Broken Oath (1977)

Broken Oath (1977)
Chinese Title: 破戒
Translation: Broken Monastic Oath

 

Starring: Angela Mao, Bruce Leung Siu-Lung, Michael Chan Wai-Man, Kuo Cheng-Yu, Cheung Pooi-Saan, Fong Yau, Chiu Hung, Wang Lai, Ha Yue, Sammo Hung, Han Ying-Chieh
Director: Jeong Chang-Hwa
Action Directors: Yuen Woo-Ping, Tyrone Hsu Hsia

 

Once in a while I ponder a very deep question among kung fu fans (and if they don’t think about it, they should): If Bruce Lee had not died when he did, would he have maintained the same level of popularity that he enjoyed while he was alive and posthumously? I mean, even today the man is affectionately parodied and homaged in various forms of media. However, both American and Hong Kong audiences are an EXTREMELY fickle lot and the stars of yesterday often quickly become the has-beens of today. There are a few hearty individuals who have been able to maintain their popularity of the decades, like Stephen Chow and Jackie Chan. Moreover, the growing dearth of real martial artists in Hong Kong cinema has allowed some of the old timers to breathe some degree of life into their once-floundering careers, like Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. With that in mind, I do wonder what would’ve happened to Bruce Lee had he been “permitted to tarry,” so to speak.

Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, many kung fu actors based in Hong Kong often came face to face with the fact that changes in the audiences’ tastes meant that their films would garner fewer viewers and dwindling box office returns. Fortunately, the good people of Taiwan were evidently less fickle than Hong Kong and performers from major studios often received offers for more money to make cheap Taiwanese films (I assume that Taiwanese films were so cheap because they often spent good portions of their budget on getting name actors from Hong Kong). A lot of those movies were something of a step down from their Hong Kong efforts, although once in a while those plucky Taiwanese filmmakers would make something worthy of their star’s talent.

Why do I bring this up? Well, Broken Oath was Angela Mao’s last film for Golden Harvest, one of the major studios in Hong Kong, before she went back to her homeland of Taiwan to keep making movies until the early 1980s, when she more or less retired to dedicate herself to her family. I’m not really sure of the reason for the move itself, but changing tastes in Hong Kong and the promise of a good salary in Taiwan might have very well influenced her move. Some may argue that only a couple of the movies Angela made after she moved to Taiwan really compare with her Golden Harvest films, those being Two Great Cavaliers and The Lady Constables. Had Broken Oath been her last film, then one could say that her career ended with a bang, since it’s really one of her finest overall films.

The movie begins with a woman (Ho Mei) being taken by ship to a island prison for women (the movie is set during the Qing Dynasty). Her cellmate is a former pickpocket named Thousand Hands (Wang Lai, Back Alley Princess and Snake Shadow, Lama Fist) who shows her the ropes and takes care of her. The woman turns out to be pregnant and on the day she goes into labor, she tells her friend of her sob story: She’s widow of the late General Liu (Kwan Shan, The Himalayan), who was murdered by four of his subordinates. After the assassination, one of them raped her and had her turned over to the authorities for attempted murder. Upon giving birth, the woman declares that her child will be filled with the hate necessary to seek revenge for General Liu’s death and her violation. The woman then promptly dies following her declaration.

Thousand Hands decides to take care of the baby and is able to leave the prison (don’t ask my how; the movie doesn’t explain it) and go back to society. The reformed thief doesn’t want the young one to go around seeking revenge, so she takes her to the nearest Shaolin monastery for the female abbot (Jeon Shook) to raise. The little girl, dubbed “Pure Lotus” by the abbot, grows up to become Angela Mao (Deep Thrust and The Legendary Strike).

 Lotus is a kung fu dynamo, as we would expect a character played by Angela Mao to be, but she has something of a fierce side, not too unlike Gordon Liu’s character from 8 Diagram Pole Fighter. This becomes especially problematic when Lotus skips out of her Buddhist recitation class to practice kung fu and find herself the target of a trio of rapists. She beats two of them to death and tortures the other one with her pet scorpions. The abbot catches her doing these decidedly un-Buddhist things and has her kicked out of the monastery.

 Once in a while I read reviews of this film commenting on the title and observing that there is no “broken oath” to speak of in this movie. Well, the Chinese title of the film is “Po Jie.” “Po” translates as “broken.” “Jie” translates as “Oath,” but it’s not the “I swear that I’ll avenge you” type of oath, but it refers to the monastic oath tooken by monks who enter the Shaolin Temple. With that in mind, one can conclude that the title refers to Lotus’ being kicked out of the Shaolin temple because of her breaking the rules that monks, nuns, and laymen vowed to follow upon their entry there.

