The Fantasy of Deer Warrior
Director: Chang Ying
Year: 1961
Rating: 6.0
There is trouble stirring in the animal kingdom. The wolves are coming with
clubs. The little deer gambol delightfully in the forest to the tune of Santa
Claus is Coming to Town and are unaware as the wolves close in. On the other
side of the forest Sika Deer and Elk are in a fight for the favor of Miss
Deer, the hottest faun around. Though Foxy would not agree. She does a little
dance for Grandpa goat and asks him who is prettier - Miss Deer or me. Tough
call because Foxy with her Zorro mask, bikini and tail is kind of hot and
naughty. Birdie comes to tell them that the wolves are after the little deer
and Sika Deer rushes off to save them. More adventures lay ahead as Foxy
and Bloody Wolf team up for prey - though during the day time they hide and
"have fun together". Cut to them dancing to Tequila!
If this sounds like something for children, I imagine this Taiwanese film
was - sort of a child's dream after eating a pizza followed up by 5
slices of pie. There are a couple songs thrown in as well. Not to mention
a rape attempt - Elk on Deer - and many of our forest critters getting eaten
by Bloody Wolf. Yikes! Bambi x 5. All the animals are actors cheaply dressed
up as deer, wolves, goats, turtles, rabbits, monkeys and so forth. They are
cute, especially Miss Deer played by Pai Hung and Foxy played by Lin Lin.
Sika Deer is played by Ling Yun, who became a fairly big Shaw Brothers star
in dramas and romances.
There are a few lessons that are told that I guess are familiar to many children
- the tortoise and the hare in which the hare goes to sleep - but in this
one the wolf comes along and eats it. Also, the boy who cried wolf except
here it is a lamb who cries wolf and then is eaten. And the old adage, a
wolf is a wolf and in the end it will do what wolves do. Eat you. There is
a nice bit at the end when Bloody Wolf captures Miss Deer, who had naively
saved his life. She says before you eat me can we get the judgment of elders
- the Wolf agrees - they ask a tree - "Let him eat you", ask a buffalo "Let
him eat you" - a female goose - "That would not be very nice". There is also
apparently political symbolism in this that I read about in a review from
Jessica Yeung on Letterbox - in which many of the animals represented various
factions in Taiwan and outside forces. At the time the Kuomintang ruled the
country - and yes Taiwan is a country - and censorship was strict. I would
say you have to be in the right mood for this - what mood that is I can't
say but I would also say not really for children! This one is up on YouTube
with English subs.
