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The Magic Blade
(Tien ya, ming yueh tao, 1976)

Chu Yuan

Hong Kong

97 min, color, Mandarin (English subtitles)

Review © 2003 Branislav L. Slantchev

Who says that Hong Kong movies exist in a universe by themselves? (Well, sometimes I do but I usually exaggerate.) Here's a good example of East-meets-West-that-has-met-the-East, a very nice instance of cross-pollination that has produced some rather remarkable results. Everyone knows Yojimbo, right? Many also know Fistful of Dollars, its Spaghetti-Western remake. Well, here's the HK version of the lone wandering swordsman with the poncho, The Magic Blade. The Western feel (which originally influenced Kurosawa) has gone back West and has now returned in slightly modified form to the East.

Yen enounters Fu in Phoenix Village Fu twirls the twirly blade
Miss Chin (Ching Li) The vault with the Peacock Dart (or is it?)

We see the dusty wind-swept deserted streets of a ghost town, the obvious scene of the first explosive duel. The somewhat reticent but very deadly Fu Hung-hsueh (Ti Lung) meets his rival Yen Nan-fei (Lo Lieh). After the usual brief word exchange (necessary to give us the background of their conflict), they jump into demonstrations of martial arts skills. The first surprise is Fu's weapon, a mean-looking twirling chopper that proves to be the source of endless grief for endless villains.

Mr. Chiu's last rites Yu Chin (Lily Li), the musical assassin
I heard you never kill unarmed women? Gratuious shot of the incomparable Ching Li

As if anyone really cared about the story, there's some super-evil Mr. Yu who wants to rule the swordsman world. Yeah, the plot is virtually identical to the myriad other adaptations of the prolific Ku Lung novels. Nobody in the audience would ever care about this, but at least it gives reasons for a bunch of people to attack each other. The other plus of the simplistic plot is that after a brief red herring with Yen, it follows Fu's journey to the ultimate encounter with Mr. Yu.

The chess-board fight That woman's ferocious!
Things go damp in the night Liu Hui-Ling is Chi

On the way, the knight-errant saves damsels in distress (some of whom naturally want to thank him in the time-honored fashion of either killing him or sleeping with him), murders murderers, and escapes the various traps Mr. Yu has set for him. The whole idea is that whoever possesses the Peacock Dart will rule the martial arts world. That is, if the opponents happen to be accommodating enough to be within 50 yards of the Dart (its admittedly limited range) and not wear yellow Peacock Robes (which are something like Dart-shelters).

Sex for Noodles! Yet another random act of violence
The softer side of Ti Lung Ming: When I'm naked few can resist.
Fu: I guess I am one of them.

The film goes something like this:

Yet another gratuitous look at Ching Li ... and another

There really isn't much going on except endless fighting scenes, somewhat nicely choreographed, but not really breath-taking. There are several very cool atmospheric shots (e.g. Fu's initial appearance during Third Watch, every scene with Ching Li (aka Cheng Lee), and even the obviously cardboard fake moon). Also, the brief encounters with Lily Li are exciting because we can catch her mean kung fu in action. Shaw Brothers also have some fairly effective, if somewhat neanderthal, philosophy on casting beautiful women (the philosophy can be summarized as 'cast as many as possible'), which provides eye candy to the viewer otherwise threatened by boredom. There's an entire scene where Fu encounters a nameless beauty who offers to sleep with him in exchange for a bowl of noodles (twice for two bowls).

Where there's a mask, there's a friend Lily Li right before getting sliced in two

The absolute highlight of the film are not the action scenes but Miss Chiu (Ching Li). Chu Yuan knows how to use her properly, and she always shows up contemplative, in soft focus, ethereal, and totally out of reach of all those who strive for her. She is the delicate beauty, dressed in white, innocent, and physically helpless that somehow always has at least one knight-errant ready to lay his life down for her. Also, somehow one can never imagine a lady like that getting raped or otherwise taken by force. Instead, the suitor must undergo countless trials and tribulations before she would even present him with a small flower as a token that she has taken notice of his affections. There is something alluring in this, and it does remind one of the European medieval stories of chivalry. Of course, there's the other types of women (also quite attractive, of course) that are either easy or deadly, or some combination of the two, with some evil spice thrown in once in a while. I do not object to these either.

A philosophical interlude Screw philosophy! Gimme blood!

The Celestial Pictures DVD is non-anamorphic with a decent 2.35:1 widescreen transfer and a Mandarin Dolby Digital soundtrack. It is comparable in quality to the other releases in this series. There are the usual photo gallery, trailers, talent files, and production notes. This time the interviews are also useful for a change (all either in English or subtitled). We have interviews with director Chu Yuan (who claims he's the most fun director in HK), Ching Li (who is still attractive), Jade Leung (who always will be), Wah Yueh (among the best stuntmen), and Bey Logan (who talks way too fast). There is also an audio commentary with Bey Logan, in which the wealth of useless detail overwhelms within the first 5 minutes of the film. There's very little discussion of what's happening on the screen but a lot of 'this guy is related to that guy who starred in this inconsequential film and then went on to produce ten other inconsequential films.' Who cares?

June 14, 2003