Shaolin Wooden Men (1976) November 7, 2007
Posted by Cal in : 1970s films, Kung Fu , 4 commentsDirector: Chen Chi-Hwa Cast: Jackie Chan, Kam Kong, Doris Lung, Chiang Kam Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Lo Wei Motion Picture Co
A mute and underachieving Shaolin student (Jackie Chan) endures mistreatment and disdain by his contemporaries for his disability while the masters think he’s lazy and lacking in ability. He harbours a secret past: as a child, he saw his father assassinated, and has vowed to find the killer. One day, as he slaves away at the temple, he spots a secret cave within the grounds and investigates it to find a man chained to the walls. Living on scraps provided by the guards, the mute strikes up a friendship with the prisoner and trades extra food for Kung Fu lessons. He also gets some tuition from a Shaolin nun and a drunken monk, and soon he is skilful enough to take the ultimate graduation test – crossing a corridor lined with large wooden mechanical dummies that attempt to pummel the students back to the safety of the temple. Once released to the wide world the mute again meets his prisoner friend, who is now a free man, and seeks the killer of his father.
Back in the day when Hong Kong movies meant Jackie Chan movies and vice versa to me, I thought Shaolin Wooden Men was a pretty great film and certainly one of the best from his time with Lo Wei. A few hundred movies or so later, I have to admit my horizons have been broadened and the shine has been knocked off this particular nugget a little.
For a start, it’s a bit of a knock-off of 18 Bronzemen, which was released the same year and is quite a bit better than this even taking into account its own faults. Furthermore, well, it’s just a bit…naff. The villain (who I’m not going to reveal, just in case there is someone out there who can’t figure it out from my plot synopsis) is pure comic-book cliché and there’s a bizarre scene where a misunderstanding leads to him killing a family in front of Jackie and a restaurant worker (played by Chiang Kam, one of the few familiar faces amongst this nondescript cast). There’s an attitude of: “hey, you shouldn’t have done that. Oh well, never mind. Let’s bury them”. This odd behaviour runs throughout the film and everyone seems to be prone to it at one point or another.
The Shaolin Wooden Men of the title are but a minor part of the film and serve merely as a final test for each student to pass. There’s little sense of drama here, especially seeing as how Jackie takes the test mid way through the film and passes. Even if you’re not looking too carefully, you can see the head of one of the wooden “robots” lifting to give a glimpse of the performer beneath! I actually prefer the first half of the film, where Jackie is being tutored by the three very different masters. His relationship to the chained man is quite unusual for a film of this nature, and it’s a pity their ties to each other wasn’t explored more deeply. Jackie, in his only “silent” role, is surprisingly flexible without the dialogue and shows a decent range of facial expressions.
It’s the second half, where Jackie is let out into the world, that things get a bit haphazard. He is befriended by a family of restaurant workers (including the aforementioned Chiang Kam and Doris Lung, who would go on to feature in Half a Loaf of Kung Fu) and helps them out of a few scrapes with a gang of thugs (which includes a young Yuen Biao). From here on in, it’s a standard Kung Fu movie, and not a very memorable one at that. Jackie finds the killer of his father and the two duel to the death. The action choreography is passable and occasionally pretty good with Chan throwing in some flips and some other impressive acrobatics, but sadly there’s nothing to pump the adrenaline through the veins.
