“We are big strong men. Why should we worry about three little girls?”

Oh, buddy, you should, you really should. This early Taiwanese wuxia about three separated sisters seeking revenge on the men who killed their parents (Stock Wuxia Plot #4) is pretty fun. The fight choreography is weak and the villains are under defined, but there are some fun twists on the usual plot tropes, for example, when one of the sisters disguises herself as a man, the other sisters start to fall for her! There’s also a terrific early scene at an inn that very much echoes the famous confrontation in Come Drink With Me, as the disguised Xiufeng enters a nest of vipers and must defeat them with both martial skills and wits.

For me, one of the most interesting aspects was watching a film shot in the Taiwanese dialect, might be only the second or third such film I’ve seen (Mandarin or Cantonese dubs being more common), I’m not a linguist and understand very little Chinese, but it has a more rounded and lower register, a little rougher on the ear.  

Playing as part of the Old School Kung Fu Festival.

Read my interview with Goran Topalovic of Subway Cinema about this year’s OSKFF here.

The first film in the loose Swordsman of All Swordsman trilogy could not be more different than the awesomely goofy Ghost Hill, it’s a deadly serious revenge film (Stock Wuxia Plot #4, kid grows up and trains to avenge murdered parents) that tackles tough issues of forgiveness and duty. 

Honestly, I’ve seen a lot of Joseph Kuo films, and while this may not be my favorite (his Seven Grandmasters is maybe the platonic ideal of an old school Kung Fu film), it might be the most accomplished. There are some beautiful tracking shots, a King Hu-esque use of scenery, and a truly gorgeous final confrontation in a foggy courtyard. And a well-handled emotional throughline – I squeezed out a manly, chivalrous tear. Top notch wuxia.

Playing at the Old School Kung Fu Festival.

Read my interview with Goran Topalovic of Subway Cinema about this year’s OSKFF here.

Joseph Kuo films ranked here.

Subway Cinema’s 9th Old School Kung Fu Festival 2021 

Well this was an unexpected pleasure. An absolutely buck wild wuxia full of delightful nonsense, crazy weapons, and traps. Harpoon hands. Darts in the shape of the Chinese character for “death” – a baller move. Also, the greatest martial arts fight involving watermelon (unless you count the Watermelon Monster from Taoism Drunkard). Not to mention villains with names like Murdering Wonder Child and Soul Hunting Yaksha.

It’s part 3 of the Swordsman of All Swordsman trilogy, but it’s a stand alone revenge story featuring the same heroes played by Tien Peng and Polly Shang-Kuan. Very comic booky, very well shot, very fun.

Playing this weekend at the Old School Kung Fu Festival.

Read my interview with Goran Topalovic of Subway Cinema about this year’s OSKFF here.

2023’s OSKFF (schedule here) is kicking off this Friday, April 14, with an absolute monster – Lin Jing-Jie’s massive, comprehensive documentary on King Hu, possibly the most influential and important Chinese filmmaker of all time, and certainly the acknowledged master of the swordplay or wuxia genre. 

The film itself is split into two parts, with the first covering King Hu the filmmaker, and the second King Hu the man.

In the first part, we hear from his collaborators (actors and choreographers like Shih Chun, Sammo Hung, Cheng Pei-Pei, Ng Man-Toi, along with writers, choreographers, producers, and cinematographers) and admirers (Ann Hui, John Woo, Tsui Hark, many of whom did have an opportunity to work with Hu).  There are excerpts from his writings, but primarily we learn about his technique, his influence, and his perfectionism.

Lin visits classic locations and literally digs into the vaults to find his storyboards and sketches, covers the seismic change Hu wrought with Come Drink With Me and Dragon Gate Inn, his intricately choreographed fights shot like dance – you can see the difference compared to work of Bruce Lee, with its emphasis on speed and impact, or Chang Cheh or the Venoms, with their acrobatics. Hu studied Hollywood westerns to learn how to give the appearance of contact and shift away from the artificiality of Peking opera, and he looked to Japan to learn from Kurosawa. 

Hu was also a scholar, surrounded by books he looked to historical records and paintings for sets, outfits, and designs, many of which he drew himself.  Walking through his films, the documentary breaks down his techniques, camerawork, production design, choreography, lighting, editing.

