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Directed by Lau Kar-leung
The mythology of the Shaolin insurgency against imperial Manchu oppression in the 18th century itself gets an insurgent once-over from a director whose martial arts lineage can be traced to the events enacted in this film. Lau Kar-leung (Liu Jialiang), arguably the least internationally known of the martial arts cinema greats, here interprets legend through a reflexive burlesque of slippery gender identities and role reversals. Playfully recasting martial arts in terms of sexuality, Lau disrupts the basic tropes of the genre: familial and clan allegiances that engender the drive for revenge, and the pro- longed and masochistic preparation for cathartic bloodshed. It’s a consummate act of daring and entertaining to boot.
After the Shaolin Temple is burnt by the Manchus, survivor Hong Xiguan (Chen Guandai) flees to the shelter of the Red Junks, rebel-friendly opera troupes plying the southern waterways. Hong vows vengeance against Bai Mei (Luo Lie), the fearsomely omnipotent Shaolin traitor who killed his master. Like the archetypal eunuchs he resembles, Bai Mei has traded his anatomical nature for power: he can migrate the most vulnerable spot on his body from his crotch to his head at will.
While in hiding, Hong weds a martial equal, Fang Yongchun (Li Lili), who promptly pits her “Crane” technique against him in a conjugal night of bedroom sparring (erotic foreplay incredibly syncopated as close-range combat). The couple con- ceives a child of indeterminate gender (he’s a boy who looks like a girl). While Fang imparts her “Crane” expertise to the child, Hong devotes himself obsessively to perfecting “Tiger” kung fu, so that he might one day vanquish his sworn neme- sis. Attempting retribution, Hong instead meets death. Now his child inherits his legacy of revenge, but how will an ideal- ized “transgendering,” a yin-yang reconciliation of maternal “Crane” and paternal “Tiger,” prevail over its corrupted other?
—Cheng-Sim Lim
Shaw Brothers. Producer: Runme Shaw (Shao Renmei). Screenplay: Ni Kuang. Martial Arts Director: Lau Kar-leung. Cinematography: Qao Huiqi. Music: Chen Yongyu. Cast: Chen Guandai, Luo Lie, Lau Kar-fai (Gordon Liu Jiahui), Li Lili, Wong Yu.
35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles, unrestored, 99 min.
