The Fantastic Magic Baby (3 Stars)

"The Fantastic Magic Baby" is one of the strangest entries in the famed Shaw Brothers catalogue; rather than the hard-hitting kung fu epics the studio is known for, it plays like a filmed Peking Opera adaptation of a chapter from Journey to the West, focusing on the impish Red Boy (aka the Fantastic Magic Baby) and his clashes with the Monkey King and the celestial pantheon.

Visually and stylistically, the film is a vivid feast of opera-inspired choreography, flamboyant costumes and painted-backdrop stagecraft, with fights unfolding more like acrobatic dance numbers than conventional fight scenes; this gives the film a theatrical energy that is incredibly distinctive but can also feel disorienting or slow to viewers expecting standard martial arts spectacle.

The narrative itself is skeletal: there’s a simple arc about rescuing the monk Tripitaka and guiding Red Boy toward righteousness, but most of the enjoyment comes from the sheer performative flair. For some, that makes it a mesmerising oddity; for others it drifts toward the baffling.

In short, it’s less a traditional martial arts film and more a vibrant, theatrical curiosity; worth watching for fans of Hong Kong cinema and anyone curious about the fusion of opera and wuxia, but likely not representative of Shaw Brothers' typical action fare.