Daniel (@dungeondive) admits the Dungeon Run series stalled: two recorded episodes were lost when the sound failed, and the political mood of the moment sapped his motivation. Then Everything Epic’s Big Trouble in Little China turned up on his doorstep. Their Secrets of the Lost Tomb is his favourite board game, so he films an unboxing. He warns it will be one of his long rambling ones, like his Dungeon Degenerates art video.
Most of the video is about film, not the box. In the late 90s and early 2000s Daniel reviewed martial arts cinema for Genre Busters. He traces how Shaw Brothers wuxia moved from the soft, flying-swordsman style to Chang Cheh’s hard open-hand kung fu, then back again with Tsui Hark’s Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983), which John Carpenter cited as an influence. From a collection of roughly 700 DVDs he pulls Mr. Vampire (with an explanation of why Chinese vampires hop), Duel to the Death, A Chinese Ghost Story, Wong Jing’s wildest films, and books by David Bordwell and Bey Logan.
The game itself impresses him. He likes the deep quest books, a double-sided board far better looking than Lost Tomb’s, merely serviceable minis, and a “Hell of English Class” card that makes you read all text aloud in a British accent.
Daniel spends most of this unboxing on the films behind the film. Has a board game ever sent you off to discover the books, movies or music it was drawing on?