bunch of Frog henchmen that carries a slight Batman-and-Robin vibe. True, both of the heroes get taken down by superior numbers. But after being held in durance vile for what must be several days (because both uncaped crusaders grow substantial beards), this dynamic duo breaks out in spectacular fashion. Other scenes that were a trifle hyperviolent for 1959 include a scene with a knife-wielding thug slicing open a bobby's throat, and a big raid by the cops on the Frog's HQ, which includes London cops unleashing machine-gun fire on the ruthless criminals.

But though the Frog is opposed by both the superior brainpower of Inspector Elk and the brawn of his ally Gordon, it's really the princess that slays the frog, to misquote KING KONG. For no explicit reason, the Frog-- whose precise identity was never important to me, so I barely remember his ID-- falls in love with Ella, and he demands that she willingly agree to be his bride. When Ella refuses, the Frog has his henchmen launch a complicated plot in which a sexy chanteuse seduces Ella's irresponsible brother and then frames him for murder-- all so pretty Ella will willingly go to the altar with the batrachian criminal's civilian identity. It's the weakest aspect of a generally tight police thriller with some strong violence, a few cool gimmicks, and an encore for the first "mystery villains" of the 20th century.          

HONOR ROLL #300

 Only in an Edgar Wallace thriller could one see an Elk (played by SIEGFRIED LOWITZ) hunting a Frog.   

NARIKO is known for her cutting remarks.

CHRIS PENN can't tell his northern punch from his southern kick.

A ROSETTA by any other name might still stink pretty bad.

If you want a discount mastermind, SHEN YI's up for it.

 BLACK PANTHER got a better showcase in animation than he did in the MCU.  

THE PHANTOM RIDER (1946)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny* 
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological* 

Although the 1946 PHANTOM RIDER is mostly a by-the-numbers "costumed cowboy" serial, it has some points that elevate it above the level of the routine. 

For one thing, it has nothing to do with the Universal chapterplay of the same title, which was essentially just another outre-outfit oater. In that 1936 offering, Buck Jones just donned an all-white outfit, possibly with the idea of suggesting that he was ghostly, like The Ghost Rider of the comics, who appeared in 1949. In the 1946 serial, Doctor Jim Sterling (Robert Kent) ends up donning a costume designed to make him look like an ancient Indian spirit, consisting of buckskins, a feathered headdress, and a rubber mask covering his entire face, purportedly to make others think that he's Indian. The Rider never fools any white villains into thinking him a spirit, though a good number of the local Indians-- never given a tribal name-- apparently can't tell red-hued rubber from crimson flesh.

For the other thing, RIDER possesses some good progressive (back when that word meant something) political content. Easterner Sterling is on his way to become the doctor to a small western town, whose name might be Big Tree, like the nearby Indian reservation. On his way to town in a buckboard, Sterling gives a lift to Blue Feather (George J. Lewis), the college-educated son of the Indians' chief. Blue Feather provides exposition about how he educated himself so that he could improve the lot of his people in living in the white man's world, especially in dealing with the bandits menacing both the whites and the Indians. Blue Feather's main ambition is to create an Indian police force, vetted by the federal government and with the power to arrest the lawless. Sterling shows his approval of this lofty goal-- and within the first chapter, gets direct evidence of bandit predations. Blue Feather is wounded and sidelined, so the noble doctor decides to take over the young Indian's mission. With the help of schoolmarm Doris (Peggy Stewart), Sterling decides to assume the appearance of an ancient Indian savior, The Phantom Rider, to convince the Indians to follow the white man's way of fighting oppression.

As in the 1938 LONE RANGER serial, the bandits are hiding under the cloak of counterfeit authority. Local Indian agent Carson (LeRoy Mason) is not the real person assigned to the post, but an otherwise unnamed schemer using the position to coordinate his gang's activities. The Rider pops up and starts preying on the predators, they try to stop him, rinse and repeat. 

