venoms5
02-27-2008, 01:17 PM
VENGEANCE IS A GOLDEN BLADE 1969 Action **/ Blood **/ Movie *****
Chin Ping (Hsiao Yan), Tang Ching (Li Zhi Shan), Kao Pao Shu (Li Yue Shiang), Peng Peng (Li Sheng), Yue Hua (Liu Ching Song), Ku Wen Chung (Liu An Zheng), Wei Ping Ou (Master Ping), Li Ping Fei (Long Zhen Tian), Chao Hsiung (Long Zhen Shong), Luo Han (Long Zhen Ying)
Directed by Ho Meng Hua
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
A righteous swordsman and head of an escort company, Li Zhi Shan is confronted by the Long Brothers and their men. The Long Brothers are also in the security business but often rob the shipments they are hired to protect. The evil Long Zhen Tian is also secretly having an affair with Li's duplicitous wife, Li Yue Shiang. After losing a duel with Li Zhi Shan, who possesses the Golden Dragon Blade, the most powerful sword in the martial world, Li's wife plots to kill him and place ownership of the blade into the hands of Long Zhen Tian. The plan to steal the sword is successful but Li is crippled in the succeeding fight but manages to escape with his daughter, Hsiao Yan and loyal servant, Li Sheng. Li forsakes his life as a swordsman and takes up collecting herbs with a kindly old man, Liu An Zheng and his grandson, Liu Ching Song in the forest outside of the decadence of the city. However, the evil Long Gang, now taking up robbing wearing masks and terrorizing the city with the Golden Dragon Blade are not far behind. Eighteen years pass and unexpectedly, Hsiao Yan meets up with her mother and so the troubles for Li Zhi Shan begin anew. Now faced with losing his daughter over long kept secrets as well as being blamed for the wrongs caused by his near invincible family sword, he has worked on a counter blade called the Hang Long Sword which will be the only weapon that can destroy the Golden Dragon Blade. In the end, several shocking secrets are revealed and Hsiao Yan must choose between filial love and ultimate vengeance.
If ever there was a Shaw Brothers swordplay picture that seemed modeled on old Hollywood style productions it's VENGEANCE IS A GOLDEN BLADE (1969). Ho Meng Hua fashions what is possibly his finest cinematic achievement. Characterization takes center stage here and Ho truly shows some exceptional skill handling the many dramatic sequences. Although the fight scenes aren't up to the caliber of other swordplay films of the time, the actors do an extraordinary job of creating sympathy and apathy for the protagonists and antagonists found within. Some of the plot twists recall scenarios found later in the 1977 thru 1983 STAR WARS trilogy.
Throughout Ho Meng Hua's long career in HK cinema he has dipped his hands in every genre pie on offer. These include a classy quartet of cinematic musical adaptations of the JOURNEY TO THE WEST novel--THE MONKEY GOES WEST (1966), PRINCESS IRON FAN (1966), CAVE OF THE SILKEN WEB (1967) and LAND OF MANY PERFUMES (1968). He began Shaw's new style swordplay actioners with KILLER DARTS (1968) and THE JADE RAKSHA (1968). Ho would also accentuate his career with solid Wu Xia films such as LADY OF STEEL (1970), THE LONG CHASE (1971), THE LADY HERMIT (1971) and AMBUSH (1973). In 1975 Ho would deliver arguably his most famous film, THE FLYING GUILLOTINE. Ho would also add horror movies to his repertoir with the groundbreaking BLACK MAGIC (1975) and the overly silly exploitation flick THE OILY MANIAC (1976), a movie that must be seen to be believed. Ho soon tackled what would become one of his best loved pictures with the highly entertaining spectacle, THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN (1977) a movie that was held up because of the overblown Dino de Laurentiis production of KING KONG (1976). Ho also combined kung fu action and exploitation with results such as DRAGON MISSILE (1976), an alternate take on his original FLYING GUILLOTINE (1975), THE VENGEFUL BEAUTY (1977) which was a psuedo sequel to the GUILLOTINE films and SHAOLIN HANDLOCK (1976), an interesting kung fu picture that had a boat chase and some motorcycle stunts amidst kung fu, boobs, blood and a ruckus filled finale. Ho's final Shaw Brothers films were two major disappointments, SWIFT SWORD (1980) and the awful ABBOTT OF SHAOLIN (1980).
