Heroes of the Wild (1977)
aka: Heroes of Shaolin; Fox of Shaolin: Hero of the Wild; Kung Fu
Challenger
Chinese Title: 大武士與小票客
Translation: Great Samurai and Little Ticket
Starring: Chen Sing, Hwang Jang-Lee, Ting
Wa-Chung, Lo Lieh, Doris Lung Jun-Erh, Corey Yuen, Yuen Biao, Chen Ming-Li
Director: William Chang, Gwon Yeong-sun
Action Directors: Corey Yuen, Yuen Biao, Yuen Shun-Yee
Heroes of the Wild is a special film
for martial arts movie enthusiasts. Peking Opera classmates Yuen Biao and Yuen
Kwei, who had spent most of the year as Yuen Woo-Ping’s assistants, moved up in
the world and took on the job as head fight choreographers, alongside
Woo-Ping’s brother, Yuen Shun-Yee. Corey Yuen has since gone on to be one of
the best action directors in world action cinema, so this film is a treat in
that it shows us what he was capable of doing when given enough leeway[1].
It was also Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee’s fourth film of 1977 and features one of his more versatile fighting
performances. Taiwanese starlet Doris Lung also gets one of her best fighting
performances, too. And all this, plus
a strong story, compelling characters, and a great chemistry between lead
actors Chen Sing and Ting Wa-Chung, who was maturing as an actor by this point.
The movie begins with a teenage boy (Ting Wa-Chung) flying a kite on the beach
with his dad. Then it comes. Anyone who's watched a lot of kung fu movies knows
what I'm talking about. It's that musical rift ripped off from The Spy Who Loved Me in the
pyramids-Jaws scene. Almost always it's used to introduce some bad guy. The guy
in this movie is Tu Ta-Shen (Chen Sing) and he's come to challenge the dad to a
fight. They fight and Tu wins, causing the dad to commit suicide as a form of
honor. However, before dying, the dad asks Tu to carry out a last request:
bring to justice a traitor, Nan (Hwang Jang-Lee), who's begun siding with Qings
in order to overthrow the Ming dynasty. Tu accepts and decides to take the
man's teenage son with him, in order to train him for revenge.
Some time later, we find Tu and the son, Siao Hu, traveling along the
countryside in capes and cone-shaped straw hats. They kind of look like
wandering samurai, which isn't surprising, as this part of the storyline is
vaguely reminiscent of the old Lone Wolf
and Cub films—even the literal translation of the title suggests a direct
inspiration. The two arrive in a town and Tu makes contact with some mysterious
dude in a mask (the mask looks like the "Oni" mask that I saw in an
old Sega game called “Black Belt”).
The resulting conversation teaches us that Tu is not only a martial artist, but
an assassin as well. Actually, he's an assassin of the most dangerous type: if
he doesn't agree the client's choice of who to knock off, he knocks off the
client and takes their money. Makes me wonder how he'd get any business. I
guess when you're dealing with the best, you're willing to take a few risks.
So the guy in the mask hires Tu to kill Nan as well, but tells him that he
should go through Nan's colleague, Lui (Lo Lieh). Tu and Siao Hu challenge Lui
to a duel, but Lui sends his effeminate student to meet them. Siao Hu takes the
challenge but is beaten for his efforts. Tu nurses Siao Hu back to health and
begins to train him further in kung fu. Some time later, Tu and Siao Hu pay a
visit to Lui and his gang. Siao Hu has a rematch with the rather delicate
student, who gets his hind parts handed to him on a silver platter. Tu does the
same thing to Lui, but ends up getting injured when Lui pulls some dirty tricks
on him.
Tu and his young follower reverse roles as Siao Hu now has to nurse Tu back to
health. By then, Nan has found out about Tu's plans to defeat him and sends his
two grandsons (Corey Yuen and Yuen Biao) to finish him off...but they too get
whooped. To add insult to injury, those two came in armed with weapons that
pierce and slash and they still couldn't beat an unarmed Tu. But don't worry,
the fight itself is quite a sight to behold and is a good example of the
high-quality weapons fighting in this movie.
By this
time, Nan is ready to duel with Tu. And they do. However, this time Tu gets to
learn the lesson of what happens whenever you try to step to Hwang Jang-Lee,
especially before the climatic fight: You get whooped. Hwang Jang-Lee is one of
those guys whom you do not want to fight, especially if you're not the main
hero. Because if you aren't, chances are that your number is up. Yup, you don't
stand a chance against Hwang. Hwang will destroy you. Even if you're the main
hero, oftentimes you need a partner to beat Hwang. And sometimes, that's just
not enough.