I find these days that I want to like Shaolin Wooden Men a lot more than I do. I guess I’m never going to think of it as fondly as I used to, but it still has a few things going for it. There’s a rousing score and the opening titles are really great. They show the Wooden Men in a series of still silhouettes (even though you can actually see them moving most of the time!), and the effect is quite striking. Maybe if they’d played more of a part in the film, it would have been better. There again, maybe not…
Daredevils (1979) October 28, 2007
Posted by Cal in : 1970s films, Kung Fu , 11 commentsThings have been a bit quiet here for a few weeks for a couple of reasons. I’ve been writing about some non-Hong Kong movies (such things do exist, apparently) and more recent HK releases over at Obsessed With Film. The other is a self-imposed abstention from Kung Fu films which has lasted a good three months. Such fasting is necessary sometimes to keep from becoming blasé about the subject, and it has built up my appetite for this particular film, which I’ve been looking forward to ever since seeing Crippled Avengers. Although I’m looking to get a more varied movie diet in the next few weeks (for example, I’m going to be looking at some more Johnny To films in the near future) I don’t want this blog to die completely and will continue to use it to promote Kung Fu films. So without further ado, I give you this evening’s feature presentation…
Director: Chang Cheh Cast: Phillip Kwok, Chiang Sheng, Wong Lik, Sun Chien, Lo Meng, Lu Feng Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
There’s a plot in here relating to an evil warlord that kills off one of our heroes’ family, but it’s all very strained and perfunctory. Actually, a lot of the movie is quite perfunctory and there’s a general half-arsedness (if that’s a real word) to it all.
A case in point is the whole middle section, which is flatter than an unusually flat pancake that’s been gone over by a steamroller. There’s an attempt at intrigue (I guess this was around the time the Chor Yuen films were popular) involving the sale of a non-existent weapons cache and it just falls on its face. And it seems to go on for months!
This is from the team behind the now legendary Five Venoms and the new love of my life, Crippled Avengers. The Venoms themselves are on fine form, and leap about with great aplomb. But Chang Cheh, as usual, shows he was utterly incapable of consistency. There’s also a worrying turn towards comedy (again, another film that was doing great box-office around this time was Drunken Master) with some of the routines and the Venoms doing comedy just doesn’t feel right at all.
There are high points. Oh yes, there are high points. For example, for connoisseurs of the nunchaku this film is a must-see. We have a couple of blazing scenes involving the weapon, including the best with Lo Meng (who will forever be remembered as the Toad from Five Venoms) who is simply stunning with them. As well as this, the last fifteen minutes are action packed and very compelling.
I am not the type of fan who demands action all the way through a film (and often complain when presented with such), but the unevenness of Daredevils is a hurdle that is simply insurmountable. Were it not for the truly horrid attempt at being a second-rate thriller (and failing) and the lacklustre approach to the story and characterisation (we simply do not know enough about the characters or why they seem to be bonded to each other) there would be much to enjoy. Sadly, though, Daredevils misfires far too often to be truly enjoyable.
The Lady is the Boss (1983) September 12, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, Kung Fu, 1980s films , 2 commentsDirector: Lau Kar-Leung Cast: Kara Hui Ying-Hung, Lau Kar-Leung, Lau Kar-Fai (Gordon Liu), Hsiao Ho, Wong Yu Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
The human mind is a strange thing. Long ago, I’d got it into my head that I’d seen, on some kind of compilation tape, a scene from a movie where the monk San Te (made famous by the legendary 36th Chamber movies) battles alongside Hsiao Ho’s Mad Monkey persona in an early 80’s action flick in a gymnasium. Impossible stuff, to be sure, but I thought I’d seen it. After scouring my tapes, I realised it must have been some kind of demented fantasy, or at best I was horribly mistaken. But more on that later.
The Lady is the Boss seems like the final part of a trilogy of films by Lau Kar-Leung exploring tradition, the change in social attitudes over time and female liberation – themes that were hardly staples of the Shaw Brothers’ (or indeed, any Hong Kong company’s) output at that time. It’s probably entirely unintentional, but this feels like a relative of 1978’s sublime Heroes of the East (a film so good, I even stole the name of it for this blog!) and the worthy 1981 production My Young Auntie. All three have the same underlying theme and share an unusual trait for films of this genre – no one is killed and there’s very little ‘violence’ on screen.