Chin Ping delivers a captivating performance as the naive Hsiao Yan who later in the film becomes a vengeful swordswoman conflicted by familial strife and coping with an ever crumbling emotional state as she gradually learns startling truths about her past. One of the best moments in the film is when she delivers the head of one of the Long brothers to her mother followed soon after by Hsiao and Liu Ching Song storming the Long stronghold to rescue her kidnapped father and friends. The last 15 minutes reveals one last major plot twist that will raise a few eyebrows made all the better by the tactfully handled performances by the actors. Chin successfully pulls off the inexperienced young country bumpkin who is warned of the dangers of the big city. Her father is hesitant to allow her to accompany Liu Ching Song and his grandfather there because of her gullible tendencies.
This allusion leads to a scene wherein Hsiao meets up with her mother who slips her a drug in her tea so as to catch a pretty girl for a sleazy aristocrat, Master Ping. Luckily, Hsiao Yan hears Liu calling her from outside the window. Upon hearing her name, the deceitful Li Yue Shiang realizes this is her daughter all grown up. Li now decides to take Hsiao Yan away from Li Zhi Shan and reveal his secret lest he refuse to allow her to take her daughter away. You never learn what the above mentioned secret is Li Yue Shiang threatens to reveal until near the end. It provides a major whammy to the ensuing finale leaving you wondering just how it all will really end for the major participants.
A later scene similar to the one described above has even more profound resonance once the big secret is revealed towards the end. In it, Hsiao disguise herself as a girl whose father has died and she is giving herself to Long Zhen Tian to pay for her father's funeral. Long tries to have his way with her until Li Yue Shiang breaks in and makes Long wise to the situation. Unknown to Hsiao at the time and not revealed until later is that Long is actually Hsiao's father(!) Since Li Zhi Shan constantly practiced his martial skills, he soon became impotent and unable to bear children. His wife had an affair with Long and soon went back to him helping plot the murder of Li. Hsiao is once again conflicted with emotional contention and denies Long as her father and runs away. At this moment, it appears that both lead villains may actually change their ways. The next day, Li packs his things to leave. Now that the truth is finally out, he thinks his adopted daughter has chosen to remain with her real parents and so decides to live a life as a vagrant. The vicious Long and Li's adulterous wife show up for one last stand-off; this time to finally kill Li Zhi Shan. Li pleads with them to leave him alone since he has the Golden Dragon Blade and his daughter but Long wishes to kill him. At the last moment, Hsiao Yan appears and saves her adopted father having found the Hang Long Sword which was hidden in a well earlier by Li.
Tang Ching conveys the best performance over all the others as the noble swordsman Li Zhi Shan; a man who once was a respected security head and now must live like a poor farmer living in the mountains and caves in order to avoid the evil of the Long brothers as well as protect his loving daughter from her cruel mother. As already mentioned, Li refuses to reveal the truth to Hsiao about her past and in so doing causes her to leave him for the more luxurious trappings of her mother, Li Yue Shiang who turns out to not be the loving mother she pretends to be. Tang represents pity in this film. Having fallen from grace after losing his business, his prestigious sword, his reputation and his wife among other things he is crippled by Long Zhen Tian early on after two attempts to be poisoned by his wife. Throughout the film Li is plagued with all manner of obstacles that belittle his once proud name. Having to live in the mountains away from society, the numerous attempts to make his life miserable as well as ridicule and degradation on the part of the Long brothers are part of the humiliation Li endures throughout the film. I've seen Tang in later Wu Xia films such as THE MAGIC BLADE (1976), RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH (1980) and CLAN FEUDS (1982) but he really stands out in VENGEANCE IS A GOLDEN BLADE (1969) and is as integral to the plot, if not more so, than Chin Ping's character.
Yue Hua pulled off a similar feat with his stand out performance in Cheng Kang's PURSUIT (1972). But here, Yue Hua is more of a supporting character playing the love interest of Chin Ping's Hsiao Yan. He doesn't get as much screen time as the others, but he figures in all the major fight scenes. Although it's mentioned early on that both Liu Ching Song and Hsiao Yan are the purported lovers, this plot point is pretty much dropped not long after it's introduced. It's understandable though considering all the dramatical twists and turns the story takes during its 98 minute running time.
