Holy Weapon
Director: Wong Jing
Year: 1993
Rating: 6.0
Good Lord. It feels
like the patients have taken over the asylum in this totally over the top
and out of control kung-fu comedy/action film. The phrase “The Agony and
the Ecstasy” fits the bill here with only a slight exaggeration. The agony
would be Wong Jing and the ecstasy would be Ching Siu-Tung. The film is primarily
a “nonsense” comedy that is all Wong Jing with occasional action fantasy
sequences thrown in that are the work of Ching Siu-Tung.
“Nonsense” comedy (mou lei-tau) generally means that anything goes –
that there is no real need to tie it into the structure, plot or time period
of the film. Stephen Chow is a master of this brand of humor, but it is essential
that most of the separate pieces are funny or it will collapse under its own
weight and that is what happens here. Though the actors are clearly working
very hard to make the comedy work, very little of it struck me as funny. At
times I felt so numb from the attempted humor that you could have stuck a
pin in me and I would not have felt a thing. I usually enjoy these sorts of
crazy antics such as in a similar film -Flying Dagger – but the comedy here
just left me itching to fast forward to the next action sequence.
Now the action directed by Ching Siu-Tung (Chinese Ghost Story, Heroic
Trio, Dragon Inn, Swordsman II) is wonderful to watch. Though it is just as
over the top as the comedy, it is spectacular and imaginative and tremendously
fun. The film has more wire work than a Boeing 747 and there are probably
more miles covered flying as well. At times there are ten or more people
zipping around in the air and fighting on wires. Truth be told, it is more
kung-fu theater than kung-fu fighting as only a few of the actors are legitimate
kung-fu action stars.
One thing that Wong Jing can always do is assemble a first rate cast and
he has certainly done so here. Leading off is Michelle Yeoh followed by Maggie
Cheung, DoDo Cheng, Sandra Ng, Cheung Man, Simon Yam, Damian Lau, Ng Man-Tat
and Dicky Cheung – and Wong allows them to pretty much do their schtick –
almost to a fault. Everyone seems to have played these same characters in
some other film – and are almost making fun of them here.
Michelle comes out of this the best in my opinion. She somehow keeps her
dignity, has some lovely action scenes and has one of the few funny comedy
routines. Maggie plays a princess but does little but pout and grin (which
is often quite enough for me!). Cheung Man has one fabulous scene in which
she transforms into a spider like killer and captures some rapists in her
web and then cuts them to pieces – but is otherwise very underutilized. Damian
Lau plays the heroic good guy with as straight a face as possible while Simon
Yam does his patented bad guy. The majority of the film though really rests
with the comedic antics of Sandra Ng, DoDo Cheng, Dicky Cheung and Ng Man
–Tat. Never let any of these four be accused of underplaying a scene in this
film!
To actually give a true sense of the plot would take more space or patience
than I have - but here are the basics. Yam is an evil Japanese
swordsman – Super Sword – who is killing many Chinese swordsmen across the
country. Lau knows that he can’t beat him under normal circumstances and so
he has Ng Man-Tat mix up a brew of poison that will give him the powers to
defeat Yam, but the poison will also eventually drive him insane. The fight
between the two is mind-bending – consisting of a giant crucifix, a Ferris
wheel, man-like flying vultures, bodies crashing together and exploding and
the earth shattering. It has all the elements that make this type of set
piece so splendid.
Lau defeats Yam – but is not able to kill him and Yam promises to return
in three years. Now Lau is engaged to Michelle, but before the wedding can
take place he goes insane – parties with some less than virtuous women and
kills a number of innocent people. Michelle leaves in disgust and takes on
another identity – dressed as a man – and becomes known as “the killer of
heartless men”
The three years quickly passes and Yam and his two ninja female killers
(Cheung Man and Charine Chan(?))are back – and Ng Man-Tat tracks down Michelle
and tells her that only the Yuen Tin Sword Position can defeat Yam this time
around. The only catch with this Yuen Tin thing is that you need seven female
virgins to form it. Thank goodness this didn’t happen today! This is where
Maggie, Sandra and Do Do come into the film – though they are all trying desperately
to lose their virginity – all to lucky Dicky Cheung. This leads to one more
spectacular battle as Lau and the seven virgins battle Yam.
That is the bare bones plot – leaving out much of the cross dressing
confusions (one funny scene has Cheung Man falling in love with Michelle –
“is it edible?”), sexual transmutations, vampires, bodily function jokes,
love potions and much more. This is the type of film that may
possibly grow on me – but at least on first viewing I could not get into the
swing of things. But for the action pieces alone I would recommend that you
watch it – and with a bit of luck you may actually enjoy the comedy as well.