That said, this is definitely a bit more barbed than either of the other two films. The main plot focuses on Mei-Ling (Kara Hui) coming to Hong Kong to run the martial arts school currently being taught by Wang (Lau Kar-Leung). Upon her arrival from the USA (Hui is seen chewing gum throughout and slanging English and Cantonese with a wantonness that leaves the poor Chinese traditionalists reeling), she despairs of the old-fashioned methods of teaching and Wang’s insistence on quality over quantity. You see, the school has just five pupils, and training in stances alone takes one full year! Mei-Ling comes in and revamps the school, getting lots of new students in the process. Among the new recruits are a bunch of nightclub workers, whose boss is not too happy that his ladies are being taught ways of fending off the advances of their clients. As the boss is played by veteran bad-boy Johnny Wong, we’ve got a pretty good idea where things are going to end up.
The Lady is the Boss must have looked dazzlingly modern back in 1983; which is to say it looks horribly dated now. We’ve got neon pink outfits, effeminate men wearing lipstick, terribly tinny disco music and even a few BMX bicycles – all the hallmarks of a true 80’s production! It all serves to make viewing the film all the more enjoyable, and no fan of the decade will be disappointed. Besides, it makes a change from all the period pieces being churned out at the time by the studio.
Comedy plays a strong part in the film, and while the attempts at humour aren’t as bad as other Shaw productions, it still occasionally grates. Like its predecessors, most of the humour is derived from the situations and the views of the traditionally minded versus the radical. In places, the film plays a little too much like My Young Auntie for its own good in this regard, and occasionally you can’t help but feel that you’ve seen it before.
Surprisingly, the kung fu is downplayed for much of the movie in favour of comedy skits and other action scenes (including, as has been mentioned above, a short sequence involving BMX bikes). When it does kick off, though, it’s pretty impressive. With the likes of Wong Yu (Dirty Ho), Lau Kar-Fai, Hsiao Ho et al (not to mention Lau Kar-Leung himself), you know you’re going to get something special. You have to wait a while, but you do get it eventually. And there it is – Lau Kar-Fai playing a man playing San Te, and Hsiao Ho doing his Mad Monkey routine. You’d be wrong to think there’s a good reason, plot-wise, for them doing it, but then there’s not a lot of reason involved in most of this film!
In the final analysis, there’s a feeling that subconsciously Lau Kar-Leung was still siding with tradition in this film, despite the “old guard” being shown as outdated and a trifle ridiculous. The five young men who trained under the old master still have far superior skills than anyone trained under Mei-Ling, and the “fast-track” training employed by her could be seen to be portraying “modern” martial arts training techniques in a derogatory light. But I could be looking into it a bit too deeply, there. It is, after all, an action comedy, and as they go, you could do worse than this 84-minute mini-celebration of 80’s kitsch.
Disciples of the 36th Chamber (1985) July 11, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Kung Fu, 1980s films , add a commentDirector: Lau Kar-Leung Cast: Hsiao Ho, Lau Kar-Fai (Gordon Liu), Lau Kar-Leung Action Directors: Lau Kar-Leung, Hsiao Ho, Lee King-Chue Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
It’s hard to believe, but this film was made in the same year as Jackie Chan’s Police Story and is a good indicator of just how out of touch the Shaw Brothers studio had become. It flopped so badly that even some fans of the first film are totally unaware that it even exists.
The second sequel to the 36th Chamber of Shaolin is actually more of a true sequel than Return to the 36th Chamber, in that Lau Kar-Fai reprises his role as (the real) San Te. However, he plays second lead (and second fiddle) to Fong Sai-Yuk (Hsiao Ho), who, along with his two brothers (I didn’t even realise Fong Sai-Yuk had brothers, but never mind), journey to the Shaolin Temple in their own quest to put one over one the Manchu government.
The story is predictable and the script is uninspired. But what’s worse is the ‘humour’ that crept into the first sequel is even more in evidence here – and it’s at least ten times as unfunny. Lau Kar-Leung apparently wrote this himself, and it’s well known that he was having a bad time around this period, which might have contributed to the lacklustre script.
