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Temptress of 1000 Faces

Temptress of a Thousand Faces

Temptress of a Thousand Faces

aka 千面魔女 aka Qian mian mo nu aka Temptress of 1000 Faces
Temptress of 1000 Faces
1969
Written by Song Jin
Directed by Jeng Cheong-Woh

Temptress of 1000 Faces
This sexy Shaw Brothers crime caper has influences from the classic female-lead action films of yore, the 1960s Jane Bond films, James Bond, Eurospy, and even Fantomas! Temptress of a Thousand Faces meshes these sources all together into a terrific crime caper. One of those films where there are master thieves who can be anywhere and disguised as anyone. Even your mom! Okay, probably not your mom. Or is that just what they want you to think? You better call your mom an make sure, just in case. It’s the old master of disguise story, but with no need to worry about people being turtlely enough to join the turtle club. Because none of them are! Freaking lack of turtle love in Temptress of a Thousand Faces

The big switch is this time the thief is a woman. The thief being female throws the entire police force for a loop, as everyone is looking for a male master thief. I’m not sure why, almost every crime shown involves women, maybe the police have all taken stupid pills. It’s girl power, but only sort of. Of course, only another woman can take her down. Further continuing the gender bending, the police officer hero is the female Ji Ying, while her boyfriend Yuk Dat plays the Torchy Blane role of reporter who is on the case. But unlike Torchy, Yuk Dat doesn’t contribute to the solving of the case, just becoming yet another chess piece to be played by the mastermind and the detective.
Temptress of 1000 Faces
Temptress of a Thousand Faces was discussed before during our Infernal Brains episode covering the Jane Bond films. If you prefer your reviews in audio format, that’s your best bet, along with a whole history of the genre that won’t be repeated here. But if you love things written down, then feel free to read on! Or just look at the pretty pictures. Either way, hopefully you are convinced enough to track down a copy, because you will not be disappointed!
Temptress of 1000 Faces

Ji Ying (Tina Chin Fei) – Police office who is tired of all this Temptress of 1000 Faces crap and directly challenges her. Which turns out to be a big mistake. The only bigger mistake is when Temptress makes destroying Ji Ying’s life personal instead of just killing her. Ji Ying is a fierce fighter and crack shot, and often is fighting while in her underwear because stuff like that just happens in Temptress of a Thousand Faces.
Yuk Dat (Chan Leung ) – Journalist boyfriend of Ji Ying. While the media influence on Temptress is a theme, Yuk Dat is less of a driver and more of a cog in the machine, something that makes his character less important. In fact, it’s hard to remember much in particular about him.
Molly (Pat Ting Hung) – Newspaper reporter and photographer, and a major female character who doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere in the grand schemes of the regular characters.
Temptress (It is a mystery…) – Who could this mysterious female villain with a thousand faces be? It is a mystery, a mystery that only a mystery movie could solve. Luckily, this is a mystery movie, so expect it to be solved by the end of the movie!

Temptress of 1000 Faces

Na Cha Seven Devils

Na Cha and the Seven Devils

Na Cha and the Seven Devils

aka 梅山收七怪 aka Mei shan shou qi guai aka Na Cha and the 7 Devils
Na Cha Seven Devils
1973
Written by ???
Directed by Yamanouchi Tetsuya

Na Cha Seven Devils

Here’s your disco inferno!


Who would have thought that a movie about a bunch of animal demons running amok, including a huge fire breathing dragon in sequences directed by Yamanouchi Tetsuya, would turn out to be so boring? Obviously anyone who has had prior experience with movies where flying kids battle monsters! At TarsTarkas.NET, we have dealt with a lot of them! Though most of those are Taiwanese, Na Cha and the Seven Devils comes from the illustrious Shaw Brothers studios. It’s the second of two Na Cha films that were made at the same time by Yamanouchi Tetsuya, featuring many of the same cast (they even reuse at least one human character as the grandson of his character from the first film!), and one of several Na Cha films, a character from a classic Chinese tale.

A quick Na Cha primer: Na Cha is that kid with the flaming circles around his feet that let him fly. Sometimes his name is translated Nezha or Na Zha. He’s based on Chinese mythology that probably has roots in Hinduism. Na Cha shows up in Journey to the West and has a stream of television and film appearances.

Na Cha and the Seven Devils seems like it would be an idea kids film, just let them watch the special effects while mom and dad go get hammered..I mean, go do chores. But there is an awful lot of boob grabbing. It’s oddly sensual (though in a clumsy sensual way), and Shaw was ranking up the sexy in the early 70s. It does seem way out of place for what goes on in the rest of the film.

The look of Na Cha and the Seven Devils comes from art director Mutsuo Mikimi, who has a pedigree of doing effects on Message from Space, Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell, and Super Infra-Man. Director Yamanouchi Tetsuya was making a brief foray out of Japan, but he also has a kaiju pedigree thanks to films like The Magic Serpent and 1969’s Akakage. Doi Michiyoshi is also listed as a director on the HKMDB, but not on the actual film and I can’t find any further information.

The biggest gripe with Na Cha and the Seven Devils is that Na Cha and his immortal buddies cause all these problems on Earth, then they send only three of them to deal with the problems. Meanwhile, hundreds of people die! Sorry, folks, you are all being slaughtered to teach Na Cha responsibility! The main trouble is there is a magic peach tree that only blooms every 1000 years, and then the peaches take 1000 years to ripen. And it’s about time for those babies to pop. There are 8 this year that are destined to be a gift to the Queen Mother by order of the Jade Emperor.

