If you start watching the classic Shaw Brothers movies, then at some point you encounter the work of director Chang Cheh. Quite simply you cannot avoid him. A fair number of his features are undoubted classics of the genre and his influence strong, with John Woo just one that worked under him. With such a prolific output, it’s entirely understandable that his work varied in quality and there are times when it is apparent his interest was elsewhere. Yet even lesser pictures are of interest as there are several themes that are his signature. As such there is usually something to glean from them whether you are a scholar of Asian cinema or just want to watch an action movie. “Shaolin Rescuers” is one such example. A latter day effort featuring his “Venoms” team, it’s the sort of curious mix of comedy and violence that the Comedy kung fu boom attempted frequently in the late 1970’s but not always successfully combining into a coherent whole.
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Hung Si-kwan (Jason Pao Piao) escapes the destruction of the Shaolin Temple but sustains injuries. Seeking other heroes, he comes across friends Chun Ah-chin (Lo Mang), a baker, and waiter Yung Cha-po (Kuo Choi). These two spend their days practicing martial arts and dreaming of being heroes in the martial world. They are joined by Chu-tsai (Sun Chien), a martial arts student whom is abused by his master and fellow students. As they seek medicine to cure Hung Si-kwan’s wounds, they join up with Han-chi (Chiang Sheng) who had escaped after the villains slaughtered another monastery. Cornered, they square off with their pursuers in an epic final confrontation,
The opening is one of those martial artists performing against a coloured background introduction that we see so often. The artifice that ties into traditional operatic settings is really in force here. We get a prologue to the main story with the principle villains introduced as they attack the temple. From there, we go to a sequence that is pure Chang Cheh. We see Lo Mang practicing in the bakery with close ups of his muscular physique. The director’s work is often described as homo-erotic but this is certainly unintended. He undoubtedly masculinized the martial arts genre with an almost fetishistic glee. Movie after movie, we get bare chested men dying bloodily from numerous gaping wounds that would be swiftly bandaged to continue the fight before dying in slow motion. Any homo-erotic reading would be what an observer would interpret from what they are reading into it and Chang Cheh’s focus on brotherhood and loyalty certainly lends itself to this. Throw in the scarcity of decent female roles, or no female roles at all in this case, and it’s easy to see why this reading can be made.
Kung Fu comedy is a hard genre to sometimes explain. Particularly in reference to Chang Cheh as a director. The comedy can frequently be quite broad as we see here with Lo Mang and Kuo Chou to one up each other. Some bits work well such as the payoff to the damaged chairs, whereas others seem a bit too slapstick. Trying not to spoil the ending is hard as I want to discuss it without giving too much away. Suffice to say not everyone makes it to the final credits, not really a spoiler as it’s a Chang Cheh movie after all! This is the paradox of kung fu comedy in that tone-wise, they shift pretty quickly. Like most hybrids, it’s a hard thing to get right, but for the most part this production does. The sense of tension gradually mounting as the villains close in on the heroes leading to a terrific final reel when the comedy stops. The final line actually summarises the film quite well. “We lived our lives to the full didn’t we?” asks one hero. These men seek to be martial arts heroes and the idea of heroism is dying a good death. In this case, making a noble sacrifice so others may live. Death is not feared but actually embraced. An idea that recurs regularly in Chang Cheh’s work. While these characters do not actively seek death as nihilisticly as others do in “Have Sword, Will Travel” and “Golden Swallow” for example, they still walk towards it. Understanding this ideology helps make the narrative makes more sense and it did take me some time to learn I admit.
This being an action movie, it lives by these sequences and they are superb. Kuo Choi moves effortlessly around the screen using the props elegantly in a way that Jackie Chan would approve. The Venoms were all skilled artists and get several well choreographed duels that fully utilise their agility. The camera work keeps the action mostly in wide shot and even at times from above to make the multi person confrontations resemble a more violent Busby Berkley musical production number. Whilst lacking the tautness of his earlier work, this looser effort remains enjoyable, despite the impression that is a collection of action/comedy scenes held together by a threadbare plot.
The movies that Chang Cheh made with the Venoms will never be described as high art. They essentially recycle similar tropes in each production, with each character playing a variant of a particular character type. Narrative structure tends to be thin and as for a realism, these are Shaw Brothers films after all! A movie’s primary aim is to entertain its audience and “Shaolin Rescuers” certainly does that. Sit back, relax and enjoy a very good effort from the golden era.
