Dynasty (1977)

Dynasty (1977)
aka Super Dragon; The Ming Dynasty
Chinese Title: 千刀萬里追
Translation: Chase for Thousands of Miles

 

Starring: Pai Ying, Dorian Tan Tao-Liang, Kam Kong, David Tong Wai
Director: Cheung Mei-Gwan
Action Director: Han Ying-Chieh

 

Back in 1967, Han Ying-Chieh and celebrated director King Hu worked together on Dragon Gate a tale of righteous swordsmen taking on a vicious, corrupt Eunuch during the Ming Dynasty. While not an official follow-up, the masterpiece A Touch of Zen took on the same themes, with both men working behind the camera (and in Han's case, in front of it as well). Dynasty was made in 1977 at the tail-end of Han Ying-Chieh's career. Although missing the influence of King Hu in the director's chair, the film feels like a closing entry in an unofficial trilogy of movies about corrupt Ming Dynasty eunuchs.

The plot here is quite simple: Eunuch Tsao (Pai Ying, who worked with Han in both Dragon Inn and A Touch of Zen) is your average power-hungry eunuch, who has perfected his kung fu to the point he is nearly invincible (a sort of template to similar characters in 1990's The Swordsman and 1992's New Dragon Inn). He's after Prince Chu, an heir to the emperor's throne who'd like nothing more than to curb the power of eunuchs in general. When Prince Chu goes into hiding at the Shaolin Temple, the abbot, knowing the Tsao will break the universally-accepted sanctuary law, sends his best fighter, Tan Sau-Chin (Dorian Tan Tao Liang, who worked with Han in films like Tornado of Pearl River and General Stone), to kill the eunuch.

Dynasty has the feel of a production that people actually threw money at, despite being made in Taiwan. There are lots of sweeping shots (at least in the beginning) of dozens of Ming Dynasty guards on horseback travelling across the country or through town. There are some ambitious set pieces that show that the filmmakers were trying for something big, to greater or lesser effect.

Storywise, this actually feels more like Pai Ying's film than, Dorian Tan's, despite his being the protagonist. It takes almost 40 minutes for the film to focus on Tan, and even then, his character is portrayed as the sort of ghost-like assassin who's content to hide among the shadows and instill fear in his victims, rather than your average kung fu hero who'll jump into any fight with a large group of opponents at the drop of a hat. One set piece is actually played as a horror movie, with two lead villains watching in horror as their men get picked off one by one by an unknown (to them) entity.

On the other hand, Pai Ying is the focus of the movie since minute one, and we get to see the decisions he makes that ultimately lead to his downfall. Compare with New Dragon Gate Inn, where the evil Eunuch is played more like the looming presence, the guy whom we know is on the way, but whom we don't see very much of until the end itself.

The most innovative aspect of the action is that it was filmed in 3-D. So throughout the film, we have objects being shoved into the camera: swords, spears, logs, arrows, pottery, flying people, and more! Sometimes it's pretty cool, but more often than not, it turns out to be distracting and disrupts the flow of the action. Once in a while, the effect is just downright bizarre, leading to weird phallic imagery when people repeatedly jab tree trunks and OUATIC2-esque cloth cudgels into the camera.

Making a wuxia film with Dorian Tan in the lead is a questionable idea, since the guy is first and foremost a superkicker, his abilities to wield weapons onscreen being limited at best. His kicks are often underplayed here, and the few times he gets to use his patented hop kicks, the coolness is spoiled by an obnoxious 3-D effect. For most of the film, he fights using an umbrella made out of adamantium (with a sword hidden in the handle). There are some cool moments with the umbrella, but most of the time a general feeling of sameness hangs over Tan's fight scenes. The best fight has him taking on a bunch of assassins, several of them who are armed with flying guillotines(!).

Han Ying-Chieh, who helmed the action here, seems to be stuck in 1970 with the action. The fights are played out at normal speed, and often feel slow. The hand to hand combat feels all too generic, at a time when Lau Kar-Leung, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Woo-Ping were well on their way to revolutionizing onscreen action in films like Executioners from Shaolin; The Iron-Fisted Monk; and Yuen's collaborations with John Liu and Hwang Jang Lee. The swordplay often feels more like a Hollywood swashbuckler, without the complexity or grace of the films the Shaw Brothers were making at the same time. But then, with Tan Tao-Liang miscast in the role of a powerful swordsman, it was inevitable that this would happen. There are lots of super jumps (people jumping from trees and roofs played backward) and some crude flying effects. The final duel, much like Pai Ying himself, feels like the template for the crazy wuxia films that we'd see in the 1990s (but obviously without the giddy energy those films had).

Dynasty is ultimately little more than a curio. Plotwise, it makes a good compliment to Han Ying's collaborations with King Hu, and had it been made before 1974, it would've been a rather impressive film indeed. But Han Ying Chieh was simply unable to evolve his craft at the same rate of his peers, especially his protégé Sammo Hung. So in the end, we have some good action ideas, an interesting take on the typical evil eunuch formula, but not enough to make the film really stand out.