THE NINE DEMONS (1984)
Visual Vengeance Collector's Edition
Label: Visual Vengeance
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 98 Minutes 48 Seconds
Audio: English or Chinese Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080i HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Chang Che
Cast: Sheng Chaing, Feng Lu, Tien Chi Cheng
The Nine Demons (1984) is directed by Shaw Brothers visionary Chang Cheh (Five Deadly Venoms), made for his own Taiwanese production company Hong Kong Chang He Motion Picture Co. Ltd. In it blood bothers Gan Yun (Chris Lee, Duel to the Death) and Zuo Qi (Ricky Cheng, The Brave Archer III), hilariously referred to as Gary and Joey in the English dub, survive an poisoned soup assassination plot carried out by Brother Yin (Yu Tai-Ping), which claims the life their fathers Lord Gan (Chang Peng) and Zuo (Wang Chi-Sheng). Qi escapes while Yun is captured and marked for death, and while fleeing Qi accidentally stumbles into a doorway to hell, which apparently opens up every 500 years, where he makes a deal with The Black Prince Of Hell (Chang Fu-Chien) to trade his soul for the martial arts skills and magic to defeat those that betrayed and murdered their fathers, and to free Yun. In return he is given supernatural martial art abilities, as well as a necklace of nine skulls that he can transform into eight blood-drinking demon children and their mother (Wang Quen, Magnificent Bodyguards).
This flick is wildly unhinged, an action-packed supernatural fueled revenger with wuxia style high-flying acrobatics and demonic flesh-hungry children offering both non-stop action and an orgy of vibrantly colored horror-violence. I lost track of the plot a few times, it's not the film's strong suite to be honest, but it's a non-stop, action-packed slice of martial arts occult-fantasy, so this still gets a high recommend from me.
Audio/Video: The Nine Demons (1984) makes it's North American disc debut on a region-free Blu-ray from Visual Vengeance in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen, sourced from a "New 2K transfer from original film elements supervised by film archivist Toby Russell". The image looks quite good, the source in in terrific shape, while there does look to be some light digital filtering applied which does wipe away some of the finer detail it still has appreciable textures. The garish lighting is super-saturated, like eye-searingly garish, the purples, red and blues are electric looking in spots. Black levels can be slightly milky looking in spots, but otherwise I thought this looked solid. Audio comes by way of English or Mandarin with optional English subtitles. The Mandarin language track is the most robust and fuller sounding of the two, but I preferred the English dub for the fun-factor. Both tracks are relatively clean and well-balanced, the score and canned sound effects fare well, but the English track is particularly thin sounding range wise.
Extras are plentiful, starting off with a new Audio
Commentary with martial arts film historians Justin Decloux and Dylan Cheung who delve the into the distribution history, how it's a film sort of out of date, a bit of a weird wuxia, and touching on the fantastic visual elements of the film. We also get a 10-min The Discovery of James Wu Kuo-Ren: Video Essay with Justin Decloux offering an appreciation of the film cinematographer's directorial work, and he returns again for the 20-min The Late Period Chang Che: Video Essay. Next is the 10-min archival Actor Yu Tai-Ping Interview, plus a 54-min Unsung Horrors Podcast: The Nine Demons episode, which I liked well enough to add it to my podcast catcher
We also get a 93-min Nine Demons: Complete Old School ‘Dirty VHS’ Version (93:07), which has the alternate The Nine Venoms title card. Disc extras are finished-up with a 32-sec Image Gallery, 2-min Visual Vengeance Trailer, plus 5-min of Visual Vengeance Trailers.
The single-disc release arrives in a clear keepcase with a Reversible Wrap featuring original VHS artwork as well as a new design by Jolyon Yates. Inside there's a
Folded Mini-Poster featuring an alternate original theatrical artwork. The limited edition first-pressing also includes a Slipcover O-card featuring new and unique art by Uncle Frank, a ‘Stick Your Own’ VHS Sticker Set, plus an 8-page Illustrated Booklet containing the 'Enter: The Venom Mob' - liner notes booklet by C.J. Lines.
Special Features:
- New 2K transfer from original film elements supervised by film archivist Toby Russell
- Commentary with martial arts film historians Justin Decloux and Dylan Cheung
- The Discovery of James Wu Kuo-Ren: Video Essay (10:27)
- The Late Period Chang Che: Video Essay (20:29)
- Actor Yu Tai-Ping Interview (10:03)
- Unsung Horrors Podcast: The Nine Demons episode (53:42)
- Nine Demons: complete old school ‘Dirty VHS’ version (93:07) The Nine Venoms title card
- Image Gallery (0:32)
- Visual Vengeance Trailers: The Nine Demons (1.55), Born A Ninja + Commando the Ninja (0:58), Fatal Flying Guillotine (2:03), Ninja Operation + Knight and Warrior (1:38)
- Folded Mini-Poster featuring original theatrical art
- Reversible sleeve featuring original alternate art
- ‘Stick Your Own’ VHS Sticker Set - FIRST PRESSING ONLY
- Enter: The Venom Mob - liner notes booklet by C.J. Lines - FIRST PRESSING ONLY
- Limited Edition O-card featuring art by Uncle Frank
Screenshots from the Visual Vengeance Blu-ray:
Extras:
Buy It!
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