Moonlight Sword and Jade Lion (1977)

Moonlight Sword and Jade Lion (1977)
Chinese Title: 銀蕭月劍翠玉獅
Translation: Silver Xiaoyue  Sword and Jade Lion

 

Starring: Angela Mao Ying, Don Wong Tao, Wen Chiang-Long, Doris Lung Chun-Erh, Su Chen-Ping, Tung Li, Chiang Ming, Wu Chia-Hsiang, Wu Te-Shan, Shao Lo-Hui
Director: Karl Liao
Action Director: Ko Pao

 

By 1977, kung fu diva Angela Mao Ying had for the most part left Hong Kong—she’d do a final film for Golden Harvest at the end of the year—and focused her career on making movies in her native Taiwan. Most genre fans will agree that her output suffered a notable drop in quality, now that she was separated from her main collaborators: director Huang Feng and fight choreographer Sammo Hung. Try as they might, Taiwanese action directors like Pan Chang-Ming, Lai Ting-Chung and Huang Kuo-Chu were simply out of Sammo’s lead. This isn’t to say that her Taiwanese efforts weren’t entertaining; a lot of them have their moments and some of them—The Lady Constables and The Damned—are genuinely good genre entries.

Moonlight Sword and Jade Lion is generally considered to be one of Angela Mao's lesser films, and with good reason. The action is decent, but not very memorable; the story makes little sense; and the writing leaves a lot to be desired. There is more story here than in a lot of other kung fu movies—this is a wuxia film after all—but the storytelling is less than competent and sacrificing Angela Mao action for undeveloped plot is not a very good way to get on the viewers’ good sides.

A kung fu master sends his pupil (Angela Mao) into town to find his brother, who knows the identity of her parents' killer (a fact we do not learn until near the end). She spends much of the next 80 minutes going from one school or clan to the next, asking if they've seen Liu Chang (i.e. the brother, played by prolific director Shao Lo-Hui), and occasionally getting into a fight. There are a multitude of characters, including a righteous clan leader, played by The One-Armed Swordswoman’s Chiang Ming; a near-deaf inn owner outside of town (prolific actor Wu Chia-Hsiang); a shady escort business; and a wandering righteous fighter (Su Chen-Ping, of The Eight Masters and The One-Armed Boxer), among others.

Meanwhile, there’s a mysterious martial artist who is killing anyone who has any contact with Angela Mao’s character. Why? What secrets do they hide? We never actually find out that part. And just who is the guy hiding literally behind the shadows, screwing Ermei clan leader Su Yen (played by Doris Lung Chun-Ehr) and talking about a mysterious jade lion that’ll guarantee dominance in the Martial World? Is it the Stranger (Don Wong Tao, of Secret Rivals), who greets Angela at the inn by attacking her with wine and food? Is it the helpful, yet secretive, guy, played by Dragon Inn’s Wan Chung-San? Or perhaps the elderly clan leader, played by Yuen Shen, who played the Abbot in Rebel of Shao-Lin?

There are a few double crosses, surprise reveals, and double agents working for the good guys (or bad guys), but it's all to nought. We don't learn the learn the reason for Angela wanting to find Liu Chang until the final reel. We never learn why Don Wong Tao is even involved in the intrigue: the film suggests that he’s a government official, but it’s never explicitly stated. There are several parties working for the good guys whose identities and motivations we never learn. It's a 1000-age wuxia novel condensed into 84 minutes, but with everybody's backstory shorn off.

The action, choreographed by Ko Pao (who also worked with Angela on The Lady Constables), is pretty okay. It's better than some reviews led me to believe, but nothing classic. Angela spends most of the film fighting with a short spear, which can extend into a regular-sized one, like a retractable baton. Typical of his post-1976 films, Wong Tao uses hung gar instead of his original tae kwon do training. His signature weapon is more interesting: a pair of short-handled halberds that can detach with a cord. Fellow Taiwanese action starlet Doris Lung has two short dust-ups with Angela, wielding a fu chen, or horsetail whisk. I would’ve liked to have seen them go at it with more hand-to-hand, but okay.

The best fight has Angela fighting a formation of villains wielding flails/maces that are dressed to look like lotus blossoms, that can also explode on impact. That sequence is quickly followed by a drawn-out House of Traps™ set piece involving spears, buzz saws, and flaming incense censers. This scene actually has some brutal moments, like Angela Mao ramming a guard’s face into a cauldron of fire and burning the poor sap’s face off! The finale is a two-on-one battle involving Angela Mao and two male characters. It’s not bad, although it’s certainly not up to Mao’s Golden Harvest films. The movie then ends completely ignoring both the subplot of one of the secondary villains, not to mention one of the esoteric objects described in the film’s title(!). And just what is the “Moonlight Sword”? It’s certainly not Angela Mao’s weapon, or Wong Tao’s weapon, or anybody else’s weapon as far as I could see.