I spent the majority of my life thinking this movie was a fever dream. I saw this at some point in my youth and it was glorious and whimsical and I couldn't follow the plot at all but I think that was by design. A few years later and this movie is still rolling around in the back of my brain like a coked up squirrel in a hamster ball and I bring it up to somebody, probably a parent.
Me: "Remember that movie about the guy who goes to the moon and meets the floating head king?"
Parent: *Shakes head, looking awfully confused*
Me: "The main character keeps meeting death and escaping. There was the one part where the blacksmith squeezes coal into a diamond."
Parent: "I have no idea what you're talking about. Was this an animated movie? Do you remember its name?"
Me: "No, it was live action. He had a friend who was super strong and he got all of the gold in the city because he won a bet."
Parent: "Still no."
At this point I was forced to confront the possibility that I'd dreamt the whole movie up. It's not like it doesn't lend itself to that interpretation with quick jumps from one environment to another and a plot that only just holds together in the face of its own metaness. So I grew with this film trapped in a super position, too vivid to be just a dream but utterly incongruous with the real world.
Then I found it floating in the node gel, a sliver of memory cast off into the void had returned to me. I looked it up and bought a copy on the same day. It was everything I remembered and more.
Thank you E2.
IRON NODER X: XTREME XCELLENCE