Glam rock arrives in the martial world by way of a Kiss-inspired make-up job on the title character in BAT WITHOUT WINGS, a wuxia pian from director Chu Yuen that’s as classy as the hard-rockin’ ’70s band itself. Aside from the unforgettable image of a sex-starved martial arts killer in face paint, the film contains gratuitous amounts of swordplay, wire-assisted heroics and plot twists. Although Shaw Brothers offer nothing new here, it’s generally more fun than your average swordplay flick.

BAT WITHOUT WINGS is based on a novel by the late Taiwanese author Huang Ying and could be considered a macabre martial arts mystery of sorts. It begins with the death of the title character, a heinous rapist and killer who is confronted by twenty eight of the martial world’s top swordsmen. He kills all but two before succumbing to an Iron Palm blow to the head that ends his rampage and supposedly his life. Yet several years later the Bat without Wings resurfaces when he kidnaps the daughter of an escort company chief and tries to put the blame on dashing hero Xiao Qi (Derek Yee). Xiao, the chief and the girl’s fiancée begin a desperate search until she returns home herself. The only problem is her head isn’t exactly on straight and she soon falls to pieces.

As Xiao and his companions attempt to find this Bat and bring him to justice, it becomes clear that while the Bat still lives, there is also an imposter. Word comes that the real Bat without Wings is insane and imprisoned on Bamboo Island, a place filled with deadly traps to keep everyone from entering or leaving. In addition to facing traps and possibly two maniac killers, our heroes are also up against a group of swordsmen and women who are trying to stop them for reasons of their own.

This is a potentially very dark story that is never fully realized for good or ill. It’s also a bit of a ruse that draws us in with the nightmarish image of the title character and his awful crimes, then slowly reveals something altogether different. All the subterfuge in the story is a buildup to a revealing climax that isn’t too exciting by today’s standards, but well executed by Shaw Brothers’ usually campy standards. The bat-themed character turns up in other wuxia tales as seen in films like LEGEND OF THE BAT with the mysterious Mr. Bat and KUNG FU CULT MASTER where Richard Ng plays a blood-sucking, flying swordsman.

Non-martial artist Derek Yee gives a credible performance as the film’s sword hero who is bolstered by fine action direction from Tang Chia and Wong Pau-gei. Stunt actors Yuen Bun, Yuen Wah and others assist in crafting lots of fast-paced swordplay. Like most wuxia tales, the action is subservient to the story. Yet it’s still more boisterous and frequent than what is seen in many of Chu Yuan’s other wuxia films from the same period.

The real attraction, however, is the fanciful art direction, lighting and camera work that all lend the film’s sets an ornate, otherworldly feel with plenty of color. Disco-like strings of lanterns, large statues with hidden compartments, dank underground lairs accessed via secret passageways, a green-glowing headless woman, and dozens of swordsmen surrounding our heroes in an elaborate courtyard are just some of the imaginative images to soak up. The one oddity here is the repeated use of what looks like cheap plastic reindeer as props.

The final credits music is a cool, Spaghetti Western-style piece that unfortunately doesn’t turn up anywhere else in the film in any form. This highlights the stock music feel of many of Shaw Brothers’ latter films that lack that all-important musical theme and consistency from start to finish.

BAT WITHOUT WINGS is a fairly good wuxia pian on its own, but I must admit to being more enthralled by the image of Ku Feng with an upside-down Gene Simmons paint job. It’s such a bizarre and yet amazingly fitting mix of pop cultures. A suitable tagline could have been, “Rock ‘n’ roll all nite and party every day in the martial world.”

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