Despite a cool setup, RIDER falls into a lot of pedestrian situations, with no memorable cliffhangers and mostly gun-action. According to THE FILES OF JERRY BLAKE, the hero's rubber-mask disguise had a restrictive effect on what both Robert Kent and any doubles could do in fight-scenes. But the photography here is much crisper, and thus more involving, than in many later serials, so RIDER always looks good even if one has seen the same business a dozen times before. The story would have gained some heft had it built up conflicts between Sterling's profession and his avocation, or the character of Schoolmarm Doris. JERRY BLAKE liked the comedy relief of "Nugget," a grizzled miner, but he didn't do anything for me. The villains are also ordinary and no better than they have to be, and the formation of the Indian police force comes about a little too easily. I'm glad I had the chance to see it but will probably not watch it again. I suppose Bad Progressives would sneer at the serial for placing a "white savior" in charge, but to me it makes a world of difference when the savior, whatever his race, is helping others save themselves         

SEVEN MEN OF KUNG FU (1978)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny* 
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

I can only echo this online post that this misbegotten chopsocky, by a writer-director who only made four films in his career, is the most atrociously edited film the kung-fu genre has ever produced. It's yet another take on the old "Chings vs. Mings" quarrel, and I think main villain Chang Yi (seen above with red-dyed hair) is one of the Mings, also called "anti-Chings" by the subtitles on the streaming copy I watched. In addition to Chang Yi, the other three top-billed performers are the redoubtable diva Lung Chung-erh, Chang Ying-chen (billed elsewhere as Emily Chang Ying-chen), and Lo Lieh. I didn't see the name of Chan Sing in the barely-Anglicized credits, but I think he, along with Lieh and Emily, are the "good Chings" of the story, one of whom gets the honor of fighting the evil potentate played by Chang Yi.

Hong Kong chopsockies aren't models of exposition at the best of times, but this director Cheung Hang is the worst of the worst. He barrels past any setup that would familiarize viewers with who the characters and what they want, and he seems in a tearing hurry to get to the really important scenes, where characters stand around and recite sententious aphorisms. This is perhaps the talkiest chopsocky ever made. There's a brief sense of romance between Chan Sing and the actress I believe to be Emily Chang, but it comes to naught when she's killed. I admit that I'm not sure I've correctly ID'd the girl wielding her sword beside Chan Sing, but that's my best guess.    

         

So what the hell does "Doris" Lung-Chung-erh play? If the cited review is correct, she plays some sort of weird witch-being who's seen intermittently throughout the film (via repetitions of the exact same scene), in the company of a white-faced guy later called a "zombie." But her actual participation is to show up at the end to harass Lo Lieh over some unclear grievance. She sics her zombie on him, which he defeats with ease. But then she hits Lo with something like a fire-spell, wounds him with a wire-weapon, and then just beats his ass with kung-fu, which Lo can't seem to counter. There's a quick voiceover about honor and duty, and then the film just ends, leading me to the conclusion that the witch-woman killed Lo. It wouldn't be the first time in a chopsocky that a hero died at the end, but viewers usually know what the hell he's dying for.

Only the sight of Lung beating up Lo Lieh gives this turkey even mild curiosity value. 

    

LUPIN III: TACTICS OF ANGELS (2005)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

I'm by no means a Lupin III expert, even where the animated films are concerned. But it's pretty evident to most of the feature films/TV specials usually involve three groups in conflict. The primary conflict is most often the Lupin Gang of superlative thieves with some other criminal gang, who are always more ignoble and destructive than the "honest thieves," and there's a secondary conflict in which Inspector Zenigata, accompanied by whatever law-enforcement agents he can draft, pursues the Lupin Gang but has to be satisfied with the defeated villains Lupin has left behind. It's a corollary tendency that if Fujiko Mine sees any advantage in betraying the gang to the villains, she usually will, but she always gets welcomed back to the fold when the evil guys seek to off her.

