Qing xia zhui feng jian (1980)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Meng Hua Ho

Writers:

Louis Cha (story)
Kuang Ni (screenplay)

Release Date:

1 July 1980 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action

Cast

Shen Chan	...	Leng Ruyun
Han Chiang
Tao Chiang
Ping Ha
Szu Hsiao
Ha Huang
Kara Hui		(as Hui Ying Hung)
Lily Li		(as Li Li-li)
Yun Ling
Lieh Lo
Jamie Luk		(as Lu Chien Ming)
Niu Niu		(as Esther)
Kuei Shui
Yan Tsan Tang
Ying Tan
Te Hsiang Teng
Fat Tsui		(as Chang You)
Ching Ho Wang
Han Chen Wang
Dick Wei		(as Tu Lung)
Hung Wei
Yue Wong
Hang-Sheng Wu
Chuen Yi
Wah Yuen

Also Known As:

The Swift Sword (Hong Kong: English title)

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin | Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Company:

Shaw Brothers

Ho Meng-hua's last for Shaws is definitely not one of his best.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

SWIFT SWORD was the last movie Ho Meng-hua made for Shaw Brothers, after over twenty years of directing service. In that time, he had made at least one martial arts classic, the swordplay film THE LADY HERMIT, a movie that is held in very high esteem by fans. Ho also made BLACK MAGIC, a generally urbane and sophisticated horror film for the Shaw studio: the location shooting was a welcome departure from their studio sets and the seventies fashions are a laugh riot (although they probably weren't meant to be). Even though I don't like his horror movies, I'm astounded at how mediocre his last film for Shaws is. It's based off of Jin Yong's novel, SWORD STAINED WITH ROYAL BLOOD, adapted a year later by Chang Cheh and his venom crew. That film is actually quite better than this one, even though it has all sorts of problems with pacing and a poorly thought out script. Chang Cheh's film, however, was at least officially based on the novel, Ho Meng-hua's is an "unofficial" adaptation. You know you're in trouble if a movie is unofficially adapting a wuxia novel.

The story, much like the venoms movie, revolves around a martial artist known, in SWIFT SWORD, as the swift sword. He's a more or less fantastic martial artist who uses a sword with a handle shaped like a cobra and throws similarly modeled golden darts. Having been wronged by a martial arts clan, he slowly seeks revenge, killing their members off slowly, and capturing the daughter of the clan paterfamilias. He falls in love with her, and they decide to run away together, as he has money and treasure hidden somewhere safe. Her evil father, knowing what's going on, agrees to let him marry the girl if he drops his vendetta against the family. He agrees, and gets screwed over for it. His tendons are cut, so he can't fight anymore, and he gets sent over a cliff. Years later, a young patriot gets caught up in a cave, learns the secrets of the Swift Sword's Chi Gong techniques, and becomes his student. He goes out to help drought victims with the treasure that was hidden, but runs into an impetuous youth, who happens to be the offspring of his master and that woman from the clan. Guess what happens next.

You're probably wondering what's wrong with this movie. It has a good cast, especially in their periphery roles: Lo Lieh plays the bad guy, which he always does well. Kara Hui is in it, and she's pretty, plus she's one of Shaw's best female fighters. Lily Li is in it, although she's wasted in a dramatic part that's far from taxing on her considerable abilities. She just sits around and pines for Ling Yun, who plays the Swift Sword with a considerable amount of the laid back coolness he exhibits in many of his wuxia characters. Wong Yu plays the hero, and Niu Niu plays his love interest, and frankly, I can't help thinking this was a terrible move. Niu Niu is annoying, and Wong Yu is terribly bland in his role. Niu mostly spends her time whining, trying to look pretty (she doesn't), and (when she's not whining some more) smiling at Wong Yu. Wong Yu smiles back, recites lines, and generally seems like he's waiting for the next scene to start. As a Director, Ho Meng-hua shoots the film in a very old fashioned way, and that's not a compliment in the sense that his film looks very dated at times. There's tons of wasted shots of people just smiling at each other, endless scenes of people just staring or speaking melodramatically. Another problem, which I have as much with the Chang Cheh movie, is pacing. Ho spends far too much time expanding upon the situations that the characters have found themselves in, and if he were filming it well and keeping it interesting, that would be great, but he's not. As such, the audience waits for the next fight, and, well, that's not much better.

The fight scenes are decent, certainly filled with stunt doubles for actors like Ling Yun, who has never convinced me he was a fighter. Choreographed at least in part by Tong Gaai, who I have immense respect for, the fights are more or less bland, like the rest of the movie. Some of these ideas just don't work that well. The formation attacks done by the "cold blooded five" as they're known, look goofy, and lack the sort of flair that needed to be brought to make the five guys running in circles not look silly. The choreography, when not expounding what was described in the book, tends to be in the style that Tong Gaai used for Chor Yuen's wuxia films, only a little slower and not shot as well. Chor Yuen made the fight scenes work, even when done in long shots, because his camera angles accentuated a certain beauty to the movements, usually by framing them well with foreground objects and such. Ho Meng-hua films them in a more or less point and click manner, which isn't very exciting and certainly not a good use of such a talented action director. There is a scene of dementedness as only a wuxia film can bring, where a crippled Ling Yun flies in a wheel chair and skewers Lo Lieh. Bizarre, no?

I'm being too harsh. The movie is enjoyable enough, because the story has enough layers of deception and betrayal to be entertaining in a soap opera sort of way. As a wuxia movie, it's mediocre, and visually, the opulent but strangely tacky Shaw sets can only help so much. Ho Meng-hua is a better director than what he showed us here, and while this may be more dramatic and more coherent an adaptation than either the 81 or 93 SWORD STAINED WITH ROYAL BLOOD, it's has none of what made the others so much more fun.