There’s a vague outline of the three-act structure from the other two films, but it’s all very tenuous. As far as I know, Fong Sai-Yuk didn’t exist in the same timeline as San Te, but I could be wrong and I’m prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. His addition to the series is probably an attempt at adding someone familiar to the formula as Lau Kar-Fai had already gone through the training twice before as two different people! In any case, the training is definitely less inspired this time round. This is perhaps not too surprising, as the market had already become saturated with 36th Chamber wannabes. Plus, of course, Fong Sai-Yuk doesn’t need much training, does he?
For all that, though, there’s no denying that the action scenes are pretty damn impressive. For reasons I’ve never been able to fathom, Hsiao Ho only had leading roles in a couple of movies (although he’s visible in many, many others). His acrobatic skill is superb, and his presence saves this from total catastrophe. Right from the opening, we are treated to a blistering display of ability. While I’m on the subject of the opening titles, is it me or does the title sequence have absolutely nothing to do with the film itself? I mean, usually it has some relevance, but if this is the case here, it escaped me totally.
It’s not enough to salvage the film, though, and at times it’s all very tired-looking. The genre needed time to rest, and unfortunately this film helped to make the traditional Kung Fu picture persona non grata for a few years. In a very real sense, this movie marks the end of a glorious age, and taken in this context, Disciples of the 36th Chamber is a little easier to accept. It’s a hard film to like, but it’s impossible to dismiss.
Return to the 36th Chamber (1980) July 8, 2007
Posted by Cal in : 1970s films, Kung Fu , add a commentDirector: Lau Kar-Leung Cast: Lau Kar-Fai (Gordon Liu), Wang Lung-Wei (Johnny Wong), Hui Ying-Hung (Kara Hui), Kwan Yung-Moon Action Director: Lau Kar-Leung Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
The runaway success of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin pretty much guaranteed a sequel would be made. The trouble was, how could it work? San Te (Lau Kar-Fai) had already gone through the gruelling training required to become a master of the martial arts and exacted his promised revenge on the cruel Manchurian General. Last we saw of him, San Te had returned the Shaolin Temple to become a monk and had set up the titular 36th Chamber. What more could you do? Give him amnesia and make him go through the whole process again?
Thankfully, they came up with a much better idea – Lau Kar-Fai plays Chou Jen Chieh, a conman pretending to be San Te. This comes in useful when the workers at a small dye factory have a pay dispute with their Manchurian employers. Chou is brought in, playing San Te, to negotiate and subtly intimidate the bosses into paying the workers their full wages using a mock Kung Fu demonstration. Inevitably, the Manchu get wise to the con and pummel the workers into submission. Humiliated, Chou departs for the Shaolin Temple to undergo training for real. Here he meets the ‘real’ San Te (now played by Lee King-Chue), who continually thwarts Chou’s attempts at learning Kung Fu, and instead makes him erect a massive net of scaffolding around the entire Temple for future renovation work. Once complete, Chou is dismayed when, instead of finally being accepted as a pupil by San Te, he is told to tear down the scaffolding and promptly thrown out of the Temple for good. However, when he returns to his down-at-heel friends, he quickly discovers he might have picked up a few techniques after all…
Probably as a result of being made after Drunken Master (and being a sequel), there is a lot of comedy involved in this film. I’ve said it before, but I really don’t think the Shaw Brothers writers really ‘got’ comedy, and this is another largely witless and unfunny attempt. The exception is the great scene early on where Chou, imitating San Te, uses a series of tricks to make believe he’s the real McCoy. Apart from that, the humour is lame in the extreme and gets extremely tiresome after a while.
Thankfully, like the original film, this has a three-act structure, and the second and third acts are nowhere near as bad as the first. In the second act, the film picks up considerably when Chou starts his training (unbeknownst to himself). The section is not as good as in the original, but has plenty of good stuff in there – like Chou washing his face by throwing a large rock into well and using the splashback to his advantage. And of course, you’ve got all the scaffolding work, which doesn’t take a genius to foretell is going to come in useful at a later point. Unfortunately, the larking about during the first part of the film eats far too much time and we’re left with a rather curtailed training section when compared to the first film. But what’s there is good, and that’s the main thing.
