THE BLADE (1995), dir. Tsui Hark
Hark (Tsui)! The One-Armed Swordsman Swings!
Tsui Hark is considered by many to be the master of the martial arts epic. But with “The Blade,” he truly outdoes himself, taking the genre to new operatic heights.
Swords, daggers, and flying kicks remain the order of the day in feudal China. But a gang of merciless horse thieves have another weapon at their disposal: Bear traps. These can puncture flesh and shatter bone between their jagged metal jaws. The horse thieves deposit them around their camp, just waiting for human prey to set a leg or an arm inside.
Ding On (Chiu Man-Cheuk), who ran away from home to find his father’s murderer, becomes their latest victim. He loses his right arm fighting to rescue Ling (Valerie Chow), a childhood friend and daughter of a wealthy sword-maker. Ding On vanishes into a foggy ravine, where he is presumably lost. He awakens in the care of an aborigine farmer (Veronique Kaneta), and has to try and rebuild his life using only his left arm.
Complications arise, however, when he discovers his father’s killer, Fei Lung (the incredible Xin Xin Xiong), in the nearby village. Then a gang of Arab marauders set upon Ding On’s new home. They string him up, beat him, and burn the farm to the ground.
Realizing that the weak are doomed in a lawless world, unless they learn to fight back, Ding On begins training with the help of a half-charred kung-fu manual. The figures in the diagrams are all missing one arm, a disadvantage for most, but perfect for him. Armed with the broken blade his father once fought with, Ding On develops a new style that emphasizes spinning around very fast.
While the one-armed swordsman prepares to declare war on all roaming bandits, Ling arrives in the village with Iron Head (Moses Chan), a volatile young man. They are here to find Ding On. But he is too ashamed to face them, having stolen the broken blade from out of Ling’s father’s house.
Luckily, her father has run afoul of the Arab marauders, who hire Fei Lung to raid the sword-maker’s factory. Sensing a chance for redemption, Ding On returns to the birthplace of his dishonour. There, he meets Fei Lung in an astonishing final battle. It isn’t a fight so much as a natural disaster; a head-on collision between two tornadoes, each lined with razor-sharp cutlery.
“The Blade” ranks with the best work produced by Hong Kong director Tsui Hark. His 1986 film “Peking Opera Blues” is considered to be a classic. During the early 90’s, he started a revolution with the “Once Upon a Time in China” trilogy. Now experiencing a revival in the West, thanks to the popularity of its star, Jet Li, these movies featured Wong Fei-Hung, Chinese folk hero, performing elaborate fight sequences, the likes of which had never been seen before in a martial arts film (but were almost immediately imitated).
Never content to be a one-trick pony, Hark cuts back on the high-flying, wire-aided stunts this time. He creates a new kind of martial arts movie with “The Blade.” Now he injects ferocious speed, using some brilliant, low-tech ideas he might have picked up while attending the University of Texas at Austin.
For some action sequences, the film is sped-up. Just as effective, however, was Hark’s idea to use doubles of Chiu Man-Cheuk. Either Man-Cheuk or his stunt copy disappear off one side of the picture, then the other quickly leaps in from the opposite side. Either method creates the illusion that Ding On is some kind of sword-wielding Speedy Gonzalez. He's there one second, gone the next. Frequently, his opponents notice the same phenomenon applies to their legs.
Physics-bending, genre-blending
If Tsui Hark doesn’t make the same martial arts movie over and over, nor does he adhere to the same genre. Over his twenty-six-year career, he has helmed a critically-acclaimed musical (“Shanghai Blues,” 1984), a sports comedy (“The Chinese Feast,” 1995), a drama (“Love in the Time of Twilight,” 1995), even a special-effects extravaganza (“Legend of Zu,” 2001). In 1980, Hark put his career into high gear career a suspense/horror/comedy entitled Diyu wu men (“We Are Going to Eat You”).
If his versatility isn’t obvious by the list of films he has directed, it might be more apparent in his producing filmography. In 1987, he produced Siu-Tung Ching’s “A Chinese Ghost Story,” which contained some pretty horrific, albeit aesthetically-pleasing moments, thanks to Film Workshop, the special effects company Hark founded.
In 1994, he produced Ringo Lam’s “Burning Paradise,” which combined martial arts with haunted house-style horror. Most recently, Hark attempted to revitalize the once-popular Chinese golden vampire movie with “Vampire Hunters” (2002), which Herman Yau directed.
