Saga of the Phoenix (A Xiu Luo) is a direct sequel to Peacock King (Hung cheuk wong ji, 1988), and like the previous film, it was a fairly unique cinematic collaboration between Hong Kong and Japan. The cultural cross-pollination is reflected both in front of and behind the camera: The film was helmed by two Hong Kong directors, Ngai Choi Lam and Sze-Yu Lau, while the star power was split between Hong Kong martial artist Biao Yuen and Japanese model-turned-actor Hiroshi Abe. Both films were based on a manga series by Makoto Ogino that was first serialized and then published in 17 volumes between 1986 and 1990; the screenplay was penned by Japanese writer Hirohisa Sasaki, who had worked primarily in anime television series, and than adapted by three Hong Kong writers, Sau-Ling Chan, Yiu-Ming Leung, and Tsui-Wah Wong.

There had certainly been examples of such co-productions in the past, most notably Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman (Shin Zatôichi: Yabure! Tôjin-ken, 1971), which brought together popular action heroes from each country. And for decades, Hong Kong and Japanese technicians and actors had moved across borders, often as a means of expanding markets. However, such co-productions were few and far enough between that Saga of the Phoenix and its predecessor felt new and unusual at the time.

If you have not already seen Peacock King (which I had not), the narrative in Saga of the Phoenix still makes sense—or, at least as much sense as it can make. There is a helpful voice-over narration at the beginning that lays out the main characters, particularly Ashura (Gloria Yip), the Hell Virgin who was protected in the first film by Tibetan monk Peacock (Biao Yuen) and Japanese monk Lucky Fruit (Hiroshi Abe). Despite her terrifying sounding name, the Hell Virgin is actually an innocent who happens to be imbued with great, potentially destructive power, which is why dark forces from the Realm of Demons are always trying to control her.

In this case, it is the Hell Concubine (Ngai Suet) who sends her minions from the dark underworld to try to snatch Ashura while she is spending seven days enjoying the experience of the human world under the protection of Peacock and Lucky Fruit, as well as three supernatural warrior-nuns (Yukari Tachibana, Noriko Arai, and Ryo Narushima). Although she must be condemned forever for her misdeeds in the previous film, she is given this seven-day respite by the powerful Buddhist Abbot Jiku Ajari (Shintaro Katsu, star of 26 Zatoichi films) and the High Abbess (Yuko Natori). Ashura is more childlike than anything (despite her propensity for causing mass damage), and her innocent view of sunshine and swimming pools gives the film a decidedly sweet edge that offsets (sometimes to a problematic degree) all the supernatural and demonic activity.

While the opening and closing parts of the film are replete with martial arts action and gloriously retro optical and practical special effects that immerse us in a surreal imagining of a dark underworld, the middle section is primarily a fish-out-water comedy that finds Ashura experiencing the modern human world alongside a new friend, Chin (Loletta Lee), and her suspicious, scientist brother, Tan (Shek-Yin Lau). And, I would be remiss if I did not include mention of Ashura's best friend, a so-called "imp" named Tricky Ghost who looks like some kind of bizarre Muppet mashup of an elf, a gremlin, and a snake. Standing a foot and a half tall with long, floppy ears and black billiard-ball eyes, he is surprisingly expressive and humorous, offering what was clearly meant to be an easy inroad to the film for small kids who love anarchy, mischief, and slapstick comedy. Tricky Ghost doesn't speak, but rather articulates with various sounds—gasps, whines, and squeaks. Mostly depicted as a puppet, he also has several sequences in which he is brought to life with stop-motion animation, although these sequences tend to kill the illusion because their herky-jerky style stands out from the rest of the film.

Like so many Hong Kong films of this era, Saga of the Phoenix is all over the place in terms of genre and tone. If one were to start watching the movie, step out, and then come back in, one couldn't be faulted for thinking the movie had been switched with another (a horror movie! A martial arts movie! A kid's comedy!). While not nearly as violent or gory as some of co-director Ngai Choi Lam's other films (most notably 1991's notorious Ricky-Oh: The Story of Ricky), it has its share of monster madness, including a long sequence in which the otherwise goofy-sweet Tricky Ghost is possessed and turned monstrous. At the same time, the film is replete with silly comedy and sentimentality, although even that sometimes turns a bit too dark for its own good (when Tan wants to get back at Tricky Ghost for shaving off one of his eyebrows, he nearly drowns him in a washing machine and then puts him in an oven).

The film's biggest sin, though, is sidelining the great martial artist Biao Yuen, the star of the previous film, for nearly half of its running time by freezing him in a block of ice. This gives Hirosi Abe's Lucky Fruit more screen time and plot centrality (which apparently he didn't have in Peacock King), but despite his towering presence, he is still more model than actor at this point, largely watching from the sidelines, which is no place for a demon-hunting monk to be.

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