Ten Tigers of Kwangtung (Chang Cheh; 1980)

[Killer Meteor]

Director: Chang Cheh

Starring: Ti Lung, Alexander Fu Sheng, Ku Feng, Wang Li, Phillip Kwok Choi, Lu Feng, Chin Siu-ho, Wang Lung-wei, Chiang Sheng, Lo Meng, Sun Chien, Wei Pei, Dick Wei, and lord knows how many more!

Not exactly well liked (the annoucement that it was coming to DVD was mostly greeted with groans), and suffering from a troubled history (this is what happens when you let MPs visit the shoot!), I'll be annoying, buck the trend and I quite like this all-star mish mash from Shaw Brothers.

Jumping back and forth a generation, the film introduces us to the formation of the Ten Tigers of Kwantung (initally two rival factions of kung fu masters played off against each other by the Manchus), and years later, shows the Manchu's taking a murderous revenge against the descendants of the Ten Tigers.

The flashback structure is not as confusing as I was fearing, though it may have been simpler to show all the "older footage" first, then go forward to the later scenes, rather than jump back and forth. From what I can gather, the reason for this odd approach was due to the original film being abandoned following one of Fu Sheng's recurrant on-set accidents, but I'm not sure.

The swamped cast results in many of the stars being crudely sidelined, not least of all poor Dick Wei, who never seems to do ANYTHING in any of his Shaw films. Ti Lung, Fu Sheng and Ku Feng get the lions share of the "past" footage, but do not play very engaging characters. Stealing scenes right left and centre are Lu Feng as a gruff but also jovial fisherman, and a completely stark raving mad performance by Phillip Kwok as the Druken Master, Beggar So Hat-yi. As usual, Wei Pei and Sun Chien are shoved to the sidelines in favour of the 'Opera' Venoms.

The latter footage gives Wang Li a chance to be a really sly villian, but none of the Baby Venoms come across pretty well, and they are not helped by some atrocious hairstyles - one of them has latter day Elvis style mutton chops.

Besides the usual fake sets (I've seen more convincing piers in a pond), and the usual rubbish score by Eddie H. Wang (as in; take a load of De Wolfe cues and slap them together with no sense of style or consistency), there is some especially cracking fight choreography on display here, including some blistering and varied weapons fights - plus a little bit of gore! When it comes to Peking Opera meets Grand Guignol, Chang Cheh is still the master!

Fun but not especially good, this film is ideal entertainment if somewhat lacking

[Markgway]

This one didn't even get a theatrical release in Hong Kong.

[Killer Meteor]

There's a few latter-day Shaws that don't seem to have been released in HK, but often they played in other markets. This film got released in the States to cinemas and TV by World Northal.

I wonder how many cinemas were in HK in 1980? There must have been far movies made then they could handle.

[Killer Meteor]

Oh, and it just occured to me that Wei Pei is playing Wong Kei-ying, better known to us as "Robert Wong!"