Paul Jensen (kurosawian)

This highly influential kung fu, supernatural, extravaganza is wildly over-the-top and quite impressive from a certain point of view. Visually it is spectacular. The effects are exceptional, especially for the 80s. The high-flying wire work during the martial arts became a standard in the industry ten tears later. This is where it started, all pre-CGI. How did they do it? The story is fun, epic, a little sexy with some genuinely creepy moments (especially for young audiences - I would have loved this if I was twelve). That said, everything is far too silly and comedic for the movie to be taken seriously. Think Evil Dead 2 with an Chinese kung fu mix. A shame it's so juvenile at times but still the action is insanely beautiful to watch.

Browning's nasty little film about "freaks" was banned for decades because of its use of real malformed humans. For the time it must have been a real shocker. A shame a great deal of footage has been lost forever. Still, the climax still packs a punch.