Great Shanghai
1937 (1986)
Chinese Title: 大上海1937
Translation: Greater Shanghai 1937
Starring: Chui Siu-Kin, Do Yuk-Ming, Dung Chi-Wa, Lau
Lai-Gwan, Suen Yee-Man, Muk Lap-San, Lok Woon-Yau, Ku Wing-Chuen
Director: Chang Cheh
Action Directors: Fan Dung-Yue, Do Yuk-Ming, Dung Chi-Wa, Chui
Siu-Kin, Ku Wing-Chuen
The last
handful of movies that Chang Cheh did, from the second half of the 80s until
1993 when he bowed out of filmmaking with Ninja
in Ancient China, appear to be Mainland China/HK co-productions, and very
low-budget ones at that. I guess that has to do in part with the fact that the
production company, Sil-Metropole Organization, was still in its fledgling
stages at that point. Well, probably both that and the fact that Chang Cheh
probably hadn’t had a box office hit in a while, so I can’t imagine them
wanting to risk a lot of money on a man’s whose forte had ceased to be
profitable three years prior.
Despite not
having a lot of money at his disposal, Chang Cheh still had lofty ideas and he
did his darndest to bring them to life with this period intrigue actioner, even
if it didn’t really turn out that way in the end. Great Shanghai 1937 deals with the Japanese occupation of China at
the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, which essentially bled into WW2.
There are three major Triad bosses in Shanghai: Tu (Do Yuk-Ming, who would
later go to appear in Little Big Soldier and
White Vengeance), Cheung (Wong
Ming-San) and Ng. Tu leaves town and moves to Hong Kong to avoid having to deal
with the Japanese, while Cheung and Ng sell their souls and prefer to ride the
enemy’s nuts, if you catch my drift.
Meanwhile,
there is a band of patriots out there who go around assassinating important
Chinese men who they deem to be traitors to their country. The best assassin in
Lam (Chui Siu-Kin, who was in Chang Cheh’s other films from the same period),
who happens to be the former protégé of Tu. One evening, he carries out an
attempt at a Peking Opera performance, but things go awry and he is injured. He
flees the scene and ends up at the house of a fruit seller who used to know his
mentor. The man and his daughter, Yuan Yue (Suen Yee-Man, who was also in Chang
Cheh’s Cross the River), both nurse
Lam back to health.
After
recovering, Lam and his group of merry patriots are given the instructions to
assassinate both Cheung and Ng because of their colluding with the Japanese.
They plan to strike at a dinner, where the head of the patriots is acting as a
translator. The assassination hits a snag in the fact that Cheung’s men are better
marksmen than the patriots are…and better kung fu experts, too. So Lam takes it
upon himself to avenge his brothers and wipe out the traitors, starting with
Cheung’s four bodyguards…
To
summarize my thoughts on the film, there are far too many characters included
in the film’s rather brief 83-minute running time. This is one of those films
where subtitles (albeit not English ones) appear on screen whenever a new
character is introduced, even though said character may ultimately have a
negligible effect on the outcome of the movie. Complex relationships between
characters who may or may not have a history are hinted at, but never
developed. One of the top-billed actors is Dung Chi-Wa (best known as the
staff-wielding baker in Kung Fu Hustle),
who plays Yeung Fan, “The Knife.” But his character mainly skulks around in the
background until the end, when he teams up with the hero for no discernible
reason to fight the bad guys. There’s supposed to be a love triangle between
him, Yuan Yue, and Lam, but it pops up only in the last act and doesn’t get
much attention. Even worse, there are at least three flashbacks in the movie
that really aren’t that important—they reveal the backstory of some of the
supporting characters—that should’ve been ignored in favor of developing the
characters who do play an integral part in the proceedings.
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