Hong Kong premiere: March 6, 1981
Director: Chang Cheh
Stars: Philip Kwok, Candy Wen, Ching Li, Lung Tien-Hsiang, Chiang Sheng, Lu Feng, Wong Lik, Yu Tai-Ping, Chu Ko, Wong Wa, Chu Tiet-Wo, Chan Shen, Chiu Gwok.
Story Overview: A young hero discovers a treasure map in the tomb of a long-dead master. After studying the techniques contained in the master’s manual he sets out to return the treasure to the master’s wife, but finds her in the clutches of her devious and deadly family, who betrayed the master years ago. Now the hero must use the master’s legacy to avenge him and set his wife and daughter free.
My Nutshell Review: Narratively this sometimes runs off the tracks, and occasionally gets a little bogged down in both expository dialog and flashbacks. But when it’s moving it’s a beautifully-shot, magnificently-choreographed series of duels and brawls that will thrill any fan of kung fu movies.
My Flickchart Score: 90% (What’s This?)
Watch it on Amazon Prime here.
Director: Chang Cheh
Stars: Philip Kwok, Candy Wen, Ching Li, Lung Tien-Hsiang, Chiang Sheng, Lu Feng, Wong Lik, Yu Tai-Ping, Chu Ko, Wong Wa, Chu Tiet-Wo, Chan Shen, Chiu Gwok.
Story Overview: A young hero discovers a treasure map in the tomb of a long-dead master. After studying the techniques contained in the master’s manual he sets out to return the treasure to the master’s wife, but finds her in the clutches of her devious and deadly family, who betrayed the master years ago. Now the hero must use the master’s legacy to avenge him and set his wife and daughter free.
My Nutshell Review: Narratively this sometimes runs off the tracks, and occasionally gets a little bogged down in both expository dialog and flashbacks. But when it’s moving it’s a beautifully-shot, magnificently-choreographed series of duels and brawls that will thrill any fan of kung fu movies.
My Flickchart Score: 90% (What’s This?)
Watch it on Amazon Prime here.
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In-Depth Synopsis
In-Depth Synopsis
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We open with some narration: “Before the 1911 Revolution, Dongguan Yuan Shung Wun was the first to care about the country’s future and welfare. During the Ming Dynasty, Yuan many times defeated the Qing invaders. Unfortunately, Yuan Shung Wun fell into a trap and was cut into pieces in public by the Ming Emperor. Many soldiers were stranded in Liutung. Shung died a wrongful death. A lot of his generals and followers, out of rage, turned to and served the Qing instead. The ones stationed at Central area were those from Guanliu.” [At this point, we see Yuan executed via “scaling,” or death from a thousand cuts...he is played by Ngai Tim-Choi, and among the crowd of spectators are Wang Han-Chen and Gam Tin-Chue] “Yuan’s family is also wanted by the administration. A loyal servant saved his youngest son, Yuan Cheng-Chih, and sought refuge at Hua Shan.” If anything about that narration bothered or confused you, it’s okay. Literally none of it will ever be mentioned again or play any part in the story whatsoever.
The credits take place over shots of this loyal but nameless servant (Wong Wa), carrying the small boy on his back over a mountain, to a score that sounds like something we’d hear over stock footage of Monument Valley on a 60s cowboy TV show. We finally end at Hua Shan Mansion, where the narration briefly picks back up: “The chief of the Hua Shan School was the best swordsman around.” We see this chief, the Teacher Mu Ren-Qing (Lee Sau-Kei), receiving the servant (who we now learn is mute) and reading the note he carries, imploring him to take in and train the child, which he agrees to do for the father’s sake.
Cut 17 years into the future, where we see the now-adult Yuan Cheng-Chih, played by Philip Kwok. He is playing chess with Muk Shon (Wong Ching-Ho) and beating him handily. The old man, along with Teacher, is about to travel to Xin Xi, where natural disasters have led to widespread starvation among the people. They’re planning a little fundraising to help folks out. Yuan and the servant go to speak to Teacher. He says that he hasn’t left the mansion since Yuan arrived all those years ago, and it’s time for him to visit old friends. Yuan would like to come along, but Teacher tells him that he has nearly mastered the kung fu he’s been learning, and it would be better for him to stay and complete his training. He gives Yuan the school’s manual, which outlines the moral standards students are meant to adhere to. He further explains that it can be difficult to know right from wrong, that good men can do evil things and vice-versa. He says that he has only ever taken in three students: besides Yuan himself, there were Iron Abacus Wang Zhen, and Invincible Fist Gui Xin Shu. The former is very smart, and the latter is simple but good-hearted. We’ll meet one of these guys later. Muk Shon then enters and delivers his parting gift, his chess set.
The servant brings Yuan to see what he’s discovered; a cave with golden snake-shaped darts stuck into the earth at its entrance. Yuan picks these darts up and enters the cave to discover writing carved into the walls: “The treasure and the manual are for the chosen. Enter at your own risk. Hsia Shiue Yi the Golden Snake.” Nearby are a skeleton draped next to a treasure chest and a sword stuck in a stone. Yuan pulls out the sword, which is apparently gold-plated and is wavy and forked like a snake’s tongue, and then approaches the chest.
He declares his intention to bury the skeleton and begins to dig. With a stick! I’ve buried cats with shovels before, and that’s hard work. Digging a human grave with a stick...this kid must have crazy stamina. Anyway, once he’s moved enough earth to make a grave he finds another chest buried on that spot. He opens it to find three documents.
The first reads “Whoever gets this box gets the treasure inside it, but must bury me first.” We’re on it! The second reads, “If you would bury me, please dig deeper into the pit before burying me. That way I can stay deep down in the ground free from worms.” Yuan does this and discovers another, smaller box. Inside this box is another note: “You are a righteous person. Follow my instructions to bury me and you will be highly rewarded. When you open the box, poisonous arrows will shoot out. The map inside the box is a fake and is poisonous. It’s to punish the crooks. The genuine map is in this small iron box.”
The servant makes worried noises outside the cave to warn that danger approaches. Yuan hides the boxes and moves the earth back over the hole, and they hide outside to witness two dangerous-looking men coming near. They see the cave and notice that the brush around it has been burned recently, and speculate that the villain they are searching for (on behalf of “third uncle”) is nearby, and that they should check Hua Shan.
One suggests that they go back to third uncle to get backup, but the other wants to bring in the villain themselves, because he’s hoping that they can recover the treasure map on their own. They enter the cave and we have a pretty good idea what’s going to happen to them. Of course it does: they notice the recently-dug earth, dig it up again and find the first treasure chest. They toss aside the two notes Yuan has already read and open the third: “There is a secret mechanism on the side of the iron box. Use both hands to grasp it and the box will open.” So one of them (Lam Chi-Tai) does open the box and gets killed by the poisoned arrows.
The other (Liang Yao-Wen) takes the manual and the map from the box, but they’re stuck together, so he licks his fingers to pull them apart and, obviously, is thereby poisoned.
Yuan and his servant return and retrieve the treasures, thanking the Golden Snake for sparing them.
Yuan spends some non-specific amount of time in the cave, studying the manual and practicing with the sword and the darts, while the faithful servant brings him his food. Once he’s mastered the manual he remarks that it seems to be incomplete, but careful examination reveals another page hidden inside the cover, along with the treasure map. It was clearly the Golden Snake’s intention for people to study the manual first, and then seek the treasure. The new page reads “Whoever gets this treasure, go to Shilang at Zhejiang. Find a lady named Wen Yi and give her 100,000 worth of gold.” Yuan says something that the subtitles translate as “sounds exaggerating,” which I repeat here because it tickles me.
We return to the mansion where Yuan writes a farewell letter to his teacher while his servant examines the weapons. Yuan says that he doesn’t want the treasure, and so will simply deliver the map to this Wen Yi. He is not sure whether he should use the Golden Snake weapons and asks in the letter for Teacher’s advice, and asks the servant to bring any news of the Teacher’s wishes to him at Shilang.
He stops at a tavern along the way. As he eats peacefully upstairs, a young “man” walks in with steps so heavy that he makes the teacups shake. The waiter says that the place is very busy and invites him to share a table with someone else, which makes the young man shove him. Yuan catches him and invites the young man to join him at his table, at which point we see that he is played by Candy Wen and therefore is a woman in disguise. I’ll just go ahead and say that this is Wen Qing-Qing (Candy Wen), though we won’t know that within the film for some time yet. She turns around looking ready for a fight, but apparently it’s love at first sight for her, and she smiles and sits down.
This brings up a problem we’ll have a lot in reviewing Shaw Brothers films, and indeed in Chinese cinema in general. The “woman masquerading as a man” trope is very frequent, and it’s always as obvious to the audience as it is here. Somehow, the characters have a lot of trouble seeing through it, and it is really the major obstacle to a proper suspension of disbelief that I encounter with these films. But anyway, when deciding how to write up this particular plotline, I’ve decided just to refer to this character as Qing-Qing, hoping any readers will understand that until very near the end of the film the cast will refer to her as Brother Qing, and I will use feminine pronouns to refer to her since that will streamline some scenes, allowing me to write “him” and “her” rather than having to constantly retype everyone’s name. I hope that’s clear enough, but if not, well, that’s what the comment section is for.
The two indulge in small talk for a moment before a gang of ruffians charge into the tavern and see her. They demand that she come down. They are from the Longyou School and have been chasing her and the gold she carries for some time. Two of them jump up onto the balcony and she guts them both with a single sword swipe. Their leader (Wan Seung-Lam) says that there’s never been any trouble between Shilang and the Longyou School, and that for the sake of the Wen family...
