Archive for July, 2004
Cave Of Silken Web
Third of the four Monkey films Shaws made in the 1960s, Cave of Silken Web retains much of what made the earlier films so enjoyable: special effects, scantily clad villainesses and catch song routines. However, the third child also strikes off in a new direction, showing Shaw’s growing love for swordplay.
While nearly plot-free, Silken Web is never short on action. Monk Tripitaka (played again by Ho Fan) is captured by a septet of spider demonesses, whose skimpy arachno-erotic costumes are undeniably the film’s stars. To free his master, and fellow pilgrim Pigsy (Peng Peng), the ever-inventive Monkey (Chou Lung-chang) relies on his skills of impersonation, turning into simulacrums of local gods and various spider demonesses.
The film is obsessed with impersonation. Demonesses turn into pilgrims. Pigsy turns into Tripitaka, while turning Tripitaka into Pigsy. Monkey turns into just about everyone. Hong Kong didn’t use this much split-screen trick photography again until Jackie Chan’s Twin Dragons. The only character exempt from this abundance of magic is Monk Sandy. For the first time in Shaw’s Monkey films, Monk Sandy is given something to do, returning to the Jade Kingdom to retrieve a jar of magical fire. I’ve wondered about the short-shrift the Shaw movies give to Sandy, but from what I’ve read of the original stories, Sandy just didn’t do that much.
When they aren’t impersonating each other, the characters are fighting with swords, staffs and rakes; the series adjusting to Shaw’s greater use of action and fight choreography. But, in a pleasant change from its two predecessors, Monkey appears to have learned some restraint on his religious pilgrimage and he saves his companions through a combination of intelligence and patience, as compared to his more aggressive solutions in earlier films.
The Shaw Brothers Monkey films were never overly fond of plots, but the story of Cave of Silken Web is surprisingly thin. Like today’s summer blockbusters, the film is mostly an excuse to fill the screen with action, effects and almost-dressed attractive women. And, just like today’s blockbusters, the formula works.
Cave Of Silken Web
Released: August 21, 1967
Dir: Ho Meng-hua