Furious (1984)

Decades ago, I sat down with a friend to watch a movie. A martial arts movie, in fact. Even though it wasn't really my favorite genre at the time. This friend has worked at multiple video stores, back when video stores were a thing. He was perfectly suited to that job as he is gregarious (and sometimes garrulous), obsessed with movies and possessed of an excellent and slightly off-kilter taste. And yes, he did go to film school.

His pitch for this movie was that they build a whole dragon head and it's only in the movie for less than 30 seconds. Naturally I had to watch it.

I never forgot that movie, but what I did forget (almost immediately) was the TITLE. For decades, I tried to figure out what this movie was. It never quite reached the level of obsession, but it would be something I would try to search for every once in awhile.

There are some very specific elements in this movie: the chicken wizard, the aforementioned dragon head, the astral plane right. But none of these availed me in my search until recently.

Then I found this post and I immediately knew I had found the movie. I'm so grateful for that post, as it has answered a question that has dogged me for decades.

I watched it with my partner the other night and it was a lot of fun. The story is mostly an excuse to have lots of fights--but there is amazing stuff in those fights. They have some really great outdoor locations for duals and group fights. There's a nice big fight on a wooden bridge that lets them show off the use of different weapons.

They also make good use of a helicopter to take full advantage of the Southern California scenery.

But the stuff that really made it stick in my mind all these years is the wired stuff. I already mentioned the wizard and all the chickens. There are guys who just might be aliens and they have a band. And yes, there is a post-credits scene!

We found it streaming on Tubi and it has less than a 90 minute runtime. It was great to watch it again after so long. I'm so glad I finally got to re-watch a movie that I have been thinking of on and off for ages!

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