Let’s start at the end, shall we? Or, if you prefer, at the bottom of the barrel, so we can work our way upwards: Quest for the Mighty Sword (1990).
Here we have the third sequel to a movie nobody really wanted in the first place. We’ve got a plot that runs out of steam before it’s even got started… acting that gets worse on a logarithmic scale as the film progresses… a substitute Ator who’d much rather be doing comedy… leftover costumes from Troll 2… just about everything you’d need to push the whole “Sword and Sorcery” subgenre into obsolescence. Heck, the movie’s got Laura “Black Emanuelle” Gemser in it — but she stays fully-clothed, for Crom’s sake!
But the final indignity, at least as far as I’m concerned? Guess which famous story writer/director Joe D’Amato decided to rip off this time…!
#1 by lyzard on February 3, 2010 - 10:17 pm
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The who where what now!?
Thorn save us.
#2 by Blake on February 4, 2010 - 5:28 pm
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Bless your heart, Will, for including a screen cap of the ersatz Yongary.
#3 by The Rev. D.D. on February 4, 2010 - 9:13 pm
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Anyone else think it looked more like Pulgasari? Maybe it’s just that shot…
I had no idea they made a fourth Ator movie. Wow.
Despite knowing better (i.e. having seen the first three), I am filled with an evil desire to see this.
Did I learn nothing from Deathstalker 4?!? (Or 3, for that matter…)
#4 by DamonD on February 5, 2010 - 5:11 am
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“Quest for the Mighty Sword”, that’s a hell of name!
No Freudian subtext here, it’s all MAINtext baby!
#5 by Braineater on February 5, 2010 - 7:50 am
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Rev: Actually, the monster kind-of looks like the Godzilla suit fromSon of… when it’s seen from the front. But the horn on the nose and the scales on the back say “Yongary” to me. That, and the flame-thrower breath. Plus, good ol’ Pulgasari has his horns coming out the sides.
I guess that’s supposed to be the dragon Fafner from Siegfried. They sometimes get film directors to do opera productions, so this got me thinking: what if they sent an invitation to Kim Ki-Duk to do a production of Siegfried, and it got delivered to the wrong Kim Ki-Duk? That would be great!
Damon: sometimes a mighty sword is just a mighty sword.
…
…
This is not one of those times.
#6 by El Santo on February 5, 2010 - 8:45 am
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How many Kim Ki-Duks are there?
#7 by The Rev. D.D. on February 5, 2010 - 9:00 am
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I guess it’s just that shot in the review then–you can’t really see the nose horn or back scales. Just the snout, which looks like Pulgasari’s there. I imagine seeing the beastie in greater detail would reveal its Yongary-ness.
#8 by Braineater on February 5, 2010 - 11:20 am
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You made me go back and watch the scene in slow motion. I see how I got my initial impression, but it seems as though the actual monster suit doesn’t look much like the Big Y after all:
In the distance shots, especially the head-on ones (above), you can see the resemblance to Yongary, particularly in that he seems to be too thin for his height. The actual Yongary suit is a little oddly proportioned.
Now, in this one (again, above), he looks more like the Son of Godzilla suit to me, with the high-placed eyes and the goofy snout.
OK, eww. Skip this one.
I hadn’t seen this shot so clearly until I started getting the captures. In this picture, he looks nothing like Yongary. I hadn’t realized he had four horns instead of one, and the biggest was mounted on his forehead. In the head-on shots, it looks like the horn is on his nose…
Like this one, for example.
#9 by Braineater on February 5, 2010 - 11:22 am
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Santo: the current Kim Ki-duk (The Isle)would have been in grade school when a guy named Kim Ki-duk make the original Yongary.
#10 by The Rev. D.D. on February 5, 2010 - 9:53 pm
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OK, that last shot? I definitely see the Yongary-ness there, and understand why you said it.
I also see the Minya-ness of that one shot of him. Bleh.
Jeez, I wanna see this movie more now that I know there’s a goofy rubber monster in it.
It’s a sickness.
#11 by PCachu on February 11, 2010 - 10:27 am
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I’m guessing that someone else had already licensed the title “The Twilight of the Hubcap” and just never got around to using it.
(It’s Ator, there has to be at least one hubcap joke.)