In the second part, we finally get to see more of Hu himself, through footage of his acting (the man was FUNNY), his family and friends, his struggles. Hu did not have it easy and his story may be familiar to struggling artists everywhere, eating stale bread to make his films, arguing with producers – maybe the most heartbreaking part describes how later in life while looking for work to sustain himself, he was turned away from a film lecture position in HK because he did not have a PhD (like NYU or UCLA declining to hire John Ford as a film professor because of his lack of academic credentials?!). 

But the man shines through always, determined, weary, funny, often the life of the party but just as often depressed. And we get a glimpse of the final film that could have been, a historical action-drama set in the California Gold Rush that was on the verge of being produced when Hu passed unexpectedly.

It’s fascinating stuff, of general interest but absolutely essential to Hu and wuxia fans. The King of Wuxia will be playing at the Metrograph in NYC this Friday.

Read my interview with Goran Topalovic of Subway Cinema about this year’s OSKFF here.

With the new OSKFF opening Friday at the Metrograph Theater in NYC and online this week (more information and tickets available here, including online screenings), with a focus this year on Taiwanese wuxia and its undisputed master King Hu – CSB took a few minutes to chat with Goran about Hu, the OSKFF, and classic Taiwanese cinema.

CSB:  This year is a big showcase for King Hu and Taiwanese wuxia cinema in general, and you’re opening the festival with The King of Wuxia, a massive, comprehensive documentary on King Hu. What did you take away from that documentary, and what do you think it has for both hardcore and casual fans?

Goran: You’ll get an appreciation for how much impact King Hu and his films had on a whole new generation of filmmakers – you’ll hear from creators like John Woo and Tsui Hark and Sammo Hung, it’s nice to have it all in one place, and hear from so many of his collaborators and admirers how important he was to them and how influential he was on their development of their own careers and styles of filmmaking, he was a pivotal figure in so many ways. And also learn about Hu’s sheer dedication to his craft and meticulous attention to detail – he really was an artist, he lived for his movies, every detail, from production design to how the inn used in a setpiece is going to be structured.

CSB:  Yes, it was fascinating to see his hand-drawn design sketches for costumes, for example, the level of detail he personally got into.

Goran: And he was a big student of history. A scholar, really, of Chinese history and tradition and drew inspiration from those sources.  The Ming dynasty was his favorite and a lot of his movies are set during that period.

CSB:  Film fans are often familiar with one of his biggest female stars, Cheng Pei-Pei (Come Drink With Me, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), but most are probably less familiar with Hsu Feng and Polly Shang-Kuan, both featured extensively in this year’s festival.

Goran: One of King Hu’s key contributions to the legacy of martial arts cinema is really the popularization of the female knight errant, and defining that archetype for modern audiences and a new generation, and that something that’s been copied, you see it in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for example.  As part of that, he really cultivated these female stars, Cheng Pei Pei and Hsu Feng and Polly Shang. And they all brought their own specific charisma and expressiveness to the different facets of the archetype. Hsu Feng is probably the most present in Hu’s films, but even Angela Mao is there, in The Fate of Lee Khan, before going on to a successful career more in kung fu movies. So these stars he developed not only influenced wuxia, but kung fu films.

CSB:  And there’s a continuity, for example, Polly Shang stars in Hu-influenced sidebar trilogy featuring a male swordsman, played by Tien Peng.

Goran: The Swordsman of All Swordsmen trilogy, that’s where Polly Shang really shines. She’s not the lead, but she’s one of the main characters in the series. Dragon Inn was produced by Taiwan’s Union Film, and was a huge box office success, it was really what built Union Film into a major production company.  And King Hu was made a production chief, putting him in a position to nurture new talents and set the house style for other wuxia films, including the Swordsman of All Swordsmen trilogy. About half of the films in our lineup are old Union Films productions. There was such a demand for these movies, and of course, King Hu, it famously took him a long time to make a movie, but somebody like Joseph Kuo was much faster. But you could what other directors were doing within the space that King Hu created, adding their own little touches and flair.

For example, I really like The Ghost Hill [the third film in the trilogy], which is so colorful and strange. It’s great fun, very cartoonish, very pop, like the Batman TV show from the ‘60s in a wuxia context. But there’s still a continuity to the house style.

CSB:  I was pleasantly surprised by The Ghost Hill, it’s very outré, lots of crazy weapons and traps, it’s very comic booky. But the only film I’d seen by that director (Ting Shan-Hsi) before was Knight Errant (1973) starring Jimmy Wang-Yu, a much more traditional, bread and butter, fisticuffs kung fu movie. I know Joseph Kuo did the first film in the trilogy, but every film in the trilogy was directed by a different director.

