Yu-Yen Lin

The Founding of Ming Dynasty is a highly fictionalized fantasy retelling of the early years of Zhu Yuanzhang’s life that was obviously geared toward younger audiences. The tale actually begins in Heaven, where the various gods are busy paving the way for a new emperor. The very basic facts of Zhu Yuanzhang’s life are ostensibly correct, but it takes a rather unexpected turn into traditional giant monster territory, with a Taoist priest summoning a gigantic red-haired ogre (amusingly referred to as ‘superman’ in the subtitles) to destroy our heroes, who are in turn rescued when a golden dragon (the animal manifestation of one of the deities from earlier in the film) rises from the ocean to do battle with said ogre.

The complicated story involves the military conquest of a peaceful island-nation by an evil despot and his sorcerer ally. His victory leaves the island's three heroic protectors dead, but, their young children are hidden away to grow to adulthood with different identities, unaware of their heritage, in hope that, in time, they might challenge and defeat the evil ruler. The charming Polly Kuan stars as one of these children who has been adopted by the conquerer himself, initially as an insult to the defeated hero, later as his protégé.