She cuts him off and demands that he fight if he wants the gold, so he draws daggers and throws them. She deflects them, and Yuan catches them. Then he jumps onto the balcony, sword drawn, and attempts to duel her. She wounds him, and he leaps back to the ground and throws some more daggers that Yuan blocks before they can harm her. Then she jumps down and stabs the ruffian to death. His men carry him out as she returns to the table.
Yuan scolds her for killing the ruffian when the fight was already over, and she tells him that saving her doesn’t give him the right to judge her. But they resume their meal until the ruffians return with an old man played by Chan Shen. This is Master Rong, and he’s a little pissed off. Two of his men again try to storm the balcony, and this time Yuan grabs them and pushes them back to the floor. He explains that he’s done this to save their lives, since Qing-Qing would certainly have killed them. Rong says that this must be why she has gotten so bold lately; she has a tough new boyfriend. Yuan asks if they can’t all sit down and sort out whatever the problem is by talking, but neither Rong nor Qing-Qing is very interested in this. She demands that Yuan leave if he’s scared, while Rong says that once he’s taken care of Qing-Qing maybe they can be friends.
Rong and Qing-Qing argue back and forth, with her getting more taunting by the second and him getting angry enough to strike a support with such force that the whole building shakes. Then we get this exchange:
Rong demands the gold. He even claims not really to want it for himself, and that he will give it to Sha’s widow (I assume Sha is the name of the gang leader she has just murdered, but that is not clear). She draws her sword and attacks him, though he is unarmed. In one of the niftier moves in any Shaw Brothers movie, he grabs the blade with both hands, snaps the point off, knocks the sword from her grasp, and waves the tip in her face, delivering one of the movie’s more chilling lines:
Now Yuan has seen enough. He throws his teacup, knocking the blade from Rong’s hand, then hangs by his toes from the balcony to pull Qing-Qing back up. Rong says that, for Mr. Yuan’s sake, he will spare Qing-Qing this time, and he and his men go to leave, but that damned girl can’t leave well enough alone, calling that Rong and his bullies turn tail when they see a real fighter. Rong asks Yuan to fight him for friendship’s sake, to dispel any rumors that he might be a coward, and Yuan accepts, asking Rong to go easy on him. Their combat is elegant, respectful, and ends in a draw, so of course Qing-Qing is bored and aggravated by it.
After Rong and his men have gone, she offers half the gold to Yuan, who refuses. We already know he isn’t interested in wealth. So she starts to leave in a huff and he prevents her, at which she promptly drops to the floor and begins to fake cry. He asks if he’s hurt her, and she smiles and shoves him, then runs off, leaving half the gold behind. He packs it up and starts after her, and trails her to a place called Xi Tak Hall, where he asks for “A young man named Wen.” He finds a (very small) mob trying to storm the place looking for Wen, who has injured their friends and family members. Apparently he’s something of a cruel landlord.
As they explain all of this to Yuan, my beloved Chiang Sheng walks out. It turns out that he’s playing the villain the crowd is after, Wen Jing. He grabs the leader of the mob and, with one hand, tosses him clear across the courtyard, but Yuan catches him so that he is not injured. Wen Jing asks whether the mob has hired Yuan to act for them, but he answers no, he just doesn’t want anyone to be hurt. His name is Yuan, he says, and he is looking for Wen. Jing says that’s his name, and Yuan says no, the person he’s looking for is younger. Jing hesitates, then smiles and says that he must mean his younger brother, Wen Qing. He invites Yuan inside.
Jing calls Qing-Qing to join them and Yuan returns the package containing the gold. She is offended, and when he then tries to leave she won’t let him. She asks him to stay for the day, since she has something to ask him. Yuan says he can’t stay; he has other business to conduct, and Jing says that they mustn’t keep him, but Qing-Qing says he only won’t stay because he despises her, so he (Yuan) agrees to stay to avoid an insult. This clearly displeases Jing, but he arranges for a meal to be served anyway.
Jing gets drunk at this meal and calls her Qing-Qing rather than “brother Qing,” which of course denotes her gender. She scolds him for being present at all, since Yuan is her guest, not his. Yuan says that really, all he wants is some sleep, and Jing says he can have his room but Qing-Qing insists that he’ll stay in hers. Jing gets angry, and Qing-Qing says she will stay with her mother, but he storms off anyway. Yuan retires to Qing-Qing’s room, but after a little while she comes knocking at the window, saying it’s a beautiful moon and he ought to come watch it with her.
They sit in a gazebo drinking wine and eating fruit, and Qing-Qing plays for him on a flute. The song is beautiful and Yuan enjoys it, but then she breaks the flute over her knee. She is angry that he’ll leave her the next day, and since no one in the house appreciates music or, indeed, anything but fighting, there’s no point to her playing if he isn’t there. He says that, contrary to her belief, he doesn’t despise her, and he wishes she would tell him what’s on her mind. She tells him the story of her mother being raped and she herself being the product of that assault. Yuan says that this is neither her fault nor her mother’s, the fault lies entirely with the rapist. She says that people insult them both, and he answers that these people are themselves shameful. He says that he will certainly come to visit her again, and she grabs his hand.
At this point Jing walks in and accuses them of sneaking around. Yuan, trying to avoid trouble, suggests that everyone just go to bed, but Qing-Qing pushes him back into his seat. She says that she grew these flowers in the garden herself and Jing isn’t allowed to look at them. He says he’ll look wherever he likes unless she plucks out his eyes, and she tears all the flowers out of the beds in a rage. He complains that she treats him so badly even though he’s only ever tried to help her, but she says she doesn’t need him to be good to her. He can go and tell their grandfather and have her kicked out if he likes. Jing storms off.
Yuan asks how she can treat her brother like this, and she says that Jing isn’t her brother. This is her grandfather’s house, her mother’s name is Wen, and Jing is merely her cousin. If she had a father and a home of her own she wouldn’t have to put up with him. Yuan says she still ought to be nicer to him, and she says that if she was nice she couldn’t stop him stepping out of line, and both laugh. They become sworn brothers on the spot. He invites her to share the room with him but of course she can’t do that, and he watches her leave with a look that makes me wonder how on Earth he doesn’t realize that she’s a woman.
The next morning she comes to get him. There’s a delegation come to ask for gold. These are Cui (Chiu Gwok), Suen (Cheung King-Yu), and Mui Jin (Siao Yuk). We think they’re from the Longyou School, but it turns out that they’re Hua Shan, like Yuan. Qing-Qing didn’t steal the gold from Longyou, rather, she and Longyou were both trying to steal it from Hua Shan. She denies the theft and claims that they have no evidence and in fact didn’t even see her. They say they will search the place if she won’t admit it, and she says that the Wen family is wealthy and has many times 2000 in gold lying around. An argument ensues, during which a Wen lackey says he has never seen such a hostile woman, referring to Suen. So, she cuts off his arm to prove that she can be even more hostile.
A fight breaks out between her and Qing-Qing, and Yuan breaks it up and tries to talk with Suen. He learns that she is a disciple of Gui Xin Shu, the Invincible Fist that we learned about at the beginning of the film. Yuan asks her what the third rule of Hua Shan school is, and when she asks what right he has to question her, says that he too is Hua Shan. The others don’t believe him. He can’t be a student of Gui, or they would know him, and they doubt that he is a student of Wang Zhen (the Iron Abacus), who has judgment too good to accept such a man as a student. Yuan acknowledges that the judgment of Brother Wang is good, and again asks the third rule of Hua Shan. They ask by what right he calls him Brother Wang, and Yuan answers that his master is Mu Ren-Qing. Therefore, Wang Zhen and Gui Xin Shu are his elder brothers. The petitioners say that would make him their uncle, just as Qing-Qing’s grandfather, Master Wen (Wong Lik), enters with a small entourage. The petitioners confirm that the third rule commands them not to kill the innocent. Yuan then upbraids Suen for cutting off the arm of the retainer, who had done nothing to them.
Hearing this, Wen Nan-Yang (Lu Feng), a member of the entourage, wants to attack the petitioners. He is restrained by Master Wen, who wants to hear what the Hua Shan petitioners have to say. At the moment, though, they’re mostly interested in continuing to argue with Yuan, saying that he has no right to criticize them as they have not accepted him as their elder yet. He asks what it would take to convince them, and of course the answer is exceptional kung fu ability. Master Wen is pleased by this, as he has wanted to witness the young man’s skills (which he seems to have heard all about). Meanwhile, Suen draws her sword and stabs at Yuan’s back. He slips neatly aside and grabs her sword blade and, similarly to how Rong did earlier, snaps it in half. “This technique is Worshipping the Guan Yin, right?” he asks. Cui wants to spar, and Yuan suggests that if he can’t take five blows from Yuan it will prove that he’s their superior. Cui agrees and manages to parry the first four blows with some difficulty, but the fifth sends him flying. Yuan catches him, and the kid admits Yuan is his uncle and apologizes.
Mui Jin still needs convincing, though, and challenges Yuan’s swordsmanship. Yuan asks for ten swords, and they are brought. Then he uses the tip of the broken sword from earlier to break Mui’s sword. He takes the first of the ten new swords and tosses it to Mui, inviting him to try again. Same result. Second sword, same result. Third sword, same result, and when Mui reaches for a fourth sword, Yuan holds his own weapon to his throat. Suen protests, and Mui and Yuan begin a regular duel. Yuan must disarm or embarrass him several times before he finally yields.
