Saga of the Phoenix Blu-ray Review

88 Films

Blu-ray Release: December 16, 2025

Video: 1.85:1/1080p/Color

Audio: Cantonese LPCM 2.0 Mono

Subtitles: English

Run Time: 94:08

Director: Lam Nai-Choi & Lau Shut-Yue

When an ancient evil stirs once more, monks Peacock (Yuen Biao) and Lucky Fruit (Hiroshi Mikami) are called back into action to confront a new supernatural threat. This time, their quest draws them to Hong Kong, where they must protect the innocent and face an unholy alliance of demons and dark sorcery. Alongside them is Ashura (Gloria Yip), still torn between her human heart and her fated link to the underworld, as her powers become the key to either salvation or destruction. (From 88 Films’ official synopsis)

Lam Nai-Choi, sometimes credited as Simon Lam, began his career as a cinematographer at Shaw Bros. before relocating to rival studio Golden Harvest, where he became a director and made some of the most absurd and imaginative films of the ‘80s and early ‘90s. He only made 13 features in total, but is well-remembered for a trio of unhinged Cat. III masterpieces – the demented Indiana Jones meets Mr. Vampire meets Evil Dead extravaganza, The Seventh Curse (1986), the delirious pseudo-remake of Witches of Eastwick, Erotic Ghost Story (1990), and the splatter kung fu classic The Story of Ricky (based on a manga, 1991). 

Between his Cat. III films, the infectious genre mash-up The Cat (1991), and disturbing rape/revenge tale Her Vengeance (1988), Lam also made an epic, two-part adaptation of writer/illustrator Makoto Ogino’s manga Peacock King (originally published between 1985 and 2019). Those films, Peacock King (1988) and Saga of the Phoenix (1990), forego Lam’s typical shocks and gruesome violence in order to focus action and fantasy. They’re made more in the spirit of earlier martial arts fantasy films, like Ho Meng-hua’s Journey to the West tetralogy (1966-’68) and Tsui Hark’s Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1985). 

88 Films’ October 2025 UK Blu-ray release of Peacock King isn’t making the jump to American retailers, so this review will focus on the sequel, Saga of the Phoenix, from here on out. 

The sequel sort of assumes we’ve seen the first film and throws us into the mix without a lot of context, though, to be fair, even with the context, the plot (attributed to five writers and Ogino) and pacing are haphazard, even by Lam’s standards. For example, the first battle involves our returning heroine, Ashura (Gloria Yip), more or less stumbling upon demonic dog statues, being rescued by our returning heroes, Peacock (Yuen Biao) and Lucky Fruit (Hiroshi Mikami), who are themselves attacked by shambling zombies, who are then counterattacked by a group of warrior nuns. Overwhelmed, the previously vulnerable Ashura summons a giant fireball and blows up the bad guys in a spectacular explosion. It is an awesome sequence, no doubt, but zips by so quickly that it’s nearly impossible to parse.

Viewers accustomed to this brand of ‘80s/early ‘90s Southeast Asian fantasy action will likely know the deal, finding it simple enough to accept the absurdities and enjoy the ride. They’ll be ready, nay excited, when the story very suddenly shifts focus to modern Hong Kong settings and introduces two new protagonists – some lecherous comic relief in a Battleship Potemkin t-shirt (Lau Shek-Yin) and an audience surrogate/love interest (Loletta Lee) – around the halfway mark. They’ll trust that there’s another effects-driven, Dragon Ball-esque ki-blast fight just around the corner (there always is) and that the finale will be spectacular (it always is).

What’s more likely to make or break Saga of the Phoenix is the fact that it’s aimed at a younger audience than the already relatively family-friendly movies that it’s so heavily indebted to (mainly Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain). More runtime is devoted to juvenile antics, shopping sprees, cheesecake pool parties, and endless set-pieces involving a cutesy, Mogwai-like puppet character named Tricky Ghost (apparently he’s meant to be a genie), than to magical battles between superpowered monks and demons. Personally, I found Tricky Ghost to be more of a Gizmo than a Jar Jar Binks, but would still prefer re-watching The Story of Ricky or The Cat to Saga of the Phoenix or Peacock King.

Video

Saga of the Phoenix never got a proper VHS or DVD release in North America, but it could be imported on non-anamorphic, region free disc from Hong Kong companies Tai Seng and Universal Laser & Video. 88 Films’ Blu-ray debut (available in the US, Canada, and the UK) is presented in 1080p and its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The transfer was supplied directly to 88 Films by Fortune Star Films. Something I’d like to reiterate that I haven’t in a while is that Hong Kong movies, especially those from the ‘80s and early ‘90s, looked very bad on home video for years. Even Blu-ray versions tended to be upconverts or taken from bad sources.

88 Films’ Saga of the Phoenix transfer doesn’t match the clarity and dynamic range of a nice 4K remaster, but its issues are still quite minor in comparison to what fans would’ve been used to for decades. That said, textures, including film grain, are velvety. Foggier scenes, of which there are many, have a smudgy, sometimes blocky quality. Still, elements are neatly separated when necessary, print damage artifacts are minimal (most appear at the very beginning), and the cartoony palette is quite vivid.

Audio

Saga of the Phoenix is presented with only a Cantonese language option in its original mono and uncompressed LPCM sound. I assume there was a Mandarin dub made at some point, but it isn’t included here. It’s clear from the Golden Harvest title theme that this track has seen better days and, while it never suffers from distortion, there is slight and persistent muffling throughout. Fortunately, the lack of sharpness doesn’t compromise overall clarity. Also, as tends to happen with movies from this era, the post-dubbed lip sync is pretty far off, sometimes due to cast members speaking Japanese on set.

Saga of the Phoenix is one of only seven films scored by Phillip Chan (along with The Cat). Chan is better known as a performer, who entered acting as a member of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, later appearing in Sammo Hung’s Winners and Sinners (1983), John Woo’s Hard Boiled (1992), and Stanley Tong’s Police Story III: Supercop (1993). He also directed 11 films and wrote 16. Chan’s music fits the Golden Harvest fantasy score mold with repetitive, yet moody pad synths, precious preschool ditties, and weird time signatures.  

Extras

• Commentary with Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto – Everyone’s favorite NY Asian Film Festival programmer is joined by animation and documentary producer DeSanto. The duo explores the making of the Hong Kong/Japanese co-production, connections and differences between Saga of the Phoenix and Peacock King, the other HK fantasy films of the era, the wider careers of the cast & crew (I neglected to mention that Zatoichi himself, Shintarô Katsu, plays the god-like Jiku Ajari), the division of labor between Lam Nai-Choi and credited co-director Lau Shut-Yue (this apparently explains some of the film’s tonal whiplash), the Nepal and Hong Kong locations, and advances in special effects technology over the late ‘80s.

• Alternate Japanese footage (11:58, HD) – This collection of Japan-exclusive footage is presented in HD, but largely sourced from SD elements. It’s mostly made up of extra dialogue with Japanese actors Shintarô Katsu and Yûko Natori.

• Saga of Golden Harvest: The International Connection (22:16, HD) – Film historian and producer Albert Lee discusses his upbringing, his early career as a journalist, distribution work for Golden Harvest, international distribution, and more.

• Image gallery

• Theatrical trailer

The images on this page are taken from the BDs and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.