The third and final act, where Chou takes on the dye factory bosses, is actually an improvement on the original film in that it doesn’t feel like an anti-climax after all the hardship the lead character goes through. Also, like Martial Club (and like a lot of Shaw films from this period), almost all of it was filmed inside the studio. When the climax comes, the players go outdoors for real, and this feels almost like the film is breaking out of prison.
It goes without saying that the action scenes are magnificent, this being a Lau Kar-Leung film. The only downside being that there aren’t any real action scenes early on. But as mentioned above, that early section does let the side down for many reasons. Don’t let it put you off, though, because after the initial segment the film is really an excellent example of the period. And one hell of a neat idea for a sequel.
Iron Monkey (1993) July 1, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Kung Fu, 1990s films , add a commentDirector: Yuen Wo-Ping Cast: Yu Rong-Guang, Donnie Yen, Angie Tsang, Jean Wang, Yuen Shun-Yi Action Directors: Yuen Cheung-Yan, Yuen Shun-Yi, Guk Hin-Chiu Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Golden Harvest
One thing I’ve never been good at is judging just which Hong Kong action films are going to go mega with fellow westerners. For example, I would have put money on this one sinking without a trace outside its native territory. Instead, it has become one of those massive cult hits that sell on DVD by the bucketful.
Dr Yan (Yu Rong-Guang) is an honest doctor by day and the notorious Iron Monkey by night. Iron Monkey is a kind of Santa Claus, Robin Hood and Batman all rolled into one – robbing from the opulent Qing lords, giving the proceeds to flood victims and doling out justice to evildoers along the way. Naturally, the authorities aren’t too keen on this sort of behaviour and put a price on Iron Monkey’s head. So when one of the Ten Tigers of Kwan-Tung himself shows up, Wong Kei-Ying (Donnie Yen) along with his young son Fei-Hung (Angie Tsang), he is quickly asked to help out, which ostracises him from the local population, which idolises the Monkey. When Wong Fei-Hung is kidnapped by the officials, Kei-Ying begins to doubt the validity of the authorities’ claims against the Iron Monkey…
This is an official prequel to the Once Upon a Time in China series, set when Wong Fei-Hung was still a young boy. The film kicks off with some of the most outrageous wirework I’ve ever seen outside parody. I have to admit not being terribly keen on that sort of thing, but things then settle down for a while until Wong Kei-Ying shows up. I’ve always been a little wary of Donnie Yen as a lot of his fight scenes are undercranked to the point of silliness, and sadly that’s the case here as well. His introduction fight is the worst, in which he fights off foes with his umbrella in what will eventually become his son’s chosen weapon in future films. In case there are still people unaware, in this instalment Fei-Hung is played by a thirteen-year-old girl – Angie Tsang Sze-Man, a member of Hong Kong’s national WuShu team at the time. She’s fantastic, especially armed with a pole, and gives the grown-ups something to worry about.
Anyone familiar with Dreadnought and Drunken Tai-Chi will know Yuen Shun-Yi, brother of director Yuen Wo-Ping. He has one of the most distinctive faces in the industry and when given a decent part, often specializes in playing homicidal maniacs. Here, however, he provides most of the comic relief for the movie as the surprisingly honest and sympathetic Qing General and is a genuine scene-stealer.
Iron Monkey is agreeable enough but the excessive wirework and Donnie Yen’s undercranked performance take the shine off as far as I’m concerned. It’s good that it provides some background in the fictionalised history of Wong Fei-Hung as told in the Once Upon a Time in China series (complete with umbrella). There are a lot of enjoyable scenes and performances here, that’s for sure, and I certainly don’t begrudge the film’s popularity. But it’s a little short of an all-out classic in my view. Mind you, I say the same about Drunken Master 2…
Fearless (2006) June 20, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Kung Fu , 1 comment so farDirector: Ronny Yu Cast: Jet Li, Dong Yong, Ngai Sing, Nakamura Shidou Action Director: Yuen Wo-Ping Territory: China Production Company: Beijing Film Studio of China Film Group Corporation
I can’t really claim to be a Jet Li fan really. Don’t get me wrong, he’s done some brilliant stuff; but for every Once Upon a Time in China there’s a My Father is a Hero and for every Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk there’s a Hitman. I just don’t think the guy had good enough quality-control.
