The wolves are China in Zhang Ying’s campy kids film.
“Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!”
It’s been a minute since I’ve seen something so odd and so delightful at the same time, so let’s dig right in to The Fantasy of the Deer Warrior, a film that probably wanted to be animated if the budget had allowed for it.
Sika Deer (Yun Ling) is … well, a sika deer who is fighting for the attention of a doe(Pai Hung) with his rival Elk (Li Min-lang). Meanwhile, the forest is under threat of wolf attacks, led by the villainous Bloody Wolf (Li Min-Lang again?), and Sika Deer wants vengeance on the wolves for killing his uncle. Fox (Lam Lam), jealous of the Doe’s beauty, schemes with Bloody Wolf to kill her, inviting disaster into the forest.
Fantasy of the Deer Warrior is a film somewhat light on plot. There’s a clear hero, a couple of villains, a love interest and some conflict. And for that, I can’t say it does anything wrong. It sets up the basic building blocks of storytelling perfectly, but the house it has constructed is as basic as it gets: a square-body, triangle-roofed dwelling with a sun looking down in sunglasses.
It’s a hard film to judge though, as it’s obviously meant for kids: there are morality stories and songs throughout, but there’s levels to it. At first glance, it’s sort of about nothing, with random vignettes interrupting the action to show us the story of tortoise and the hare, or woodland critters frolicking to Jingle Bells of all things. And yeah it is. There’s not enough story to fill 90 minutes, after all. But despite its trappings as a sort of dreamlike theatre production for kids, the story is loaded with adult situations – from the unfathomably horny fox, to the constant violence, to the level of satire.
Hidden within the story is a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment. The language spoken – Taiwanese over Mandarin – and the heroic native Sika deer is meant to evoke cultural and national pride, while the bloody red wolf, whose kin are encroaching and threatening the peaceful animals, is heralded by an air siren. The comparisons are not subtle.
The film is a … strange snapshot of Taiwanese filmmaking sixty years ago. It looks low-budget, and it was, but for an industry so strapped for cash at the time, this actually has pretty high production values. The music, chosen for its accessibility more than anything else, is completely random. From its out of season Christmas opening and with little care for intellectual property law, the soundtrack cycles through various popular tunes, including the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and a saucy dance number between fox and wolf to Tequila.
The Fantasy of the Deer warrior is so bizarre and charmingly weird; it’s a unique trip down Taiwan’s film history, and worth hunting down to watch.
Verdict: Filled with baffling creative choices, cheap effects and lots of ambling sequences, The Fantasy of the Deer Warrior makes up for all of its shortcomings with buckets of old school charm.
Overall entertainment: 7/10
Violence: 3/10
Sex: 2/10
Campiness: 8/10
Foxes: Is there a culture where they’re not depicted as complete bastards?
Film information: Finding anything accurate about this movie was difficult. I’m not entirely sure I have the cast correct, so don’t quote me
The Fantasy of the Deer Warrior (1961)
Taiwanese
Director: Zhang Ying
Writer: Chi-Cheng Chao
CAST (I think):
Yun Ling – Sika Deer
Li Min-lang – Elk
Lam Lam – Fox
Hung Pai – Miss Deer
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