The Proud Youth
(Xiao ao jiang hu, 1978)

Sun Chung

Hong Kong

92 min, color, Mandarin (English subtitles)

Review © 2006 Branislav L. Slantchev

Before he made the gritty, yet somehow unoriginal, City War and came close to wasting Brigitte Lin in the obscure Lady in Black, Sun Chung was making martial arts epics that were only epic in their extensive cast. If it weren't for Shih Szu, this particular extravaganza should have remained forever in the Shaw vaults. As it is, for fans of the ravishing beauty (me! Me! ME!), this provides some mild entertainment guaranteed not to upset the stomach or tax the brain. At least it will not put you to sleep. Not that it does not try hard, mind you. It's just with Shih Szu and Liu Hui-Ling, sleep is an option only if one can imitate Sir Galahad in abnegating any reactions of the flesh.

Lost aquatic arts	Chan Wai-Man stakes secular claim on the nun

The other main attraction is the brief but explosive appearance by Ling Yun. I, for one, fell for the transparent marketing gimmick of the Celestial DVD cover which puts him first in the cast list (Shih Szu follows). To my immense disappointment, he has just a few minutes of screen time. On the other hand, he is easily the most memorable of this Panopticon. He has three scenes: renouncing the clan rivalry, fighting when his former friends attack him, and mourning for the loss of his family. The internecine strife between the rival clans has caused so much death that he can no longer participate, but he simply cannot leave on account of having befriended a man from the Sun Clan, the organization to which just about everyone is a sworn enemy.

Sad decline in discipline of religious orders	Lung Yun's blade has no handle!

What follows is an astonishing display of swordsmanship as Ling Yun confronts too many attackers to count. His family perishes in the fray and it is then that he picks up the blade of his broken sword (which he symbolically snapped to announce his departure from the martial arts world). There is no grip, so he squeezes it in his palm. It is truly intense. But he has no chance because there are too many opponents. Just when he is stabbed, a masked man comes to his rescue. It is his friend from the Sun Clan (Yue Wing), and the two retire to compose a farewell song. The scene is easily the most powerful in the film as Ling Yun plays the flute and Yue Wing the zither. Neither one can imagine continuing in this world where their existence will be under constant threat because of their forbidden friendship. Before committing a double suicide, they give the tune to Nangong (Wong Yue), the proud youth.

Ling Yun mourns the death of his entire family	Chong Lee unhappy that her cousin has fallen for a nun

To tell the truth, I would much rather have Ling Yun continue instead. But I guess the story does need someone who looks young and inexperienced, and who can easily be insubordinate just because he is supposed to obey. Ling Yun has too much of worldliness in his face, and Wong Yue is just the right blank presence that fits the character. The problem is that he is way too blank: I could never get the sense of any emotion from him except when he threw a fit after being punished for befriending a nun (Chan Wai-Ying). His martial arts skills are pretty decent but he's such a lightweight, the film grinds to a halt every time he is the center of a scene. Fortunately, just about everyone else can steal it from him, which is why the film is not as soporific.

Wong Yue makes no bones training with skeleton crew	Obligatory gratuitous shot of Shih Szu

Basically, the story concerns a bunch of supposedly good clans pitted against an ostensibly evil one. Plot originality is not something I Kuang would be bothered with when he can weave a story with a cast that can populate a respectable Chinese province. The kink here is that not all is as it seems. Maybe there's a reason the Sun Clan is evil. And maybe the leaders of the good clans have missed the lecture on ethics. But before our intrepid hero can figure out what is going on, a lot of confusion will ensue. He will also have the time to take Shih Szu for a ninety-year old granny, train with skeletons, get himself banished from his own clan, and finally stumble right into the restoration of the Sun Clan.

