Golden Swallow (1987)

A young scholar crossing the Black Mountains encounters a beautiful female spirit and the two fall in love. Although separated for a time, they eventually marry and bear a daughter. But, the woman’s evil master makes good on her threat to punish the two should the scholar ever speak of the spirit world. Then, its up to the power of two squabbling Taoist priests and a righteous swordsman to help the scholar defeat the demon.

Golden Swallow, which is not to be confused with the 1968 kung fu classic from Chang Cheh was the first and possibly best film directly inspired by Tsui Hark’s A Chinese Ghost Story, released earlier the same year. The production is first rate, but the central characters are lacking.

As the story begins, we see the great Norman Chu (Duel to the Death) as Feng Ching Tien, a valiant swordsman erupting from a lake in spectacular fashion. He rides a boat across to Black Mountain and promptly cleaves the boatman in two after the man shows his true identity as a demon. Declaring his vow to wipe out evil, Ching Tien engages in a battle with the Madam, a powerful demon witch who drinks human blood for nourishment. The two fight to a stalemate and they each retreat.

Several years later, a young scholar named Lao Chih Chiu (Anthony Wong Yiu Ming) attempts to travel over the Black Mountain at night which is always a bad idea. He meets two humorous Taoist warriors (played by Eric Tsang & Richard Ng) who are constantly fighting each other. They run off to chase bandits which leave Chih Chiu to stumble into trouble alone. After close run-ins with bandits and the blood-sucking Madam, he eventually shacks up with Hsiao Hsueh, one of the Madam’s attendants. She is the Golden Swallow, a kind-hearted demon (a contradiction to be sure) that had once been saved by Chih Chiu while in her bird form. She returns the favor and the two fall in love. But when the Madam eventually discovers this, Chih Chiu’s life is only spared so long as he leaves forever and vows never to speak of the spirit world to anyone.

Years go by and Chih Chiu meets, marries, and bears a daughter with a young woman who turns out to be Hsueh, although he cannot recognize her. That is, until he decides to tell her about the love affair he once had with a demon. Big mistake – Hsueh and her daughter are taken by the Madam. Desperate to get his family back, Chih Chiu seeks the aid of the two bungling Taoists who have just unwittingly transferred all of their abilities into one sword. They give him the sword and run off to play Mahjong, leaving the scholar to seek the aid of Ching Tien, the swordsman. Together, they confront the Madam and defeat her. Yet the victory is bittersweet for Chih Chiu as his broken vow still has consequences.

Viewers will find numerous similarities to Tsui Hark’s supernatural tale, but A Chinese Ghost Story is really only superior in one aspect – the two leads. Cherie Chung and Anthony Wong are not a convincing pair of lovers. Neither of them have the same level of charisma that Leslie Cheung and Joey Wong possess. That said, everything else about the film is excellent. The story is actually more classical in its approach to this famous supernatural legend. Although the concept of a swallow who transforms into a maiden is common in Chinese myth, the story is reminiscent of a classic Japanese fantasy film entitled Kwaidan (1964). One of the stories shares the same plot about a blood-sucking spirit who falls in love with a man. She comes to him as a human and they marry and have children, but he makes the mistake of talking about the spirit world. This breaks his vow and ruins the party for everyone.

With such great attention given to the film’s stunning look in terms of costumes, colors, and cinematography it seems as if the filmmakers have taken inspiration from classical Japanese film as well as from their own classic fantasy genre. Even the music gets first rate treatment with full orchestral work, giving us a sample of how much better Hong Kong films could be if only they could afford full scores. John Charles does point out in his book, The Hong Kong Filmography, 1977-1997 that portions of the music was lifted from two Hollywood films that include No Way Out and Near Dark. But, it doesn’t matter as the music is put to good effect.

If only the lead roles had received better casting, Golden Swallow would be a modern classic. As is, the love story culminating in a heart-wrenching ending loses some of its poignancy while everything else including Norman Chu’s swordplay, the enjoyable bickering Taoists, and sumptuous art direction by Hai Chung-Man is superb.