Deadly Mantis was my Shaw Brothers adventure today and it held some surprises. At first I assumed Gordon Liu was going to play a major part as he shows up in the opening scene as a head butting monk but he is soon gotten rid of and never heard from again. This is David Chiang’s picture it turns out and he proves to be a good lead but he gets some first rate help from Cecilia Wong as his eventual bride, Chi Chi in one of those strong female roles I mentioned earlier.
Star of the show for me though was the praying Mantis who Chiang learns his style from. What screen presence! What charisma! What technique! Anthony Steffen take note, this is how to act!
Don’t know if any of them were gay and don’t care although some of the silk pajama suits worn did look a bit suspect.
Apparently the first movie of its kind to get a proper release in the US, and therefore the one that started the craze and paved the way for Bruce & Co. Also one of the first to be released in Holland. I saw it in 1972, along with several hundreds of excited kids in a cinema in Eindhoven. How nice to rewatch it after nearly forty years. I remembered it only vaguely, but some elements were instantly recognisable: the deadly hands turning red, the eerie music playing over those scenes, the guy with the unstoppable forehead … This guy, and his forehead technique, forced Dutch censors - usually very lenient - to cut a few of his scenes: they were afraid young people would imitate them. A few weeks after the release of the movie, a football player (René van de Kerkhoff, PSV Einhoven) was knocked out with the technique by his opponent (an FC Twente player, don’t remember his name).
Hard to understand why they cut the scenes with the forehead technique, and let some extremely gross scenes with eyes being torn from their sockets (!) untouched. All censors are equally foolish, but some equals are more censor than others.
According to Angel FACE (on his blog), the style of the movie is not completely unlike a Hollywood movie. Maybe that’s the reason why it’s such enormous fun to watch for people like me, who have only a limited knowledge of the genre. I also spotted some minor influences of the spaghetti western, especially in the build-up to some of the duals.
The story is very common: it’s the usual stuff of rivalling schools, one good, one evil, the good guys very noble and all good sports, the evil ones fighting dirty and collaborating with the Japanese. (The women are all angelic here). It’s Lo Lieh’s charisma which makes all the difference. He starred in The stranger and the Gunfither alongside Lee van Cleef, but surprisingly never became a real star in the west. What a shame.
Scherp, I think you would really enjoy THE INVINCIBLE FIST (1969) starring Lo Lieh with a supporting role by David Chiang just before he hit it big. I talked about it in part two of the Chang Cheh article…
It was later remade as the seriously gloomy, violent and downbeat KILLER CONSTABLE (1980) and again about the same time as the indy production DEMON STRIKE.
A welcome return to the Shaw Brothers arena for me this morning with Crippled Avengers. Lordy lordy, what a ride!
This one has everything! Legs and arms are hacked off willy nilly, Tiger Claw technique left right and centre, hoops, swords, metal poles and ball bearing catapults aplenty. There’s bad guys, good guys, drama, comedy and (my favourite) Inspector Gadget iron hands :o It is absolutely mental from start to finish but one of the most entertaining movies I’ve seen for ages. Go go gadget, Tiger Claw!
I managed to see a screener copy of THE VILLAINS (1973). Yueh Hua and Chen Hung Lieh play brothers, one good and one bad. Shi Szu has a lot of screen time as well. A good mix of gunplay and basher fights. Very nice score, too. Haven’t seen it completely from beginning to end, but it’s definitely worth owning for basher, Chu Yuan and THE FUGITIVE (1972) fans. The copy is in widescreen restored, but bears ‘Celestial Pictures Limited’ at the top (in the picture) and ‘Sample’ at the bottom (in picture). It’s a shame this one didn’t come out. Maybe the rest of the proposed, but unreleased Shaw’s will appear on disc at some point. Maybe one of the US companies can release a “Shaw Brothers Rarities” line or something.
Five Element Ninjas was this morning’s Shaw Bros choice.
After the magnificence of yesterday’s Crippled Avengers this was always going to struggle to match that film’s excellence but it did pretty well. Chang Cheh’s films are certainly more blood thirsty than the first batch of SBs I was introduced to and this one is no exception. There’s more claret flowing here than a Bordeaux Appreciation Society party. :o Disembowellments, amputations and a finale where the bad guy literally gets ripped in two. All with the accompaniment of fake blood so bright it puts Hammer to shame. This one also showcases some of the most outrageously dressed ninjas in the history of cinema. Gold lame anyone? :-*
Yes scherps, that’s the one. You’re right, some scenes are not quite realistic (extending arms of the Yogi etc.) but IMO the movie is good fun and entertaining.
Enjoyable movie of my favourite chinese director, but not one of his best.
