A boy seeks a sentient, thousand-year-old ancient ginseng to save his mother who's been attacked by a Nazi zombie, where if he fails to find the plant within a day his mother could become a Nazi zombie herself.
... what, you needed more plot? Really? Okay...
Three Headed Monster is a 1988 schlocktastic fantasy action movie directed by Wang Chu-Chin.
Inspired by popular films at the time such as The Neverending Story and Labyrinth, the movie is Hong Kong's attempt at mixing fantasy action (previously used in Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain) in a more kid-friendly setting.
In the rural Chinese mountains, Ming, a young boy, stumbles across the ancient, sentient living ginseng, a thousand-year-old Plant Person, who saved his life after he was bitten by a poisonous snake. Believing what he saw to be a hallucination, Ming had to seek the ancient ginseng again when his mother gets attacked by a zombie in Nazi attire and is put into a deep sleep. But along the way, a bunch of cultists, led by the Hunter Princess (Cynthia Khan), are seeking the ginseng too, and Ming had to stay a step ahead of his pursuers.
And YES, there is a Three-headed Monster in this film.
Cynthia Khan would find greater success in her next role, her debut as an ass-kicking policewoman in the In The Line of Duty film series.
Not to be confused with Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.
Three-Headed Tropers:
- Alas, Poor Yorick: The decapitated head of the thousand-year-old ginseng, upon being found by Ming and the Princess, where Ming desperately cradles the ginseng's head in his arms and beg him to wake up. He did.
- Batman Gambit: The thousand-year-old ginseng has forseen his own death will come, from being devoured by the three-headed monster, which is why it actually poisoned itself beforehand before it dies. When the monster devours what's left of the ginseng, it ends up severely poisoning itself, allowing the Princess to finally destroy him.
- Cool Sword: A literal example with the Ice Sword, a BFS whose blade emanates with freezing-cold energy and can fire Sword Beam attacks at opponents.
- Deep Sleep: Ming's mother suffers from this fate after barely surviving the Nazi zombie's attack, and it's up to Ming to seek the ancient ginseng that can revive her.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Wonder what kind of monster the titular Big Bad is?
- Eye Beams: The three-headed monster can shoot beams from ALL three of its heads.
- Fur Bikini: Worn by the Princess and leader of the hunters, portrayed by the then 20-year-old Cynthia Khan.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The thousand-year-old ginseng, who gave up his life to allow the heroes to defeat the three headed monster. But it's implied that being an ancient, sentient root, he can regrow himself soon enough.
- In the Hood: The hunters and cultists are all depicted in face-concealing hoods, hiding their visibly disfigured, blister-coated skin.
- Left Stuck After Attack: One of the cultists who tries to ambush the ginseng with an ax ends up getting his ax embedded in a tree, whereupon the ginseng made a quick run for it while the cultist tries to free his weapon.
- Literally Shattered Lives: The three-headed monster (sans two heads) finally dies when the Princess hurls the Ice Sword through the monster's midsection, causing it to collapse and fall apart.
- Ms. Fanservice: The Princess played by Cynthia Khan, probably the role where she gets to wear the least amount of clothing.
- Multiple Head Case: The titular monster, of course. The middle head appears to be the one who's in charge, while the left and right head would spend times bickering when things doesn't go their way.
- Mutual Kill: After destroying the titular monster, the Princess then succumbs from being shot through the gut by the monster's eye-beams.
- Off with His Head!:
- The thousand-year-old ginseng suffers this fate after being executed by the cultists, before the rest of his body gets dismembered to be devoured by the three-headed king. But he gets better.
- In the climax, the Princess gets to wield the Ice Sword, and uses it to remove the left and right heads of the titular monster.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The zombie that attacked Ming and his mother, and injures the mother causing her to be reduced to a semi-comatose, unconscious state, is a former Nazi officer who unintentionally stumbled into the forests of China before getting killed and resurrected as a zombie. And he still retains his memories from his past life and believes himself to be a Nazi, to the point of uttering "Heil Hitler!" while assaulting his victims.
- Parrying Bullets: The Princess does this using her Ice Sword, when the three-headed monster fires its Eye-beams on her.
- Plant Person: The thousand-year-old ginseng, a sentient, living ginseng plant which has assumed a humanoid form capable of talking and running on its own.
- Rock Monster: The titular three-headed king, an ancient golem which is worshipped by an ancient tribe as a god. There are also two benevolent, harmless rock guardians who acts as Seers and guides to help Ming locate the thousand-year-old ginseng.
- Shock and Awe:
- The thousand-year-old ginseng has electrical attacks, which a cultist learns when he tries grabbing the ginseng and ends up getting tazed.
- In the climax, when the Princess wields the Ice Sword, somehow the Ice Sword grants her electric-based powers as well, which proves useful against the three-headed monster.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: It does for the princess, in a last-ditch attempt to kill the three-headed monster - who only had one head left - before she succumbs to her wounds. Combined with Impaled with Extreme Prejudice as her flung Ice Sword goes through the monster's gut.
- Warrior Princess: The Hunter Princess, as portrayed by Cynthia Khan.
- Wise Tree: The thousand-year-old ginseng, being an ancient figure, is wise beyond his years and often provides advice for
