Every so often the National Film Theatre will do a season of Chinese martial arts films which is most welcome in the pursuit of "must-see" movies; this one is in fact one of the most legendary (the title gets it right) that has hitherto escaped me. It nearly completely escaped me again as a combination of appalling service on both British Rail and the London Underground made the trek to the South Bank more fraught than usual. We arrived late, after the film had recently started, but in time to see that the Shaolin masters who had decreed that their kung fu was invincible watch four of their best fighters shot dead by fiendish Western rifles. This was the main plot point of this marvellous movie directed and starring Lau Kar-leung, one of the top martial-arts instructors ever. He declines to carry on teaching and goes into exile as a master wood-cuuter, but three young assassins are dispatched by other schools to kill him lest he spread the message that their disciples are now vulnerable.
From here onward the viewer is treated to non-stop martial mayhem including a long middle section where the fighting is played for laughs by a rogue conman pretending to be the missing Lau. But even here the brilliance of the action is undeniable. All three potential assassins, including one girl dressed as a man (an unconvincing convention of Hong Kong movies since they always look like girls to me), have ample opportunity to show their own skills as they first oppose each other but end up joining Lau. However the culminating fight between Lau and his on-screen estranged brother (played by his real-life brother) in which they employ 18 traditional Chinese weapons in rapid succession is nothing short of breathtakingly amazing. The actual quality of the film stock was quite poor in places and I can only entreat that this film be digitally remastered and released on DVD before it deteriorates completely. Get cracking Hong Kong Legends!
1 comment:
Have you noticed how strong the colours are in many of these films even when
the print is somewhat faded? For once the story line was less tortuous than that
of some martial arts films - "Magic Blade' which was shown the day before this,
for instance. I wholeheartedly concur with your sentiment that a remastered
copy on dvd is greatly to be desired. A few words on 'Magic Blade' which did
have an involved story line but was again a film worth bringing out on dvd. There is something about a number of the lead actors in martial arts films that
leaves me cold - obviously they show great agility and fighting skills but without
this they seem to have no personality. The exceptions such as Sammo Hung,
Jackie Chan, Jet Li and many of those gentlemen's supporting actors emphasise
this (I have not added the coolest of cool, Chow Yun Fat, to this list as he is not
of this genre).
Post a Comment