This was the fourth film that Chang Cheh
directed for the Shaw Brothers and the third starring Jimmy Wang-yu. In fact,
Chang had only directed two films before these - both years before in Taiwan.
Born in the Mainland, he initially was interested in the theater and writing
before like so many others migrating to Taiwan in the late 1940s. There he
began writing scripts and composing songs (he wrote the lyrics to some of
the songs in his films) until he co-directed his first film in 1949. More
scripts followed and work in the theater until one of his scripts came to
the attention of actress Helen Li Mei who persuaded him to move to Hong Kong
to find work. Initially, he worked for Cathay (It's Always Spring, Her Pearly
Tears) but was scrambling for a living - writing film critiques, screenplays
and in theater. He hooked up with Shaw Brothers as a writer in 1964
with The Amorous Lotus Pan, The Mermaid and The Warlord and the Actress.
These films were far from what Chang Cheh would become famous for - two of
them are Chinese operas and the third focused on the female star Julie Yeh.
Back then Hong Kong Mandarin films tended to be very female focused - in
particular Cathay with its amazing roster of actresses but also the Shaw
Brothers. I know less about Cantonese films of the era, but they too had
a slew of popular actresses like Connie Chan, Josephine Siao and Petrina
Fung. Chang was writing scripts for this type of film, but clearly other
notions were stirring through his mind. Something more masculine and adhering
to a theme of male bonding. In 1965 he finally got his chance to direct and
helmed . .. a Chinese Opera film! The Butterfly Chalice (not released
onto dvd). I would guess that it was a studio assignment because in his next
film he inches forward with Tiger Boy starring Jimmy Wang-yu. It is a period
swordsman film but like Butterfly Chalice it never received a dvd release.
Next up was The Magnificent Trio which took a deep dive into male bonding
as Jimmy Wang-yu, Lo Lieh and Cheng Lei fight off an oppressor of the poor.
Then this film has Chang still inching towards his full-throated masculine
films (yanggang). It has strong elements of melodrama even with a chorus
helping to narrate the film and saves the heroic bloodshed till the end.
But when it comes, it comes in colors, on a large scale with a field of dead
bodies. The year before this, King Hu had established the wuxia film with
Come Drink with Me but Chang takes the form and loads it up with male bonding
(at one point one of the characters asks Jimmy Wang-yu if he would like to
share his bed, to which Wang-yu says no thanks, it is too narrow), sacrifice,
romance and death. In 1968 in fact, Chang was to take the female character
of Come Drink with Me (Cheng Pei-pei) into his own film, Golden Swallow but
basically hands the film over to Jimmy Wang-yu. This is a good film with
an intriguing plot and especially good character development. A lot of it
is driven by coincidence (even one of the side characters says, this is too
much of a coincidence) and believing that China is the size of a postage
stamp.
It begins with revenge. Jiang Qi (Wang Yu) breaks into the home of the official
who falsely sent his father to jail where he died. A few neatly placed thrusts
and the official is dead and Qi is on the run. He leaves behind the love
of his life, the adorable Liu (Chin Ping) who promises to be faithful to
him always. Another character enters the film - Fung (Kiu Chong) who overhears
a gang planning to rob the house of Liu's father. He shows up to stop them
and kills the leader, who turns out to be the son of Chief Tu (Tien Feng)
the leader of a gang who live on Flying Fish Island. A gang of black clad
men who number in the zillions it seems as they go to their deaths later
on. Fung quickly falls for Liu but she tells him that her heart belongs to
Qi and she will never stop.
So being an honorable man, Fung tells her that he will find him, which he
does practically next door in terms of time from place to place. But Qi has
gone into hiding as the horse keeper for a casino run by Shi Gan (Wei Ping-ao)
and his daughter played by Lisa Chiao Chiao, who has fallen in love with
Qi. And the servant Hi Zi (Fan Mei-sheng) is in love with her. It is complicated
and I mention all these characters because Chang gives them all a lot of
screen time and really makes them into characters you begin to care about.
It gets more complicated as Fung and Qi bond though again Fung has no idea
this is the man he is looking for. Qi doesn't want to get his love involved
knowing he will spend his life on the run and thinks that Fung is the right
man for her. Then the men from Flying Fish Island (Chen Hung-lieh and his
wicked smile and Wu Ma among others) show up for revenge. Qi has to decide
whether to help Fung and reveal his identity. And then of course Liu shows
up sword in her hand. Damn. Some fine drama, some fine action choreographed
by Lau Kar-leung and Tong Kai. The next film from Chang Cheh was The One-Armed
Swordsman which changed everything. Action films with tough male protagonists
began to dominate the screen; Chinese operas and effeminate male actors began
to disappear. Melodramas slowed way down. Cantonese films began to die out.
