Rape of the Sword (1967)

Rape of the Sword (1967)[1]
Chinese Title: 盜劍
Translation: Steal(ing) Sword

 

Starring: Li Li-Hua, Li Ching, Kiu Chong, Chen Hung-Lieh, Tien Feng, Tang Ti, Lee Wan-Chung, Yang Chi-Ching
Director: Griffin Yueh
Action Director: n/a

In his notorious work Asian Cult Cinema, author Thomas Weisser refers to this as a “martial arts musical” and highlights it as one of the better old school movies from the late 60s – early 80s. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a musical: there are two songs, one of which is played over the main character walking through the wilderness. Only once do characters break out into song, although it’s in the traditional Chinese Opera style, as opposed to what we might expect in a Hollywood musical, complete with a choreographed dance routine and whatnot. But yeah, anyone who has ever heard that this is a “musical” and imagined some Cronenbergian concoction of The Sound of Music with The One-Armed Swordsman, can rest assured (or lament) that this ain’t it.

The movie opens with two men about to duel. One of them is a stocky fellow named Han (Tang Ti, of One-Armed Swordsman and The Knight of Knights), who is trying to convince his opponent, one of his martial brothers, to hand over the Green Frost Sword. His reasoning is that the Prince—in this case, it would be the Emperor’s brother (and I think this is set in the Song Dynasty)--wants the sword and has promised official ranks to whomever gives it to him. Han’s brother refuses on the grounds that his master said to keep the sword within clan always, to which Han responds, “Why? He’s dead!” Anyway, Han kills his brother-in-arms and makes off with the sword.

Some time later, we go the court of Prince Wu Yi (Lee Wan-Chung, of Broken Oath and The Deadly Knives), where he’s showing off the sword to his advisors and whomever else is at the palace at the moment. Some time during the “demonstration,” the good General Zhong Ki (Tien Feng, of Fist of Fury and The Young Master) shows up with his daughter, Jiao Long (Li Ching, of Killers Five and King Eagle), in tow. It doesn’t take long for the Prince’s godson, Lu Tian-Xia, to take notice of Miss Jiao Long and want her hand in marriage. Unfortunately, Lu Tian-Xia is played by Chen Hung-Lieh, who played Jade Faced Tiger in Come Drink With Me, we the viewers know he’s no good. Even Jiao Long comments to her dad that “he looks like a vampire.”

Unfortunately for Jiao Long, being the (god)son of the Emperor’s brother comes with its perks in that most officials below you are willing to do anything you ask them, like consent to giving their daughter’s hand in marriage. Before Jiao Long knows it, she’s engaged to the (admittedly) shifty-looking fellow, who hasn’t done anything wrong yet, but just looks like a conniving villain. At this point, Jiao Long’s lady-in-waiting, Geng Liu Nang (Li Li-Hua, of The Boxer Rebellion and The Goddess of Mercy), is not only a powerful martial artist, but also of the widow of the poor sucker from the first scene. That means that she not only wants to get the Green Frost Sword back, but she wants Han’s life while she’s at it. Han has since been promoted to “Instructor” in Prince Wu Yi’s palace, but is absent from the palace at the moment. Liu Nang uses that “breach” in the palace’s security to steal the sword and whisk Jiao Long away.

By this point, Lu Tian-Xia already suspects that Liu Nang is a martial artist. Sucks for him, but confronting her outright results him her almost killing him with the PALM OF DEATH! At that point, Instructor Han returns from wherever he was to and takes it upon himself to get the sword back. He gets it back, but both Miss Geng and Jiao Long are able to escape with their lives. At this point, Miss Geng starts teaching Jiao Long kung fu…and trust me, she’s going to need it.

Okay, let’s see: you have a super-powerful green sword, which belonged to a clan in the Martial World and is now in the position of a government official (but is constantly getting stolen)…you have the daughter of an official is roped into an arranged marriage with someone that most women would probably find repulsive…but said young lady would rather be part of the Jianghu world…not to mention her lady-in-waiting is secretly a martial artist.

Yeah, that sounds a lot like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. A lot of people, including CTHD choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping, feel that this was a (loose) adaptation of Wang Dulu’s famous novel. Jiao Long would be the equivalent to Zhang Ziyi’s Jen, while Li Li-Hua’s Geng Liu Nang is an unexpected composite of Michelle Yeoh’s Yu Shu Lien and Cheng Pei-Pei’s Jade Fox (!). As the latter was the villain(ess) of CTHD, that leaves the antagonist role here to Chen Hung-Lieh’s character, whose counterpart was the barely-glimpsed Gou (played by Karl Li). And, if you really want to be radical, you can suppose that Chow Yun-Fat’s Li Mu-Bai was channeled into the villainous Instructor Han. After all, both men hail from the clan which claimed ownership of the Green Frost (or Destiny) sword and both men handed it over to government officials.

That last bit is probably pushing it, however. There is also a martial artist, Lo Yi Hu (Kiu Chong, of The Trail of the Broken Blade and Heroic Sword) who is the head of a clan of bandits whom Jiao Long falls in love with. That would be the equivalent of Chang Chen’s Lo Xiao Hu from CHTD—they even have similar names! As Lo Yi Hu in Rape of the Sword is also a martial brother of Geng Liu Neng, I’m guessing that he is supposed to be a composite of sorts of both Li Mu Bai and Lo Xiao Hu. The Wikipedia entry for Rape of the Sword suggests that when this film was made, the Cultural Revolution was underway in China, where Wang Dulu lived. As a result, there would have been no way for the Shaws to contact him about signing over the film rights to his story. As a result, they did adapt the material, but did so loosely enough--even changing the dynasty from the Qing to the Song (about 600-700 years earlier)—that it wouldn’t have been outright plagiarism. But if Yuen Woo-Ping (who plays an extra in this) thinks it was an adaptation, I’m guessing he’d heard stuff around the set.

All that aside, is Rape of the Sword any good? I thought it was pretty good. It certainly looks nice and the late Li Ching (not to be confused with the other Shaw Brothers starlet, Ching Li) is easy on the eyes. The action is rather dated; the influence of the Peking Opera is undeniable here. But while Peking Opera graduates in the 1970s transformed their training into long, complex and marvelously-acrobatic demonstrations of martial prowess, the fighting here looks mounted in a way that you would expect for the stage and not the movie camera. Where later films would transform Peking Opera into something more epic, this is just Peking Opera stage fighting on film. Some of the later swordfights start approaching the level of Come Drink with Me, but otherwise, I’m not even sure the action ranks up there with Hollywood swashbucklers from the 1950s. I think most of its value lies in its connections with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon than with its merits…but then again, I might just be a decadent Philistine who wanted something closer to a Chang Cheh bloodbath.

And what happened to the sequel that this movie promised?

 

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[1] - Despite the title, there is no “rape” as we know the term today (no swords were sheathed or unsheated against their will). However, the Latin roots of “rape” are in the word “rapere” which means “to seize.” In Middle English, the verb “to rape” meant “violently seize property,” which is a bit more in line with what happens in this film. Now, if that’s what the guys who came up with the English title were thinking, I have no idea.