Future director Kao Pao Shu is the real villain of the piece playing the unfaithful and treacherous Li Yue Shiang who, for a time, pulls the strings of the Long brothers gang to accomplish her goals. She is the center by which the film revolves and she forms the basis for all the turmoil and angst placed upon Li Zhi Shan and his adopted daughter, the very daughter she seeks to reclaim at any cost. She does show some concern for her daughter during one sequence after she manages to convince Hsiao Yan to side up with her. In it, the sordid Master Ping's servant finds her wandering the halls of the brothel and entices her into Ping's room. He uses a ploy to knock Hsiao unconscious by using a drug. Li Yue Shiang rebels against Ping having his way with her daughter but she is quickly run out of the room. Thankfully, Liu Ching Song shows up to rescue Hsiao Yan from certain sexual assault. Kao Pao Shu would direct her first film LADY WITH A SWORD in 1971 starring the alluring Lily Ho and also the non-Shaw Jimmy Wang Yu flick, THE DESPERATE CHASE (1971) aka BLOOD OF THE DRAGON among a few others. Before directing, she also was an Assistant Director on THE 12 GOLD MEDALLIONS (1970), one of the biggest hits of that year.
In addition to some strong performances, there are some absolutely stunning shots in the film in addition to some striking locations. In an unusual move, the bulk of this film is shot on natural settings as opposed to the usual Shaw Brothers sets that often dominate the bulk of their movies. I happen to love those studio bound movies as they add an air of fantasy and dream-like quality or as I often refer to as the WIZARD OF OZ effect. Director Ho takes full advantage of some beautiful waterfalls, majestic mountains and wind swept plains to tell his story. One of the most ambitious set pieces involves the villains burning the forest surrounding the settlement occupied by the protagonists. Rear screen projection and miniatures are utilized to enhance this elaborate sequence and serves to further the increasing villainy of the bad guys as the heroes are now forced to live in caves, the wildfire having destroyed their herb crops.
VENGEANCE IS A GOLDEN BLADE (1969) is a highly recommended film for swordplay fans. Although the choreography isn't as accomplished as Chang Cheh's violent Wu Xia's of this time period, it's passable but this films strong suit is in its characters, acting and beautiful locations. Anyone going into this film expecting a blood bath will be sorely disappointed. It does have the usual blood spurting but save for one decapitation, it's kind of tame compared with most other Shaw Brothers movies of the year. It's all about performances here and even though there is abundant, but slightly lacking sword fights, they are all shot with different locales as backdrops; whether it be the furious wildfire sequence, the mountain fight and at the enemy stronghold or the duel between Hsiao and Long Zhen Tian in a lake shoulder deep in the water, Ho Meng Hua provides lots of variety for what I feel is his finest swordplay film of his 30+ years in HK cinema.
Chin Ping (Hsiao Yan), Tang Ching (Li Zhi Shan), Kao Pao Shu (Li Yue Shiang), Peng Peng (Li Sheng), Yue Hua (Liu Ching Song), Ku Wen Chung (Liu An Zheng), Wei Ping Ou (Master Ping), Li Ping Fei (Long Zhen Tian), Chao Hsiung (Long Zhen Shong), Luo Han (Long Zhen Ying)
Directed by Ho Meng Hua
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
A righteous swordsman and head of an escort company, Li Zhi Shan is confronted by the Long Brothers and their men. The Long Brothers are also in the security business but often rob the shipments they are hired to protect. The evil Long Zhen Tian is also secretly having an affair with Li's duplicitous wife, Li Yue Shiang. After losing a duel with Li Zhi Shan, who possesses the Golden Dragon Blade, the most powerful sword in the martial world, Li's wife plots to kill him and place ownership of the blade into the hands of Long Zhen Tian. The plan to steal the sword is successful but Li is crippled in the succeeding fight but manages to escape with his daughter, Hsiao Yan and loyal servant, Li Sheng. Li forsakes his life as a swordsman and takes up collecting herbs with a kindly old man, Liu An Zheng and his grandson, Liu Ching Song in the forest outside of the decadence of the city. However, the evil Long Gang, now taking up robbing wearing masks and terrorizing the city with the Golden Dragon Blade are not far behind. Eighteen years pass and unexpectedly, Hsiao Yan meets up with her mother and so the troubles for Li Zhi Shan begin anew. Now faced with losing his daughter over long kept secrets as well as being blamed for the wrongs caused by his near invincible family sword, he has worked on a counter blade called the Hang Long Sword which will be the only weapon that can destroy the Golden Dragon Blade. In the end, several shocking secrets are revealed and Hsiao Yan must choose between filial love and ultimate vengeance.
If ever there was a Shaw Brothers swordplay picture that seemed modeled on old Hollywood style productions it's VENGEANCE IS A GOLDEN BLADE (1969). Ho Meng Hua fashions what is possibly his finest cinematic achievement. Characterization takes center stage here and Ho truly shows some exceptional skill handling the many dramatic sequences. Although the fight scenes aren't up to the caliber of other swordplay films of the time, the actors do an extraordinary job of creating sympathy and apathy for the protagonists and antagonists found within. Some of the plot twists recall scenarios found later in the 1977 thru 1983 STAR WARS trilogy.