Thanks to an enduring, versatile career, it is never a surprise to see Hark borrow from another genre for a particular effect. In fact, one of the best scenes in “The Blade” feels like it was lifted from horror movies:
Ding On has overheard Ling talking to her grandmother about his father’s gruesome fate. Having never heard this information, he bursts into the room, demands to know the truth. As a thunderstorm rages outside the factory, Ling runs across a corridor that is enveloped by shadows. Flashes of lightning reveal the emptiness of the room. Suddenly, we hear Ding On’s voice screaming, “Who killed him?!”
Ling turns around, looks directly into the camera. Lightning glints blue off the surface of her skin. Wind whips her hair into a mild frenzy. The room becomes dark again, then the camera does a 180-degree turn. A solid, dark mass takes up almost the entire picture. Then there is another flash of lightning, and Ding On’s face materializes, looking ominous and scary.
Among other resources the director draws on, Hark clearly knows a thing or two about the stage. It often appeared in his earlier films, and always authentic-looking when it did. The theatre was central to “Peking Opera Blues;” Wong Fei-Hung’s sidekicks shanghaid a public one in “Once Upon a Time in China.” Quite a few times in “The Blade,” Hark presents the action with what seems like an eye for stage theatrics.
During a flashback that shows the sword-maker, Ding On’s father, and other warriors fighting some bandits, the good guys stand frozen in dramatic-looking poses, looking directly at the camera. A few moments later, they start fighting the brigands. After dispatching them, they freeze into dramatic-looking poses again. According to the sword-maker’s voiceover, this was supposed to be a battle. The way Hark choreographs, however, it seems more like interpretive dance.
Like a good stage director, Hark also uses backgrounds to dramatize events or reflect his characters’ moods. The flashback scene, for example, takes place during a violent rainstorm. The raging elements mirror the bloodlust frothing up in both the warriors’ and the villains’ hearts. Later, when Ding On storms the horse thieves’ lair, he is already possessed by a rage that makes him the equal of twenty men. As a way of underlining the character’s burning anger, Hark lights the scene using only the torches and smoldering bonfires that are part of the scenery.
Bold visual touches like these help “The Blade” resonate emotionally. Few martial arts movies before or since have matched its energy and passion.
Overall rating: **** (out of ****)
Tsui Hark is considered by many to be the master of the martial arts epic. But with “The Blade,” he truly outdoes himself, taking the genre to new operatic heights.
Swords, daggers, and flying kicks remain the order of the day in feudal China. But a gang of merciless horse thieves have another weapon at their disposal: Bear traps. These can puncture flesh and shatter bone between their jagged metal jaws. The horse thieves deposit them around their camp, just waiting for human prey to set a leg or an arm inside.
Ding On (Chiu Man-Cheuk), who ran away from home to find his father’s murderer, becomes their latest victim. He loses his right arm fighting to rescue Ling (Valerie Chow), a childhood friend and daughter of a wealthy sword-maker. Ding On vanishes into a foggy ravine, where he is presumably lost. He awakens in the care of an aborigine farmer (Veronique Kaneta), and has to try and rebuild his life using only his left arm.
Complications arise, however, when he discovers his father’s killer, Fei Lung (the incredible Xin Xin Xiong), in the nearby village. Then a gang of Arab marauders set upon Ding On’s new home. They string him up, beat him, and burn the farm to the ground.
Realizing that the weak are doomed in a lawless world, unless they learn to fight back, Ding On begins training with the help of a half-charred kung-fu manual. The figures in the diagrams are all missing one arm, a disadvantage for most, but perfect for him. Armed with the broken blade his father once fought with, Ding On develops a new style that emphasizes spinning around very fast.
While the one-armed swordsman prepares to declare war on all roaming bandits, Ling arrives in the village with Iron Head (Moses Chan), a volatile young man. They are here to find Ding On. But he is too ashamed to face them, having stolen the broken blade from out of Ling’s father’s house.
Luckily, her father has run afoul of the Arab marauders, who hire Fei Lung to raid the sword-maker’s factory. Sensing a chance for redemption, Ding On returns to the birthplace of his dishonour. There, he meets Fei Lung in an astonishing final battle. It isn’t a fight so much as a natural disaster; a head-on collision between two tornadoes, each lined with razor-sharp cutlery.