The petitioners says that Suen will apologize, but Qing-Qing doesn’t think this is good enough. They remind her that it is the rules of their school that have been broken and their uncle will deal with them, but in the meanwhile it is still true that all of this only happened because Qing-Qing stole the gold. Yuan asks about the gold, and it turns out that it was raised for the victims of the disaster that Teacher told us about earlier in the film. Yuan says that, if Qing-Qing will return the gold (which, after all, was earned by his master), he will teach the injured man some one-armed swordsmanship techniques. Qing-Qing says that’s fine, but that Suen must also lose an arm. Suen says she’d like to see Qing-Qing try it, and Yuan once again has to break up the fight. He concludes that everyone is too angry to think clearly, but that if Cui will return the next day he can pick up the gold then. The petitioners agree and leave peaceably.
Anyway, Master Wen has watched all of this and was suitably impressed by Yuan’s skill against the Hua Shan crowd, but also noticed that, while he used Hua Shan kung fu against them during the individual sparring, when he broke up the last confrontation between Qing-Qing and Suen he used a different style, one that stirs bad memories. So he asks Yuan to demonstrate his skills against his entourage, beginning with Nan-Yang (Lu Feng), one of Qing-Qing’s uncles. This fight is necessarily a gorgeous dance, as is always the case when Philip Kwok and Lu Feng fight. A particularly nice element is how Lu Feng keeps his fists inside his flowing sleeves, so the loose ends act as a distraction, as with the tassel on the end of a Chinese spear.
After a moment, Master Wen stops this bout to start another, so that Wen Jing can test Yuan’s skills with weapons. Again, when two Venoms meet, the result is always a thing of beauty. Chiang Sheng is using a pair of shuang gou, wicked-looking hooked swords, which let him show off the speed and grace of his movements, and Philip Kwok uses one of the few unbroken swords brought for the duel with Mui Jin.
After the two have fought each other to a standstill for a moment, Master Wen sends Wen Fang (Chu Ko) in to help. He attacks with what appears to be a simple spear, but then it turns out that it can be separated into two sections and used as a pair of batons. This fight is especially nice, as Fang smoothly switches between the one long and two short weapons several times.
At one point Wen Bai-Yang (Yu Tai-Ping), the final member of the entourage, throws a long knife at Yuan, who easily flicks it away with his sword. Finally Master Wen calls a halt to this match, and says that Yuan’s skills are truly matchless, and that he wishes to face him himself. At this point the whole household turns out to watch, including Ching Li as Wen Yi, the woman Yuan has been looking for and the mother of Qing-Qing, who rushes to her side.
Master Wen invites Yuan to make the first move, and Yuan goes to a small child in the audience and borrows from her a small wooden sword, saying that he can’t risk harming such an august person. Master Wen replies that the skilled can afford to take such risks, and the bout begins. It is again a beautiful display of speed and grace, and during it we see flashbacks to a fight that we haven’t witnessed yet. At one point Yuan presses the head of Master Wen’s metal staff so hard against the floor that the decorative head leaves an impression in the stone, which ends the match, and Yuan returns the wooden sword to the child. But now Jing, Fang, Nan-Yang, and Bai-Yang draw their weapons and surround him. Master Wen accuses him of being an assassin sent by the Golden Snake, because he has recognized this unique kung fu style.
A rather winding conversation follows during which Yuan explains that the Golden Snake is dead and that he, Yuan, has learned his system by reading the manual he left behind. On hearing this news, Wen Yi faints into Qing-Qing’s arms. Master Wen tells her to help her mother from the room, as she is shaming herself, but Qing-Qing has a shocking reply:
Yuan goes to leave, after agreeing to meet Wen Yi in the garden that night. But first, Master Wen has a question for him: where and how did the Golden Snake die? Yuan says he does not know, as he didn’t see it, and that he will return the following day to settle the question of the gold.
Later we see Yuan sneaking into the garden, where he finds Wen Yi sitting in the gazebo and Qing-Qing playing her flute, no longer masquerading as a man. Yuan, realizing that she’s a woman, says “I feel so dumb,” and it’s hard not to agree with him. They join Wen Yi in the gazebo, and she says that she’s been waiting 18 years for the Golden Snake to come and take her and her daughter away from the Wen family home. But Yuan hears someone on the roof of the gazebo and issues a challenge, and Nan-Yang leaps down into the garden, accusing Wen Yi of now, not satisfied with abandoning her own chastity, leading her daughter to meet men alone at night.
Wen Yi maintains her dignity and says that no one in the household regards them as family, even though her man saved Nan-Yang’s life. Now we move into an extended series of flashbacks revealing some unsavory family history, and we finally get to meet the Golden Snake as played by Lung Tien-Hsiang. Many years ago, Nan-Yang was in prison awaiting execution for attempting to rape a woman. His Fourth Uncle was supposed to break him out, but never showed. The Golden Snake did it instead and gave him his uncle’s weapons and a large chest, instructing him to take it home and turn it over to his father (Master Wen) or his uncle. Then we see him back at Seh Tek Tong with the box, and one of the uncles (Keung Hon in what’s not even a cameo, really) opens it only to be killed by poisoned arrows, just like the ones in the cave. Master Wen finds a letter in the box, addressed to the “Wen brothers of Shilang School.” Also in the box is the body of the Fourth Uncle.
Nan-Yang remarks how malicious the Golden Snake is, and Wen Yi defends him, asking if Nan-Yang remembers why he did this. He says that she’ll justify anything he does, and she responds that “In my heart, he is my husband.” We return to the flashback to find another Wen brother (Kwan Feng) reading out the letter, saying that the dead uncle raped the Golden Snake’s sister and murdered her and the rest of the family to cover it up. Only Golden Snake escaped, and now he wants revenge on the whole Shilang School and the Wens in particular. He intends to murder 50 men and “ravish” ten women to even the score. We see quite a bit of him raiding the house, killing a number of folks, and then vanishing, and the family seems helpless to stop him. Then we see him carry off Wen Yi, but for whatever reason he does not rape her. Perhaps that was an empty threat, or maybe he’s just taken by her in some way, but he tends to her wounds and does not harm her. Some shots in this section seem to have inspired similar scenes in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 19 years later. They feel very familiar.
Anyway, ultimately and predictably the two fall in love, but Golden Snake continues his revenge. The family eventually finds his hiding place (the same cave where his body was found by Yuan) and ambush him, but he drives off everyone except Master Wen, who cannot abandon his daughter. Now comes the fight that we saw flashbacks of earlier. Golden Snake defeats Master Wen and has his sword at his throat, but Wen Yi intervenes and Golden Snake spares him for her sake.
He walks away but Master Wen attacks and lands a hard blow with his staff on the Golden Snake’s back. Golden Snake again disarms him and again refuses to kill him for Wen Yi’s sake, though this time she (perhaps shocked by the cowardly attack) does not plead for him. After he’s gone we see that Golden Snake is himself pretty badly injured, and this time Wen Yi nurses him back to health. He declares his love for her and promises to end his campaign of revenge. He says he will return her to her home and set out after a treasure he has learned of, then return and marry her once he’s rich.
Of course, she tells Yuan, when she came home unharmed her family assumed she was in cahoots with the assassin and treated her like dirt, but she didn’t care. Soon he would take her away and they’d live happily ever after. And eventually he did sneak into the compound one night, and they finally consummated their love. The next morning they were going to sneak away when her father discovered them, and said that he was willing to let bygones be bygones, but that Golden Snake would have to properly marry Wen Yi rather than eloping with her. Golden Snake agreed, but the family drugged him and crippled him, cutting tendons in his hands and feet so he could never fight again. He escaped (somehow), but she never saw him again. Since then the family has basically held her prisoner. And of course, soon after, she bore his child, Qing-Qing.
Now that the flashback is over, we see Master Wen and the other uncles enter the garden. He accuses Wen Yi of airing the family’s dirty laundry, which is true, of course, but she says that she doesn’t consider any of them her family, since they have rejected her and betrayed her husband. The only reason she has stayed so long is that she hoped he might come back for her (“If I wasn’t here, how would he find me?”), and now that she knows he’s dead she has nothing left to fear. She asks whether Yuan fears them, and he says he doesn’t, so Master Wen asks whether he has the courage to face their Five Elements Array. Yuan agrees, over Wen Yi’s warnings.
Of course the Wens attempt to drug Yuan as they did Golden Snake, but Qing-Qing breaks the cup of poisoned tea they offer him with a jade hairpin. Just as an aside: a lot is made in this movie of how unbeatable the Five Elements Array is, but isn’t it easy to win if you always drug your opponent before the fight starts? Anyway Master Wen states the terms of the combat: if Yuan wins, the family will turn the stolen gold over to the petitioners when they arrive and Yuan (and presumably Qing-Qing and Wen Yi) will be allowed to leave in peace; if the family wins, Yuan must turn the hidden treasure (remember that?) over to them. Just as the combat is about to begin, though, Cui shows up with his master, Wang Zhen, the Iron Abacus (Chu Tiet-Wo).
Wang Zhen asks for the gold for the suffering peasants, and Master Wen explains the deal that he’s just struck with Yuan. Wang Zhen considers this ridiculous (as, of course, it is) and asks why Master Wen doesn’t fight Yuan alone if he wishes to teach him a lesson. Master Wen wants to know if Wang Zhen, then, is afraid of the Five Elements Array, and Wang Zhen says that on the contrary he will face it himself before Yuan does. Yuan asks him to change his mind, as he’s an important figure and his school can’t afford to lose him, but Wang Zhen says that he needs Yuan and his younger eyes to watch the formation and find its weaknesses.
