Mandarin with subs
Aka – Belles of Taekwondo
This second film from John Woo is rarely mentioned when discussing his work.
It was from that pre Heroic Bloodshed period that generates little interest
as he went back and forth between comedies and period martial arts films.
For most fans, Woo doesn’t really exist before A Better Tomorrow in 1986
but in fact he directed fifteen movies before that breakout film. This isn’t
entirely fair but it is understandable – very few of these films stand out
from other films being made at the time. Dragon Tamers certainly squarely
falls into a traditional kung fu category with heaps of action and a few
odd interludes.
But a few things made it interesting for me. The action is very basic – nothing
flashy or made up styles and no weapons till the bad guys pull out some knives
at the end. Just very conventional clean realistic kung-fu hand, arm, elbow
and leg moves – well choreographed by Chan Chuen (a bunch of Shaw Brothers
and later some Angela Mao films) – and it never ends. There is one fight
after another. I also enjoyed how kung-fu is respected as an art form – as
self-discipline - not to be used for killing say the elder practitioners
who attempt to impart this wisdom to their students. This is produced by
Golden Harvest and they bring together a cast from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea
and Japan and set it in Korea.
Woo not only directed this but wrote the script as well – so the weakness
of the story and the bits that border on exploitation are his I guess unless
he was asked by GH to add some nudity. The film begins with two female cliques
at a Taekwondo school facing off against each on an open field – all dressed
in their white kung-fu garb. They don’t much like each other and go at one
another with a few falling into the mud and their tops coming undone. It
felt like a Japanese female Delinquent film for a few minutes. Kind of cool,
but then their teacher Nankung (James Tin Cheun) shows up and breaks it up.
Just as it was getting interesting. Fan (Carter Wong) from China shows up
wanting to study Taekwondo from one of the masters to supplement his Chinese
Boxing. He and Nankung do the male bonding thing that Woo loves so much,
but they both are attracted to the same woman (Kim Chang-suk) and you think
oh hell – that will put them on opposite sides but no, male bonding wins
out and the loser in the love triangle just hops into bed with an admirer
(Woo Yeon Jeong). That is the way to do it. Kung-fu first, male bonding second
and then women a distant third.
The action cranks up when a group of thugs begin destroying all the martial
arts schools who won’t join their association. Led by Yan Ku (Yeung Wai)
and ably abetted by a very sleek female killer dressed in a black trench
coat with bright red karate apparel underneath – she is played with malicious
intent by Ina Ryoko who seems to have escaped from one of the Prisoner Scorpion
films. When she gets defeated at the end, Woo has her display a nipple –
and earlier on those same two female cliques had a big rumble in the sauna
– and yes more nipples.
It feels out of place in a John Woo film – he rarely had female action
characters and I can’t think of any nudity in his films. But at this
point in his career, he did what he was told. This is a decent film but one
among hundreds of kung films - yet the seedlings certainly of his male bonding
heroic bloodshed but a long way to go. He had to go through a lot of mediocre
comedies to get there. The Master that both Nankung and Fan have demonstration
fights with is Ji Han-jae who many attribute the origin of Hapkido to.