Throughout Ho Meng Hua's long career in HK cinema he has dipped his hands in every genre pie on offer. These include a classy quartet of cinematic musical adaptations of the JOURNEY TO THE WEST novel--THE MONKEY GOES WEST (1966), PRINCESS IRON FAN (1966), CAVE OF THE SILKEN WEB (1967) and LAND OF MANY PERFUMES (1968). He began Shaw's new style swordplay actioners with KILLER DARTS (1968) and THE JADE RAKSHA (1968). Ho would also accentuate his career with solid Wu Xia films such as LADY OF STEEL (1970), THE LONG CHASE (1971), THE LADY HERMIT (1971) and AMBUSH (1973). In 1975 Ho would deliver arguably his most famous film, THE FLYING GUILLOTINE. Ho would also add horror movies to his repertoir with the groundbreaking BLACK MAGIC (1975) and the overly silly exploitation flick THE OILY MANIAC (1976), a movie that must be seen to be believed. Ho soon tackled what would become one of his best loved pictures with the highly entertaining spectacle, THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN (1977) a movie that was held up because of the overblown Dino de Laurentiis production of KING KONG (1976). Ho also combined kung fu action and exploitation with results such as DRAGON MISSILE (1976), an alternate take on his original FLYING GUILLOTINE (1975), THE VENGEFUL BEAUTY (1977) which was a psuedo sequel to the GUILLOTINE films and SHAOLIN HANDLOCK (1976), an interesting kung fu picture that had a boat chase and some motorcycle stunts amidst kung fu, boobs, blood and a ruckus filled finale. Ho's final Shaw Brothers films were two major disappointments, SWIFT SWORD (1980) and the awful ABBOTT OF SHAOLIN (1980).
Chin Ping delivers a captivating performance as the naive Hsiao Yan who later in the film becomes a vengeful swordswoman conflicted by familial strife and coping with an ever crumbling emotional state as she gradually learns startling truths about her past. One of the best moments in the film is when she delivers the head of one of the Long brothers to her mother followed soon after by Hsiao and Liu Ching Song storming the Long stronghold to rescue her kidnapped father and friends. The last 15 minutes reveals one last major plot twist that will raise a few eyebrows made all the better by the tactfully handled performances by the actors. Chin successfully pulls off the inexperienced young country bumpkin who is warned of the dangers of the big city. Her father is hesitant to allow her to accompany Liu Ching Song and his grandfather there because of her gullible tendencies.
This allusion leads to a scene wherein Hsiao meets up with her mother who slips her a drug in her tea so as to catch a pretty girl for a sleazy aristocrat, Master Ping. Luckily, Hsiao Yan hears Liu calling her from outside the window. Upon hearing her name, the deceitful Li Yue Shiang realizes this is her daughter all grown up. Li now decides to take Hsiao Yan away from Li Zhi Shan and reveal his secret lest he refuse to allow her to take her daughter away. You never learn what the above mentioned secret is Li Yue Shiang threatens to reveal until near the end. It provides a major whammy to the ensuing finale leaving you wondering just how it all will really end for the major participants.
A later scene similar to the one described above has even more profound resonance once the big secret is revealed towards the end. In it, Hsiao disguise herself as a girl whose father has died and she is giving herself to Long Zhen Tian to pay for her father's funeral. Long tries to have his way with her until Li Yue Shiang breaks in and makes Long wise to the situation. Unknown to Hsiao at the time and not revealed until later is that Long is actually Hsiao's father(!) Since Li Zhi Shan constantly practiced his martial skills, he soon became impotent and unable to bear children. His wife had an affair with Long and soon went back to him helping plot the murder of Li. Hsiao is once again conflicted with emotional contention and denies Long as her father and runs away. At this moment, it appears that both lead villains may actually change their ways. The next day, Li packs his things to leave. Now that the truth is finally out, he thinks his adopted daughter has chosen to remain with her real parents and so decides to live a life as a vagrant. The vicious Long and Li's adulterous wife show up for one last stand-off; this time to finally kill Li Zhi Shan. Li pleads with them to leave him alone since he has the Golden Dragon Blade and his daughter but Long wishes to kill him. At the last moment, Hsiao Yan appears and saves her adopted father having found the Hang Long Sword which was hidden in a well earlier by Li.