Now we are introduced properly to the Five Elements Array (we did it briefly and fuzzily in the flashback sequence). Five fighters (Master Wen, Nan-Yang, Jing, Wen Fang, and Bai-Yang) arrange themselves in a circle around Wang Zhen, weapons drawn, and then run around the circle, each carefully keeping his place and striking only if Wang Zhen strays too close to the ring. Yuan watches and begins to imagine some sort of zodiacal pattern on the rug they’re fighting on, and deciphers their movements enough for Wang Zhen to escape from the circle (I admit I have no idea how this works; someone smarter, or more knowledgeable about Chinese mythical traditions, will have to explain it). Master Wen says that Wang Zhen’s kung fu must be very good for him to have escaped, but that he still hasn’t won the gold, since the challenge was issued to Yuan. It is clear that he is the real target here. Wang Zhen agrees, saying that Yuan eats too much and it will be a relief to get rid of him but that Master Wen might regret it later. The clan surround him and Master Wen demands that he choose his weapon, and he chooses...the jade hairpin Qing-Qing used to save him from the poisoned tea.
Eight of the Wen family retainers surround the Array, swords drawn, to ensure that Yuan can’t escape. Yuan drops into a crouch and begins to spin counter-clockwise, the Array spins around him clockwise, and then the retainers spin around them clockwise, which is impractical but sure looks good on film. After a moment Yuan stops and sits in the center in a meditative pose; Jing goes to attack but Master Wen demands that he hold his position. The Array reverses its direction, and Yuan then rolls his jacket into a pillow and lays down in the center, yawning.
This time it’s Nan-Yang who loses patience and goes to attack, and is once again called off with an admonishment not to fall for Yuan’s tricks. We see that the constant running in a circle is beginning to weaken at least the retainers, and finally Bai-Yang gives up and throws his swords at Yuan. But he’s been waiting for this; he rolls aside, leaps to his feet, and attacks his now-unarmed enemy with the hairpin, at one point nearly sticking it up his nose!
In order to escape, Bai-Yang leaps onto a table, and when Yuan follows he is outside the circle. He kicks Bai-Yang through a tapestry before the rest of the clan can respond. Wen Jing engages while he’s still on the table, and in leaping over him Yuan cuts some of his topknot loose. Then Wen Fang attacks with his spear but is forced to retreat after being nearly sliced open lengthwise. The five regroup, but the Array is broken. Now it becomes a free-for-all, with both the clan and the retainers attacking. Allowing the retainers to take an active role proves to be a misstep, however, as Yuan easily overpowers them and throws them around like sacks of potatoes, their flying bodies disrupting the attacks of their teammates. There is a break in the fighting as the bad guys once again fall back to regroup, and Qing-Qing claps for her hero, who returns her hairpin. She smiles and places it back in her hair, and Bai-Yang is outraged at her siding with the family’s enemy. He again throws his swords, this time at Qing-Qing, but Wen Yi steps in the way, shielding her daughter at the cost of her own life.
Wen Yi collapses into a chair, and Qing-Qing, Yuan, Wang Zhen, and Cui all gather around her. Wen Yi tells Qing-Qing, “Don’t be sad. I’m going to meet your father.” She asks Yuan whether Golden Snake mentioned her, and he shows her the message that whoever finds the treasure must give 100K to her. She’s happy, and asks Yuan to look after the only loved one she has, Qing-Qing, and dies.
Just at this moment, the servant jumps over the wall and rushes in, handing the Golden Snake’s weapons to Yuan. Yuan then declares that he will use the Golden Snake’s legacy (his weapons and the knowledge in his manual) to avenge the Golden Snake’s death, which certainly seems fitting. He fights the five clan members while his friends hold off (well, kill) the retainers. He begins, while deflecting blows from everyone, by focusing his attacks on Bai-Yang, the actual killer of Wen Yi, who is also clearly the weak link. Bai-Yang keeps attempting to escape, leaping through the air and throwing his swords at the pursuing Yuan, but to no avail, and he’s quickly finished off. The fighting here is so fast and fought on so many fronts that it would be impossible to describe adequately, and anyway you ought to watch the movie, but after some acrobatic trickery Yuan is able to cut off Master Wen’s right leg, removing him from the bout.
Now Jing manages to strip Yuan’s sword from him; it flies into the air and sticks in the ceiling, twenty or more feet above. But of course this is kung fu, and Yuan can jump that high. So can Jing, though, and the two engage in some high-altitude combat, far above the other two combatants, that ends when Jing is killed by Yuan’s darts (weirdly setting off a fireworks display). Yuan retrieves his sword, and on the way back down slashes Wen Fang’s chest open. Now it’s really just Yuan and Nan-Yang, Philip Kwok and Lu Feng ending a film between themselves, which Shaw Brothers fans are definitely used to. Wen Fang does manage to get one more blow in, but the fight is basically over now; Yuan finally jumps over a high screen, off the wall behind, and then back through the screen, slashing both remaining brothers as he flies past them.
Master Wen is still alive, of course, and Qing-Qing picks up a sword and goes to kill him, but Yuan stops her. His whole family is dead, his legacy in ruins, and he himself is a cripple. It is enough. Cui grabs the gold, Yuan hands his weapons to the servant, then picks up and carries Wen Yi’s body, and all the good guys walk off to ANOTHER SHAW PRODUCTION.
 |
Loyal
servant,
hard-working
man. |
The credits take place over shots of this loyal but nameless servant (Wong Wa), carrying the small boy on his back over a mountain, to a score that sounds like something we’d hear over stock footage of Monument Valley on a 60s cowboy TV show. We finally end at Hua Shan Mansion, where the narration briefly picks back up: “The chief of the Hua Shan School was the best swordsman around.” We see this chief, the Teacher Mu Ren-Qing (Lee Sau-Kei), receiving the servant (who we now learn is mute) and reading the note he carries, imploring him to take in and train the child, which he agrees to do for the father’s sake.
Cut 17 years into the future, where we see the now-adult Yuan Cheng-Chih, played by Philip Kwok. He is playing chess with Muk Shon (Wong Ching-Ho) and beating him handily. The old man, along with Teacher, is about to travel to Xin Xi, where natural disasters have led to widespread starvation among the people. They’re planning a little fundraising to help folks out. Yuan and the servant go to speak to Teacher. He says that he hasn’t left the mansion since Yuan arrived all those years ago, and it’s time for him to visit old friends. Yuan would like to come along, but Teacher tells him that he has nearly mastered the kung fu he’s been learning, and it would be better for him to stay and complete his training. He gives Yuan the school’s manual, which outlines the moral standards students are meant to adhere to. He further explains that it can be difficult to know right from wrong, that good men can do evil things and vice-versa. He says that he has only ever taken in three students: besides Yuan himself, there were Iron Abacus Wang Zhen, and Invincible Fist Gui Xin Shu. The former is very smart, and the latter is simple but good-hearted. We’ll meet one of these guys later. Muk Shon then enters and delivers his parting gift, his chess set.
 |
Remember
those rules.
They’ll
be important later in the picture.
|
The servant brings Yuan to see what he’s discovered; a cave with golden snake-shaped darts stuck into the earth at its entrance. Yuan picks these darts up and enters the cave to discover writing carved into the walls: “The treasure and the manual are for the chosen. Enter at your own risk. Hsia Shiue Yi the Golden Snake.” Nearby are a skeleton draped next to a treasure chest and a sword stuck in a stone. Yuan pulls out the sword, which is apparently gold-plated and is wavy and forked like a snake’s tongue, and then approaches the chest.
 |
Incidentally,
these are gorgeous props.
I
wish they had gotten more use out of them.
|
He declares his intention to bury the skeleton and begins to dig. With a stick! I’ve buried cats with shovels before, and that’s hard work. Digging a human grave with a stick...this kid must have crazy stamina. Anyway, once he’s moved enough earth to make a grave he finds another chest buried on that spot. He opens it to find three documents.
 |
A
persistent problem for American fans of the Shaws:
I
sure wish I could read the titles on those documents.
|
The first reads “Whoever gets this box gets the treasure inside it, but must bury me first.” We’re on it! The second reads, “If you would bury me, please dig deeper into the pit before burying me. That way I can stay deep down in the ground free from worms.” Yuan does this and discovers another, smaller box. Inside this box is another note: “You are a righteous person. Follow my instructions to bury me and you will be highly rewarded. When you open the box, poisonous arrows will shoot out. The map inside the box is a fake and is poisonous. It’s to punish the crooks. The genuine map is in this small iron box.”
The servant makes worried noises outside the cave to warn that danger approaches. Yuan hides the boxes and moves the earth back over the hole, and they hide outside to witness two dangerous-looking men coming near. They see the cave and notice that the brush around it has been burned recently, and speculate that the villain they are searching for (on behalf of “third uncle”) is nearby, and that they should check Hua Shan.
 |
Not-so-loyal
servants Liang Yao-Wen (L) and Lam Chi-Tai.
