The oddly and yet aptly titled FIGHT FOR THE AGREEMENT is an old-fashioned wuxia drama encumbered by writer Yang Sun’s derivative and improbably plot and partially rescued by sophisticated fight choreography from emerging masters of the martial arts genre, Tang Chia and Lau Kar-leung.
The story concerns wuxia screenwriters’ favorite plot device, the “misunderstanding,” complicated by gallantry and social etiquette. Yang essentially pits the film’s two protagonists against one another from start to finish and what makes it initially interesting is that the two are a married couple, and of course, both heroic knights caught up in a rivalry among clans in the martial world.
Prolific genre star Paul Chang appeared in many of Jimmy Wang Yu’s independent features from the early 1970s as well as more famous ’80s hits like DUEL TO THE DEATH and MILLIONAIRE’S EXPRESS. Here he stars as swordsman Chang Tsun, a young man reluctantly forced into a pre-arranged marriage meant to unite Cyclone Fort, a clan run by his stepfather, with the Eight-Diagram Sect, a clan run by the young iron fan master Li Tow (Wong Yung). Tsun’s new wife, Lute-heart Sui (Ting Ying) interprets his scorn as loathing of her, particularly since she has a massive birth mark on her face. Both of them run away to escape their sorrowful situation.
In a supreme case of coincidence, both characters bump into rival sword masters, the Son of Phoebus and the Skywitch, and are taught super techniques including the “One-Finger Abstraction” and “Apollo’s Power.” The only catch is that both masters are mortally wounded and need their young pupils to represent them in a planned duel that’s been three years in the making. This sets up an obviously awkward situation much later when the married couple manages to overcome their differences only to discover they are secretly sworn adversaries.
The duel, which is what the film’s title references, is really a sideshow. The bulk of the conflict centers around Sui’s continued anger at Tsun, who unbelievably fails to recognize her after her facial scar is inadvertently healed by channeling her own qi power. Like a true scorned lover, she blasts him with her Apollo’s Power when he shows up at the Eight-Diagram Sect to cause trouble. The favor is later returned when Tsun mistakenly believes that Sui has fallen in love with Eight-Diagram Sect leader Lee Tow and unleashes the full fury of the One-Finger Abstraction on both of them. Before the situation gets out of hand, an old beggar with knowledge of Tsun’s true identity tries to steer Tsun in the right direction by putting a halt to this conflict and revealing a common enemy all parties must unite against.
After seeing this film and how it attempts to mix martial and marital conflict, I can’t help but think that action director Lau Kar-leung used this as inspiration for his own kung fu-fighting take on a similar conflict in HEROES OF THE EAST. Whether true or not, his co-choreography with Tang Chia in this film definitely enhances the dramatic conflict. None of the lead actors are martial arts-trained but it doesn’t hinder the fighting much. Director Joe Law either has the actors engaged in fun fantasy action involving elaborately-staged qi blasting-battles or lets his action directors produce some of the best weapons and open-hand fighting you’ll likely see in any film released in 1968.
I do have to add that time qualification for anyone unfamiliar with the style of martial arts action pre-Bruce Lee. Tang and Lau were definitely capable of doing more as successive films amply proved but no one knew just how intense screen fighting could really be until Lee showed us all. While this film lacks that intensity, it does possess some deft technical precision that belies the old-fashioned costuming and mostly stiff movements of the cast. I particularly enjoyed a duel between Paul Chang with sword and Wong Yung with iron fan. It’s uncommon to see this match up of weaponry.
I also have to credit Joe Law for some fine direction that is mildly stylized in its slow-panning depiction of its stoically poised heroes. The plot may be dowdy but visually the film looks pretty slick from the camera work to the production design. The way in which he shows the sword heroes effortlessly navigating through open terrain is also slick as it doesn’t rely so much on obvious gimmicks like reversing the camera or using trampolines but rather through subtle editing that simply cuts between implied leaps over water or up cliffs. Sometimes the minimalist approach is more than enough to convey a superhuman feat when properly presented.
The film does resort to some crude special effects work to show the qi power at work but it’s mostly internalized with the only effects being drops of blood from the mouth to indicate the bane of all sword heroes, internal injury.
Law has had a really mixed and wide-ranging career in martial arts filmmaking that includes directing credits on WONG FEI HUNG: BRAVELY CRUSHING THE FIRE FORMATION, one of the last in the long-running Wong Fei-hung film serial and THE INVINCIBLE KUNG FU TRIO, one of my favorite old school indie flicks starring superkicker John Liu.
The film’s music borrows heavily from John Barry’s distinctive soundtrack to the James Bond movie YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. Stealing Hollywood and Italian soundtracks became something of a tradition in Taiwanese and Hong Kong filmmaking around this time. All well and good since local filmmakers couldn’t really afford to generate their own, while these tracks have managed to become a fondly remembered part of the movie-viewing experience. But I got to say, they couldn’t have picked a more iconic piece of John Barry music to repeat throughout the movie unless they had actually taken the main James Bond theme itself. What is especially funny to see is how they attempt to make this track the theme for Lute-heart Sui’s anger. Every time she turns violent I expect to see the scene cut to her getting scooped up by a giant metal cone in space.
Don’t watch FIGHT FOR THE AGREEMENT for the drama. It becomes ridiculous by the end. But do watch it to see what action masters Tang Chia and Lau Kar-leung were up to outside of Shaw Brothers in the late 1960s. They actually were crafting action for quite a few films not produced by SB at this time. Viewers might also enjoy the simple Jedi-like showdowns, colorful sets and a plethora of fanciful names.
by Mark Pollard- Marla Mize