This is one of the movies in which the plot plays an important part in the film
and one of the few old school movies that I've seen where character
relationships play an important role in pushing the story forward. This isn't
to say that the movie has to sacrifice fights for character development; the
movie has a healthy balance of both. The character development is exemplified
by the relationship between Tu Ta-Shen and Siao Hu. Siao Hu begins the film
with nothing but hatred and contempt for Tu Ta-Shen but as the film progresses,
he learns to channel his hatred and develops a certain degree of respect for
his rival. This comes to a climax shortly after Tu's first duel with Nan. Siao
Hu's development as a character is found not only on the personal side, but on
the martial arts side. Siao Hu starts off the film as a whiny kid who can
barely swing a pole. As the film progresses, his fighting skills gradually
improve. Unlike other films, where the kid is a kung fu master after one simple
training montage, Siao Hu's growth is more realistic. At the last reel of the
film, we learn to what extent his skills have truly developed.
Tu Ta-Shen's character is just as memorable as Siao Hu's. He's a man of honor
and principle. He works as an assassin, but has a personal code which prevents
him from killing those of honor and integrity. Also beneath his violent
exterior is a certain degree of tenderness, as demonstrated by the affection he
learns to feel for Siao Hu, who should be his rival, and for the aforementioned
prostitute. What's interesting is that the character is played by Chen Sing,
who was one of the great perennial villains of the old school. If you’ve seen The Himalayan, you’ve seen just how
sleazy and despicable a villain Chen could be. But Chen in fact played a hero
in many of his earlier films, like The
Bloody Fists; The Two Cavaliers;
and The Rage of Wind. As Tu Ta-Shen,
Chen gets to combine aspects of both his heroic and villainous roles to create
a compelling antihero for the audience to root for.
Villainy is provided by Hwang Jang-Lee and company. One review I read of this
film said that this was Hwang "at his white-haired nastiest." I think
that's a bit of an overstatement, as he was far more evil in movies like Invincible Armor and Secret Rivals, Part II. Actually, his
character is fairly restrained in this one. He's supposed to be a traitor the
Mings, but his character is far more interested in being a champion than in any
political machination. We learn the reason for this seemingly inconsistent
behavior at the climax.
In addition to our man Hwang, supporting villains are played by Lo Lieh, Lung
Jun-Erh, Yuen Biao, and Corey Yuen. All four of them do a good job with their
roles and the film's choreographers provide everyone with a good showcase of
his or her talents. Most notable is Doris Lung Jun-Ehr as Hwang’s
granddaughter, who fights with a combination of the snake fist style and a pair
of short, double-bladed spears. Her character is implied to be the superior to
that of her brothers—the two Yuens—and she does especially well in her fight
scenes, of which she has a few.
I want to note that Corey Yuen, who helmed the choreography alongside Yuen
Biao, gets to fight in front of the camera. I say this because most people
(fans of the genre) know him to more of a director and choreographer than an
actor. He's worked on some of the best action films of the 1980s, more than
half of Jet Li's filmography, and a bunch of other movies over the years. He's
a creative choreographer, so with that in mind, it's refreshing to see him
fighting in front of the camera just as much as directing behind it. Actually,
he's had supporting villain roles in about four Hwang Jang Lee movies that I've
seen, including Invincible Armor and Dance of the Drunk Mantis. Now I just
need to see Yuen Woo-Ping and Ching Siu-Tung fight in a movie and I'll be
satisfied.
The two Yuens to a great job of choreographing the plentiful fights. The style
of choreography is characteristic of the era, an intricate combination of real
kung fu styles and some acrobatics (probably provided by the Yuens as well). In
a lot of movies, the players can take a lot of blows during a fight and still
keep on going. Here, the power of the hits in emphasized and the actors aren't
able to take as much punishment. This helps give the fights a slightly more
realistic flavor, which is refreshing.
For you purists out there, you should be glad to know that there's a lot to see
in this movie. Chen Sing uses his infamous tiger style while Hwang Jang-Lee
uses the Eagle's claw/tae kwon do combination that he uses in a lot of other
movies. Fans of Hwang Jang-Lee shouldn't be disappointed with his performance
in this movie. He once again shows us that he can fight with his hands and with
weapons just as well as he can kick. His kicking is good in this movie,
although not as over-the-top as it is in some of his other movies. However,
it's still used to good effect and depicted with a large amount of power.
There's also a lot of weapons work in this movie. Actually, the weapons work is some of the best that I've seen and ranks alongside Lau Kar-Leung's Shaolin Challenges Ninja in variety and quality. Hwang, showing his versatility, fights with a pudao, or assault blade (also known as a horse blade, as it was used in battle to slice off the legs of horses from under them) and looks great. Also seen are the double sai swords, pole, three-sectional staff, spear-tipped batons, sword and tonfa, and the shuangdao (that sword that "miraculously" splits into two swords). It's all great stuff.
I highly recommend this movie. It's an excellent film with great characters to compliment great fight scenes. Or is it vice-versa? That doesn't matter. What matters is that when you watch this movie, you'll not only get a showcase for about seven famous martial arts performers, but you get a compelling story to go along with it. If that's not enough for you, I don't know what is.
[1] - According to the Hong Kong Movie
Database, he worked as choreographer on Duel
of the Dragons; Kung Fu 10th Dan; and
two Manda the Snake Girl films. We
believe this film, however, is where he really came into his own.
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