Don’t
worry; I expect they’ll get what’s coming to them.
|
One suggests that they go back to third uncle to get backup, but the other wants to bring in the villain themselves, because he’s hoping that they can recover the treasure map on their own. They enter the cave and we have a pretty good idea what’s going to happen to them. Of course it does: they notice the recently-dug earth, dig it up again and find the first treasure chest. They toss aside the two notes Yuan has already read and open the third: “There is a secret mechanism on the side of the iron box. Use both hands to grasp it and the box will open.” So one of them (Lam Chi-Tai) does open the box and gets killed by the poisoned arrows.
 |
Don’t
gloat, dude. You ain’t outta this yet.
|
The other (Liang Yao-Wen) takes the manual and the map from the box, but they’re stuck together, so he licks his fingers to pull them apart and, obviously, is thereby poisoned.
 |
Told
ya.
|
Yuan and his servant return and retrieve the treasures, thanking the Golden Snake for sparing them.
 |
Can
I just pause for a moment to say how impressed I am
with
Philip Kwok’s sideburns in this? Those things are AMAZING.
|
Yuan spends some non-specific amount of time in the cave, studying the manual and practicing with the sword and the darts, while the faithful servant brings him his food. Once he’s mastered the manual he remarks that it seems to be incomplete, but careful examination reveals another page hidden inside the cover, along with the treasure map. It was clearly the Golden Snake’s intention for people to study the manual first, and then seek the treasure. The new page reads “Whoever gets this treasure, go to Shilang at Zhejiang. Find a lady named Wen Yi and give her 100,000 worth of gold.” Yuan says something that the subtitles translate as “sounds exaggerating,” which I repeat here because it tickles me.
 |
“Sounds
exaggerating.”
|
We return to the mansion where Yuan writes a farewell letter to his teacher while his servant examines the weapons. Yuan says that he doesn’t want the treasure, and so will simply deliver the map to this Wen Yi. He is not sure whether he should use the Golden Snake weapons and asks in the letter for Teacher’s advice, and asks the servant to bring any news of the Teacher’s wishes to him at Shilang.
 |
Man,
this place looks familiar.
|
He stops at a tavern along the way. As he eats peacefully upstairs, a young “man” walks in with steps so heavy that he makes the teacups shake. The waiter says that the place is very busy and invites him to share a table with someone else, which makes the young man shove him. Yuan catches him and invites the young man to join him at his table, at which point we see that he is played by Candy Wen and therefore is a woman in disguise. I’ll just go ahead and say that this is Wen Qing-Qing (Candy Wen), though we won’t know that within the film for some time yet. She turns around looking ready for a fight, but apparently it’s love at first sight for her, and she smiles and sits down.
 |
That’s
right. She’s all man.
|
This brings up a problem we’ll have a lot in reviewing Shaw Brothers films, and indeed in Chinese cinema in general. The “woman masquerading as a man” trope is very frequent, and it’s always as obvious to the audience as it is here. Somehow, the characters have a lot of trouble seeing through it, and it is really the major obstacle to a proper suspension of disbelief that I encounter with these films. But anyway, when deciding how to write up this particular plotline, I’ve decided just to refer to this character as Qing-Qing, hoping any readers will understand that until very near the end of the film the cast will refer to her as Brother Qing, and I will use feminine pronouns to refer to her since that will streamline some scenes, allowing me to write “him” and “her” rather than having to constantly retype everyone’s name. I hope that’s clear enough, but if not, well, that’s what the comment section is for.
The two indulge in small talk for a moment before a gang of ruffians charge into the tavern and see her. They demand that she come down. They are from the Longyou School and have been chasing her and the gold she carries for some time. Two of them jump up onto the balcony and she guts them both with a single sword swipe. Their leader (Wan Seung-Lam) says that there’s never been any trouble between Shilang and the Longyou School, and that for the sake of the Wen family...
 |
That’s
Wan Seung-Lam in the yellow vest.
Tell
me he doesn’t look like a younger, heavier, dopier Johnny Wang.
|
She cuts him off and demands that he fight if he wants the gold, so he draws daggers and throws them. She deflects them, and Yuan catches them. Then he jumps onto the balcony, sword drawn, and attempts to duel her. She wounds him, and he leaps back to the ground and throws some more daggers that Yuan blocks before they can harm her. Then she jumps down and stabs the ruffian to death. His men carry him out as she returns to the table.
Yuan scolds her for killing the ruffian when the fight was already over, and she tells him that saving her doesn’t give him the right to judge her. But they resume their meal until the ruffians return with an old man played by Chan Shen. This is Master Rong, and he’s a little pissed off. Two of his men again try to storm the balcony, and this time Yuan grabs them and pushes them back to the floor. He explains that he’s done this to save their lives, since Qing-Qing would certainly have killed them. Rong says that this must be why she has gotten so bold lately; she has a tough new boyfriend. Yuan asks if they can’t all sit down and sort out whatever the problem is by talking, but neither Rong nor Qing-Qing is very interested in this. She demands that Yuan leave if he’s scared, while Rong says that once he’s taken care of Qing-Qing maybe they can be friends.
Rong and Qing-Qing argue back and forth, with her getting more taunting by the second and him getting angry enough to strike a support with such force that the whole building shakes. Then we get this exchange:
 |
Damn,
dude. I know she’s an annoying brat, but that ain’t right.
|
Rong demands the gold. He even claims not really to want it for himself, and that he will give it to Sha’s widow (I assume Sha is the name of the gang leader she has just murdered, but that is not clear). She draws her sword and attacks him, though he is unarmed. In one of the niftier moves in any Shaw Brothers movie, he grabs the blade with both hands, snaps the point off, knocks the sword from her grasp, and waves the tip in her face, delivering one of the movie’s more chilling lines:
 |
“If
I don’t leave a mark on your face,
I’m
afraid that you’ll forget.”
|
Now Yuan has seen enough. He throws his teacup, knocking the blade from Rong’s hand, then hangs by his toes from the balcony to pull Qing-Qing back up. Rong says that, for Mr. Yuan’s sake, he will spare Qing-Qing this time, and he and his men go to leave, but that damned girl can’t leave well enough alone, calling that Rong and his bullies turn tail when they see a real fighter. Rong asks Yuan to fight him for friendship’s sake, to dispel any rumors that he might be a coward, and Yuan accepts, asking Rong to go easy on him. Their combat is elegant, respectful, and ends in a draw, so of course Qing-Qing is bored and aggravated by it.
 |
+1
Friendship!
|
After Rong and his men have gone, she offers half the gold to Yuan, who refuses. We already know he isn’t interested in wealth. So she starts to leave in a huff and he prevents her, at which she promptly drops to the floor and begins to fake cry. He asks if he’s hurt her, and she smiles and shoves him, then runs off, leaving half the gold behind. He packs it up and starts after her, and trails her to a place called Xi Tak Hall, where he asks for “A young man named Wen.” He finds a (very small) mob trying to storm the place looking for Wen, who has injured their friends and family members. Apparently he’s something of a cruel landlord.
 |
Chiang
Sheng as Wen Jing.
|
As they explain all of this to Yuan, my beloved Chiang Sheng walks out. It turns out that he’s playing the villain the crowd is after, Wen Jing. He grabs the leader of the mob and, with one hand, tosses him clear across the courtyard, but Yuan catches him so that he is not injured. Wen Jing asks whether the mob has hired Yuan to act for them, but he answers no, he just doesn’t want anyone to be hurt. His name is Yuan, he says, and he is looking for Wen. Jing says that’s his name, and Yuan says no, the person he’s looking for is younger. Jing hesitates, then smiles and says that he must mean his younger brother, Wen Qing. He invites Yuan inside.
 |
Incidentally,
the guy serving the drinks here is Ting Tung,
in
case you wanted to look him up.
|
Jing calls Qing-Qing to join them and Yuan returns the package containing the gold. She is offended, and when he then tries to leave she won’t let him. She asks him to stay for the day, since she has something to ask him. Yuan says he can’t stay; he has other business to conduct, and Jing says that they mustn’t keep him, but Qing-Qing says he only won’t stay because he despises her, so he (Yuan) agrees to stay to avoid an insult. This clearly displeases Jing, but he arranges for a meal to be served anyway.
 |
But
seriously, if I told you one of these men was a young woman,
you’d
be shocked, right? Couldn’t figure out which one, could ya?
|
Jing gets drunk at this meal and calls her Qing-Qing rather than “brother Qing,” which of course denotes her gender. She scolds him for being present at all, since Yuan is her guest, not his. Yuan says that really, all he wants is some sleep, and Jing says he can have his room but Qing-Qing insists that he’ll stay in hers. Jing gets angry, and Qing-Qing says she will stay with her mother, but he storms off anyway. Yuan retires to Qing-Qing’s room, but after a little while she comes knocking at the window, saying it’s a beautiful moon and he ought to come watch it with her.
They sit in a gazebo drinking wine and eating fruit, and Qing-Qing plays for him on a flute. The song is beautiful and Yuan enjoys it, but then she breaks the flute over her knee. She is angry that he’ll leave her the next day, and since no one in the house appreciates music or, indeed, anything but fighting, there’s no point to her playing if he isn’t there. He says that, contrary to her belief, he doesn’t despise her, and he wishes she would tell him what’s on her mind. She tells him the story of her mother being raped and she herself being the product of that assault. Yuan says that this is neither her fault nor her mother’s, the fault lies entirely with the rapist. She says that people insult them both, and he answers that these people are themselves shameful. He says that he will certainly come to visit her again, and she grabs his hand.
 |
Nothing
important in this shot.
I
just think the flowers are pretty.
|
At this point Jing walks in and accuses them of sneaking around. Yuan, trying to avoid trouble, suggests that everyone just go to bed, but Qing-Qing pushes him back into his seat. She says that she grew these flowers in the garden herself and Jing isn’t allowed to look at them. He says he’ll look wherever he likes unless she plucks out his eyes, and she tears all the flowers out of the beds in a rage. He complains that she treats him so badly even though he’s only ever tried to help her, but she says she doesn’t need him to be good to her. He can go and tell their grandfather and have her kicked out if he likes. Jing storms off.
 |
Hey,
whoah, stop that!
Don’t
take it out on the flowers!
