Are you tired of all of these meticulously restored and remastered films? Ready for a blast of unadulterated, classic kung fu goodness, complete with liberal scratches and debris on the print? Hold on tight, because this late-career triumph from Shaw Brothers legend Chang Cheh delivers a delirious supernatural delight that feels like a lost classic from his old studio in everything but its opening production logo.
Buy The Nine DemonsAfter Cheh left Shaw Brothers and Hong Kong, he set up shop in Taiwan and continued pumping out films to varying success. Nine Demons represents a high point, even as it shows the old master experimenting with his proven formula. Utilizing faster cuts, dynamic camerawork, and psychedelic lighting, the film opens with a 10-minute fight scene and barely slows down during its 98-minute runtime.
The story follows a virtuous young man who sells his soul to the devil. In return, he is granted control of nine demons to assist him in his quest to protect his best friend and avenge the deaths of their fathers. Unfortunately, the demons are rather unruly, especially since eight of them are tween boys who are more interested in bloodsucking and acrobatics than obeying their new master. The ninth is a slightly more restrained young woman, for no particular reason.
The plot is incidental and seemingly developed on the fly, but miraculously hangs together well as the fighter tries to keep his mischievous demons in line while also attempting to retain his humanity. There’s goofy effects work, with the demons reverting into skulls he typically wears around his neck or throws at opponents to launch them back into action, with plenty of blood and splatter as the demons feast on their targets and recharge their skull totems.
The fights are intense and plentiful, culminating in a senses-shattering final showdown that must be seen to be believed. It starts with the fighters somehow all wearing what can best be described as water skates, as they face off on the surface of a lake in a silly, splashy exercise. The lake is later frozen, and a haphazard bamboo lattice is assembled horizontally feet above it, with the fighters then battling both on top of the bamboo and beneath it and switching back and forth, a logistical nightmare that is nonetheless made to look effortless with liberal wire fu. It all comes to a satisfying conclusion as Cheh cranks out one of his final classics.
The Blu-ray packaging is a fan fest complete with reversible cover art, slipcase, essay booklet, foldout poster, and a fun sticker sheet filled with VHS-era homages including “beta”, “adjust tracking”, and “2 day rental.” The disc is no slouch either, boasting a robust array of features about the film and the industry of the era, including a full hour-long podcast episode about the film, an archival interview with one of the actors, and nerdy, exhaustive dissertations about Cheh and his cinematographer by a superfan historian. A commentary track is also included, and the other soundtrack options are an English dub with a somewhat low recording level, as well the original Chinese soundtrack.
But wait, there’s more! While the main feature is sourced from a new 2K transfer from original film elements, with robust colors and crisp definition but no discernible restoration, the disc also includes a bonus feature to play the whole film in an old-school, “Dirty VHS” version complete with degraded, fullscreen image with tracking distortion at the top and overall quality akin to a second- or third-generation dub. It’s glorious.
Nine Demons is available on Blu-ray on Tuesday, July 28th. Hats off to Visual Vengeance for their full-featured, definitive release of this super-fun Chang Cheh epic.