I say “had” because this was apparently his last martial arts film. We’ll see about that, but if Fearless is his swansong, he could have picked a worse project to ride out into the sunset to.
Telling the story of real-life prizefighter Hou YuanJia, the first half predominantly concerns itself with Hou’s rise to the top in the early 20th century despite a childhood plagued with asthma and a father (an excellent Ngai Sing) who wants to keep his son away from the art. His father is a master of Wu Shu and shows his craft at local duels, which prove to be brutal affairs where the combatants are required to sign “death waivers” to absolve the organisers of blame in case anything goes wrong. It is into this environment that Hou finds himself drawn, and he eventually follows in his father’s footsteps to become the “Hero of Tianjin”.
The central character is quite weighty for an action movie, and Jet Li pulls it off well. Hou turns into an arrogant drunken thug after his success and then has to deal with a cripplingly tragic event in his life. The latter half of the film deals with Hou’s inevitable rehabilitation and his quest for redemption, rather than revenge, armed with his newborn humility. Throughout, Li plays it without sinking into melodramatics, much to his credit.
The duels and challenges are shot in typical Jet Li style, with lots of wirework and with a leaning towards the more fantastic. Thankfully, there is not an over-reliance on CGI in the actual fighting sections of the film, which is what I was most concerned about. Actually, sometimes Fearless has an almost “dated” feel to it – and I mean that in a largely complimentary way. I do, however, feel that a film based on a real-life hero should have perhaps been approached in a more realistic way, but that’s a minor gripe. Besides, you could, at a push, say the same about Once Upon a Time in China. I will admit, though, that the fight scenes did not always excite me, or elicit any kind of emotional response from me at times. This happens to me fairly regularly with films choreographed by Yuen Wo-Ping for some reason, and I’m not really able to identify why. And there’s plenty of his films I like, too.
Of course, this story has been told before and a lot of people will know how it’s all going to end up, but that’s not the point. And while I didn’t enjoy Fearless as much as practically everyone else who’s seen it, I can still see that it’s a well thought out film and probably worthy of most of the praise heaped upon it.
Crippled Avengers (1978) May 31, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Blogroll, 1970s films, Kung Fu , 3 commentsDirector: Chang Cheh Cast: Phillip Kwok, Lo Meng, Chiang Sheng, Sun Chien, Lu Feng, Chen Kuan-Tai Action Director: Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng, Robert Tai Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
AKA: Avengers Handicapped
It all sounds like a sick joke (or an episode of South Park), but Crippled Avengers is a Chang Cheh film reuniting most of the cast from his hit film The Five Venoms.
The plot is easy enough to follow. Towards the late 70’s, Cheh seemed to have given up on complicated, historically based projects and favoured more direct and fast-moving action films. This one’s basically about a rogue lord (Chen Kuan-Tai) who, having had his family killed or handicapped in an attack at his home, becomes obsessed with disabling anyone who stands up to him. He and his son (who had both arms sliced off and replaced with iron prosthetics) basically bully their way around town. Coming up against him results in one man losing the power of speech and hearing, one man losing his sight, another his legs and finally one man is reduced to having a childlike mentality. These men group together and go to Eagle Mansion, where they spend three years training and learning to work together to compensate for each others’ disabilities.
