EASTERN MAGICK, MONSTERS AND BRAINS

A Review of

Salamamgkero aka Magic of the Universe (1986)

 This beautiful slab of Eastern magick comes to us from the beautiful lands called the Philippines. I love Filipino films! I can't get enough of 'em. These guys know how to make good movies. This particular piece follows Jamir—the great magician!—who has accidentally sent his daughter to another dimension. He must find her by traveling through dimensions, facing all kinds of strange creatures to get her back. The film start out with some great opening credits that introduce us to every character in the movie. And then we get right to it—the magicians act! The magicians daughter is in a box and he makes her disappear, but when he says the magic words to bring her back, she is no where to be found. We hear the audience whispering and see the worried magician look around confused. As his assistants is wife named Lovina and a young chubby kid named Bojok. It is never revealed if these individuals are family. He visits a "prophet" named Ahura who tells him the Devil is out to get him! The prophet tells the magician he'll help him look for his daughter using black magic. The prophet's assistant goes out back to sacrifice a monkey and brings back the severed and scalped head. The prophet then feeds the magician and his assistant's that came with him the monkey brains! They calmly eat like their not eating f***ing monkey brains! The prophet eats the remaining monkey brain because why let perfectly good monkey brains go to waste, right? 

Globo - as himself

 The great Jamir continues to perform his traveling magic act despite the disappearance of his daughter and despite that he apparently has occult powers that can cause accidental disappearances! Well what do ya' know, it happens again. He makes some people disappear and he now finds himself in another dimension. We get a glimpse of a creature named Globo that serves as a sort of looking glass or new-age camera by displaying images through his belly. We are then introduced to the world where there are many missing children and where Jamir's wife finds herself being held prisoner. There are monsters and snakes every where. The evil Mikula (pronounced Mikura in the film) arrives on the scene covered in a black mesh veil. Lovina yells, "why are you doing this to us? We've never done any harm to you! We don't even know you!" "That is what you think!" responds Mikula, "It is correct, you have never harmed me, but your husband's great grandfather... he has been the root of this evil. He is the one that should be blamed for all this! It is because of him that you will suffer!" And that is all the exposition we get for now. 

Monsters, queens, and prisoners.

It is quickly revealed that she has been suffering for one hundred years because this douche-bag cursed her. She also couldn't have any children because of the curse. So this instantly turns into a revenge movie and it makes things a lot more interesting. And honestly I'm rooting for the evil Mikula. Jamir is visited by the ghost of grandfather who warns him that his family is in the hands of a woman who used to be one of his "disciples." Of course, his story contradicts that of Mikula's simply stating that she started to use the magic she was taught for her "own evil purposes." You may be asking yourself why Mikula didn't just take Jamir and kill him. Well apparently, according to the ghost of Jamir's grandfather, the medallion around Jamir's neck (which his father gave to him) is a sort of talisman of protection. It's also going to glow when he is close to something he needs.
After walking around and fighting Drago, Kleriga appears! She knows that Jamir is searching for his wife and daughter. Kleriga reveals that Mikula has taken her daughter also, but that she does not have enough power to kill Mikula. She councils Jamir to head southward.

We are treated to scenes of children behind bars, monsters feasting, and hot girls crying.

On their way southward Jamir and Bojok are taken prisoner by a tribe of midget-cannibal-looking people. Not kidding. But Jamir quickly performs a disappearing act and frighten the tribe. They soon perform other tricks and entertain them. Bojok feels sick from eating too many bananas and goes into the jungle to take a nap, but is kidnapped by Mikula's monsters. He is taken to her.

Bojok is forced to fight a ninja warrior, Lovina escapes and is attacked by a swamp creature, but is saved by a man living in the forest whose wife has been turned to stone by Mikula. Mikula shows up to torment them and zaps the man's stone wife with her magic cane.

In a beautiful sequence, Kleriga shows up to Mikula's dungeon of trapped children to release all the imprisoned. She does so by zapping all the locks and gates and bars with her beautiful laser-emitting eyes. The sound effect used is awesome. The scene is full of running children and pink smoke (due to the red lights used on set). Jamir shows up with the power to destroy Mikula and zaps her until she melts in a mind-melting sequence that's sure to feed your hunger for strange images.

Mikula has bullae on her head that actually breath up and down.

The Great Jamir!

Psychotronic mind melting.

I had a blast with this one. My copy is the Eastern Horror Double Feature. The quality sucks. Not so much because of the transfer. As you can see it's not bad, but for some reason the black bar on the bottom of the widescreen image is larger then the one on top so it feels like you are watching a very badly cropped image. Regardless, this is a great movie. The entire movie can also be found on YouTube in what seems to be the same transfer.

-Eddie