They
ain’t hurtin’ nobody!
|
Yuan asks how she can treat her brother like this, and she says that Jing isn’t her brother. This is her grandfather’s house, her mother’s name is Wen, and Jing is merely her cousin. If she had a father and a home of her own she wouldn’t have to put up with him. Yuan says she still ought to be nicer to him, and she says that if she was nice she couldn’t stop him stepping out of line, and both laugh. They become sworn brothers on the spot. He invites her to share the room with him but of course she can’t do that, and he watches her leave with a look that makes me wonder how on Earth he doesn’t realize that she’s a woman.
 |
Chiu
Gwok, Siao Yuk, and Cheung King-Yu
as
three kids who don’t know their place.
|
The next morning she comes to get him. There’s a delegation come to ask for gold. These are Cui (Chiu Gwok), Suen (Cheung King-Yu), and Mui Jin (Siao Yuk). We think they’re from the Longyou School, but it turns out that they’re Hua Shan, like Yuan. Qing-Qing didn’t steal the gold from Longyou, rather, she and Longyou were both trying to steal it from Hua Shan. She denies the theft and claims that they have no evidence and in fact didn’t even see her. They say they will search the place if she won’t admit it, and she says that the Wen family is wealthy and has many times 2000 in gold lying around. An argument ensues, during which a Wen lackey says he has never seen such a hostile woman, referring to Suen. So, she cuts off his arm to prove that she can be even more hostile.
 |
Oh,
I’m gonna show you “hostile.”
|
A fight breaks out between her and Qing-Qing, and Yuan breaks it up and tries to talk with Suen. He learns that she is a disciple of Gui Xin Shu, the Invincible Fist that we learned about at the beginning of the film. Yuan asks her what the third rule of Hua Shan school is, and when she asks what right he has to question her, says that he too is Hua Shan. The others don’t believe him. He can’t be a student of Gui, or they would know him, and they doubt that he is a student of Wang Zhen (the Iron Abacus), who has judgment too good to accept such a man as a student. Yuan acknowledges that the judgment of Brother Wang is good, and again asks the third rule of Hua Shan. They ask by what right he calls him Brother Wang, and Yuan answers that his master is Mu Ren-Qing. Therefore, Wang Zhen and Gui Xin Shu are his elder brothers. The petitioners say that would make him their uncle, just as Qing-Qing’s grandfather, Master Wen (Wong Lik), enters with a small entourage. The petitioners confirm that the third rule commands them not to kill the innocent. Yuan then upbraids Suen for cutting off the arm of the retainer, who had done nothing to them.
 |
Rule
#1 for a Shaw Brothers cinematographer:
you
gotta really be able to fill up a screen.
|
Hearing this, Wen Nan-Yang (Lu Feng), a member of the entourage, wants to attack the petitioners. He is restrained by Master Wen, who wants to hear what the Hua Shan petitioners have to say. At the moment, though, they’re mostly interested in continuing to argue with Yuan, saying that he has no right to criticize them as they have not accepted him as their elder yet. He asks what it would take to convince them, and of course the answer is exceptional kung fu ability. Master Wen is pleased by this, as he has wanted to witness the young man’s skills (which he seems to have heard all about). Meanwhile, Suen draws her sword and stabs at Yuan’s back. He slips neatly aside and grabs her sword blade and, similarly to how Rong did earlier, snaps it in half. “This technique is Worshipping the Guan Yin, right?” he asks. Cui wants to spar, and Yuan suggests that if he can’t take five blows from Yuan it will prove that he’s their superior. Cui agrees and manages to parry the first four blows with some difficulty, but the fifth sends him flying. Yuan catches him, and the kid admits Yuan is his uncle and apologizes.
 |
“...sends
him flying” ≠
euphemism.
|
Mui Jin still needs convincing, though, and challenges Yuan’s swordsmanship. Yuan asks for ten swords, and they are brought. Then he uses the tip of the broken sword from earlier to break Mui’s sword. He takes the first of the ten new swords and tosses it to Mui, inviting him to try again. Same result. Second sword, same result. Third sword, same result, and when Mui reaches for a fourth sword, Yuan holds his own weapon to his throat. Suen protests, and Mui and Yuan begin a regular duel. Yuan must disarm or embarrass him several times before he finally yields.
 |
If
it was me, watching my brother fly through the air would’ve been
enough to shut me up.
But
this kid? This is the sixth or seventh time Yuan has held a sword to
his throat,
and
he’s still talking shit!
|
The petitioners says that Suen will apologize, but Qing-Qing doesn’t think this is good enough. They remind her that it is the rules of their school that have been broken and their uncle will deal with them, but in the meanwhile it is still true that all of this only happened because Qing-Qing stole the gold. Yuan asks about the gold, and it turns out that it was raised for the victims of the disaster that Teacher told us about earlier in the film. Yuan says that, if Qing-Qing will return the gold (which, after all, was earned by his master), he will teach the injured man some one-armed swordsmanship techniques. Qing-Qing says that’s fine, but that Suen must also lose an arm. Suen says she’d like to see Qing-Qing try it, and Yuan once again has to break up the fight. He concludes that everyone is too angry to think clearly, but that if Cui will return the next day he can pick up the gold then. The petitioners agree and leave peaceably.
 |
Wong
Lik as Master Wen
|
Anyway, Master Wen has watched all of this and was suitably impressed by Yuan’s skill against the Hua Shan crowd, but also noticed that, while he used Hua Shan kung fu against them during the individual sparring, when he broke up the last confrontation between Qing-Qing and Suen he used a different style, one that stirs bad memories. So he asks Yuan to demonstrate his skills against his entourage, beginning with Nan-Yang (Lu Feng), one of Qing-Qing’s uncles. This fight is necessarily a gorgeous dance, as is always the case when Philip Kwok and Lu Feng fight. A particularly nice element is how Lu Feng keeps his fists inside his flowing sleeves, so the loose ends act as a distraction, as with the tassel on the end of a Chinese spear.
 |
Lu
Feng (R). I wanted a picture of the loose sleeves flying,
but
he’s so fast that they’re just a blur in stills.
|
After a moment, Master Wen stops this bout to start another, so that Wen Jing can test Yuan’s skills with weapons. Again, when two Venoms meet, the result is always a thing of beauty. Chiang Sheng is using a pair of shuang gou, wicked-looking hooked swords, which let him show off the speed and grace of his movements, and Philip Kwok uses one of the few unbroken swords brought for the duel with Mui Jin.
 |
Wicked-looking
things, aren’t they?
|
After the two have fought each other to a standstill for a moment, Master Wen sends Wen Fang (Chu Ko) in to help. He attacks with what appears to be a simple spear, but then it turns out that it can be separated into two sections and used as a pair of batons. This fight is especially nice, as Fang smoothly switches between the one long and two short weapons several times.
 |
The
long and the short of it.
A-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAH!!!
Oh,
P.S. Chu Ko as Wen Fang.
|
At one point Wen Bai-Yang (Yu Tai-Ping), the final member of the entourage, throws a long knife at Yuan, who easily flicks it away with his sword. Finally Master Wen calls a halt to this match, and says that Yuan’s skills are truly matchless, and that he wishes to face him himself. At this point the whole household turns out to watch, including Ching Li as Wen Yi, the woman Yuan has been looking for and the mother of Qing-Qing, who rushes to her side.
 |
Ching
Li as Wen Yi
|
Master Wen invites Yuan to make the first move, and Yuan goes to a small child in the audience and borrows from her a small wooden sword, saying that he can’t risk harming such an august person. Master Wen replies that the skilled can afford to take such risks, and the bout begins. It is again a beautiful display of speed and grace, and during it we see flashbacks to a fight that we haven’t witnessed yet. At one point Yuan presses the head of Master Wen’s metal staff so hard against the floor that the decorative head leaves an impression in the stone, which ends the match, and Yuan returns the wooden sword to the child. But now Jing, Fang, Nan-Yang, and Bai-Yang draw their weapons and surround him. Master Wen accuses him of being an assassin sent by the Golden Snake, because he has recognized this unique kung fu style.
 |
A
recurring theme of Shaw Brothers movies is how little anyone seems to
care
about
odds in a fight being even.
|
A rather winding conversation follows during which Yuan explains that the Golden Snake is dead and that he, Yuan, has learned his system by reading the manual he left behind. On hearing this news, Wen Yi faints into Qing-Qing’s arms. Master Wen tells her to help her mother from the room, as she is shaming herself, but Qing-Qing has a shocking reply:
 |
Whoah...the
plot thickens!
|
Yuan goes to leave, after agreeing to meet Wen Yi in the garden that night. But first, Master Wen has a question for him: where and how did the Golden Snake die? Yuan says he does not know, as he didn’t see it, and that he will return the following day to settle the question of the gold.
Later we see Yuan sneaking into the garden, where he finds Wen Yi sitting in the gazebo and Qing-Qing playing her flute, no longer masquerading as a man. Yuan, realizing that she’s a woman, says “I feel so dumb,” and it’s hard not to agree with him. They join Wen Yi in the gazebo, and she says that she’s been waiting 18 years for the Golden Snake to come and take her and her daughter away from the Wen family home. But Yuan hears someone on the roof of the gazebo and issues a challenge, and Nan-Yang leaps down into the garden, accusing Wen Yi of now, not satisfied with abandoning her own chastity, leading her daughter to meet men alone at night.
 |
Well,
that’s just plain rude.
|
Wen Yi maintains her dignity and says that no one in the household regards them as family, even though her man saved Nan-Yang’s life. Now we move into an extended series of flashbacks revealing some unsavory family history, and we finally get to meet the Golden Snake as played by Lung Tien-Hsiang. Many years ago, Nan-Yang was in prison awaiting execution for attempting to rape a woman. His Fourth Uncle was supposed to break him out, but never showed. The Golden Snake did it instead and gave him his uncle’s weapons and a large chest, instructing him to take it home and turn it over to his father (Master Wen) or his uncle. Then we see him back at Seh Tek Tong with the box, and one of the uncles (Keung Hon in what’s not even a cameo, really) opens it only to be killed by poisoned arrows, just like the ones in the cave. Master Wen finds a letter in the box, addressed to the “Wen brothers of Shilang School.” Also in the box is the body of the Fourth Uncle.
 |
Invoice:
One (1) box of dead uncle.
