REVIEW: ‘Ambush’ (1973)

A sword-slinging constable (Chiao Hsiung) in Tang Dynasty China is framed for the theft of a shipment of jewels after the head of the escort company in charge goes missing. With a suspicious swordsman (Dean Shek) shadowing him, Wan Chao-fan struggles to evade capture while tracking down the jewels and his father. Screen beauty Lee Ching portrays his distressed cousin Fan Hsiu-hsiu. She joins him in investigating her murdered father’s involvement in a case that grows ever more dangerous by the minute.

AMBUSH is the seventh of eight known wuxia films by diverse Hong Kong director Ho Meng-hua, best known for his much beloved, effects-filled “Journey to the West” fantasy trilogy that began with MONKEY GOES WEST (1966). Like all of Ho’s martial arts films, AMBUSH is more than a simple actioner. While possessing plenty of bloody and stylized swordplay and open-hand fighting from skilled action director Simon Hsu (INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF A CHINESE COURTESAN), the film possesses a complicated mystery plot with supernatural overtones that culminates in a nail-biting battle on and around a large windmill in a sequence shot and edited like a tense action scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s NORTH BY NORTHWEST.

The film kicks off with a title sequence involving the ambush of a shipment of jewels. The mastermind of the operation is Fan Tze-long, an escort who turns on his own companions when the caravan is attacked by his villainous associates. It’s a violent and gruesome skirmish involving hidden darts being tossed into a victim’s face. The setting is the easily identifiable New Territories of Hong Kong where so many outdoor scenes in Shaw Brothers movies were filmed. Cinematographer Tsao Hui-chi applies a measure of the intentionally rough handheld camera work that was commonly found in gangster movies from Japan at the time. This adds a visceral feel to the swordplay not usually seen in statelier wuxia movies, such as we see from the likes of directors King Hu or Chor Yuen. Combined with age-old yet effective cutaway editing, Chang Cheh-style blood works and Hsu’s exceptional fight staging we have the first in a series of robust action sequences that compliment the film’s plotting nicely.

Fan is portrayed by prolific character actor Yang Chih-ching, aged 54 at the time. Despite his age, Yang makes for a potent fighting villain, as crafty as he is deadly with a sword or fists. He’s paired with Wong Hsieh, another prominent character actor who has played the heavy in more martial arts movies than I can count. Wong has a rather odd role in this film. Although he’s one of the lead bandits, he ends up spending much of his time lurking about like a boogeyman. He even dons a rubber mask to terrorize poor Lee Ching.

The cherub-faced Lee was an infrequent wuxia heroine in films like THE 14 AMAZONS and KILLERS FIVE when not filling the role of ingénue in other genre features such as the romantic drama SUSANNA, also directed by Ho Meng-hua. Here she is cast off as the damsel in distress, frequently in need of rescuing from leading man Chiao Hsiung, whether locked away in a tomb or threatened by a thug plotting with her mother-in-law (Chiang Ling) to steal the jewels from Fan.

Chiang Ling has the most interesting role as a seductress married to Fan. Even before her husband apparently dies, she tries to put the charms on our hero Wan, who we learn had a previous relationship with her. Although scorned, it doesn’t take long before she’s finding comfort in the arms of yet another man willing to fulfill her self-serving desires. It’s to Ho’s credit as a diversified filmmaker that he is able to successfully integrate relational drama in the middle of a crime thriller posing as a wuxia film.

While AMBUSH is entertaining on many levels what holds the film together is the focus on Wan Chao-fan’s (Chiao Hsiung) efforts to clear his name while tracking down the thieves. In addition to a commanding performance from Chiao, it is his character’s complex relationship with the other principle players that adds substance to the story. While he tries to convince Lee Ching, the obvious object of his reserved affection, to trust him, Wan fends off Chiang Ling. Additionally, he develops an unusual relationship with Dean Shek, who plays a swordsman/detective hired to recover the jewels. When Wan is captured by authorities it is Shek who comes to his rescue but for his own increasingly dubious reasons. The two strike a partnership of convenience that leads them to jointly storm a bandit lair in search of the jewels.

Shek’s role is unusual because the actor went on to become far more popular as a comic relief actor in hit kung fu movies like DRUNKEN MASTER and ODD COUPLE. He does a great job in this serious fighting role but I still kept waiting to see him break out a screwball facial expression while mocking Chiao Hsiung. It doesn’t happen but we do get to enjoy some great swordplay action as Shek teams up with Chiao and inevitably turns on him.

The showpiece of the film is the end fight. It appears that a windmill was constructed for this sequence where Chiao battles his final adversary. Ho gets tremendous mileage out this large prop, first by shooting it from about every angle apart from aerial view and then by having the combatants literally scale the windmill’s blades, or as they are often referred to, the sweep. In true Shaw Brothers style, fighters clinging to the sweep continue to battle each other as it spins around. When so many martial arts movies from the day end with fighters going at it on the ground, this scene is as refreshing as it is preposterous.