TACTICS starts out like a lot of Lupin adventures (though overall this TV special has better comedic elements than many of the others). Zenigata has received a challenge from Lupin to the effect that the master thief's going to raid the US installation Area 51. As Zenigata learns from head scientist Emily, the installation holds a bonafide alien artifact, a sphere called "The Original Metal," apparently because it's so hard nothing can cut it. Lupin and his associates succeed swimmingly. Jigen and Goemon are disgusted, however, when Lupin informs that he didn't steal the artifact in order to fence it and make a lot of cash. He plans to turn the metal of the sphere into a unique finger-ring for Fujiko, the better to steal her heart. Unfortunately for Lupin, not even Goemon's peerless samurai blade can cut the metal, and Goemon must leave to seek some way to repair his chipped sword. So then Lupin begins trying to figure out some way to penetrate the metal-- though even at the movie's end, it's not a sure thing that Lupin really intended just to make the Original Metal into a ring for Fujiko.

But other forces also want the Metal. The viewer meets "The Bloody Angels" before the Lupin Gang does, as this all-female fighting force practices for the coming conflict by killing four fighters dressed up like Lupin's people. The four Angels are Lady Jo (a kung fu expert who usually dresses up as a man), Poison Sophie (a poisons expert), Bomber Lily (an expert in both explosives and stage magic), and Kaoru (a samurai whose skills are a close match to Goemon's). The Bloody Angels (whose name always sounds like that of the "Lovely Angels" of the DIRTY PAIR franchise) seek to find out which of the gang has the metal sphere. But clever Lupin has made copies, so that not even devious Fujiko can be sure of stealing the right object when she tries to sell it to Lady Jo, who almost kills Fujiko.

The four main Angels, who are the forefront of an all-female army, provide the gang with good opposition, but the best comes from Kaoru, whose sword Goemon believed to be "cursed." It's not certain whether this is the case or not, but if so it would be a very rare instance of the supernatural existing in Lupin's sci-fi world. Because Goemon's sword was chipped by contact with Original Metal, he even has to flee Kaoru in the first encounter, though of course the second face-off turns out very differently. Lupin is faced with an intriguing puzzle: if no Earthly force can scrape off a shard of the sphere, what good is it to the Angels, or to any foreign government they might sell it to? As it happens, there is a good solution to this puzzle, which involves using the sphere in conjunction with something else to create a death-ray that no government should be trusted with.

Though the Angels are initially portrayed as terrorists, one of them, Sophie, claims to have an altruistic reason to want the sphere. Since she becomes somewhat simpatico with Lupin during their clashes, she reveals to Lupin that she carries a major grudge against the US due to having lost her brother, a member of the US military forces, due to incompetent commanders. It's rare for stories in the LUPIN canon to be very critical specifically of US practices, given that America is a big market for the franchise. At the same time, Sophie's grudge is loosely demonstrated to be sophistry in that she believes she can built a new, better country out of the ashes of devastation-- something Lupin opposes for purely practical reasons. Then Sophie is killed by one of her own, and the gang has no further sympathies for the other three angels or their small army of lady soldiers.

TACTICS is certainly one of the bloodiest productions in this franchise that I've seen, with lots of characters getting shot or sliced up. The animators don't linger upon the after-effects of the violence, but the carnage is a real factor in giving TACTICS a harder edge than many similar works-- though, oddly, it's also one of the funniest LUPINs in my experience. The viewer never learns anything about the ET science that formed the sphere, and no aliens make the scene. But there's a stronger sociological theme here than in most LUPINs. (Also, Fujiko does get a chance to be more of an action-girl than in many other productions.)

                    

DRAGON QUEST/DRAGON WARRIOR (1989-91)

  

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

I'm indebted to this YT channel for providing fansubs for the Japanese anime series DRAGON QUEST, based on a popular 1980s video game that received distribution in the US and other countries. In 1989, 13 of the anime's 43 original episodes were dubbed and released to American TV under the title DRAGON WARRIOR. I presume that the translation company hoped that 13 episodes would "prime the pump" and create viewer demand to see the entire series in English. But this did not occur, and I presume that only fansubbed editions are available for non-Japanese speakers.

As a viewer who was frustrated in the Day to see only a small number of episodes, I'm happy to have some closure. That said, I was never under any delusion that QUEST was any hidden mythopoeic treasure. Even in 1989 I was pretty sure the anime was just a very basic fantasy RPG, in which noble, sword-swinging stalwarts went on quests to defeat evil demons and/or sorcerers. I later learned that there had been a manga prior to the anime, and that the two are only loosely related to either the video game or to one another, though I'm unclear as to when the anime started using different names for the main characters.  There are only a few minor myth-kernels in the TV show at most.

