The Twin
Swords is the sequel to Temple of the Red Lotus. Both were produced in 1965
and likely back to back. In the chronology of Shaw Brothers wuxia films they
have some importance as they came a year before Come Drink with Me was released.
The success of Come Drink with Me directed by King Hu is the film that is
generally given credit for the explosion of wuxia films that followed. But
these two films contained many of the same elements though not with the same
poetic style and beauty that won Come Drink with Me plaudits around the world.
These two plus the third in the trilogy, The Sword and the Lute, are directed
by Hsu Tseng-hung who was born in Shanghai and whose family moved to Hong
Kong after the Civil War in 1949. He worked his way up the ladder as a screenwriter,
cinematographer, assistant director and finally director with Temple of the
Red Lotus, his debut.
The Twin Swords begins exactly where Temple
of the Red Lotus ended. In fact, the fight that is taking place as the film
begins under the opening credits was the fight that was the end of the previous
film. Like a TV show, here is a short preview of Temple in case you have
forgotten. You probably should watch them in order. Gui Wu comes across what
seems to be a robbery of a security escort service by a group of men clad
in black masks. He heroically tries to intervene but only gets a dart in
the chest and a blow on the head for his trouble. Gui Wu is being played
by a young, slender baby-faced Jimmy Wang-yu who was only twenty-one years
old at the time. Temple of the Red Lotus is his debut film and he is far
from his later image of a tough ruthless mass killer. Gui Wu’s sword skills
are good enough to kill the many minions he comes across but not good enough
to defeat the masters. He has three goals in mind – find his aunt who was
missing when his family was slaughtered, find the killers of his family and
best of all – marry the young daughter of the Gan family that was arranged
years ago when they were children.
After being nursed back to health by a mysterious
woman in red called the Scarlet Maiden (Ivy Ling Po) who lives on her own
in the forest and communicates with crows, he reaches Gan Fortress where
the multi-generational family lives. A fierce grandmother (Li Ming) who carries
an iron dragon staff, her son (Tien Feng), his sons and their wives, the
daughter of one and the very young daughter of another. Among them is Lo
Lieh, Ku Feng and Chao Ming. The daughter that is to be married is played
by Chin Ping in her second film and the very young daughter by Petrina Bo
Bo Fung who at the time was a huge child star mainly in Cantonese films and
whose brother is Fung Hak-on.
It takes a while to get them all straight
but think what a wonderful cast this film has – and that doesn’t include
their enemies of Wu Ma, Chen Hung-lieh, Lee Wan-chung, Helen Ma, Yuen Wo-ping,
Lau Kar-wing and Ching Miao. This was almost to be the heart of Shaw Brothers
action films for years to come. Gui Wu and Lianzhu (Chen Ping) immediately
hit it off and declare their love and are soon married but Gui begins to
suspect that this family was the thieves he saw and decides he has to leave.
Lianzhu has to reluctantly follow him but first they have to get by the family
by fighting them in order one after another or in Gui’s case begging. She
is much the better fighter. When they do get by, they rest at a Temple that
is run by the Red Lotus Clan, the sworn enemies of the Gan Family. A fight
commences in which Gui learns that in fact the Gan family was taking back
money that was stolen from a friend. They are saved by the Scarlet Maiden
with a flurry of deadly darts and she advises them to go back home and train.
That is where this film picks up. Ok – more than you needed to read. Sort
of a pay for one, get the second free review.
The same cast and characters return in the
sequel. Temple of the Red Lotus was more drama than action but this one switches
that around with near non-stop action and suspense. There is no need to introduce
characters, so it jumps right into it. On the way to Gan Fortress, the couple
witness four women being kidnapped and taken to the Red Lotus Temple. Gui
does not want to help but Lianzhu demands that they do. It is a trap. In
an earlier scene the Red Cult Lotus gives the viewer a guided tour of all
the traps that have been set for the Gan Family. Everything you can imagine
from spikes below the sliding floor, floor tiles that if stepped on shoot
out arrows, a guillotine, a net, doors that shut tight with a ceiling that
slowly comes down, a gas attack and more.
Sure enough as they expected Gui and Lianzhen
walk right into it and she gets trapped while they let him escape to go back
and tell the Family. He has to beg them to save Lianzhu but it takes convincing
and a lot of tears as by leaving, she had left the family. Finally, after
locking him up, they go off – men and women and even the young daughter.
They have to deal with trap after trap, some don’t survive. The Red Lotus
Cult are getting cut down by the dozens. One of them tells the Boss that
they are taking heavy casualties. It is pretty terrific. Gui is let out to
come fight. Eventually the Red Maiden shows up to put an exclamation point
on the whole thing. Within a few years Chang Cheh would make Jimmy Wang-yu
a huge star, Wuxia would become the dominant genre in Hong Kong film and
of course the final film in the trilogy would come out in 1967 with many
of the same actors who survived here and oddly many that didn’t!
