Country and Year: Indonesia (1984)
Director: Ratno Timoer
Starring: Barry Prima, Advent Bangun, Enny Christina, Gudhi Sintara, Kandar Sinyo
Review By: David Austin
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars (good)
If what the movies teach is true, I want to move to Indonesia. Apparently the entire country is populated with snake queens, crocodile men, witches with removable heads, and armies of busty biker babes in pleather. Indonesian film studio Rapi Films experimented with a lot of different genres during its heyday, including ninja-sploitation (The Warrior and the Ninja), women-in-prison films (Virgins from Hell), and war epics (Hell Raiders). The Devil’s Sword clearly aimed to ride the coattails of 1982’s mega-hit Conan the Barbarian, combining it with the formula that made their indigenous sword and sorcery series The Warrior (Jaka Sembung) so successful – wild costumes, over-the-top violence, and martial arts courtesy of Barry Prima. Finally, the filmmakers overlaid the proceedings with a prog-rock synth score guaranteed to remind you that the film was made in the ‘80s.
All is well in old Indonesia until the predatory (and horny) Crocodile Queen decides she wants Sanjaya, the engaged son of a local village headman. The Queen (Gudhi Sintara) lives in a vast cave under the water with an army of crocodile men and chunky servant girls, and a pit full of starved male sex slaves. When the village defies her, she sends warrior Banyu Jaga (Lo Lieh-a-like Advent Bangun) to kill every last villager until they give in, which he proceeds to do with great abandon. Banyu Jaga is by far the most fun character in the film – he flies around on a giant rock scowling, beheading villagers with his twin hooked swords and reveling in his own evil.
While Sanjaya and most of the villagers are complete wusses, his fiancé (played by Enny Christina) is not willing to give up her man without a fight and takes on Banyu Jaga with her all-purpose umbrella. She’s tough, but not as tough as Jaga. Fortunately, that’s when local wandering hero Mandala (Barry Prima) shows up on the scene. Mandala defeats Banyu Jaga but is unable to prevent him from abducting Sanjaya. After visiting his master (Kandar Sinyo), who was injured by the treacherous Jaga, and learning of the all-powerful Devil’s Sword which was forged from a meteorite, Mandala teams up with Enny Christina (her character’s name is not used in the English dub) to rescue her husband from the Crocodile Queen. Meanwhile, Jaga’s newly league of Evil Warriors isn’t working out so well – the first motion at their meeting, carried unanimously, is in favor of killing each other.
Wanna more? follow this link The Devil’s Sword: Indonesian Sword and Sorcery Epic
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