Hi-Yah!

Readers who have been reading know that when Ms. Spenser is busy, she requests that I watch something she isn't too interested in, so she can tune out and work, tune in for breaks. We find Asian action fantasies to be perfect for this. Ms. Spenser has been busy a lot recently. 

Immortal Demon Slayer (2017) is the old Monkey King story. Eddie Peng plays Wu Kong, who shows up in Heaven to eat a peach and generally make trouble. It is the end of the epoch and the new Immortals are being chosen. It turns out that Peng is trying to destroy the Gizmo of Destiny that lets the gods contol the earthly realm - Wu Kong doesn't like being controlled. 

He meets and fights with Shawn Yue, who is in a romance with immortal waitress Ni Ni. At some point they are all cast out of Heaven to live mortal lives on Earth, which is in basd shape, due to the arrogance of the gods. 

I liked this a lot, for the hoary old story, but also for the gorgeous art direction. 

Detective K: Secret of Virtuous Widow (2011) is the first in a series of Korean comedy/mysteries, clearly based on the Detective Dee movies. Except, this detective, Kim Myung-Min, is sort of goofy. We first meet him flying to the rescue in one of those kung fu leaps - but he lands in a heap on everyone's head. "Got to work on my landings." The guy he rescues is a dog napper who only steals dogs to save them from the pot (and for money). 

The mix of goofiness and period thriller was a little bumpy - maybe it works better for a Korean audience. But I am definitely planning to watch a couple more.

Finaly, Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang (2019), a later period Jackie Chan movie. It starts with Jackie telling a thrilling story about a demon hunter, who lets good demons fight for him and entraps the bad demons with his Yin Yang brush. He is telling this to a group of children, trying to get them to buy his book. 

The police are looking for a jewel thief, but are pretty corrupt or incompetent. The incompetent is Austin Lin, a junior officer assigned to find the guy scaring kids with stories of demons. Of course Jackie is not just a story teller, but actually a demon hunter. He has a few cartoon demons who work for him. Since one of them is a little fart monster, you know this movie is for kids. There is also a story about a spirit orb, and a human who was a demon in love with a demon who could become human, or maybe the other way around. 

It's fun and silly. Jackie doesn't do much in the way of fighting (not any?), but is as charming as always. There's a cute scene where he gets his body cut in half, so his feet are runnng around while his head and torso try to connect up. The goofy CGI demons worked pretty well too. 

All in all, a few good days of movies. I treat these as sort of disposable and forgettable, which is sort of too bad. I want to watch more. Should I subscribe to Hi-Yah, the martial arts movie streaming service?