Legend of the Bat (1978)

Two famed swordsmen travel to the notorious Bat Island in search of a rare medicine and end up uncovering a conspiracy within the ‘boxer’s world’ that leaves a trail of dead.

The chivalrous exploits of the Chinese knight errant in the mysterious and deadly martial world continue in this adventurous swordplay fest. Featuring three of the genre’s top sword-slinging stars, Legend of the Bat combines the fanciful art direction of an MGM musical with an ever-unveiling ‘whodunit.’ The film packs enough colorful spectacle to draw attention, but this late entry in a series of films adapted from the works of Chinese swordplay novelist Gu Long is showing signs of age.

Legend of the Bat is director Chor Yuen’s sequel to Clans of Intrigue (1977). Ti Lung returns in the same role of righteous swordsman Chu Liu-hsiang while Ling Yun also returns as the sword-for-hire Yi Tien-hung. In their previous adventure this pair of heroes seemed destined to fight to the death until they joined forces. This time Liu-hsiang is targeted by leading swordsmen in the boxer’s world. It seems that a shady merchant on Bat Island selling a rare and much needed medicine has demanded Liu-hsiang’s head as payment. Desperate to cure his wife, swordsman Li Yuhan (Yuen Hua) attempts to kill Liu-hsiang, but fails. When a perplexed Liu-hsiang learns of the reason for this otherwise unwarranted attack, he vows to leave for Bat Island himself in order to retrieve the medicine. He hops on boat and eventually transfers to a larger, ornate boat where he hooks up with a few heroes also on board including his old pal Tien-hung, a female named Jin Linzhi (Candy Yu) and her mute protector (Yuen Wah), and a famous royal soldier named Gou Zicheng (Wong Chung) who doesn’t reveal his true identity initially, but eventually declares his mission to capture Mr. Bat, villain hiding on Bat Island.

A murder mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express begins as passengers one by one, turn up dead. The likeliest suspect is the host Xiang Feitian (Norman Chu), but someone else who has rigged the boat to explode is actually behind the deaths. Our heroes escape the burning boat by hitching rides on floating coffins where they are picked up by yet another boat. This one makes its way to Bat Island, but our heroes are subdued with gas and thrown in a cage made of indestructible ‘black iron.’ Luckily, Zicheng just happens to have a nifty little magic knife designed to cut iron like butter. They escape and release a bunch of prisoners held on the island including Linzhi’s father. Linzhi’s father stays in order to lead them to the Bat Hall where Liu-hsiang can buy his medicine and Zicheng can capture Mr. Bat. The dangerous underground passages prove fatal to several members of the party, but the survivors reach Bat Hall to face the mysterious Mr. Bat.

Aside from King Hu’s work, classic swordplay films of Hong Kong are not known for their sophistication, especially when it comes to their story. Legend of the Bat takes extreme license with numerous contrived circumstances that might have been fun to read in book form, but don’t translate well to the screen. Viewers should rightly expect flowery costumes, a plethora of unusual characters, classical swordplay, and elaborate sets to provide our heroes will many challenges. But the film’s logic and presentation is so overtly simplistic that at best, its worthy of laughter, but more often hard to maintain interest. The morbid logic characters rigidly apply to circumstances often defies any common sense. Twisted logic leads Cheng Miu to cut off his own arm simply to prove a point during an early tense standoff between Ti Lung and Yuen Hua. Later these great swordsmen, capable of taking on any number of assailants, are reduced to drawing straws in order to see who will have the privilege of blowing themselves up with dynamite to open up a passageway. This scene brings Ti Lung’s character to tears, but most viewers will likely be laughing.

Most films in the kung fu and swordplay genres overcome this common problem of simplistic plots by providing great action sequences. That’s the defining element that seems to be lacking here. Swordplay action is sparingly scattered throughout the film, but Tong Gaai’s former action wizardry on earlier swordplay epics seems to have lost it’s luster. Ti Lung shows off some good moves, but the weapons are all nondescript and the fights feel like filler to link a lot of gabbing. I really dislike how characters frequently freeze in an action pose in order to deliver a line. This cuts up the flow of the action considerably. All of this is compounded further when you consider that this film was released in 1978, when Golden Harvest and several independent companies were ushering in a brief golden period of classic kung fu where many Shaw Brothers alumni along with the likes of Sammo Hung were offering some of the best hardcore kung fu classics every produced.

That said, the production standards of this film are still way above all of those other classics. SB’s greatest asset aside from their huge acting talent pool was incredible set design. The entire film takes place on indoor sets that recreate Gu Long’s magical world. The detailed boats and especially the caverns our heroes traverse near the end add plenty of visual character to the film. Nothing quite looks real, but it’s not necessarily meant to. This is a decidedly theatrical approach to filmmaking that generally worked well for Shaw Brothers. All of these characters live in the ‘boxer’s world’ which is about as connected to reality as the musicals of Hollywood’s golden age. I mention musicals because this production shares similarities. Although without musical numbers, Legend of the Bat does contain one elaborate overhead shot of Ti Lung being flanked by colorful fighters who move in synchronized patterns that beg comparisons to a Buzby Berkeley dance number. Most scenes feature dramatic lighting and characters waltzing around in eye-catching costumes and wigs. These visual touches are consistently well handled with the notable exception of Norman Chu’s artificial facial scar. In one close-up, this plastered on abrasion looks like it could peel off at any moment.

Legend of the Bat meets the base standard of most SB films, which remains fairly high compared to the many lousy swordplay knock-offs that Taiwanese studios produced for instance. But mediocre action and a rather silly plot where the filmmakers try too hard to throw in convoluted twists and turns makes it difficult to match similar Gu Long adaptations with more outrageous elements as in The Magic Blade (1976).