Hey folks, Harry here... Later in the year here in Austin, many of these classic Kung Fu films will be a part of a series associated with the Austin Film Society and still more will be a part of the Austin Film Festival in October... Till then, I'll be extremely jealous of Seattle (our sister city of sorts) Having seen all 3 of these films on the small screen, I can only imagine the glory of seeing them upon screens in full ShawScope. Sigh... Here ya go...
Hi Harry,
Greetings from the Emerald City and home of the nation's largest film festival! This is big year for Asian martial arts films and I wanted to fill your readers in on what's playing and offer my impressions.
(I'm giving you first whack at this article before I print it tomorrow. I plan to cover the rest of the martial arts films playing in the fest in two more reports over the next two weeks. I'll be happy to send these your way as well.)
Regards,
Mark Pollard
KungFuCinema.Com
SIFF 2003 Martial Arts Film Report - Part 1
Swallows and One Armed Swordsmen
by Mark Pollard
05.26.2003 - Introduction
In it's twenty-eighth year, the largest and most eclectic North American film festival has arrived offering an unprecedented number of Asian and martial arts films. The 2003 Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is hosting 61 films either from Asia or with an Asian theme, twelve of which feature some of the best kung fu and swordplay action American cinema goers will ever have the privilege of seeing. I am happy to count myself among this throng of longtime fans, adventurous newcomers, and a few shocked viewers erroneously expecting tastefully highbrow, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon progenitors.
What separates SIFF from the many film festivals from around the world is their open venues geared towards the ordinary filmgoer. Other festivals such as Sundance may feature more VIP's, celebrities, and notable filmmaker appearances, but this also leaves many film fans out in the cold. This year's SIFF is screening over 300 feature length, documentary, and short films from 50 countries at six venues in the Seattle area. This includes the hi-tech Cinerama, paid for by one-time Microsoft co-founder and billionaire turned pop culture philanthropist Paul Allen.
This year's highlight is a program that would have been unthinkable until mid-2002. Heroic Grace: The Martial Arts Film features eight incredible films from the venerable and until recently, untouched Shaw Brothers archive. Chief among them is King Hu's hugely influential swordplay classic Come Drink With Me (1966), Jimmy Wang Yu's Asian blockbuster The One-Arm Swordsman (1967), and the kung fu cult classic known as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) from martial arts action maestro Lau Kar-leung (Drunken Master II).
The rest of the program features Kar-leung's sequel Return to the 36th Chamber (1980). There are also three bloody classics from Chang Cheh, SB's most prolific martial arts director, including Vengeance! (1970), Blood Brothers (1973), and the sequel to Come Drink With Me entitled Golden Swallow. There is Chor Yuen's mixture of eroticism and violence in Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972) and lastly a rare opportunity to see a vintage, silent martial arts film from 1930 entitled Swordswoman of Huangjiang. This latter film is to be accompanied by live, traditional Chinese music.
In addition to these outstanding classics, SIFF is also screening several more recent martial arts related films. Musa (2001) is a blockbuster historical epic from South Korea that features current genre darling Zhang Ziyi and the hugely underrated Yu Rong-guang (Iron Monkey). So Close (2002) is basically a Hong Kong version of Charlie's Angels from master action director and choreographer Corey Yuen Kwai (The Transporter). It features three equally lovely ladies headlined by luscious superstar Shu Qi. Nearing the end of the festival brings us to a documentary related to the world's number one action star entitled Traces of the Dragon: Jackie Chan and His Lost Family. Jackie is very open about everything but his family, partially because even he knew little. This is a film that explores the intriguing history of Chan's parents and the history that surrounds them.
"Come Drink With Me"
SIFF officially kicked off on Thursday, May 22nd, but for myself it didn't really begin until Saturday when the first of the Heroic Grace films premiered.
I had already seen Come Drink With Me on DVD as part of Celestial Pictures' planned release of 760 films in the SB library that began late last year. But, as a huge fan of the genre who had not been old enough to fully appreciate the kung fu boom of the '70's and early '80's, I considered this rare opportunity to see this and so many other classics on the big screen as nothing short of phenomenal.
The theater the film played at is a arthouse venue owned and operated by Landmark Theaters called the Harvard Exit, built in 1925. The outside looks like a shabby, brick apartment building, wherein houses a dark lit lobby that looks more like a living room than a place of business, apart from the popcorn machine. The main viewing room is spacious, decorative, features a moderately sized screen, and is kept surprisingly clean.
True to form, I was running late and nearly missed the all-important opening SB logo. You see, I've never seen that lovely logo emblazoned on a theater screen before and it was with great relief that I slipped into a rear seat to find an announcer completing his introduction to the film. This could have been a disappointment also, yet no notable speakers were selected to present this or any of the other SB films to come.