Na Cha is unaware of all this, and just sees a tree with a bunch of peaches, and Na Cha wants to eat them peaches. So he climbs up the tree and grabs on, accidentally causing the other 7 to fall. Because they are at Mt. Kunlu – which is between Heaven and the Mortal World, the peaches fall through the clouds to Earth. Where they are promptly found by animals, that eat them and become superpowered Devils themed on whatever animal they were.

Na Cha Seven Devils

See my vest, see my vest, made from real gorilla chest!


Now, Na Cha did cause the original problem, but he also wasn’t told not to eat the peaches, and as someone who has done their fair share of gardening (and has peach trees in the back yard!), I know for a fact peaches will be falling off the tree regardless of Na Cha shaking the branches or not, which means a few would have dropped down below anyways. Which means the immortals should have hung a few baskets to catch these valuable and dangerous peaches!

After the peaches are found to be missing, an edict comes down on high from the Jade Emperor to solve this problem in 10 days! So the group of immortals decide to just send Na Cha by his lonesome. It’s only when his two older brothers Jincha and Mucha beg to go along that the party is increased. But still, everyone else just stays around Mt. Kunlu and laments their fate and probably going to get squashed by an angry Jade Emperor soon. Lazy, lazy people who deserve it for not bothering to help solve the problem.

Na Cha Seven Devils

I’ll use this to contact Sauron!


Na Cha (Yau Lung) – The Third Prince, he who killed the dragon and brought the rain and did other stuff that was either in the other movie or is a mishmash of his legend. His dad is General Li, and his two older brothers are Jincha and Mucha. I’ve never realized until now that Na Cha is the prototype for all those annoying flying children movies that Taiwan kept pumping out. Na Cha is also annoying and flies!
Yang Jian (Ngok Yeung) – That legendary triclops who pops up from time to time in Chinese fantasy films. Notable here for popping up out of the blue and owning Celestial Dog!
Eagle Devil (???) – An eagle that eats a magic peach, becomes a devil, and decides to steal children for food!
Rat Devil (Ngai Chi-Wong) – A rat that eats a magic peach, becomes a devil, and begins chomping down on dozens of innocent people.
White Horse Devil (Chen Hung-Lieh) – A white horse that eats a magic peach, becomes a devil, and immediately declares he’ll make the village send him a lass every day!
Frog Devil (Aai Dung-Gwa) – A frog that eats a magic peach, becomes a devil, and starts trying to get it on with random human women.
Monkey Devil (???) – A monkey that eats a magic peach, becomes a devil, and starts trying to become a beautiful seductress or something. I’m not really sure what her endgame was.
Dragon Devil (Law Bun) – A huge dragon that eats a magic peach, becomes a Red Hair Devil, but still has plenty of time to burn villages and do other dragon stuff.
Fox Devil (Tina Chin Fei) – A fox that eats a magic peach, becomes a devil, and starts seducing all sorts of random guys just because she can.
Na Cha Seven Devils

I will be the Superior Spiderman!

Jane Bond – Infernal Brains Podcast Episode 10

The Infernal Brains are back again, this time with a special Guest Brain, duriandave from Softfilm, Soft Tofu Tumblr, and Connie Chan Movie Fan Princess!

durianman

Actual photo of duriandave

Join Tars, Todd, and Dave as we discuss one of our collectively favorite world movie subgenres, Cantonese female focused action films that became known as Jane Bond films! We chat about Connie Chan, Josephine Siao, Suet Nei, So Ching, Fanny Fan, Lily Ho, Chor Yuen, masked heroines, James Bond influences, theater singing, the genesis of the genre, and many films that you’ll be hunting down for the next few years! It’s an infotainment explosion of knowledge that will pack your brain with so many cool facts that they’ll start leaking out your ears and drip on the carpet! The Infernal Brains are not responsible for any carpet cleaning bills.

As usual, we got more listening choices than you can shake an unsubtitled vcd at: downloadable mp3, embedded flash with slideshow, embedded audio player, and iTunes feed link. So many choices, you’ll have to call in your secret evil gang to select them all!

Download the mp3 (right click, save as)

Watch in slideshow form:

Subscribe to the Infernal Brains on YouTube!

Click the graphic for Podcast Feed:

Click here for iTunes Feed

Films Discussed:
Black Rose – Tars Review, Todd Review, Dave Review
Spy With My Face
The Blonde Hair Monster – Dave Review
Lady Black Cat – Tars Review, Dave Review
Lady Black Cat Strikes Again
The Black Killer
The Professionals
Golden Skeleton
Dark Heroine Muk Lan-Fa – Tars Review, Todd’s series overview
Dark Heroins Muk Lan-Fa Shatters the Black Dragon Gang
Lady in Black Cracks the Gates of Hell
Gold Button
Temptress of 1000 Faces
Angel with Iron Fists
Angel Strikes Again
Wong Ang vs the flying tigers part 1 part 2

Jane Bond overview
More Cantonese Cinema information

Site Links:
Soft Tofu Tumblr
SoftFilm Blog
Connie Chan Movie Fan Princess
The Lucha Diaries
Die, Danger, Die, Die, Kill!

Prior Infernal Brains:
Taiwanese Giant Monster Films Part 1
Taiwanese Giant Monster Films Part 2
Polly Shang Kuan
Turkish Pop Cinema Part 1
Turkish Pop Cinema Part 2
Dara Singh
Infernal Brains Podcast – 07 – Insee Daeng
Infernal Brains Podcast – 08 – Worst Podcast Ever
The Mummies of Guanajuato – Infernal Brains Podcast Episode 09