Heads for Sale
Director: Walter Chung Chang-hwa
Year: 1970
Rating: 7.0
Sometimes a couple just has to kill a lot of people to realize how much they
love one another. This Shaw Brothers production is more famous for its great
title and for the poster of a swordswoman holding high a bloody head in the
air than for the actual content of the film itself. Most people who see it
seem to be disappointed that it doesn't live up to its graphic promise. And
it doesn't as there are only two detached heads for sale in this film - but
it is a very peculiar little love story that has wall to wall action within
a convoluted plot. I rather enjoyed it.
One issue for a film full of action is that it really has no action stars
though Shaw had plenty to cast in this film. The main female swordswoman
is played by Lisa Chiao Chiao, who was in fact in a few classic wuxia films
- The One-Armed Swordsman and The Return of the One-Armed Swordsman - but
she had the sad role of being the love interest to Jimmy Wang Yu in both.
Wang Yu never gave much space to his co-actors to breathe and was considered
an all-around jerk. The primary male star here is Chan Leung who only made
a handful of films before he left the business. Both acquit themselves reasonably
well though because being part of the Shaw stable was training in swordplay
and being flown around on wires. Some credit is probably due to Korean director
Walter Chung Chang-hwa (aka Jeong Chang-hwa) who didn't direct a large amount
of films but three of them were King Boxer, Skyhawk and Broken Oath - not
a bad resume.
Initially one might think this is going to be a musical with three young
women dressed in colorful silk dresses on a hillside listening to a song
and dreaming about love. Pi-lien (Chiao Chiao) is expecting a positive answer
for a marriage proposal to Hung-hsun (Chan Leung) who has expressed his affection
for her. When it comes back as a strong rejection because her criminal family
is not good enough she does the only thing that a girl in love can do. She
goes to his family home, breaks down the large wooden door of the compound
and tries to kill him. She fails but does not forgive and later when he assists
her in fighting off a horde of men who surrounds her and have her in a rather
awkward position - chained up with a dagger in her chest, she still
wants to kill him.
But when he is falsely jailed by Scarface and a corrupt magistrate, she is
the only who can save him and she does - but before all is over they have
to kill a near platoon of bad guys - two of them who have their heads neatly
removed and which she tries to sell in the market place. As the film proceeds
new characters are constantly introduced and usually killed - but two of
them are played by Wang Hsieh who for a change is a good guy and his daughter
is Helen Ma who is so great in Deaf and Mute Heroine the following year.
The bad guys have some talent as well - Fan Mei-sheng with a flying rotary
blade, a guy who kills by spitting out poison darts to the eyes of his opponents,
two tough bodyguards who can have bricks broken on their heads or spears
broken on their chest to no effect, the four Zhou Brothers all killers and
of course Scar Face. The final fight between him and Pi-lien on a swinging
rope bridge is excellent. All this for love to bloom.
