Challenge of Death (1978)

Challenge of Death (1978)
Chinese Title: 龍拳蛇手鬥蜘蛛
Translation: Dragon Fist and Snake Hand vs. Spider

 

Starring: Don Wong Tao, Dorian Tan Tao-Liang, Chang Yi, Lung Fong, Ma Chiang, Hsieh Han, Shih Ting-Ken, Liu Ming
Director: Lee Tso-Nam
Action Director: Gam Ming (Tommy Lee), Lung Fong

Despite The Hot, the Cool and Vicious establishing Don Wong Tao as one of the major kung fu protagonists in Taiwan, it was two years before him and fellow tae kwon do expert Tan Tan-Liang teamed up for a rematch. Don Wong was extremely busy the previous year, showing up in no fewer than thirteen films. It almost makes Dorian Tan’s seven-film output look paltry in comparison. Nonetheless, it was only a matter of time before they joined forces with director Lee Tso-Nam and choreographer Gam Ming for the aforementioned film’s spiritual successor. Gam Ming did step down from the lead villain position in favor of Chang Yi, who had taken on Don Wong the year before in Eagle’s Claw.  

The movie is set around the time of Warlord Era of the Chinese Republic, which lasted from 1916 to 1928. Lu Siao-Yun (Tan Tao Liang, The Leg Fighters and The Himalayan) is a security officer on the tail of a gang of munitions smugglers whose client is one of the warlords in the region. While trying to get to the brains behind the operation, Lu arrests a womanizing gambler named Chiang Hsiao-Lang (Wong Tao, Phantom Kung Fu and Death Duel in Kung Fu), known in the martial arts community as the Golden Snake. Cheng's old lover, Wu Ching-Wah (Liu Ming of New Fist of Fury), is a courtesan who supposedly works as a mediator between the smugglers and their clients. While traveling across the desert, the two strike a deal that if Chiang helps Lu find the head smuggler, he'll let him go free.

Arriving in "the town", Cheng is looked up by Wu. An interesting character trait of Miss Wu is that she is enamored with Mongolian culture, including wearing their clothing and living in a Mongolian style tent. We find out that Chiang and Wu have a get-rich scheme involving the Warlord's agent (Hsueh Han, of The Killer Meteors), who is due to arrive in town with the payment for the next shipment in a few days. That night, when Chiang and Lu go to the inn to get some shut-eye, they run afoul of a couple of thugs working for the town's richest man, Mr. Sung (Chang Yi, Ming Patriots and Eagle's Claw). After beating them up, they report back to their boss and complain about their beating. Mr. Sun sends more men out to kill the two, but they too are unsuccessful.

We find out that Chiang and Wu's plan is to delay the meeting between the agent and Mr. Sung for a day, during which period Wu will set up a gambling match between Chiang and the agent. Chiang will win all of the agent's money—as opposed to Wu earning only half of it on the arms deal--and him and Wu will become quite wealthy and get married. The agent arrives and all seems to be going according to plan, until Lu shows up at the gambling match dressed as on old woman and ruins their plans. It does not take long before Mr. Sung starts taking a more active role in the proceedings and soon the bodies start piling up.

One thing that you might notice is that the film actually has a plot that doesn't hinge entirely on revenge, the Japanese, superiority of kung fu styles, or rival masters. It's a crime story about a cop trying to bring down a smuggling ring set in a time and world where everybody important knows kung fu. If you think about, there are actually a number of similarities between this film and Jackie Brown. Both films feature characters who are out to cheat an arms dealer out of his money. Both films feature law enforcement officers who are more interested in bringing down the arms dealer than the other characters’ plans to betray him. The difference here is the the arms dealer, Mr. Sung, is a lot smarter than Samuel Jackson's Ordell and is able to catch on to what's going on a lot quicker than his Tarantino-scripted counterpart...that and the copious fight scenes, of course.

Nonetheless, the real-world context becomes one of the film's greatest strengths. So many films in the genre seem to take place in a world where martial arts clans and schools have unlimited power and can kill each other off without any involvement from law enforcement. I love Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin to death, for example. Nonetheless, if that film is set in the Qing Dynasty, where are the government officials in that? Challenge of Death feels a lot more realistic and said approach to the story actually makes some of the more fantastic elements of the fight scenes easier to swallow. One of the reasons Lee Tso-Nam is considered such a great director is that he was able to put a real world context into his films, often times dealing with lawmen and criminals, and thus give his movies a realistic feeling. The Hot, the Cool and the Vicious was one example of this. Challenge of Death is another.

The action here is solid and feels quite realistic, too. Gam Ing had a knack for choreographing traditional styles in a way that seemed natural and believable. The movements are authentic, but he does not use undercranking or an access of acrobatics that make the fight scenes seem over-choreographed. Wong Tao’s style of choice is the Southern Snake Fist, as opposed to tiger and crane forms of hung gar or tae kwon do, which he originally trained in. Wong Tao was an especially versatile martial artist, at least on the big screen.

Tan Tao-Liang uses his usual kicking skills and compliments his kicking with some handwork taken from the Southern Dragon style, which he does convincingly. I do admit to being glad that they chose the Dragon style to compliment Tan's kicks with, since the Dragon style gets very little attention in film, at least as an individual style. The big gimmick to the action here is villain Chang Yi, who uses the mysterious Northern Spider style. The style itself looks like a combination of the Eagle and Mantis style, but the hook is Chang Yi can shoot out cords from his sleeves, which he uses to hoist himself in the air and swing around and kick or grab people. He's the Spider-Man of the martial world here, and it's quite entertaining and original.

There are a few minor quibbles about the film: The wirework used in Chang Yi's fight scenes is a bit awkward at times. There's a scene early on where Tan Tao Liang and Don Wong Tao dress up as an elderly couple in order to win a bunch of money at a casino. It is only tangentially related to the main plot, but it is a bit silly. I guess it could be seen as being one of the signs of the times, as comedy was becoming increasingly important in kung fu by late 1978.

Moreover, one of the strengths of The Hot, The Cool, and The Vicious was that the film didn't simply stop after the main fight; the film made an effort to show what the characters do after beating the villain. That's not the case here, as we simply see our heroes walking away after killing the villain, leaving one plot thread unresolved.

Challenge of Death comes as a breath of fresh air after watching so many cookie-cutter kung fu films that depend on the quality of their fights to make up for the lack of originality (or sense) in their plots. The story is complex and the fighting is quite good. The actors are casted according to their strengths: Tan is better suited to playing the righteous cop; Wong is a bit meatier as the gambler-turned-good guy; and Chang Yi is an excellent villain, as always. It's not quite a classic, but a very good film by genre standards.