MAGIC OF SPELL (桃太郎大顯神威)
aka CHILD OF PEACH 2
dir. Chiu Chung-hing, 1988
Taiwan. 80 min.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, MAY 3 - MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, MAY 9 - 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14 - 10 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 24 - 7:30 PM

Peach Kid (Lin Hsiao-lu) returns for another fruit-bearing adventure. This time he and his buddies, Tiny Dog, Tiny Monkey, and Tiny Cock, must team up to save the recently reborn Ginseng King (no relation to the one from our last foray in Taiwanese action fantasy) from a demon sorcerer intent on using the living plant-child’s powers to restore his lifeforce.

The first semi-sequel to CHILD OF PEACH takes on a much darker tone than its predecessor, pitting our plucky prunus persica against devils, the undead, and jiangshi of all stripes. Though still technically a kids’ movie, the film also boasts some of the genre’s creepiest villains in Chang Shan’s demon sorcerer and his band of henchmonsters, introduced to the audience bathing in the blood of children and inexplicably hellbent on slaughtering the Peach Kid and anyone close to him. But on the lighter side, Peach Kid gets a sweet new theme song in this one!