Which sounds pretty run-of-the-mill, not to mention slightly crazy and in bad taste. However, the only truly wacko stuff happens right at the start – after his young son has both arms severed, we immediately cut to him many years later as a grown man with artificial arms and his father saying, “I told you I would give you new arms!”, to which his son says something along the lines of, “Yes, these are the seventh set and by far the best!” That kind of bad scripting to show a passage of time (there’s probably a name for it, but I don’t know what it is) is just embarrassing to watch. We also see these new arms, which can fire lethal darts and extend – which is also a bit screwy. Thing is, all this happens in the first few minutes and I don’t think he ever uses them to any great advantage again in the movie!
Thankfully, the rest of the film is sheer class. The physicality of these men is truly awesome, and their skill is simply breathtaking. The exciting and plentiful fight scenes are peppered with acrobatics we’re probably never going to see again in this digital age, and the training scenes are some of the best that Kung Fu film fans can want for. The four heroes exhibit a great sense of camaraderie and have a very tangible chemistry with each other (although this could be because we know them from The Five Venoms) that at times this enters into “buddy” movie territory.
I don’t know if it was intended, but there’s also some really good, dark humour in this; in fact, it’s riddled with it. Again, I’m paraphrasing, but when Dao’s son meets the soon-to-be-blind Avenger, the dialogue goes something like this:
Dao’s son: Fight me!
Avenger: But you have no arms!
Dao’s son: Well, I have no arms and you have no eyes. It’s a fair fight!
Avenger: Why would you say that? I HAVE eyes!
Poke!
Avenger: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrgghh! (Writhes around on floor in agony)
You have to admit, he asked for it.
This is the first time I’ve seen Crippled Avengers, despite its notoriety. I know someone’s going to tell me otherwise, but I just don’t think it was ever available in the UK. Which turns out well in the end because I’ve seen something truly fantastic in the genre for the first time and it gives me hope that there’s still more great films out there for me to discover. It’s films like this that make me proud to be a Kung Fu film fan. And dare I say it - I thought it was better than the Five Venoms. Crippled Avengers: where have you been all my life?
Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) April 24, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Blogroll, Horror, 1970s films, Kung Fu , 3 commentsDirector: Roy Ward Baker Starring: David Chiang, Peter Cushing Action Director: Lau Kar-Leung Territory: UK/Hong Kong Production Company: Hammer/Shaw Brothers
Dracula is visited in his Transylvanian lair by a Chinese man hoping to resurrect his vampires. Instead, Dracula possesses and takes over his visitor (you really can’t trust these evil types, can you?) and travels to a small village in China to escape his exile. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) is given a lead to Dracula’s whereabouts by Hsi Ching (David Chiang) and they embark on a trek across China to rid the world of Dracula and his 7 unholy brothers.
By 1974, the once proud Hammer studio was starting to falter. In an obvious effort to latch on to the martial arts “craze” started when Enter the Dragon made it big, they decided to join their usual horror house style with that of the new-fangled eastern type of action. To their credit, at least they went to the Shaw Brothers and tried to do it properly. Hammer and Shaw were quite similar in some respects, and they both eventually went into television when their glory days were over (although the Shaw studios’ decline occurred a few years after Hammer’s).
Unfortunately, Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (AKA Dracula and the Seven Golden Vampires and many, many other titles) doesn’t really work. The action scenes seem bolted on, and the horror scenes are pretty ineffective. There’s a fair amount of talent on the Hong Kong end of the production - Lau Kar-Wing has a very visible role, Si Si is lovely as Hsi Ching’s sister, and none other than Lau Kar-Leung directs the action. But it’s David Chiang that’s supposed to drive the film.
I know what’s it’s starting to look like – this is the third David Chiang film in a row I’ve written about. I assure you all that much as I admire the guy, this is all purely co-incidence. It’s not like I’m in love with him or anything.
Anyway. It’s a bit of a shock to hear his real voice, which is higher in pitch than I’d have expected. Although not able to speak English, he learned his lines phonetically, and doesn’t come off as badly as you might imagine (although I strongly suspect he says “destroyded” at one point). It’s quite a novelty to hear him speak in English, and one that doesn’t wear off. Unfortunately, he is given very little to do on the action front, and what’s there isn’t all that thrilling.