Arriving at her godmother’s house, Lotus finds out the truth about her parents and decides to take revenge. Teaming up with a young protégé of her godmother named Ah Shu (Ha Yue, Dragon Reloaded and Kung Fu Mahjong 3), Lotus sets her sights on Hou (Chiu Hung, Vengeance is a Golden Blade and King Boxer), one of the murderers who is now the owner of the local gambling den. Lotus shows up at the den and challenges Hou to a game, offering herself as a prize if he wins. He does, but he figures that she let him because she had something planned. Well, she does, and before Hou can do anything to stop her, Lotus introduces her scorpions to him in a rather unpleasant manner. (Random obs: Keep an eye out in this scene for a young Corey Yuen as one of Hou’s bodyguards)

 Both Lotus and Ah Shu show up at Hou’s funeral a few days later. Among the attendees is a strong-looking fellow named Chen (Leung Siu-Lung, The Gallants and Call Me Dragon). Chen professes to be a friend of Hou’s and even rats out Lotus and Ah Shu to Hou’s men after he discovers that his wallet has been stolen. A big chase ensues, with Lotus briefly fighting Chen and another stranger (Kuo Cheng-Yu of Seven Indigant), their fights being interrupted by the appearance of a mysterious wanderer named Yuan Sing (Michael Chan Wai-Man, Spirits of Bruce Lee and Shaolin Hand Lock). Meanwhile, Hou’s men track Ah Shu to Thousand Hand’s house, where they proceeds to torture them until Lotus returns to give them a taste of Shaolin kung fu laced with scorpion venom. Before Hou’s second-in-command expires, though, he tells Lotus where Tou (Fong Yau, Jeet Kune the Claws and the Supreme Kung Fu and Dragon Lives Again), another one of the murderers is hiding: a brothel. It looks like it’s time for some non-salacious undercover work for Lotus.

 Posing as a poor girl being sold into prostitution by her mother seems to work quite handily for Lotus. No sooner has she gotten in is she invited by Tou for a test drive before he starts passing her to his clients. Lotus is about to show Tou why the only good arachnid is a dead one when Chen shows up again to spoil things, ratting her out to Tou. He then sends his henchman (Dean Shek, Drunken Master and A Better Tomorrow 2) a message out to General Tsao (Cheung Pooi-Saan, Girls in the Tiger Cage and Angels with Iron Fists), the man who originally ordered the hit on Lotus’ dad. The message is intercepted by Chen, whose identity is still not known at the moment. Meanwhile Lotus has her arms full with Tou’s flunkies (one of whom is co-choreographer Tyrone Hsu) and Tou himself, he’s as good a fighter as he is a womanizer. During the prolonged scuffle, both Chen and Yuan Sing show up to give Lotus some pointers. She succeeds in killing Tou, but not before he poisons her and puts her in a coma.

Lotus is rushed to the Shaolin monastery where the abbot informs Ah Shu and Thousand Hands that only a hermitical herbalist named Chifeng can cure her. They find said herbalist, who initially refuses their request. He recants and no sooner does he find out the identity of his patient does he reveal himself as Wen, the third of the four murderers. Unlike the last two, however, Wen has been fairly penitent for what he had done and sees helping Lotus as a way to partially atone for his mistakes. Lotus is indeed healed, but soon Lotus will soon have to deal with the fourth killer, General Tsao, and the mysterious twosome that is Chen and his compatriot.

Broken Oath is supposed to be the Chinese re-imagining of the Japanese chambara classic Lady Snowblood. And when considers that Lady Snowblood is one of the main inspirations for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films, then you can say that this movie is indirectly related to Tarantino’s two-part epic. Actually, once you see the weapon that Sammo Hung uses in the big finale—a pair of star-like knives connected via a cord that can be swung like a flail—you’re likely to say, “Wait a minute, that looks like Go-Go Yubari’s weapon” and draw the connection. Well, that and the fact that the story is about a woman getting revenge by killing off her enemies one by one should be enough to make the connections clear. That said, I haven’t watched all of the Kill Bill movies or Lady Snowblood, so I really can’t make a comparison between all these films. Taken on its own merits and compared to Angela Mao’s other films, this one is really a winner.

The cast is pretty solid, full of familiar faces and less familiar ones. Angela Mao needs no introduction and any movie with her in it is likely to be better for her presence. The only martial arts actresses that could meet her intensity, acting-wise, were Hsu Feng and Yukari Oshima, and this is a definitely a movie that thrives on Angela’s intense (and occasionally sadistic) performance. Much like The Himalayan, Angela is backed up by a superkicker, this time in the form of Leung Siu-Lung (who made a few Brucesploitation films under the moniker Bruce Liang). Leung was arguably a better actor than Dorian Tan and was enough of his own choreographer that he never allowed his skills to be wasted in his movies, nor did he allow himself to be a one-trick pony. Even in this film, where he’s clearly putting on a few pounds, his roundhouse and spin kicks are both fast and powerful and compliment Angela’s fighting quite nicely.

