Master Demon
1991
Starring
Eric Lee as Tong Lee/The White Warrior
Gerald Okamura as Kwon Chang/Master Demon Dark Fury
Kay Baxter Young as Medusa
Ava Cadell as Jan
Steve Nave as Cameron Massey
Sid Campbell as Wayne Besecker
Directed by Samuel Oldham
It begins in the end…
So the movie begins. But instead of going backwards like that one episode of Seinfeld, instead we are thousands of years in the past. As two rejects from Tekken fight each other in a field, we have started The Master Demon, a film made as an Eric Lee vehicle. It’s the film that rocketed him to fame and starring roles in Enter the Shootfighter and The Education of a Vampire. The film’s villain, the resident Master Demon, is played by Gerald Okamura, previously seen here in Ninja Academy and also seen in many quality films such as Samurai Cop and Vampire Assassin. How both of these guys got signed on to this film seems to be a mystery, as the film’s budget might have hit three digits if they dug in the couches of the entire crew for loose change. Still, the low budget adds to some of the charm, the armies of endless bad guys are probably someone’s friends from the local martial arts house appearing free for their lone film credit, and a few of the endless goons get some creative costumes. The film’s plot is standard “demon trying to take over the world” scenario with the “one man who can take him down” and his goofy friends along for the ride. I bet you didn’t know that 50-ish police officers can defeat seven demonic martial artists bare-handed! See that, Kabuki thugs, Gerald Okamura’s head inflate, and much more in The Master Demon…
It begins in the end… (As we said.) The movie starts out with the narrator reciting that as two people fight in a field in Southern California (playing ancient China.) Gerald Okamura is locked in mortal combat with a blonde-haired Eric Lee dressed entirely in white. Gerald is dressed in red, and has giant boils on one side of his face, in addition to more eyeliner than a goth convention. Gerald is the Demon Master (our title character!), and he manages to stab the White Warrior (yes, that’s Eric Lee’s character’s name) in the stomach with his odd weapon, but the White Warrior retaliates by slicing off the hand of Demon Master. Demon Master screams in his funky demon language and vanishes, except for his missing hand, which is wiggling around with some simple animatronics. You know those moving hand gloves you can get at tourist shops? It’s like that. The wounded White Warrior (who doesn’t act at all like he’s stabbed in the stomach, must have taken a Tekken power up or something) picks up the hand and takes it with him. Give him a hand, people! HA! I kill me! At this point, we find out this is all an intense nightmare of Eric Lee, who is now playing Tong Lee, in modern day, and is still dreaming so we continue with the dream flashbacks. White Warrior wanders to a temple, possible a Shaolin Temple but maybe not, and there is a monk inside, who begins chanting. A second Narrator (there’ll be a lot of Narrators) explains that the chanting is to keep the Master Demon from making himself whole. Incantations and prayers are used, and the hand is put in a box and sealed.
