Ginseng King (1988)

A little boy is foraging out in the forest when he is bitten by a snake, and nursed back to health by the 1000 year old Ginseng King. Unfortunately there are others who want the King's healing abilities, and in a fight, some of his whiskers land on a grave, resurrecting a nazi as a zombie, who goes on to attack the boy's mother. Hsiaoming must now find and rescue the Ginseng King if he is ever to save his mother...

In the world of cult cinema, you can't get weirder than what comes out of Asia, and Ginseng King is often on the top of such lists! It was on my Watch list for a while. I actually saw it at complete random though, just happening to check out a movie called Three Headed Monster, and I realised after about 10 minutes what I was watching!

Ginseng King is that rare weird low-budget movie that lives up to its poster in every detail. The film gets off to an almost straightforward start, with some boyhood adventure, and a bit of magic. I've seen the film compared with The NeverEnding Story, with some even calling it a ripoff. I feel that's going a bit far, but there are a few neat parallels.

The film's lead is young Hsiaoming, who has a simple task of trying to save his mother. Grandpa Earthgod is a grumpy old god who is more or less pressganged into helping, and would rather be kicking back a tequila somewhere. And the Ginseng King is both friendly and wise, and understands the goodness and greediness of man very well. Other supernatural characters include Big Ears and Big Eyes, two giants who help out. They act as a bit of a deus ex machina a few times, basically solving tough situations for the heroes through radio. It's a good thing the Demon King apparently doesn't believe in searching prisoners!

Amazon warrior Hsiaoli starts out as a bad guy, but we soon see there's more to her as she switches sides. There's also a chained madwoman who turns out to be the old queen of this kingdom. Her former palace holds a wall of prophecy that foretells much of the movie's events. Which begs the question, why did you hire the 3 headed demon then, if you knew he would overthrow you?

Also of note is the nazi zombie who causes trouble in the first act, before meeting an explosive end. This leads to some amusing sight gags where  mistakes a priest as a superior because of his own swastika. It's also funny when the Ginseng King is dismissed as all legend, by the magical monk fighting a vampire!

One of the more interesting aspects of the film, whether intentional or not, is how the characters mirror each-other a lot. We have Hsiaoming and the girl, both seeking cures for their mothers. There's the Ginseng King and the Demon King, even a holy man with a swastika and a nazi.

The climax has a lot going on. The heroes go back and free the madwoman, which I wouldn't have thought a good move, myself! She has enough evil laughter to power a jet engine. She then leads them to the fabled ice sword. The wall of prophecy did say only poison would kill the Demon King, but ice swords sound fun too. All the while, the Ginseng King's execution is nearing closer, and then...The unexpected happens!

After the Ginseng King's jawdropping fate, the heroes take the battle to the Demon King, and it's a fun fight, though the boy does nothing, despite being the lead, and Grandpa has completely disappeared! Given the Ginseng King's last actions, none of the heroes actually need to do anything, but thankfully the girl insists, giving us a good battle in the process. I was hoping there'd be a leftover ginseng whisker for her though! Talk about a bummer.

Then, after everything we've been though, all these oddities, we get the most abrupt ending! Hsiaoming finds Grandpa Earthgod again, who holds up a Ginseng whisker and says "He gave it to me before he died. Your ma's safe!". The End.

Ginseng King is a bizarre film, that gets more and more out there as it goes. It also doesn't feel weird just for the sake of being weird. It has an authenticity I appreciate. It reminded me of the Filipino fantasy Magic of the Universe. Similarly forest based, full of crazy magic and monsters, and cartoony 80s effects, etc.

Ginseng King can be summed up with this great youtube comment: "What I love about this movie, is how much the level of craziness escalates. They give each moment just enough time to really sink in so you feel the rise when it happens. This is the pinnacle of oddities."

The effects here are creative and fun, and well-made! The titular Ginseng King looks more scary and grotty than cute, especially with the huge bulging eyes, while the three headed demon is realised well, including whenever he loses his heads. I'm impressed they were able to keep putting him back together! A similar scene where the boy holds a conversation with a severed head felt right out of Scary Movie.

The size difference with the giants is handled fairly well, if a bit obvious. The make-up for others is good too, like the zombie, and madwoman. And the locations here are neat, from the expansive forest, to the demon's lair. It does feel a bit set-bound in the later stages, but it's not terrible.

The performances here match the craziness of the action and costumes, while the more traditional actors like Cynthia Khan as an Amazon action girl are fine.

The score here is made up of various neat tracks that don't last nearly as long as they should have. Including some that reminded me of Mischief Makers!

The direction is pretty good, and competently shows the madness onscreen.Some fight scenes are cramped and darkly lit though, to the point where I didn't even notice Grandpa Earthgod had been kidnapped. Although in fairness, this could be explained by the crummy print quality. Ginseng King really is one of those movies you just couldn't imagine ever existing in HD quality! It's just seem wrong somehow, like something this cheap couldn't possibly be in good quality, surely! It'd be like seeing Fantasy Mission force without the VHS Tracking screen.

Ginseng King is a perfect example of oddball Asian cinema, and a great title to check out!