One
(1) metric shit-ton of revenge (pending).
|
Nan-Yang remarks how malicious the Golden Snake is, and Wen Yi defends him, asking if Nan-Yang remembers why he did this. He says that she’ll justify anything he does, and she responds that “In my heart, he is my husband.” We return to the flashback to find another Wen brother (Kwan Feng) reading out the letter, saying that the dead uncle raped the Golden Snake’s sister and murdered her and the rest of the family to cover it up. Only Golden Snake escaped, and now he wants revenge on the whole Shilang School and the Wens in particular. He intends to murder 50 men and “ravish” ten women to even the score. We see quite a bit of him raiding the house, killing a number of folks, and then vanishing, and the family seems helpless to stop him. Then we see him carry off Wen Yi, but for whatever reason he does not rape her. Perhaps that was an empty threat, or maybe he’s just taken by her in some way, but he tends to her wounds and does not harm her. Some shots in this section seem to have inspired similar scenes in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 19 years later. They feel very familiar.
 |
“Xiaolong,
would you like some tea?”
“My name is Wen Yi!”
“Sorry.
Keep forgetting which movie I’m in.”
|
Anyway, ultimately and predictably the two fall in love, but Golden Snake continues his revenge. The family eventually finds his hiding place (the same cave where his body was found by Yuan) and ambush him, but he drives off everyone except Master Wen, who cannot abandon his daughter. Now comes the fight that we saw flashbacks of earlier. Golden Snake defeats Master Wen and has his sword at his throat, but Wen Yi intervenes and Golden Snake spares him for her sake.
 |
Story
would’ve gone a lot more smoothly if she’d kept her damned mouth
shut.
|
He walks away but Master Wen attacks and lands a hard blow with his staff on the Golden Snake’s back. Golden Snake again disarms him and again refuses to kill him for Wen Yi’s sake, though this time she (perhaps shocked by the cowardly attack) does not plead for him. After he’s gone we see that Golden Snake is himself pretty badly injured, and this time Wen Yi nurses him back to health. He declares his love for her and promises to end his campaign of revenge. He says he will return her to her home and set out after a treasure he has learned of, then return and marry her once he’s rich.
 |
The
(briefly) happy couple.
|
Of course, she tells Yuan, when she came home unharmed her family assumed she was in cahoots with the assassin and treated her like dirt, but she didn’t care. Soon he would take her away and they’d live happily ever after. And eventually he did sneak into the compound one night, and they finally consummated their love. The next morning they were going to sneak away when her father discovered them, and said that he was willing to let bygones be bygones, but that Golden Snake would have to properly marry Wen Yi rather than eloping with her. Golden Snake agreed, but the family drugged him and crippled him, cutting tendons in his hands and feet so he could never fight again. He escaped (somehow), but she never saw him again. Since then the family has basically held her prisoner. And of course, soon after, she bore his child, Qing-Qing.
 |
Cheaters
never win?
|
Now that the flashback is over, we see Master Wen and the other uncles enter the garden. He accuses Wen Yi of airing the family’s dirty laundry, which is true, of course, but she says that she doesn’t consider any of them her family, since they have rejected her and betrayed her husband. The only reason she has stayed so long is that she hoped he might come back for her (“If I wasn’t here, how would he find me?”), and now that she knows he’s dead she has nothing left to fear. She asks whether Yuan fears them, and he says he doesn’t, so Master Wen asks whether he has the courage to face their Five Elements Array. Yuan agrees, over Wen Yi’s warnings.
 |
Shame
to break such a pretty teacup, though.
|
Of course the Wens attempt to drug Yuan as they did Golden Snake, but Qing-Qing breaks the cup of poisoned tea they offer him with a jade hairpin. Just as an aside: a lot is made in this movie of how unbeatable the Five Elements Array is, but isn’t it easy to win if you always drug your opponent before the fight starts? Anyway Master Wen states the terms of the combat: if Yuan wins, the family will turn the stolen gold over to the petitioners when they arrive and Yuan (and presumably Qing-Qing and Wen Yi) will be allowed to leave in peace; if the family wins, Yuan must turn the hidden treasure (remember that?) over to them. Just as the combat is about to begin, though, Cui shows up with his master, Wang Zhen, the Iron Abacus (Chu Tiet-Wo).
 |
Chu
Tiet-Wo as Wang Zhen, the Iron Abacus.
Look
at that smile! That man is definitely not afraid of your silly battle
formation.
|
Wang Zhen asks for the gold for the suffering peasants, and Master Wen explains the deal that he’s just struck with Yuan. Wang Zhen considers this ridiculous (as, of course, it is) and asks why Master Wen doesn’t fight Yuan alone if he wishes to teach him a lesson. Master Wen wants to know if Wang Zhen, then, is afraid of the Five Elements Array, and Wang Zhen says that on the contrary he will face it himself before Yuan does. Yuan asks him to change his mind, as he’s an important figure and his school can’t afford to lose him, but Wang Zhen says that he needs Yuan and his younger eyes to watch the formation and find its weaknesses.
 |
No
idea at all what’s going on here.
|
Now we are introduced properly to the Five Elements Array (we did it briefly and fuzzily in the flashback sequence). Five fighters (Master Wen, Nan-Yang, Jing, Wen Fang, and Bai-Yang) arrange themselves in a circle around Wang Zhen, weapons drawn, and then run around the circle, each carefully keeping his place and striking only if Wang Zhen strays too close to the ring. Yuan watches and begins to imagine some sort of zodiacal pattern on the rug they’re fighting on, and deciphers their movements enough for Wang Zhen to escape from the circle (I admit I have no idea how this works; someone smarter, or more knowledgeable about Chinese mythical traditions, will have to explain it). Master Wen says that Wang Zhen’s kung fu must be very good for him to have escaped, but that he still hasn’t won the gold, since the challenge was issued to Yuan. It is clear that he is the real target here. Wang Zhen agrees, saying that Yuan eats too much and it will be a relief to get rid of him but that Master Wen might regret it later. The clan surround him and Master Wen demands that he choose his weapon, and he chooses...the jade hairpin Qing-Qing used to save him from the poisoned tea.
 |
And
honestly, considering what candy-asses this family has been portrayed
as,
I’m
pretty sure this little green stick is enough for the lot of ‘em.
|
Eight of the Wen family retainers surround the Array, swords drawn, to ensure that Yuan can’t escape. Yuan drops into a crouch and begins to spin counter-clockwise, the Array spins around him clockwise, and then the retainers spin around them clockwise, which is impractical but sure looks good on film. After a moment Yuan stops and sits in the center in a meditative pose; Jing goes to attack but Master Wen demands that he hold his position. The Array reverses its direction, and Yuan then rolls his jacket into a pillow and lays down in the center, yawning.
 |
I
can see how this might be interpreted
as
a sign of disrespect.
|
This time it’s Nan-Yang who loses patience and goes to attack, and is once again called off with an admonishment not to fall for Yuan’s tricks. We see that the constant running in a circle is beginning to weaken at least the retainers, and finally Bai-Yang gives up and throws his swords at Yuan. But he’s been waiting for this; he rolls aside, leaps to his feet, and attacks his now-unarmed enemy with the hairpin, at one point nearly sticking it up his nose!
 |
What
an embarrassing death that would’ve been, huh?
|
In order to escape, Bai-Yang leaps onto a table, and when Yuan follows he is outside the circle. He kicks Bai-Yang through a tapestry before the rest of the clan can respond. Wen Jing engages while he’s still on the table, and in leaping over him Yuan cuts some of his topknot loose. Then Wen Fang attacks with his spear but is forced to retreat after being nearly sliced open lengthwise. The five regroup, but the Array is broken. Now it becomes a free-for-all, with both the clan and the retainers attacking. Allowing the retainers to take an active role proves to be a misstep, however, as Yuan easily overpowers them and throws them around like sacks of potatoes, their flying bodies disrupting the attacks of their teammates. There is a break in the fighting as the bad guys once again fall back to regroup, and Qing-Qing claps for her hero, who returns her hairpin. She smiles and places it back in her hair, and Bai-Yang is outraged at her siding with the family’s enemy. He again throws his swords, this time at Qing-Qing, but Wen Yi steps in the way, shielding her daughter at the cost of her own life.
 |
Man,
dirtier and dirtier! Chang Cheh wanted to make sure
we
hated these villains, didn’t he?
|
Wen Yi collapses into a chair, and Qing-Qing, Yuan, Wang Zhen, and Cui all gather around her. Wen Yi tells Qing-Qing, “Don’t be sad. I’m going to meet your father.” She asks Yuan whether Golden Snake mentioned her, and he shows her the message that whoever finds the treasure must give 100K to her. She’s happy, and asks Yuan to look after the only loved one she has, Qing-Qing, and dies.
 |
“Holy
shit, dude, I totally forgot you’re in this movie!