The screenshot above shows the five main heroes. In the foreground is the hero Abel, while his girlfriend Tiala clings to him. At left is the lady warrior Daisy, while to the right, the floating fellow is the magician Yanack and the fellow with the skull-helmet is Abel's pudgy buddy Mokomoko, who provide much of the comedy relief. The setup is that Tiala is the hereditary protector of a magical stone capable of releasing a powerful dragon from its slumber. The devilish-looking Baramos abducts Tiala from her village in order to gain control of the dragon, whose blood can confer immortality. Abel and Mokomoko arm themselves and seek to rescue Tiala. On their way they pick up the aid of the good sorcerer Yanack and the woman-warrior Daisy. Yanack has no real backstory, but Daisy became a warrior in order to seek her lost brother. She originally joins Abel and Mokomoko because she thinks there's profit in their quest, but naturally she bonds with the guys and becomes a hero dedicated to defeating the various minions of Baramos. She also falls in unrequited love with Abel and also must bear the indignity of being ogled by the dirty old magician Yanack.      

I don't remember exactly why the quest becomes a matter not of just rescuing Tiala but also about finding holy objects that will make it possible to resurrect the dragon. Appropriately the objects are a Holy Sword and a Holy Grail, mirroring (if only unintentionally) the sexual propensities of Abel and Tiala, who are implicitly a holy couple whose unison can redeem the fallen world. Baramos is just a dime-a-dozen magical menace, but the scenes of the heroes, as well as their encounters with ordinary folks, allow for much better character interactions than one sees in most American-made animated TV shows. A couple of storylines involve Baramos corrupting or controlling the relatives of the heroes and causing Daisy to fight her lost brother and Abel to battle his father. So far as I can tell, it's not recounted as to how Baramos was far-sighted enough to suborn these characters. This is particularly true of Daisy's brother, who's actually raised from childhood by a villainous minion, long before Baramos could possibly have known that Daisy was going to be one of the heroes who opposed him. Still, QUEST also isn't afraid to knock off some of the lovable side-characters, such as a "nice monster" who befriends Tiala.

Still, good design triumphs over limited TV animation, and QUEST always feels action-packed. And one extra benefit of the American dub is that the translation company produced what I consider a superior theme-song, complete with quick cuts from the episodes, that I still find stimulating thirty-plus years later.

      

LORD OF ILLUSIONS (1995)

 

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

LORD OF ILLUSIONS to date is the last feature film written and directed by horror author Clive Barker, and proves the least accomplished after 1987's HELLRAISER and 1990's NIGHTBREED. Like NIGHTBREED, ILLUSIONS came to theatres in an adumbrated studio cut, which is probably what I saw years ago. But since I barely remember anything about the cut version of ILLUSIONS, my review of the director's cut won't be influenced by the earlier viewing-- or by having read, many months ago, the short story Barker used as his template, since Wiki mentions that Barker substantially changed that template for the movie.

The germ of the original idea was that professional detective Harry D'Amour investigated the supposed death of a stage illusionist, Philip Swann, only to learn that Swann was performing his tricks with real magic. To make that bare notion more salable, Barker interpolated the story of a demonically powered cult-leader named William Nix (Daniel von Bargen), who becomes an enemy Swann (Kevin J. O'Connor) seeks to escape and whom D'Amour (Scott Bakula) must try to eradicate. The result is an ungainly blend of noir detection and flamboyant occult menace, with an evil sorcerer who says things like, "I was born to murder the world."

