Rating: **
Review Date: 8/29/21
A young girl named Silver Maid is sent to the Red Devils as their new pupil. How is this relevant to the story? It's not, because that plot point is completely dropped in the first ten minutes. After that, Silver Maid faces five poisonous creatures that are guarding the magical and elusive fairy fungus, which will help cure her ailing grandfather. This isn't relevant, either. A story finally starts taking shape when Silver Maid visits Phantom Manor and meets a young boy named Fu Lang. They discover that the Red Devils and Black Devils are up to no good, but they're not sure what to do next. Not long after, Western Devil and Fu Lang's sister are set up by the Red Devil chief as traitors, and Fu Lang dedicates himself to getting revenge. Meanwhile, Silver Maid and Silver Knight wipe out the Black Devils and expose the Red Devils' treachery. Make sense? Not in the slightest.
Unfortunately, the copy of the film that I saw was extremely poor quality and dubbed in a language that I didn't recognize. Maybe Thai or Malay? The subtitles were also cropped and difficult to read. From what I could tell, the actress who played Silver Maid was quite cute and charming, and a competent martial artist. The kid who played Fu Lang was also quite good, and it's unusual to see someone his age performing fights with adult stuntmen. The fight scenes are decent for the era, but it's often difficult to tell what's going on. The sets and locations are attractive for the most part, but nothing is particularly memorable. The highlight of the film is probably seeing Silver Maid fight an enormous snake, but since that happens in the first twenty minutes, you forget all about the supernatural aspect of the film by the time it's over. It's definitely a disjointed fantasy piece with no clear sense of direction or identity. The confusing plot and sluggish pacing make it difficult to watch and recommend.