REVIEW: ‘Journey of the Doomed’ (1985)

The lost Emperor’s daughter escapes mass slaughter at a brothel and goes on the run with a chivalrous young man whom she falls in love with as Black Order assassins close in and three Knights attempt to bring her back to the court.

Campy eroticism, swordplay, and romance collide in Journey of the Doomed, a low-budget Shaw Brothers release masquerading as a period actioner, but nearly devoid of any quality martial arts action. Instead, the viewer is subjected to a weary romance that is surrounded by gratuitously crude sex and nudity and lousy action dependent on explosions and cheap swordplay gimmicks to entertain. Sad news indeed for its lovely leading ladies, Kara Hui and Candy Yu stoop low enough to appear in this drivel, yet neither gets a worthy chance to lay on their ample sex appeal or martial prowess.

The story focuses on a young woman named Shui-erh who is living under the care of a madam running a brothel called “Scent of a Woman.” This setting immediately provides an excuse for some naughty S&M action as a poor friend of Shui-erh is deflowered by a hideous, fat old man who at least receives some payback for his crime. The madam is having financial trouble and knowing that Shui-erh is actually a princess decides to offer her to the Emperor’s second prince for a reward. Shui-erh’s age apparently puts her first in line of succession to the throne, which the 2nd Prince will gladly use to thwart his elder brother’s ambitions. 2nd Prince sends his Three Knights to retrieve the princess, but 1st Prince learns of the plot and sends two of his assassins, known as the ‘Spicy Double,’ to kill Shui-erh. Enter femme fatales Kara Hui as swordswoman ‘Monkey Lin’ and Margaret Lee as ‘Wind Eel,’ master of the spinning blades. They proceed to slaughter every prostitute at the brothel in a ludicrous scene filled with screaming, half or fully naked women being cut down as they cluster together or scamper about half-heartedly. Crude? Yes. Entertaining on a base level? Not really.

Amazingly with no martial arts skills, Shui-erh escapes the killing pair long enough to run into a sinewy young hero played by Stephen Tung who really doesn’t know kung fu either, but fends off Wind Eel (and causes her to pop out of her top) long enough for the two to make a quick get away. But they run into Monkey Lin who turns out to be Stephen’s sister. Wind Eel catches up and a deadly fight ensues. Shui-erh ends up following her ‘Knight’ to an abandoned home in a secluded valley where the pair hide from the Three Knights and settle into a carefree romance. Trouble in paradise rears its head when Shui-erh grows tired of the country life and runs off, only to be taken hostage by the Three Knights who are led by Fei-hsia (Candy Yu). They are a righteous trio who wish the best for the princess, despite their efforts to separate her from Stephen. Complications arise when a brainwashed Fei-hsia runs off with Shui-erh and takes her to 1st Prince’s lackey, Shan (Alex Man). Stephen and the two other knights trail them to Shan’s fort and a tragic showdown takes place.

Disappointment is the best word for this feature. By 1985, expectations for period martial arts movies had risen after the early New Wave led by filmmakers like Tsui Hark and Patrick Tam. Meanwhile, a beleaguered Shaw Brothers studio that had all but given up on film production was clearly still obsessed with the past. Although the camerawork and sets are decent, Journey of the Doomed looks old in a bad way. Martial arts action is stiff and extremely old school with all skills dependent of low tech special effects like fly-by-wire weapons and magical ‘lasers’ shot from the forehead. Some of the costumes look terribly cheap, such as what the Three Knights wear.

Young stars like Stephen Tung and Max Mok have little to offer in terms of personality or charisma. Apart from Kara and Candy, the female leads were seemingly selected for their willingness to disrobe. Of course, kung fu babes Kara Hui and one-time wife of Chow Yun-fat, Candy Yu were only on call for their ass-whooping abilities. In Hong Kong, female actors rarely step out of their established screen personas. Nudie scenes call for actresses who pretty much do nothing but nudie scenes. Kara gets to perform a little swordplay, but isn’t on screen nearly enough. Candy gets more screen time, but she hardly acts at all and her combat is weak. I blame the lame martial arts on action director Lam Moon-wa who doesn’t possess a single quality film credit in over ten years in the business. But again, apart from Candy and Kara, no one else in the film is worth a whit when it comes to action except for Stephen Tung and he’s completely misused. If only they had turned the choreography over to him, the guy responsible for the stately wire-fu action in Hero! But obviously, this film was never meant to be a quality effort. The softcore porn emphasis on the sexual material guarantees that alone.

Journey of the Doomed is a fitting title not only for the leads, but also for the state of the film itself. Just like the tragic lovers in the story, the movie is doomed to self destruct as it withers from cheap sex to nothing but too much running around, too little combat, and lots of unnecessary pyrotechnics. Why the lead villain felt it necessary to rig a fort with explosives and blow it all up just to kill one woman is a mystery. Perhaps they should have considered turning their destructive tendencies on the film negative instead.