You
wouldn’t believe what’s been going on since I last saw you!”
|
Just at this moment, the servant jumps over the wall and rushes in, handing the Golden Snake’s weapons to Yuan. Yuan then declares that he will use the Golden Snake’s legacy (his weapons and the knowledge in his manual) to avenge the Golden Snake’s death, which certainly seems fitting. He fights the five clan members while his friends hold off (well, kill) the retainers. He begins, while deflecting blows from everyone, by focusing his attacks on Bai-Yang, the actual killer of Wen Yi, who is also clearly the weak link. Bai-Yang keeps attempting to escape, leaping through the air and throwing his swords at the pursuing Yuan, but to no avail, and he’s quickly finished off. The fighting here is so fast and fought on so many fronts that it would be impossible to describe adequately, and anyway you ought to watch the movie, but after some acrobatic trickery Yuan is able to cut off Master Wen’s right leg, removing him from the bout.
 |
Yup,
that’s his body flying one way and his leg flying the other.
Of
course, anyone who has seen Crippled Avengers (a previous Venoms
film)
knows
that this will only make him more dangerous.
|
Now Jing manages to strip Yuan’s sword from him; it flies into the air and sticks in the ceiling, twenty or more feet above. But of course this is kung fu, and Yuan can jump that high. So can Jing, though, and the two engage in some high-altitude combat, far above the other two combatants, that ends when Jing is killed by Yuan’s darts (weirdly setting off a fireworks display). Yuan retrieves his sword, and on the way back down slashes Wen Fang’s chest open. Now it’s really just Yuan and Nan-Yang, Philip Kwok and Lu Feng ending a film between themselves, which Shaw Brothers fans are definitely used to. Wen Fang does manage to get one more blow in, but the fight is basically over now; Yuan finally jumps over a high screen, off the wall behind, and then back through the screen, slashing both remaining brothers as he flies past them.
 |
Just
waiting for the bodies to hit the floor.
|
Master Wen is still alive, of course, and Qing-Qing picks up a sword and goes to kill him, but Yuan stops her. His whole family is dead, his legacy in ruins, and he himself is a cripple. It is enough. Cui grabs the gold, Yuan hands his weapons to the servant, then picks up and carries Wen Yi’s body, and all the good guys walk off to ANOTHER SHAW PRODUCTION.
* * * * * * *
BEST THING ABOUT THE FILM:
I like the complexity of the plot that the Golden Snake has set up. Hide your legacy in such a way that only a righteous man will find it. Give him, with your martial arts manual and your weapons, the strength to stand up to the Wen family. Set up the manual in such a way that the righteous man won’t realize there’s something missing ‘til he’s completed his training. Then send him on a treasure hunt that must lead him to Wen Yi, at which point he’ll discover the truth and avenge the Snake against the family. It couldn’t possibly work in real life, but it’s good fun on the screen.
WORST THING ABOUT THE FILM:
The movie isn’t lean enough. There’s too much fat. Most egregious is the prologue. Yuan Shung-Wun is supposed to have been a terribly important person, a fighter for justice and “liberty” (which in context really means “the right to be ruled by the autocratic Han rather than the autocratic Manchu”) but is never mentioned by any character after his son is delivered to Mu Ren-Ching. His death was tragic, and yet his son, our main character, is not motivated by revenge (which at least makes him unique among Shaw heroes). The Wen family had nothing to do with his death. So why include that bit at all? There are other examples. How about this: Mu Ren-Ching mentions that he had two other students, and we discuss them briefly. Later we meet one, Wang Zhen, but we never meet the other, and he’s only mentioned in passing. Why mention him at all, then? I’ve heard that this, like so many Shaw Brothers movies, was taken from a novel by the great Jin Yong, and it’s possible that these things carry over from the book, where they have more meaning (not having read the book I can’t say...it’s hard to find English translations of Jin’s work). To that I reply 1) I’ve also heard that it bears little resemblance to the novel beyond the name, so I’m not sure that’s the case, and 2) that’s no excuse. When adapting a work from another medium, you cut out the things you don’t need. These things should have been cut.
SHAWISMS:
The Gender-Swap is the obvious one, and it’s more annoying in this one than usual. I think that’s because the only character who doesn’t know Qing-Qing is a woman is our hero. Her family is obviously humoring her, but they slip a few times, and even Master Rong makes clear reference to her gender when talking to her. It just makes Yuan look stupid that he’s the only one not in on the joke.
PICKING NITS:
First I have to pick on myself: I can’t tell the difference between Lam Chi-Tai and Chu Ko. I know they’re both in this, I know that one of them is the guy who falls for the arrow trap in the cave and the other is the spear-wielding Wen Fang, but even after extensive research, looking at every picture of the two I could find on the Web, I’m not sure which is which. I hope I’ve attached the correct actor to each role, but I might be wrong. I also hope this doesn’t mean I’m just another racist Westerner to whom all Chinese look alike. I also also hope eventually to be able to decide for sure which is which, after seeing one or both in more movies, and straighten this out. For now I beg the indulgence of anyone that does know the difference who happens to read this. Oh, and please clue me in the comments.
!?! !?! !?!
The Golden Snake’s skeleton was next to, and leaning against, another chest in the cave. Why did no one open it? What was in it? After discovering the contents of the buried chests, surely someone’s curiosity should have been aroused.
!?! !?! !?!
As mentioned, Yuan digging a grave for the Golden Snake with a stick and his bare hands is a lot of work. But of course, when his servant warns him of the approaching villains, he re-buries the chest and fills the hole back up, which ought to have been nearly as much work and still without a shovel. Which raises the question, how far away were the villains when the servant spotted them? Because it obviously took them a long time to get there, if Yuan had time for all that. And if they were that far away, how did the servant know they represented a danger?
!?! !?! !?!
I wish I lived in a world where a man could become a kung fu master by reading a book.
!?! !?! !?!
When Suen attacks Yuan, he breaks the tip off her sword. Then a few minutes later, when Qing-Qing is threatening to cut her arm off, she draws her sword and it’s whole again. Magic!
!?! !?! !?!
Why doesn’t Qing-Qing take part in the final battle? We know she can fight. And her mother has just been straight murdered, which ought to be some incentive. Okay, she can’t get into it with the Array, since we want Yuan to handle that himself, but she could have joined in with the guys who were holding off the retainers, couldn’t she? Is this just a Chang Cheh thing?
!?! !?! !?!
Why is this movie called The Sword Stained With Royal Blood? There’s not a drop of royal blood spilled in this thing, by sword or otherwise. I get that it was the name of the book, but given how little the plots have in common, it might have been worth changing the name.
THOUGHTS:
THOUGHTS:
I wonder whether there’s any significance to the fact that the servant is mute. That’s such an odd little touch (and one that doesn’t affect the plot at all) that it feels like it ought to symbolize something, but I am not a sufficiently-versed student of Chinese culture to know whether it does or not. Of course, I also wonder whether Wong Wa actually had a speech impediment of some kind, or perhaps just couldn’t believably deliver a line of dialog. I’ve seen him in two films, and in those two films he has said not a single word (he is also the Iron Axe in The Flag Of Iron). If anyone can shed light on either of these questions in the comments, I’d appreciate it.
I really enjoy the characterization of Wang Zhen, the Iron Abacus. He is unfailingly polite to the Wen family, even though he knows that they’ve stolen his gold and mean to kill Yuan (and are perfectly willing to kill Wang himself). Chu Tit-Wo plays him with a big, friendly smile that never disappears for more than a second, and his manner never slips. Master Wen largely responds in kind, which is also pretty neat, though he’s still pretty strident. And Philip Kwok, of course, has been behaving this way throughout the film. I like the idea that being in a deadly struggle for treasure and revenge is no excuse for bad manners. I feel like that, too, is particularly Chinese, though not uniquely; some Western movies (The Grand Illusion springs immediately to mind) have a similar vibe.
Conversely, Qing-Qing’s characterization is...well, not poorly-done, assuming they were trying to make her unlikeable, but I don’t know why they would do that. She’s selfish, petulant, and bloodthirsty, as well as grotesquely immature. The movie seems to forgive her for all of this, since she’s Yuan’s love interest, but I don’t. I admit she’s had some trouble in her life, but that’s just no excuse for the way she behaves. I have no idea why Yuan would be interested in her beyond the fact that she’s undeniably pretty. I wish they had put a little more work into this character.
It’s interesting the way music is used in Shaw Brothers films, and I wish someone would write a book (or at least a decent academic paper) about it. Run-of-the-mill productions seem to have been mostly scored by stock music, regardless of the fact that they would still have composers listed in the credits, and even larger productions with some apparently original pieces would still rely on the library for the grunt work. More than that, the stock music often seems to have been picked more or less at random. I mentioned during the synopsis that the music playing over the opening credits is completely incongruous; it is distinctly Western, referring not just to the global West but the genre. It has absolutely no place in this film. On the other hand, the little tune Qing-Qing plays on the flute, which is later developed into a larger piece in the manner of “As Time Goes By” becomes a recurring musical motif in Casablanca, appears to have been original to the film. If it was, it was masterfully composed by the credited Eddie Wong, and if it came from the library it was clearly chosen with great care. It suits the on-screen action perfectly as well as being beautiful in its own right, and I wish I had it on my iPod. Why couldn’t the studio have been more consistent in their music? It could only have elevated the films.
My final takeaway for this movie is that, well, it has its flaws. Fortunately, though, the worst of them are concentrated at the beginning of the film. Ten minutes in, you might be wondering whether you should bother to watch the rest of it, but it picks up as it goes and ends with a stirring string of action that ranks among the studio’s best. Top ten Shaw Brothers for me, and one that’s in pretty steady rotation in my re-watching.
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