Assignment 4 - Fantastic Worlds - Carlos J. Roldan

          As I've mentioned I don't really watch a lot of movies. When I do its only select few that I own that I end up watching over and over again just because I like it. For this assignment I decided to pick the film,
" Spiritual Kung Fu " Starring Jackie Chan. Here's the synopsis straight from the back of the box.

     " At the Shaolin temple the masters are constantly on the look out for one student who will rise above the rest. It isn't always who they expect. Jackie Chan plays such a pupil. Mischievous, with a ready wit, he is constantly disciplines by his teachers. But he is also fearless, and volunteers to guard the Temple's scripture hall., despite the rumor of ghosts. The shrine is haunted and Jackie encounters the spirits of the forbidden book, " The Five-Style Fists. " Banned as being too dangerous to learn , Jackie nevertheless masters the style and uses it to easily pass the rigorous tests his teachers throw at him. The final challenge comes when Jackie takes on a roving band of warriors who discover, to their surprise, that it's almost impossible to fight someone who has been taught by the spirits themselves. "

        As you can tell its a Kung fu film and fairly old. It Genre probably also falls under comedy seeing as anything with Jackie Chan has some comedic flavor.

What does it depict that's impossible in reality? 
 Most of this movie is possible in reality , saved for one thing. The five spirits of the Five-Style Fist that train Jackie in said style.

 Dragon, Snake, Tiger, Crane, and Leopard. In the movie they're just men in grass skirts and leotards with flamboyantly red wigs along with a head piece that corresponds to what animal they represented. At one point of the movie they appear see-through or " Transparent" since they were suppose to be depicted as ghosts.

What Visual Effects does it use to accomplish this ?

 At 4:13 they appears as ghosts. If this were done digitally I would think they had to isolate each character then reduce the opacity on them so that they appear translucent. Now how they would do that prior to digital I don't really know.  










Why do this ? 
So they are depicted as spirits and not just some odd fellow in grass skirt and leotard painted white.

If you wish to watch the  entire movie I'll just leave this here.