The story is a bit too simplistic, with a special team transporting government silver, and bandits, hiding in a fortress, planning to rob it. Ti Lung is the special agent who’s (along with his fiancée Li Ching) added to the transporting team, Ku Feng the leader of the bandits, and David Chang the man in the middle, a wandering swordsman dressed (mostly) in black (like Richard Boone in the TV-series Have Gun, will Travel) (see note)
Greatest problem for the movie is the fact that the love triangle doesn’t work. Li Ching is to be married to Ti Lung, but falls for David Chiang (who sacrifices himself and ends in Throne of Blood fashion). Lung and Chiang aren’t ideal contrasting characters (they function better side by side) and Li Ching’s part is too one-dimensional. As a result, the film lacks momentum until the final half hour, a true festival of ballettic bloodletting
Note: Maybe Angel Face can tell us what the original Chinese title (Bao Biao) means. I don’t think the TV-series really was a source of inspiration. Foreign distibutors must have made that title up.
Chang Cheh is actually one of my favorite directors of all-time!
Though some would argue that a lot of the films I like by Cheh are actually Swordplay films and not Kung-Fu films, here’s a quick list, anyway:
ONE ARMED-SWORDSMAN
GOLDEN SWALLOW
THE SAVAGE FIVE
THE RETURN OF THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN
SWORD OF SWORDS
TRAIL OF THE BROKEN BLADE
NEW ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN
MAGNIFICENT TRIO
CHINATOWN KID
FIVE ELEMENT NINJA
CRIPPLED AVENGERS
The One Armed Swordsman movies are great. I love New One-Armed Swordsman with David Chiang. Crippled Avengers is my all time favorite Shaw Brothers movie. I love seeing the four strangers unite to become friends and wipe out the evil Chen Kuan Tai and Lu Feng (who’s always great at being evil).
I prefer The New One-armed Swordsman to the one who was crippled a few year earlier
It’s Cheh’s movie that seems closest to the atmosphere of the spaghetti western, or westerns more in general. It’s about giving up you weapon, about revenge, honour, humiliation etc.
I wonder if Phil ever watched it
Cheh is a master, even his weaker films betray his great sense of style
[quote=“scherpschutter, post:436, topic:368”]I prefer The New One-armed Swordsman to the one who was crippled a few year earlier
It’s Cheh’s movie that seems closest to the atmosphere of the spaghetti western, or westerns more in general. It’s about giving up you weapon, about revenge, honour, humiliation etc.
I wonder if Phil ever watched it[/quote]
No, not got to that one yet Scherps. I’m still something of a newbie to the Shaw Bros arena.
[quote=“scherpschutter, post:431, topic:368”]Have Sword, will Travel (1969, Chang Cheh)
Enjoyable movie of my favourite chinese director, but not one of his best.
The story is a bit too simplistic, with a special team transporting government silver, and bandits, hiding in a fortress, planning to rob it. Ti Lung is the special agent who’s (along with his fiancée Li Ching) added to the transporting team, Ku Feng the leader of the bandits, and David Chang the man in the middle, a wandering swordsman dressed (mostly) in black (like Richard Boone in the TV-series Have Gun, will Travel) (see note)
Greatest problem for the movie is the fact that the love triangle doesn’t work. Li Ching is to be married to Ti Lung, but falls for David Chiang (who sacrifices himself and ends in Throne of Blood fashion). Lung and Chiang aren’t ideal contrasting characters (they function better side by side) and Li Ching’s part is too one-dimensional. As a result, the film lacks momentum until the final half hour, a true festival of ballettic bloodletting
Note: Maybe Angel Face can tell us what the original Chinese title (Bao Biao) means. I don’t think the TV-series really was a source of inspiration. Foreign distibutors must have made that title up.[/quote]
BODYGUARD or THE BODYGUARD is the translated title of the film. I never saw the connection, either. I think this was one of David Chiang’s best roles. Especially his relationship with his horse. I thought that was a nice touch. I enjoyed the sequence where he was deeply troubled over having to give up his horse. Also the great sacrifice he makes at the end for Ti Lung so that he and ‘Baby Queen’, Li Ching can be together. Reportedly, Bruce Lee got the idea for the pagoda sequences in GAME OF DEATH from this movie. Lee was a huge fan of Cheh’s style of moviemaking. There’s pics of him visiting Shaw sets on multiple occasions.
Bodyguard - could this be a reference to Yijimbo? I think that means bodyguard too, and Chiang plays a character who seems, like Mifune, a wandering samurai, after the fall of a shugunat. I think historically in China things were completely different, Chiang is of course no samurai, but Chen might have have wanted to do something in honour of Kurosawa, linking his film, with the help of Yojimbo so to speak, to the spaghetti westerns too. Chiang’s relationship with his horse reminded me of Sartana and his horse (or is this purely coincidence? I don’t know if Cheh ever saw a spaghetti western), and Chiang, while interfering in a conflict, saves the love of Lung and Ching, like No Name saves the ‘holy family’ in Fistful.
The pagoda sequence is of course great, and Chiang is fine too, I just thought this dramatic triangle Lung-Chiang-Ching didn’t work. Those things aren’t really Cheh’s forte; usually they don’t really harm the movie, but here they’re quite central to the story, taking a lot of time.
![http://img97.imageshack.us/i/847961.jpg/[/url]](http://img97.imageshack.us/i/847961.jpg/%5B/url%5D){kind=link}