The Matchless Conqueror
Director:
Joseph Kuo
Year: 1971
Rating: 7.0
This is a top-tier Joseph Kuo wuxia production.
One of the better ones of his that I have seen. A fine plot with action constantly
dotting the landscape leading up to an action finale that is so much fun.
At one point the main villain sticks his sword into someone's mouth to stab
him, but the supposed victim clamps his teeth down on the sword and won't
let go - even as the villain raises him up in the air above him. In another
small bit one of the evil minions is thrown against the mountain with such
force that he creates an indentation around him like a Wile-E Coyote cartoon.
Or how about Fast Legs who grabs the child in the film and runs straight
up a sheer mountainside - but not fast enough to outrun a spear - and then
drops the child to land far below. The film is just filled with creative
nonsense that I loved. Seeing it in Mandarin with subs made it feel more
serious than if it had been dubbed.
Kuo had just hired Nancy Yen to his production
company, Hong Hwa International and gives her a fine debut. She isn't really
the star though - that goes to Chiang Nan who I know absolutely nothing about
other than he appeared in a number of Kuo directed films. His looks reminded
me a bit of Sammo with a face that is quite broad and plain and a body that
had girth. But Kuo keeps him very busy here. I bet by the end of filming
he had lost some of that girth. He is in one fight after another. All of
them very solid. Kuo keeps Yen sidelined for the first half and then throws
her into the action as well - her and her Flying Sparrow Skills. At one point
she flies horizontally about 40-feet, through a covered carriage and grabs
the boy and exits with him while still flying. Flying Sparrow!
Lung Ta Chien (Chiang Nan) opens the film
struggling to get out of the water - not surprisingly as we see that he has
two knives sticking out of his chest. That would slow down most of us. The
day gets worse though as he immediately runs into the Four Tigers who are
out to kill him. Turns out those two knives in his chest come in handy as
he pulls them out and throws them at the Four Tigers killing two of them.
He dispenses with those other two but not before he is cut and poisoned by
one of the Tigers. You have only a few days to live, they tell him. I guess
back then they didn't have fast killing poisons because why would you give
your opponent time to kill you. It is the dreaded Blood Poison that works
its way through your body turning it black. He rushes off to a temple hoping
the priest has a cure. He is out for the day, but a man shows up with his
dying wife and young boy. Before she dies the wife says to her husband, don't
we have some Blood Poison anti-dote with us. Sure enough. Never go out without
it.
Then the main villain shows up - the diabolical
and hard to kill Eunuch Chin Chen San (Lu Ping, who was also the villain
in the recently viewed The Fist That Kills). He is leading a rebellion against
the Emperor and wants the Six Fencing Forms that this man with his wife has.
He turns out to be the Royal Fencer and proceeds to show why. But before
going into battle, he asks Lung to please take his son and the Forms to a
destination far away. And this becomes the gist of the film - an Odyssey
as he takes the boy on a trip with one person after another trying to kill
him - either for the boy or for revenge because Lung turns out to be a killer
- he killed one hundred people in a town called Patience. Everyone it seems
had a relative there and they want Lung dead.
All sorts of challengers show up like a
tag team with different weapons - my favorite being the guy with a book in
which the pages are deadly cutting flying objects - but the sword is deadlier
than a book. One of the people who turns up looking for revenge is Meng Nan-fei
(Nancy Yen) who everyone takes for a man until her hair comes tumbling down.
She is immaculately dressed in pure unsullied white with a white hat to match
with a wide brim. But she sees he is still weak from the poisoning and says
she will kill him when he is fully recovered. In the meantime, I will tag
along with you - and as it turns out kill a ton of guys who are trying to
steal the boy. Lots of use of trampoline and wires- one three trampoline
jump - and much swordplay. This is choreographed by the same fellow Lin Yu-chuan
- who did that in The Fist That Kills - but exceeds himself here - thanks
I expect to Kuo who probably said can't we have the villain being strangled
from behind but still fending off our two heroes and able to jump up the
mountain with the strangler holding on - though he is likely dead.