The main villain is played by real-life Triad member Michael Chan Wai-Man. Like Leung Siu-Lung, Michael Chan was trained in Northern styles of kung fu, including the Northern Eagle Claw, which both actors use in their final duel together. Moreover, apparently both actors have participated in numerous real brawls, because apparently there were places in Hong Kong where young Triad punks would routinely challenge martial arts actors to fights just to see if they were the real thing. Chan’s fake wig and beard make him rather imposing in this film and, although it’s not his best performance, it still looks good on his résumé.

Rounding out the supporting cast are Sammo Hung and Han Ying-Chieh, who show up as General Tsao’s bodyguards. Sammo Hung played supporting roles in practically all of Angela Mao’s Golden Harvest-era films, usually as the villain. Here is no different, and we get to see Sammo with a fake beard and the top of his head shaved like a Japanese samurai. Han Ying-Chieh, who was obviously getting older at this point, puts in one of his best fighting performances that I’ve seen from him. I think it helps that he’s not choreographing himself this time, but has two stalwart action directors putting him through the paces.

And who are those two stalwart action directors: Why, they’re Yuen Woo-Ping (The Matrix and Iron Monkey) and Tyrone Hsu Hsia (Lion vs. Lion and Hell’s Wind Staff). Yuen Woo-Ping, who coincidentally (or not) choreographed Kill Bill, was still up and coming by 1977, although he was coming along extremely well that year. He was already working at Seasonal Films alongside legendary producer Ng See-Yuen and Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee and was a year away from becoming recognized as being among the best in the business with the landmark success of his Jackie Chan vehicles Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and The Drunken Master. Tyrone Hsu was a apparently a close friend of the Yuen Clan and assisted Woo-Ping on The Drunken Master, in addition to directing and choreographing a number of second-string (albeit martially superior) Shaw Brothers vehicles.

The difference between Sammo Hung’s and Yuen Woo-Ping’s choreography styles is quite evident if you compare this film to The Himalayan. Sammo Hung generally kept Angela Mao and her co-stars fairly weaponless (except for a few katanas here and there in her anti-Japanese films) and emphasized Mao’s open-handed skills and head-kicking greatness. Even when Sammo was starting off in the game, his ability to choreograph a good hand-to-hand fight was second only to Bruce Lee himself.

Yuen Woo-Ping and Hsu Hsia, however, opt to shake things up a bit more this time. Instead of focusing on Angela’s hapkido skills, they showcase her more traditional kung fu forms (although she still gets in some good boots) and weapons. Her main weapons include the pole, a pair of short swords, and some metal yo-yos that she keeps hidden on her person. Moreover, the other characters get to use varied weapons as well. Han Ying-Chieh gets a bottle of wine that he uses to spit fire and steel-toed boots, Sammo gets his aforementioned knife/flail weapon, and a number of other characters use sabers, darts, and claws in their fights. The fights are definitely more creative than in most of Angela’s previous films, which is a plus. They also are a little less mannered than what Woo-Ping and Hsia would do with Jackie Chan the following year.

The ending is a totally awesome affair in which every character that isn’t dead at that point gets into it, leading to several different individual fights. The two duels worth mentioning are Angela Mao vs. Cheung Pooi-Saan and Leung Siu-Lung vs. Michael Chan. In the former, Cheung confronts Angela without saying a word. Suddenly, a dozen fighters that are dressed like him, but wearing masks, pop up from behind him. Aesthetically, it’s a beautiful sequence and very reminiscent of the third boss (the Green Ninja) of the classic game Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja. Angela gets cut up pretty bad in the duel, to the point that you really wonder if she’ll make it to the end of the movie.

The latter, according to an interview with Leung Siu-Lung that I read, was actually improvised on the spot by Leung and Chan because the director, Jeong Chang-hwa (who also directed the seminal Five Fingers of Death), couldn’t make up his mind on what he wanted. So Leung and Chan just made up their own choreography as they went along and it looks great. Both men use the Eagle style (Northern Eagle) while Leung Siu-Lung throws in his own patented kicks. He uses mainly front, roundhouse, and spin-kicks, with a few aerial kicks to keep things nice. 

The more I write this review, the more I want to watch more…MORE Angela Mao movies. I also want to watch more Leung Siu-Lung movies. In any case, this is really a must-see film for all action fans. It has Angela Mao at her fighting best (and dressed sort of like Chun Li in one of the fights—perhaps she was a precursor to her), a great display of Leung Siu-Lung’s kicking skills, is a direct ancestor to Kill Bill, features some great early choreography from the legendary Yuen Woo-Ping, and is just an butt-kicking film all around. Highly recommended.