It's not impossible to do a good mashup of hardboiled crime with supernatural investigation, but Barker doesn't have a handle on either genre's boundaries. The story begins with Swann and his allies invading the HQ of Nix's cult, overcoming Nix, and burying him alive so that he can't destroy the world with his illimitable (but unexplained) powers. Thirteen years later, detective D'Amour-- whose experience with occult matters is only vaguely described-- is hired by Swann's wife (Famke Janssen) to protect the magician, since some of Nix's freaky cultists have been swarming about and making trouble. Then Swann apparently dies-- only to have it revealed later on that he faked his death-- and one of the cultists manages to revive Nix. Despite being woefully overmatched, D'Amour pulls a rabbit out of his hat and prevents the apocalypse, and gets the girl to boot, thanks to Swann conveniently dying for real.

Barker's lack of ability to ground his wild characters in reality is oddly presaged by a line spoken by one of his minor characters halfway through the film. A sanitarium attendant, not privy to any of the magical goings-on, states to D'Amour, "We have to agree on what's real and what's not. That's what holds us together." Barker means this ironically, since through D'Amour the audience has already seen that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the attendant's philosophy. But inadvertently, Barker described his own inability to make either his plot or characters "hold together." He provides only the most cursory motivation at all times, and his big reveal at the climax-- that Nix had a gay thing for Swann and wanted them to be together after mankind's death-- gets zero foreshadowing. Characters pop in and out of D'Amour's orbit without explanation, and most of them are focused on showing how recherche they are. Oddly, Bakula's homespun normality could have been used to Barker's advantage here, and the actor does his best to give the role a dogged, passionate morality. But D'Amour just feels like Barker copying old movie-detectives, not coming up with his own unique take on the form. Barker may have had better luck with the character in prose, where he's not dependent on interacting with performers other than himself. 

ONE PIECE: HEART OF GOLD (2016)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*

HEART OF GOLD, though a TV special, looks as good in terms of design and animation quality as any of the movies. In fact, HEART directly leads into the next OP movie, GOLD.

I don't know how often the regular series used the "treasure-hunt" theme, but that's the theme at the heart of HEART. In this case, Acier, a brilliant scientist living on an island with the patently obvious name of "Alchemi," invents a substance called "Pure Gold," more priceless than any other treasure in the world. However, a giant fish named Bonbonri swallowed the island, along with both Acier and his grade-schooler daughter Olga. The two get separated and then live within the stomach of Bonbonri for the next 200 years, and they don't age because the Pure Gold also bestows agelessness upon those exposed to it. However, at some point Olga is accidentally vomited out of the giant fish's belly, along with a tame beastie, a lizard able to skim the surface of the ocean. Olga and her riding-lizard are taken into the custody of Marines, but she has to flee when the Marine ship is assaulted by a seeker of the Pure Gold, Mad Treasure. Her flight leads her into the hands of the Straw Hat Pirates, who for once would like to gain the treasure of the Pure Gold as well as helping the helpless.

The exploration of the various environments in Bonbori's belly is amusing, and the action is kept at the usual high levels. Mad Treasure is a pleasing "bully-boy" type of foe, endowed with a colorful Devil Fruit power: the ability to extend endlessly-stretchable chains from his body, and he's aided by two other henchmen, one of whom is a lady who practices what might be called "drunk-archer-fu."

If HEART has a downside, it's Olga. She's a type often seen in sentimental anime: a kid who acts in a bratty manner to cover up her insecurities. Naturally, the good-hearted pirates take her under their wing, and she learns the value of comradeship, as well as reconciling with her father, whom she hated for having brought chaos into their lives. Still, I admired one affecting image at the climax. After all of the good guys have defeated Mad Treasure and escaped the stomach of the big beast, it consumes the Pure Gold and somehow transforms the metal into a light hanging from its brow, like that of the real-world angler-fish. HEART is another decent take on the ONE PIECE formula; no more, no less.            

HONOR ROLL #299

 USOPP keeps searchin' for a Heart of Gold.

DANIEL VAN BARGEN's claim to villainy is just a minor illusion. 

ABEL, DAISY and MOKOMOKO-- the ones holding weapons-- are the main stars of this D&D effort.

The super-crooks of the Lupin Gang meet their match in THE BLOODY ANGELS.

EMILY CHANG's not sure whether to be insulted to be considered one of the "Seven Men of Kung Fu."

ROBERT KENT, him heap-big Fake Indian.