I already knew the film had been fully restored and re-mastered, that it starred one of the most delightful fighting femmes ever to lift a sword, namely Cheng Pei Pei (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and that I was in for an exciting 94 minutes. But what I didn't anticipate was how my perceptions of this swordplay classic would expand as I intently watched it on a large screen, surrounded by over a hundred equally charged viewers. The film had more intended humor that I had not caught watching it at home and some unintended humor that proved to be just as enjoyable. What generated the most laughter, especially among the women was Chor Yuen's determined declaration to suck the poison from a wound just above Pei-pei's left breast. Maybe its because I've seen so many more ludicrous things in films or simply because I'm a guy, but I was prepared to accept it as a reasonable and potentially chivalrous thing to do.
What is so great about this film and the genre itself is how casually the filmmakers mix classical drama with camp, especially the gore. Come Drink With Me is fairly mild in that area and more subtly comical too than many of the films to come, especially from director Chang Cheh.
"The One Armed Swordsman"
The next day I headed back to the same theater for a double bill beginning with Chang Cheh's The One Armed Swordsman. I had not seen this film before, but had some appreciation for it's significance in the history of martial arts film. It came a year after Come Drink With Me and starred Jimmy Wang Yu. Because of this film, subsequent sequels, and other notable starring roles, Wang Yu remained the number one male star in most of Southeast Asia until Bruce Lee came along in the early '70's.
Upon watching this film, I was actually a little disappointed. While there was a fair amount of bloodletting which I had anticipated, it fell below my high expectations. I blame this in part on my love for Tsui Hark's The Blade, a 1995 remake that was very grim and action-packed. I could easily pick out all of the many things that Tsui drew from the 1967 version to create his own. But unlike many remakes, I still believe Tsui Hark's version to be a vast improvement. The real source of my disillusionment lies in Chang Cheh's pacing. It's set like one of the many swordplay films that pre-date Come Drink With Me with heavy dialogue that's not all that important, a highly improbable plot, and camera shots that linger too long. The capper is the ridiculous way in which Wang Yu loses his arm and subsequent conversations he has with the lady friend who is responsible. It was a source of constant amusement for most of the theater patrons.
Action directors Tang Chia and Lau Kar-leung did manage to throw in some inspired sequences, although both would have more to offer in later films. The obligatory teahouse scene two thirds of the way in stands out with Wang Yu delivering a series of punishing attacks to assailants. Its punctuated by Wang Yu slamming a fellow's face through a table. Quickly, other highlights include the villains' clamping weapons that lock onto their enemies' swords, Kar-leung himself appearing during the end as one of the villainous thugs, and the soundtrack. The score is one of those rousing orchestral marches with distinctive themes that is much better than the generic synthesizer scores that dominated Hong Kong films in the '80's and '90's. The film's ending gets kudos for blasting a terrific fanfare as Wang Yu wanders off minus an arm, but having won the day and with a girl of his choosing. The One Armed Swordsman certainly has its place in the history of Hong Kong cinema, but I wouldn't call it one of my favorites from this period.
"Golden Swallow"
I had about fifteen minutes between shows, a Taco Bell in sight, and no cash. One quick trip to the supermarket armed with an ATM card and a gut full of junk food later, I hurried back in to the Harvard Exit as the announcers completed another unremarkable introduction, this time for Golden Swallow. They didn't even bother to mention that this was the sequel to Come Drink With Me! But no matter, I was there for the thrill of watching carnal bloodletting on an epic scale, and I didn't even know it yet.
Like The One Armed Swordsman, Golden Swallow had yet to be released on DVD by Celestial, and I had not seen this feature before. I was a bit dismayed to see that the print was pretty worn, but that was not the fault of Celestial, but rather that the reel had likely been played quite a few times. But the film itself more than made up for any reel degradation.
Golden Swallow is simply an incredible film. Its a romance with the highest conventional body count in film history. It features a dream cast for genre fans with Chang Pei Pei reprising her role as the title character, the great Lo Lieh as her lover, and Jimmy Wang Yu with both arms intact as an insanely cold-blooded and relentless swordsman. He literally cuts his way through dozens upon dozens of fighters in bloody action scene after bloody action scene, all just to get the attention of Golden Swallow, whom he loves. The scene where he single-handedly storms into a fortress, ignoring a grotesque torture in progress and proceeds to burn the place down after killing forty or fifty fighters is only matched by another scene where he plows through a line of another fifty swordsmen up steps, followed by a fight with five long-haired super-swordsmen. Those with a sharp eye will notice Yuen Wo Ping among this group. Although killed, he shows up again as another anonymous fighter.
Chang Cheh directs again, but with much improved pacing. And despite the complex love story that forms a mixed up triangle between our main heroes, Cheh remains focused on the action and provides some of the bloodiest scenes of his entire career, and this says a lot. This is the guy who brought us classics like The Five Deadly Venoms and Kid with the Golden Arm, which featured all sorts of gruesome deaths.
Of the three films viewed so far, Golden Swallow earned the most audience reaction and for good reason. Its relentless and endlessly fun. Cheng Pei Pei is radiant, Lo Lieh is stoic, and Wang Yu must be the most over-the-top Chinese badass of all time. What a great way to end my first weekend at SIFF!
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