The horror aspect is lacking, too. It might have turned out great if Chrispopher Lee played Dracula, but instead you have a guy who really doesn’t look the part. Having said that, the titular seven Vampires actually aren’t too bad. I mean, they look pretty ropey, but there’s a semi-neat plot device linking their powers to their medallions. They also have an evil lair where young ladies are drained of blood and killed, but I’m not sure if this was included for its horror factor or was just an excuse to show some nipple action. Both, probably.
The supporting cast (Julie Ege and Robin Stewart) tries to add a bit of romance and depth to the film, but once again it falls flat on its face, and I found I couldn’t give a toss about any of them. It’s such a shame that the only UK/Hong Kong collaboration didn’t work out, as the mixing of the genres could have produced a real cult classic. Instead, this vampire movie just sucks – and not in a good way.
Blood Brothers (1973) April 22, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Blogroll, 1970s films, Kung Fu , 3 commentsDiretor: Chang Cheh Starring: Ti Lung, David Chiang, Chen Kuan-Tai Action Diretor: Lau Kar-Leung, Tong Gai Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
Two small-time bandits, Chang Wen-Hsiang and Huang Chung (David Chiang and Chen Kuan-Tai) meet and befriend another by the name of Ma Hsin I (Ti Lung). The three – along with Huang’s wife Mi Lan (Ching Li) overtake a bandit hideout and set up base. All seems well, but Ma aspires to become a Qing officer. Furthermore, he develops strong feelings for Mi Lan, although Huang is completely oblivious to the fact. We find that Mi Lan married Huang when she was young and now regrets the decision, thinking that Huang would grow as a person when in fact he was always destined to be shallow and unambitious. Driving himself hard, Ma achieves his dream and eventually becomes a well-respected general in the Qing army and, mindful of the promises he made to his brothers, enlists Chang and Huang. However, the reunion also means meeting Mi Lan again, and neither party’s feeling have changed. In fact, Mi Lan now thinks she’s found the man she’s always wanted…
This is by far the most widely seen film by western audiences of a Chang Cheh starring his two favourite leads – and for a good reason: it’s fantastic.
Told in a series of flashbacks following the capture of Chang Wen-Hsiang for the assassination of Ma, we are shown the doomed friendship from start to finish already knowing the final outcome. He sits resignedly throughout the movie writing his confession in front of his captors, wanting nothing except the truth of the matter to be brought to the world. It’s a device that works brilliantly, and you find yourself engrossed in the story, wondering why exactly things went so wrong for them.
This film surprisingly flirts with symbolism and shows great restraint – we do not get nearly as many buckets of blood here, the emphasis more on the story and characters. It is excellently scripted throughout (although the subtitles do fall below expectation on a number of occasions on the Celestial DVD) and the pace remains constant with no “flat” moments that can appear in such productions of the time.
This is also the film that won Ti Lung deserved recognition when he received the Golden Horse award for Outstanding Performance. Although none of the main characters are two-dimensional (with the exception of Huang Chung – who is SUPPOSED to be two-dimensional!), Ti Lung really does shine.
SPOILER WARNING FOR THE REST OF THIS REVIEW!
His character is complex as he copes with his inappropriate feeling towards his brother’s wife. Furthermore, does he order Huang to be killed because he wants him out of the way so he can be with Mi Lan forever, or because Huang is a liability as an officer and does not appreciate his wife? Although Ma insists repeatedly that he will crush anything that stands in his way, I find it interesting that he only gives the order after discovering that Huang frequents brothels and bad-mouths his wife.
David Chiang is also superb as Chang Wen-Hsiang. He shows great range as he finds himself between his brothers, faced with almost impossible decisions. After his final confrontation with Ma, rather than gloating over his victory at bringing justice to a brother betrayed, he says to his dying friend: “you can rest in peace. I will not try to escape”, before peacefully giving himself up to the inevitable torture and execution at the hands of the government.
Powerful stuff.