That Frightening Sword
Director: Luk
Bong
Year: 1968
Rating: 6.0
This Wuxia film stars four of the biggest Cantonese
stars of the 1960's. There are so few of these old films that I have come
across with English sub-titles that it just feels like a small treasure.
This was produced in 1968 as the Cantonese film industry was losing out to
the Mandarin films - primarily the Shaw Brothers. It seems odd when you think
about it because the majority of Hong Kong spoke Cantonese; not Mandarin.
But Shaw Brothers put big budgets behind their films - gave them a wonderful
glossy look and brought in big stars from China, Taiwan and some home-grown
ones. They wanted to emulate American film studios while the Cantonese ones
were a bit slapdash. None had the resources of Shaw. They also had a bigger
market throughout South-East Asia including Taiwan, Malaysia and other diaspora
Chinese around the world. Within another few years no Cantonese films were
being produced.
But over the 1960s the Cantonese industry
made a lot of films - many of them called Weeklies because that was the time
it took to shoot one. Very few of them have made it to a digital format which
is a shame because they had many great stars - some who later came back into
prominence once Cantonese films made a comeback. They had all the same genres
as Shaw - melodramas, spy, action, swordfighting - but just not the budget.
I assume many were lost and many were produced by small companies that have
long been out of business. So, it was lovely coming across this film.
This is not a great film by any means -
the action is slower and less violent than what you would find at Shaw but
it is adequate for the time. Its main appeal is in the stars. The villain
is of course Sek Kin who took on that role in literally over 500 films. It
wasn't till he was much older when he was able to play the good guy in films.
But not of course in the classic Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon which brought
him a nice slice of worldwide fame after beginning in the 1940's. The other
male star is Kenneth Tsang who was a huge Cantonese star and who would keep
working till his death in 2022. The female stars may not be as well-known
to most but in the 1960s they were very popular. Nancy Sit was one of a group
of teenage actresses called The Seven Princesses that also included Josephine
Siao and Connie Chan. And lastly there is Suet Nei one of the more popular
Cantonese female action stars of the period. I have only been able to find
a couple of films she was in with subs but she is great - feisty, pouty,
fierce, attractive - no training in martial arts but she fakes it well enough.
I would love to find more of her films. She married action choreographer
Tong Kai and basically retired though she still pops up on occasion. If you
have seen The Blade, she plays the main female character after she grows
much older.
Fung (Suet Nei) in a sky blue outfit is
on her way back home when she sees a few ruffians stealing from the poor.
She of course gets off her horse and beats them up but many more of the gang
show up being led by Ling Wai (Sek Kin) and she has to escape. But they catch
up with her and are about to kill her when out of a tree jumps Sam (Tsang)
who rescues her. He is looking for the man who killed his father and his
sister who was kidnapped years before. They have matching jade pieces. He
takes her home and agrees to help her villagers fight off the bandits but
their martial arts teacher gets jealous of him and frames him for murder.
He is whipped to pieces after Fung drugs him and then he is allowed to leave.
But the martial artist follows to kill him
and Sam is saved by a young woman (Nancy Sit) who happens by. She takes him
home to her family to heal. He happens to be Ling Wai of course and they
plot how to kill him after he teaches her the tricks of the Killing Sword
that was stolen from him. In Ling' Wai's living room is a giant mask of a
cat with blinking eyes on the wall for some odd reason that must have come
from another film set and they decided it was too much trouble to take down.
A number of action scenes choreographed by Simon Yuen, who has a small as
Sam's sifu. One of my favorite Cantonese character actors with the buck teeth
who shows up in bit parts has a large role here which is great. He is Sai
Gwa-pau and has over 800 film credits. I want another fifty films like this.