Goran: Not everyone could be Hu or even Kuo, most of these guys were more journeyman directors, and at some point stopped doing wuxia and moved on to other genres, they didn’t have the same kind of vision as Hu.

CSB:  The OSKFF this year has a lot of deep cuts, what would you recommend for a newbie and for someone more familiar with the genre looking for a hidden gem.

Goran: For the newbie, it has to be A Touch of Zen. It’s really the first wuxia masterpiece, and sets up all the elements that make contemporary wuxia what they are.  It’s brilliant, it’s such a mix of genres, a ghost story, and a romance, and a mystery, and a revenge story, and it all leads up to a spiritual, transcendental event. It’s where the Beijing Opera influence and the action choreography are most developed, and it has the brilliant setpiece of the fight in the bamboo forest that’s been copied so many times.

For hidden gems, for us it was a fascinating to see a Taiwanese language wuxia film, in black and white, Vengeance of the Phoenix Sisters. We don’t know as much about the Taiwanese language cinema as we should, and part of that is just unavailability. I think there are a lot of quality works that remain to be discovered. We’re interested in digging deeper into the Taiwanese language film industry as a whole, most of what we’ve been talking about until now has been Mandarin language Taiwanese industry. Who knows, maybe next time we can dig deeper into that industry from the 50s and 60s, it had its own star system and everything.

Thanks Goran, and thanks also to Emma Griffiths for arranging the interview. Edited for clarity.

Last time I saw Tenebrae (10-15 years ago?), I was so distracted by the banging Goblin score, and the tracking camera, and the ultra sleaze, and the ultra violence, and the absolutely bonkers plot twists, I failed to appreciate how goddamn funny it is. Argento has created the best kind of parody of the giallo genre and his own work, the kind that works equally well as a parody and the thing itself.

Also, bonus points for Chekhov’s sculpture.

When you have a magical flying sloop designed by Hayao Miyazaki and staffed by a muppet crow created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, who are you going to get to captain the ship? Jo F’in Shishido, of course.

Very short, child-like and oneiric in a tone reminiscent of The Neverending Story. Not much of a story, but some nifty visuals.

(and definitely watch the “making of” which is in some ways more fun than the movie – I love watching people create props and practical effects)

Ein Musikkrimi, per its title, a murder mystery set at a cabaret to maximize musical performances, hell, they even launch into one to distract the audience during the second murder. Definitely in a similar vein to Phantom of the Paradise or The G-String Murders with Barbara Stanwyck. The killer is pretty obvious, but the musical numbers are fun.

Random thoughts:

1. Adore the title fonts, very ‘80s glam rock.

2. The “cultural appropriation” people would have an absolute shit if they saw this. Cowboy, jazz, Latin music, all performed by rosy-cheeked Germans in costume.

3. Cute homage to M with the whistling killer.

Bronson-mania! 

Is this Toshiro Mifune-Charles Bronson “fish out of water Eastern warrior trying to recover a lost national treasure teams up with roguish Western outlaw cowboy” the first instance of the same plot used again by The Stranger and the Gunfighter (1974, Lo Lieh and Lee Van Cleef) and Shanghai Noon (2000, Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson). I can’t think of an earlier one. And it really is the EXACT SAME PLOT. 

Here Mifune plays the straight man (as in all of these) while Bronson is at perhaps his most chill and laid back. We also get a smug Alain Delon as the villain (yeah, he starts out on Team Bronson but one look at his black outfit and you know he’s breaking bad), Ursula Andress “andressing,” and bit roles for Capucine and Luc Merenda.

It’s all kind of competent and unexceptional, entertaining enough, as befits a film from stalwart journeyman Terence Young, but there’s a bit of gold in them thar hills, as when Mifune and Bronson ever so imperceptibly acknowledge each other in the opening.

“A girl? Perhaps. Or a monster.”

I’d call this Bog’s What’s Up Tiger Lily but that would be giving it waaayyyy more credit than it deserves. This is just some Corman-purchased Soviet space flick footage that Bog spiced up with occasionally droll but mostly dull voiceover and maybe ten minutes of new footage of Mamie Van Doren and other blondes standing around in shell bikini tops. The original VFX are pretty spectacular, but no credit for that to this movie – just the Soviet original.   

Looking at just the new footage and VO, it’s shockingly dull and appallingly unsexy – the only real enjoyment I got out of this was from the janky rubber monster and that the girls very clearly painted their bellies bluish silver to match their mermaid pants. A true laundry movie.