Shen tong shu yu xiao ba wang

THE WEIRD MAN is a Shaw Brothers adventure notable for being director Chang Cheh's last production for the studio; sad times for me, given that he's my favourite Shaw Brothers director as well as favourite Chinese director in general. As with many of Shaw's early 1980s efforts, this one flirts with the supernatural in a big way; the titular character is a wizard who spends most of the film in a trance while his mischievous spirit, played by FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS Cheng Tien-Chi, goes on a rampage of revenge against the corrupt official who nearly killed him.

I'll make no bones about it, this is a really bizarre movie. For all of Tien-Chi's scenes he acts as a naughty spirit who can appear and disappear at will, fly, and who goes around annoying virtually every character in the cast. There are some more traditional kung fu elements in the story too, such as the five loyal fighters who vow to protect the wizard's body until he can regain his strength, and some of the weird ritual type stuff that I always love. As usual, the production values are very strong. Why the lower rating, then? Well, it's because the storytelling is quite choppy here, and the narrative is very confusing particularly at the outset. There isn't a great deal of action either and while the action we do get is perfectly fine it's not the best of the studio's output. It's only at the lavish and mind-bending climax that THE WEIRD MAN becomes really good.