Swordswoman of Huangjiang (1930)

Two sword-slinging heroes, a brother and sister, combat a golden hawk in order to save a small boy and are then beset by villainous monks while resting at a temple.

Produced in 1930, Swordswoman of Huangjiang is one of only two mostly complete films of its kind still in existence, while Red Heroine (1929) constitutes the second title. To fully appreciate the significance of this silent classic, it must be put into proper context.

Chinese cinema has a rich history nearly as long as Hollywood’s. In the 1920’s and ’30’s, the swordplay genre, based on the legends of China became popular with women stars making up most of the leading roles. When it came to martial arts action on screen, Chinese filmmakers rarely had a problem with women being every bit as heroic as their male counterparts. The Chinese government on the other hand was another story. Since 1770, they had instituted a ban prohibiting women from performing in Chinese Opera, which was a direct descendant of martial arts films. But the public’s altogether reasonable demand for women to actually play female roles in early films led to the lifting of this ban. This opened the door for women to step into leading roles in China’s popular swordplay genre.

For this showing, Seattle’s Egyptian Theater, formerly a Masonic Temple was selected as the venue for its right-hand space permitting musicians to set up shop. The theater was nearly a sellout, no doubt because it was this year’s only silent film set to live music, which is always a popular attraction among festival goers. About eight musicians performed, most of whom constituted a band known as Aono Jikken who had experience performing live film scores. They turned out to be extraordinarily good. Their mix of traditional instruments and unrecognizable sound effects added much excitement and appropriate humor to the film.

For the first and likely only time during a martial arts film showing at the festival, we had a presenter prepared with actual information about the film. We learned that this was to be only one of two theatrical screenings being held in North America and that made me feel all the more privileged to be there. Another important point made was admission of the film’s poor quality. Unlike the Shaw Brothers films that had been screened previously, this film had not been re-mastered. The reason, we were told, was due to the original print’s extremely delicate condition and that it was apparently beyond repair. Consequently, we were actually viewing a video version rather than an actual film print. We were also told to expect the English text to frequently run off the screen and to see a few cuts. As it turned out, nearly half of the text was either cut off, too blurry to read, or appeared for only a second or two before returning to the scene. There was also heavy degradation, mostly in the form of black streaks and moderate to heavy jiggling of the image. Regardless, these problems did not adversely affect the experience since most of the film’s story was, not surprisingly told through visual representation and the overall quality was good considering the circumstances. There was one point midway through that the film stopped and replayed a few minutes of footage before continuing. The ending also cut short, leaving the final fight unresolved.

Swordswoman of Huangjiang is the first entry in a series of thirteen films that features the first major martial arts film star to appear in Chinese cinema, Xu Qin-fang. She plays a heroic figure in the jiang hu, or martial world who travels about with her brother righting wrongs and vanquishing evil.

The film begins in a forest with a band of men preparing for a fight. The focus shifts to a pair of comical characters, one a thin fellow wearing a fur cap and the other a rotund individual who wields a massive melon hammer and bears the ignoble name of “Fool” for reasons that become obvious. But in the tradition of classic kung fu movies, I’ll just call this latter guy “Fatty.” After a bit of slapstick comedy reminiscent of Laurel and Hardy, they head into the hills with Fatty struggling to climb up the steep rocks. His predicament turns surreal when a giant bird comes running out of nowhere, leaps onto him, and proceeds to commence with a royal mauling, although it looked more obscene. No kidding. Some guy in a bird suit shows up in a martial arts film to do battle. Fatty toots his horn and his friends come running, but they’re all on the opposite site of a deep canyon. They get the not-so-bright idea to shoot arrows at the bird, but miss both the bird and Fatty. Then, through the use of early special effects editing, a Gold Falcon looking suspiciously like a black cut out of a bird swoops down and kills the larger bird, thus saving Fatty from a fate worse than death. The men return to their village with the dead bird and a small child ends up being carried away by the falcon who swoops in. This is where our heroes enter.

Xu Qin-fang on donkey and her brother on horseback enter the village and offer their services to save the child. Two magical leaps across the canyon and one sword fight with the falcon sees the kid saved and the wounded bird nursed back to health and domesticated. The pair stay long enough for Xu’s donkey to be stolen by a rival swordswoman. Xu tracks her down and our first notable sword fight begins. The two settle their differences and Xu agrees to meet her new friend in a valley to face a notorious band of outlaws. Alas, we never get to see this encounter as it sets up a conflict for a future episode in the film series, one that no longer exists.

Xu and her brother stay at a temple on their way to the valley and this is where our feature battle occurs. The monks at the temple are actually villains in league with an old enemy of Xu who is hiding there. This leads into a great swashbuckling round of combat as our two heroes are rudely awakened to the sounds of attacking men sneaking in from a secret passage.

Despite the film’s poor condition, certain inexplicable elements like the birdman, and the crude nature of the effects work, this is a remarkably entertaining film. Xu Qin-fang, her companion and especially Fatty all offer colorful and charismatic performances. The outdoor locations and sets rival any Shaw Brothers production. The martial arts action plays a little more like an Errol Flynn film, but the swordplay is fast and fierce. Xu with her twin blades does especially well. Columbia Tristar’s documentary The Art of Action smartly makes the comparison of her fight with the rival swordswoman to the scene where Michelle Yeoh takes Zhang Ziyi to task in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

What really sells this film, even today is the incorporation of fun humor and inventive elements with the action. A scene where Xu is masquerading as a commoner sans make-up is brilliant. Once discovered, she wipes her face ‘clean’ to instantly reveal a new coat of that famous silent film era make-up designed to accentuate facial features. How convenient! All the scenes with Fatty are highlights and show a high regard on the filmmakers’ part for the kind of bawdy humor that Hong Kong audiences have laughed at for years. Yuen Wo-ping must have been taking notes as a child for he has added similar comedy in the films he has directed, such as Iron Monkey (1993).

Modern martial arts filmmaking certainly owes a debt to early films like Swordswoman of Huangjiang. The choreography and special effects may be much more sophisticated today, but their influence is unmistakable. Xu Qin-fang in particular should be greatly lauded. She proved women could be just as strong of an onscreen presence and fighter as any man, and possibly more so. And were it not for her genes, her eldest grandson would not have gone on to create some of the greatest kung fu classics like Encounter of the Spooky Kind, The Magnificent Butcher, and The Prodigal Son. That’s right – I’m talking about Hong Kong’s number one “Fatty,” Sammo Hung!

This review refers to a rare theatrical screening that took place at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2003. The showing was accompanied by live music. The film has not been scored because it is not complete and it is all too rare and too valuable to judge merely on the basis of content.