Sorrowful to a Ghost (1970)

As Meng (Ma Kei), master of Patience School prepares to announce his successor, a rival swordsman named Dare Devil kills him. Although their skills are no match, the school’s students vow to get revenge.

When a swordplay film begins in the middle of a fierce sword fight, you know you’re in for a good time. Joseph Kuo shows off his early directing prowess in the oddly titled, but entertaining Sorrowful to a Ghost. The film does contain supernatural kung fu, but nothing related to ghosts or undead. Instead, it’s filled with excessively undercranked, yet well-choreographed sword duels, aerial assaults, random dart tossing, and stone-crushing iron palms.

Patience School’s master Meng Ting-sang (Ma Kei) is planning to head to the capital to declare his successor. But an altercation between the school’s most temperamental student, Kwan Chuen (Kong Ban) and some “rowdies” leaves one of the thugs dead and leads to a challenge by their master that Meng must answer. He promptly kicks Kwan out of the school and then wins the challenge. But a peerless sword master and rival named ‘Dare Devil’ Shao Mu-tien (Yee Yuen) mortally wounds Meng and throws the school into disarray. The leading students challenge Shao in turn, yet are either killed or maimed. Shao’s ace is the ancient ‘Devil Sword’ that he wields using supernatural power to distract his opponents. While planning his revenge, the outcast Kwan Chuen receives training from three different masters who hone his skills in preparation for his inevitable fight with Shao. Once prepared, he must race to aid his remaining brothers who have confronted Shao and his Devil Sword for the last time.

Director Joseph Kuo is an independent filmmaker best known for his popular Bronzemen series, not to mention a slew of other low budget kung fu classics that take full advantage of their limited resources. Low budget is a relative term in Chinese filmmaking as everything could be considered low budget by Hollywood standards. But compared with Shaw Brothers, who dominated Asian box office returns throughout the ’60s and ’70s, Kuo’s Hong Hwa production company lacked the lavish sets, costumes, extras, and A-list casts and crew to match for splendor. But that didn’t stop Kuo from creating epic films with great kung fu action. Sorrow to a Ghost is a perfect example. What Kuo lacks in sets, he makes up for in picturesque outdoor scenarios. The wigs the male actors wear may not be seamlessly affixed to their heads and their artificial scarring looks like silly putty slapped on their faces, but their clothing is colorful in keeping with the standards of most Taiwanese productions.

Most of the film’s actors worked almost exclusively in Taiwanese productions, most of which are inferior to the better Hong Kong martial arts films. But that doesn’t mean these folks were not prolific or talented in their own right. Everyone delivers decent acting performances, but no one is all that impressive when it comes to martial arts execution. Yet that’s not so important in a special effects enhanced swordplay film. Cheung Ching-ching gets top billing, although it has more to do with the popularity of female stars at the time than it does with giving her a substantial role. She doesn’t perform in any action sequences until the end of the film. The only actors worth mentioning are Yee Yuen as the villain Shao and Ma Kei as Master Meng. Yee has appeared in most of Joseph Kuo’s many films and is probably the most recognizable by genre fans. His strong features and stern demeanor makes for a great villain. He also wields a sword with a lot of flair. Ma Kei is usually effectively cast in a paternal role as a master or father in most of his films. He is here as well, but he gets to participate in a great action sequence where he takes on a large band of thugs. The scene is very interestingly staged which leads into the action analysis.

When framing the action for this film, Kuo clearly was more inspired by Japanese chambara than he was in Chinese swordplay. Much of the staging including movements, posture, and pacing that mimics the Japanese style. The best example is Ma Kei’s battle against the thugs, prior to his fateful meeting with his nemesis. Ma engages them as a trapped animal would, striking with quick and efficient strokes. The killing of several enemies in a single stroke that leaves a pause before they hit the ground in unison is another example. Ma even goes so far as to sheath his sword samurai style by running the back side of the blade across the mouth of the sheave first. There is also an impressive and bloody arm-severing scene that makes George Lucas’ Cantina scuffle in Star Wars: Episode 4 look like cheap student film material. It’s a shame then that this competent use of interesting techniques is soured by the severe undercranking that makes the characters move like cartoon characters when they fight.

The other disappointment is the overly simplistic story itself. Shao, the villain of the piece does nothing but quite literally walk around in the wilderness, seemingly waiting for nothing but the next fight. Once Meng is killed, the entire film revolves around his student’s efforts to kill Shao. There is no intrigue and no surprises, just a series of fights that leaves a trail of dead bodies. The only break in this one-note chorus is Kwan Cheun’s training, but its nothing special.

Sorrowful to a Ghost doesn’t stand up to the best swordplay films of Shaw Brothers from the same period or even with Joseph Kuo’s later works, but it has its charms. The outdoor settings are a nice change from the almost surreal SB sets, and both the swordplay and supernatural effects are staged with an interesting touch. The most memorable moment must be the iron palms that either knock deep hand prints into rock from several feet away or blast it to bits. The hands are even painted a bronze color, perhaps hinting at Kuo’s fascination with the fabled iron skin as seen in the 18 Bronzemen (1976).