Secret
Service of the Imperial Court (Hong Kong, 1984: Tony Lou)
Chinese Title: 錦衣衛
Translation: Jinyiwei (Embroidered Uniform Guard)
Starring: Leung Kar-Yan, Lau Wing, Nancy Hu Kuan-Chen, Ku Feng, Lo Meng, Lo Lieh, Eric Chan Ga-Kei, Lau Yuk-Pok, Fong Yi-Jan, Phillip Ko Fei
Director: Tony Lou
Action Director: Tony Lou, Tong Gwok-Gei
Late-period Shaw film set in the late Ming Dynasty about the Jinyiwei, or Ming Dynasty secret police. The current emperor is a useless lecher, thanks to the Eunuch Wang Chun (Lau Wing). Wang Chun has cleverly "suppressed" the Emperor's power by keeping the young man supplied with a constant supply of female flesh, allowing him to run the Jinyiwei and eliminate his enemies and the true Ming patriots. The Guard is run by Zhao Wuyi (Ku Feng) and the captain of the guard is his son, Zhao Bufa (Leung Kar-Yan). Zhao Bufa begins to question the necessity of murdering different generals who are faithful to the emperor and, when he begins to spare them, finds himself at odds with the Eunuch, his fellow guardsmen, and even his own family.
Said to be the basis of 14 Blades, this is a much superior movie with a stronger emotional core, even if it gets extremely bleak. I'm guessing that the general sentiment at the Shaw Brothers at the time was that of despondency and desperation, which also showed up in 8 Diagram Pole Fighter. A lot of innocent people die and people are placed in awful situations where their capacity for humanity is stretched to the breaking point. And people are thrown into awful dilemmas, such as "Is justice worth enough to sacrifice an entire family?"
The fights were staged by the director himself (who also choreographed the Bastard Swordsman films) and Tong Gwok-Gei (The Big Sting). The action is mainly swordplay and all of it is well staged. Sun Chien shows up as one Bufa's colleagues and gets to fight Beardy with swords and shuriken. Lo Meng plays Beardy's brother, but don't expect much fighting from him. But yeah, the fights are good, but man, this film is really gory. Expect lots of blood geysers, severed limbs, and even someone getting split in half right down the middle. I'm sure the graphic violence will stick out more than the choreography itself.
New
Tales of the Flying Fox (Hong Kong, 1984: Lau Shut-Yue) -
Chinese Title: 新飛狐外傳
Translation: The New Flying Fox Chronicles
Starring: Alex Man, Kara Hui Ying-Hung, Felix Wong, Tai Liang-Chun, Ku Kuan-Chung, Leung Kar-Yan, Lau Yuk-Pok, Michael Tong, Chan Sze-Kai, Chu Tit-Wo, Yuen Qiu
Director: Lau Shut-Yue
Action Director: Law Keung
Another wuxia pian from
the latter years of the Shaw Brothers, this one based on the
novel The Young Flying Fox, which
was also the basis for The Sword of
Many Lovers. This year also saw the
Shaws producing (or releasing) The
Hidden Power of the Dragon Sabre (also
based on a Jin Yong novel) and Return
of the Bastard Swordsman, based on a
novel by Wong Ying. This one is notable in that much of the talent in
front of the camera aren't really Shaw veterans (or at least not your
usual headliners), nor are the director (his first film--he
directed The Young Vagabond the
following year) or the action director, Law Keung.
An opening
narration introduces us to the two great heroes of the Qing Dynasty:
Wu Yi-Dao (Leung Kar-Yan) and Miao Ren-Feng (Alex Man). Both men are
not only supreme swordsman, but are also anti-Qing rebels. The Court
decides to deal with them by buying out Miao's martial brother, Tian
Guan-nung (Ku Kuan-Chung), who is having an affair with Ren-Feng's
wife (Chan Sze-Kai). Tian goads the men into having a duel. They
fight to a draw and are interrupted by Wu Yi-Dao's wife (Yuen Qiu)
going into labor. While Yi-Dao and Ren-Feng are exchanging martial
arts pointers--which Yi-Dao's wife draws and places in a
book--Guan-nun poisons Ren-Feng's sword, which results in Wu Yi-Dao's
demise and his wife committing suicide.
A guy whom Yi-Dao had
rescued earlier (Lam Fai-Wong) rescues the baby Wu Fei and takes him
into the forest to raise him and lets him learn kung fu from the
manual his mom had made. Wu Fei grows up to be played by Felix Wong
(the guy Jackie Chan fights at the fish market in Drunken Master II). He meets Guan-nung and
Ren-Feng's wife, who are on the lam for being adulterous bad people.
Guan-nung tells Wu Fei and Miao Ren-Feng is the bad guy, which leads
to all sorts of misunderstandings and conflicts. He also meets a
female martial artist named Yuen Ziyi (Kara Hui) who is on a mission
to protect all of the regional martial artists from a trap set by the
Qings. He also meets the "heiress" of the Poison Clan (or
Medicine Clan), Ching Ling-Soo (Tai Liang-Chun), who helps him cure
Miao Ren-Feng when he is blinded. Both her and Yuen fall in love with
Wu Fei...
The movie movies at a swift pace, is never too
convoluted, and the viewer is never far away from the next fight
sequence. It does become a tragedy at the end thanks to the
characters' visible flaws, although the final sacrifice comes out of
nowhere and is so rushed that it'll probably make the viewers say
"Huh?" more than "Awwwww!" The fight scenes are
all well-staged, although they feel more like an early
1990s wuxia than
an early 1980s one. There is a lot of wire-fu in this movie, which is
actually staged quite well considering the modest filmography of Law
Keung. Expect your average barrage of swords and sabre, plus a
contingent of soldiers armed with rope-darts, Kara Hui armed with
two-fisted daggers, and a bunch of a Lama monks armed with sharpened
rings and monk's spades. The final showdown between the two heroes
and the evil Tian Guan-Nung rests on the heroes using an empty-handed
approach to fighting that is reminiscent of The Odd Couple.
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