Thunder of Gigantic Serpent

Though Godfrey Ho did not directly bring this Frankenstein’s monster to life, as he merely served as the screenwriting Igor to his colleague Charles Lee’s Dr. Frankenstein, the signature of IFD Films & Arts Ltd. clearly remains. Thunder of Gigantic Serpent is another purchased B-movie that was dissected and put back together with passages containing audience potential, a sequence with western faces plus some fight scenes, and the whole thing is given a new soundtrack with dubbing based on the “original” script. Fortunately for lovers of trash, the source material was a hopeless Taiwanese attempt to paraphrase Japanese kaiju films. But instead of Godzilla, the mock-ups of the urban environment are decimated by a genetically enlarged snake, which is befriended by an annoying little girl. The original has rewarding elements, from the blatantly naïve special effects (where it is possible to see the strings being pulled by the central monster’s puppeteer, even in the miserable picture quality) to the exaggerated acting and the insipid action sequences, to minor gems like the fact that the red berets worn by soldiers are adorned with Harley-Davidson patches. By trimming the original’s dialogue passages and adding fight scenes with third-rate martial artist Pierre Kirby, the resulting cake of Joseph Lai’s dog and Betty Chan’s cat is one of the absolute highlights. In this case, the tagline “All power of the imagination!” takes on fantastical, unthinkable and amazing levels. (08/01/2023)