For
years, one of the most famous Chinese science fiction stories was written by a
prominent archaeologist. Tong Enzheng’s story features some nakedly
propagandistic dialogue awkwardly shoe-horned into its forty-some pages, but
the author suffered greatly during the Cultural Revolution and eventually went
into semi-self-imposed exile after the Tiananmen Square crack-down. The film
adaptation produced during the early Deng years is considered the very first
Chinese science fiction film (numero uno), but it won’t do much to burnish Tong’s
literary reputation with contemporary viewers. Still, you can’t deny the
spectacle of Hongmei Zhang’s Death Ray on
Coral Island when it screens during MoMA’s ongoing film series, Future Imperfect: The Uncanny in Science Fiction.
Working
on an unspecified Pacific Rim location off the Mainland, Prof. Zhao’s Chinese
research team makes a breakthrough in the development of their atomic battery.
Just as they start to celebrate with an evening of foxtrot ballroom dancing,
the respected chairman of the supposedly humanitarian Venus research foundation
starts sniffing around. Despite his reputation, he is actually the front man
for a foreign power. Since Coral Island was
produced in 1980, his shadowy patron has a conspicuously Russian name.
Unbeknownst
to the now-murdered Zhao, the Venus Foundation first arranged for his mentor Hu
Mingli to be committed to a mental asylum and then fooled him into believing
they were his benefactors when they facilitated his release. Under the assumed
name of Dr. Matthews, he has been working on a powerful laser weapon in their
secret lab. Guess where its located. Somehow, Prof. Zhao’s foreign-born, ethnic
Chinese assistant stumbles across Coral Island in his efforts to bring the
murderers to justice. However, it will be Hu who saves Chen by zapping a hungry
shark with a laser in what might be the single nuttiest scene ever realized
with absolutely no ironic winking.
If
Coral Island’s narrative sounds
haphazard and unwieldly, it’s because it is. There is no question this is the
kind of movie you want to go into with a few wingmen, like Crow and Tom Servo.
Yet, the seemingly random plot points pale in comparison to the “white-face”
actors playing the Venus bad guys in whitening makeup, prosthetic noses, and
impossibly red wigs. What would the Social Justice Warriors say? Regardless of
racial politics, it is an indescribably bizarre sight to take in.
Yet,
we have to give Zhang Hongmei credit for framing some striking images—particularly
the exteriors of the prison-like asylum (talk about projection, the old
sanitarium functioning as a dungeon for political prisoners was a mainstay of
both Soviet and Maoist Communism). His color palate is also surprisingly bright
and groovy. Frankly, this film could pass for a product of 1969 or 1972, well
before its 1980 release. Yet, it is the weird little details, like the ballroom
dancing and the period trappings that inspire such nostalgia, such as the
enormous floppy disks that really make Coral
Island so much fun. In fact, the film is far less didactic than the story
is reported to be.