Tang Ching conveys the best performance over all the others as the noble swordsman Li Zhi Shan; a man who once was a respected security head and now must live like a poor farmer living in the mountains and caves in order to avoid the evil of the Long brothers as well as protect his loving daughter from her cruel mother. As already mentioned, Li refuses to reveal the truth to Hsiao about her past and in so doing causes her to leave him for the more luxurious trappings of her mother, Li Yue Shiang who turns out to not be the loving mother she pretends to be. Tang represents pity in this film. Having fallen from grace after losing his business, his prestigious sword, his reputation and his wife among other things he is crippled by Long Zhen Tian early on after two attempts to be poisoned by his wife. Throughout the film Li is plagued with all manner of obstacles that belittle his once proud name. Having to live in the mountains away from society, the numerous attempts to make his life miserable as well as ridicule and degradation on the part of the Long brothers are part of the humiliation Li endures throughout the film. I've seen Tang in later Wu Xia films such as THE MAGIC BLADE (1976), RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH (1980) and CLAN FEUDS (1982) but he really stands out in VENGEANCE IS A GOLDEN BLADE (1969) and is as integral to the plot, if not more so, than Chin Ping's character.
Yue Hua pulled off a similar feat with his stand out performance in Cheng Kang's PURSUIT (1972). But here, Yue Hua is more of a supporting character playing the love interest of Chin Ping's Hsiao Yan. He doesn't get as much screen time as the others, but he figures in all the major fight scenes. Although it's mentioned early on that both Liu Ching Song and Hsiao Yan are the purported lovers, this plot point is pretty much dropped not long after it's introduced. It's understandable though considering all the dramatical twists and turns the story takes during its 98 minute running time.
Future director Kao Pao Shu is the real villain of the piece playing the unfaithful and treacherous Li Yue Shiang who, for a time, pulls the strings of the Long brothers gang to accomplish her goals. She is the center by which the film revolves and she forms the basis for all the turmoil and angst placed upon Li Zhi Shan and his adopted daughter, the very daughter she seeks to reclaim at any cost. She does show some concern for her daughter during one sequence after she manages to convince Hsiao Yan to side up with her. In it, the sordid Master Ping's servant finds her wandering the halls of the brothel and entices her into Ping's room. He uses a ploy to knock Hsiao unconscious by using a drug. Li Yue Shiang rebels against Ping having his way with her daughter but she is quickly run out of the room. Thankfully, Liu Ching Song shows up to rescue Hsiao Yan from certain sexual assault. Kao Pao Shu would direct her first film LADY WITH A SWORD in 1971 starring the alluring Lily Ho and also the non-Shaw Jimmy Wang Yu flick, THE DESPERATE CHASE (1971) aka BLOOD OF THE DRAGON among a few others. Before directing, she also was an Assistant Director on THE 12 GOLD MEDALLIONS (1970), one of the biggest hits of that year.
In addition to some strong performances, there are some absolutely stunning shots in the film in addition to some striking locations. In an unusual move, the bulk of this film is shot on natural settings as opposed to the usual Shaw Brothers sets that often dominate the bulk of their movies. I happen to love those studio bound movies as they add an air of fantasy and dream-like quality or as I often refer to as the WIZARD OF OZ effect. Director Ho takes full advantage of some beautiful waterfalls, majestic mountains and wind swept plains to tell his story. One of the most ambitious set pieces involves the villains burning the forest surrounding the settlement occupied by the protagonists. Rear screen projection and miniatures are utilized to enhance this elaborate sequence and serves to further the increasing villainy of the bad guys as the heroes are now forced to live in caves, the wildfire having destroyed their herb crops.
VENGEANCE IS A GOLDEN BLADE (1969) is a highly recommended film for swordplay fans. Although the choreography isn't as accomplished as Chang Cheh's violent Wu Xia's of this time period, it's passable but this films strong suit is in its characters, acting and beautiful locations. Anyone going into this film expecting a blood bath will be sorely disappointed. It does have the usual blood spurting but save for one decapitation, it's kind of tame compared with most other Shaw Brothers movies of the year. It's all about performances here and even though there is abundant, but slightly lacking sword fights, they are all shot with different locales as backdrops; whether it be the furious wildfire sequence, the mountain fight and at the enemy stronghold or the duel between Hsiao and Long Zhen Tian in a lake shoulder deep in the water, Ho Meng Hua provides lots of variety for what I feel is his finest swordplay film of his 30+ years in HK cinema.