“The Blade” ranks with the best work produced by Hong Kong director Tsui Hark. His 1986 film “Peking Opera Blues” is considered to be a classic. During the early 90’s, he started a revolution with the “Once Upon a Time in China” trilogy. Now experiencing a revival in the West, thanks to the popularity of its star, Jet Li, these movies featured Wong Fei-Hung, Chinese folk hero, performing elaborate fight sequences, the likes of which had never been seen before in a martial arts film (but were almost immediately imitated).
Never content to be a one-trick pony, Hark cuts back on the high-flying, wire-aided stunts this time. He creates a new kind of martial arts movie with “The Blade.” Now he injects ferocious speed, using some brilliant, low-tech ideas he might have picked up while attending the University of Texas at Austin.
For some action sequences, the film is sped-up. Just as effective, however, was Hark’s idea to use doubles of Chiu Man-Cheuk. Either Man-Cheuk or his stunt copy disappear off one side of the picture, then the other quickly leaps in from the opposite side. Either method creates the illusion that Ding On is some kind of sword-wielding Speedy Gonzalez. He's there one second, gone the next. Frequently, his opponents notice the same phenomenon applies to their legs.
Physics-bending, genre-blending
If Tsui Hark doesn’t make the same martial arts movie over and over, nor does he adhere to the same genre. Over his twenty-six-year career, he has helmed a critically-acclaimed musical (“Shanghai Blues,” 1984), a sports comedy (“The Chinese Feast,” 1995), a drama (“Love in the Time of Twilight,” 1995), even a special-effects extravaganza (“Legend of Zu,” 2001). In 1980, Hark put his career into high gear career a suspense/horror/comedy entitled Diyu wu men (“We Are Going to Eat You”).
If his versatility isn’t obvious by the list of films he has directed, it might be more apparent in his producing filmography. In 1987, he produced Siu-Tung Ching’s “A Chinese Ghost Story,” which contained some pretty horrific, albeit aesthetically-pleasing moments, thanks to Film Workshop, the special effects company Hark founded.
In 1994, he produced Ringo Lam’s “Burning Paradise,” which combined martial arts with haunted house-style horror. Most recently, Hark attempted to revitalize the once-popular Chinese golden vampire movie with “Vampire Hunters” (2002), which Herman Yau directed.
Thanks to an enduring, versatile career, it is never a surprise to see Hark borrow from another genre for a particular effect. In fact, one of the best scenes in “The Blade” feels like it was lifted from horror movies:
Ding On has overheard Ling talking to her grandmother about his father’s gruesome fate. Having never heard this information, he bursts into the room, demands to know the truth. As a thunderstorm rages outside the factory, Ling runs across a corridor that is enveloped by shadows. Flashes of lightning reveal the emptiness of the room. Suddenly, we hear Ding On’s voice screaming, “Who killed him?!”
Ling turns around, looks directly into the camera. Lightning glints blue off the surface of her skin. Wind whips her hair into a mild frenzy. The room becomes dark again, then the camera does a 180-degree turn. A solid, dark mass takes up almost the entire picture. Then there is another flash of lightning, and Ding On’s face materializes, looking ominous and scary.
Among other resources the director draws on, Hark clearly knows a thing or two about the stage. It often appeared in his earlier films, and always authentic-looking when it did. The theatre was central to “Peking Opera Blues;” Wong Fei-Hung’s sidekicks shanghaid a public one in “Once Upon a Time in China.” Quite a few times in “The Blade,” Hark presents the action with what seems like an eye for stage theatrics.
During a flashback that shows the sword-maker, Ding On’s father, and other warriors fighting some bandits, the good guys stand frozen in dramatic-looking poses, looking directly at the camera. A few moments later, they start fighting the brigands. After dispatching them, they freeze into dramatic-looking poses again. According to the sword-maker’s voiceover, this was supposed to be a battle. The way Hark choreographs, however, it seems more like interpretive dance.
Like a good stage director, Hark also uses backgrounds to dramatize events or reflect his characters’ moods. The flashback scene, for example, takes place during a violent rainstorm. The raging elements mirror the bloodlust frothing up in both the warriors’ and the villains’ hearts. Later, when Ding On storms the horse thieves’ lair, he is already possessed by a rage that makes him the equal of twenty men. As a way of underlining the character’s burning anger, Hark lights the scene using only the torches and smoldering bonfires that are part of the scenery.
Bold visual touches like these help “The Blade” resonate emotionally. Few martial arts movies before or since have matched its energy and passion.
Overall rating: **** (out of ****)
posted by Phil | 6:00 PM
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