The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda - 1968 - Ira Cohen

Released in 1969

Directed by Ira Cohen

Storyline: “Part ‘Dr. Strange,’ part ‘Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome,’ The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda is so High ’60s that you emerge from its 20-minute vision perched full-lotus on a cloud of incense, chatting with a white rabbit and smoking a banana…. ‘Invasion’ is a languidly opiated costume ball in which an assortment of masked and painted bohos, some sporting outsize elf ears, loll about a candlelit, Mylar-lined set, blowing soap bubbles and nibbling majoon. …In lieu of action, 

The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda takes place in a proto-ceremonial setting, in which actors dressed in pseudo-Orientalist garb garther around a human corpde (Cohen him self) to perform a ritual burial.

The corpse rises from the grave and the crowd rejoices in this mystical rebirth. As the music changes, along with the setting, it becomes, clear tha this rebirth is but an entry into an acid-fueles dimension. The actors including Tony Conrad, Angus Maclise, Ziska Baum and others, interact in a world of intensified perception, distorted mirrors and blurred colors, Opium smokers are interspered with distorted shamanic visions of elves, princesses, snake-men, nymphs and other creatures from the1960s-era psychdelic-fairy tale psyche.

Soundtrack remastered by Tim Barnes, featuring The Universal Mutant Repertory Company (Loren Standlee, Ziska Baum, Angus MacLise, Hetty MacLise, Raja Samayana, Tony Conrad, Henry Flynt and Jackson MacLow)
*From The Mylar Chamber,” an original slideshow of 60 mylar photographs with soundtrack by Angus MacLise and original poetry by Ira Cohen.