More Shih Szu to keep up interest in review	Gratuitous shot of Liu Hui-Ling

What one has to keep in mind is that Nangong is clueless. Offensively so, actually. When his master (Stanley Fung) sentences him to a year of facing some wall with a ridiculous name, it is understandable that he will be a bit miffed after the first day or so. In fact, the scene with him being miffed is the most emotive one and that's just because he throws a fit. Everything else is about as emotionally involved as licking an envelope. It is during that fit that he accidentally discovers a barricaded cave from Neolithic times. In it... oh wait, that would have been a better story. Instead, the cave is where the former chiefs of the Sun Clan found themselves walled in by their rivals. Before perishing of boredom, they amused themselves by carving instructions for their unconquerable style (which sort of begs the question of them being thrown in that cave).

Let's get wasted, kill people, and write poetry	Hsu Hsia tests neck mettle against cold steel

Nangong teaches himself these techniques and trains a lot with skeletons suspended from ropes. I have commented on the pros and cons of sparring with immobile objects, but one really has to wonder about Nangong when several of the skeletons put up a decent fight. But that's not important. What really pissed me off is that when the end of his term at the wall came, Nangong nearly divulged his secret to his master, who (we should recall) is the chief of one of the clans who apparently perpetrated that betrayal in the first place. Even though this would have been the perfect opportunity to jump-start the inevitable investigation, Nangong prefers to get wasted with a bunch of strangers.

Ku Feng confronts lice count from his hair	Who says the French invented the Guillotine?

The entire subplot with the pretty nun (who nearly got herself raped for streaking in the woods without an escort) is pretty much another dead end. One would think that when Nangong saved her with the ungentlemanly Toilet Seat technique and then she defied her clan by tending to his wounds and feeding him peas, some forbidden love was in the making. In fact, if the nun's unabashedly immodest glances were any indication, she was just about ready to quote scripture to him in any state of undress. Nangong, too, got to face the wall for weakening the religious discipline of her order. In other words, a perfectly acceptable setup for something to blossom. But that love goes the way of the dodo as soon as Shih Szu enters the picture. And with it, the entire subplot whose sole apparent purpose was to get Nangong to the wall so he can find the cave.

Embroidery is so manly when you have no testicles	Be careful: he has castrated himself!

Now, I truly believe that Shih Szu would not just distract any youth, proud or otherwise, but would probably cause a priest to doodle naked female figures as marginalia in his holy book. What I object is that Sun Chung nearly wasted her in the role of the somewhat shy beauty who needs the strong arm of a real man (Wong Yue, of all people!) to conduct her to safety. I mean, she actually bats eyelids! As Crichton once wrote, only a French woman could pull that off. At least near the very end she finally springs into action, and, man, does it make the wait worthwhile. It's just seconds really but she's a sight to behold. In fact, her martial arts skills make me wonder about her supposed need of a protector.

This blade is a bit large for manicure	Finally Shih Szu gets some action

This brings me to the classic scene with Tien Ching who plays Sima Wuji, a villain who has castrated himself to master the pinnacle of some special fighting technique that must have been designed by NOW as a ploy to turn all men into eunuchs. From what I could tell, apart from giving him the affect of the stereotypical exaggerated homosexual, the loss of his testicles has made him a decent embroiderer. For some odd reason, his fighting prowess is only sufficient to deflect Ku Feng (who may have been distracted by his wild hairdo) and Wang Chung but not the combination of Shih Szu and Wong Yue. So much for lauded quick-fixes: just like with dieting, there are no shortcuts to attaining superior martial arts skills.

Impossible to neglect Liu Hui-Ling wielding a sword	Just because I have to put one of the main character

The Celestial DVD presents the film in anamorphic widescreen at 2.35:1 and the transfer looks gorgeous. No complaints there. The remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 Mandarin soundtrack is good too, even if some of the special effects are a bit over the top (check out the sound Wong Yue makes during his cave training when he walks on his thumbs). The optional English subtitles are at the usual level of quality (i.e., nearly error-free if we ignore the occasional awkward turn of phrase). Extras are limited to trailers, talent files, and still galleries. Film may not be all that great, but with Shih Szu and Liu Hui-Ling, I will not be parting with my copy any time soon.

January 23, 2006