Dragon Swamp (1969)

The best of ’60s-era fantasy and action swordplay comes together with radiant screen heroine Cheng Pei-pei in Lo Wei’s highly entertaining wuxia tale, Dragon Swamp. The film is all high adventure where heroic Chinese knights do battle with conniving rogues and traverse lands filled with deadly sand traps and sea monsters. Though dated in a number of aspects, this feature stands apart from numerous wuxia films of the era thanks to the inventiveness of its creator, engaging performances from the leads and epic swashbuckling-style martial arts action. Of particular note is Pei-pei’s wonderful dual role as fighting mother and daughter and the presence of the powerful “Jade Dagger Sword,” a glowing weapon that shatters all others and also appears in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Lo Wei, a former A-list actor in Hong Kong, is best known as the man who “discovered” both Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan by writing and directing the first films they each starred in. Because of his failed attempt to cast Jackie in the mold of Bruce and his dwindling significance as an independent filmmaker in the ’70s, he has been left with less than a stellar legacy among genre fans. However, his ability to craft successful martial arts movies cannot be ignored when considering that he created the character of Chen Jun in Fist of Fury and before that, a series of respectable wuxia adventures while still working at Shaw Brothers. Another point in his favor is that Lo repeatedly managed to work with the industry’s top stars. Dragon Swamp is one of several collaborations Lo had with the era’s leading wuxia queen Cheng Pei-pei and it’s certainly one of their best.

As with her breakout hit Come Drink with Me, Cheng entirely dominates Dragon Swamp with a dynamic performance in two major roles. First, she plays Fan Ying, a married woman and former student at the Lingshan Chunyang Taoist Temple who finds out that her husband is actually the infamous “White-Haired General” Tang Da-chuan (Wong Chung-shun). Da-chuan only married her in order to steal the temple’s famed Jade Dagger Sword. The sword is recovered and Da-Chuan flees with his son. As an unwitting accessory to the plot, Fan is sent into the deadly Dragon Swamp to live in exile while leaving her infant daughter behind to be raised by the temple leader, Master Fan (Lo Wei). Twenty years later, the sword is stolen again and all of the temple’s students are sent out to retrieve it, including a grown-up Qing-erh (Cheng Pei-pei) who possesses a striking resemblance to her mother Fan Ying, but knows nothing of her. From here on, it’s all plot-twisting action and adventure as Qing-erh hooks up with the “Roaming Knight” (Yueh Hua) in order to venture into the Dragon Swamp to seek aid from the Swamp Master (Hong Wa) in getting the sword from members of the Yandang clan. Although young and inexperienced, Qing-erh must rely on her Wu Dang sword skill to battle with skilled enemies like the devious Yu Jiang (Lo Lieh) and his band of colorful villains, led by Han Ying-chieh.

Dragon Swamp starts out abrupt and initially builds up slowly to the action-packed second half. It doesn’t help matters that some truly awful special effects work shows up early on as Yueh Hua and Cheng “paddle” past a screen in their boat with footage of a blown-up lizard leaping out of the water. Undoubted it didn’t fool anyone, even in 1969 for seams and dirt on the screen can clearly be seen. Another scene is reminiscent of old-fashioned Hollywood effects films like Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) as a “lumbering” lizard walks by in the distance while our heroes cower behind foliage. The other major gimmick is the use of colored lighting, green for whenever the Jade Dagger Sword is drawn and purple for Lo Lieh’s poisoned face. Aside from these cheap visual tricks, the majority of the film is more of a traditional wuxia pien with emphasis on swordplay and limited wirework.

The wirework is simplistic and poorly used by Lo Wei. In one scene, Yueh Hua puts Cheng on his back and awkwardly leaps to a rooftop. Yet in another scene where a deadly sand trap stands in their way, Yueh opts to leave Cheng behind while skipping across a series of sticks tossed on the ground. It would have been just as easy to repeat his single leap with Cheng in tow, but no matter. The real treat is in the swordplay. It’s not up to the standards of modern choreography, but it’s well done within its style. Before Lau Kar-leung and Tong Gaai began to put real kung fu enhanced by Japanese chambara into the wuxia genre in and around 1970, Chinese swordplay in films looked more like Errol Flynn movies. At its worst, it was nothing more than simplistic clanking of swords. However, Dragon Swamp marks the style’s highest point of technical achievement. He’s not credited, but action director and actor Han Ying-chieh (A Touch of Zen), who appears in the film, most likely choreographed the fight scenes. He crafts large-scale battles in open spaces and small group scuffles in cramped areas with equal skill. The only thing that dilutes their impact onscreen is Lo Wei’s tendency to repeatedly pull back. However, this is not the case with the film’s showcase fight in a teahouse. Lo was clearly drawing on Cheng Pei-pei’s standout teahouse confrontation in Come Drink with Me. The set up and extended execution is superb as Cheng battles Han himself and a small mob of fighters made up of a few familiar faces including the stout Fan Mei-sheng and Simon Yuen Siu-tin (Drunken Master). Watch for an incredible shot where Cheng actually buries a dinner plate into a villain’s skull!

In addition to fine, vintage swordplay, Lo Wei delivers an admittedly pulpy, yet fun story that incorporates a lot of wuxia elements including poisons, hidden passageways, the aforementioned monsters, disguises, super powers, and oddball characters like the “Black and White Dogs.” Some of the martial powers resemble Star Wars Jedi or Sith abilities. Lo Wei’s script also has some subtle genius moments such as where the Black and White Dogs are insulted with their own names or where an exchange of poisoning becomes a one-upmanship of who can leave their victim with fewer days to live. It may depend slightly on the translation, but the dialogue at times is hilarious.

Dragon Swamp is definitely a wuxia classic, at times silly, but always entertaining. Lo Wei deserves that credit. Yet it’s Cheng Pei-pei, always an immensely arresting woman in period costume, who really makes the film work. She’s a terrific actress and classical screen fighter who convincingly transforms from a mature and stately woman to a bubbly and fierce young swordswoman, and back again. Great make-up and slit-screen editing helps, but she really works hard in this film, whether emoting diverse states of mind, riding horseback or dropping multiple opponents in the heat of battle. Yueh Hua is too young for his character and goes through the paces as the stereotypical sword hero, but Lo Lieh turns out to have a complex character as the story progresses and he’s up to the challenge as usual. The rest of the supporting cast only help in making this film a lively actioner that is highly recommended.