The Thundering Sword
If Douglas Sirk had directed a Hong Kong sword
fighting film in the mid-60’s it may have been a lot like this one. Surrounding
the intermittent action sequences are large dollops of fatalistic melodrama
and cascading orchestral arrangements that practically turn this into a
new sub-genre – the weepy swordplay. Made in 1967 at a time in which the
days of melodrama and movie queens ruling the screen with such fare as
“The Blue and Black” and “Till the End of Time” were coming to an end and
martial arts films were on the ascendancy for the next decade, this film
straddles both worlds very effectively with an oft told tale of star crossed
lovers.
After coming out of a three-month meditation in
a cabinet, the Master of Baiyon Temple (Tien Feng) declares to his three
main disciples (Lo Lieh, Ching Yi and Shu Pei Pei) that the Thundering
Sword must be found and destroyed because if its powers fell into the wrong
hands it could destroy the world. He sends out the two good friends Chiang
(Lo Lieh) and Yu (Ching Yi) on a mission to find the sword while Chiang’s
sister Gia Hsia (Shu Pei Pei) remains behind to look after things and to
pine for Yu. It soon turns out that a rival clan – The Centipede Clan (though
translated into Caterpillar in the subs!) are also searching for the sword
– but not for the altruistic reasons that Baiyon Temple has – but instead
so that they can dominate the martial arts world.
Yu soon comes upon So Jiao Jiao (Cheng Pei Pei)
astride a horse and being attacked by a group of robbers looking for the
Thundering Sword, but with whip in hand she quickly makes mincemeat of
them and looks quite pleased with herself for having done so. Seeing Yu
on foot she assumes he is also one of the gang and attacks him as well
but he easily fends it off with a few words of non-violence – “Don’t kill
people so easily” to which she replies, “If I kill people, it’s not your
concern”. Tough words but in fact Jiao is immediately love struck at finding
a man of her physical equal and as she rides away smiling she breaks into
song that displays her coy feminine side! It turns out that she is the
daughter of the head of the Centipede Clan and has many of that clan’s
personality quirks – arrogance, prone to needless violence and a tendency
to slap around the help when the mood strikes. Not necessarily the kind
of girl, Yu would want to bring back for his Master’s consent, but he finds
himself falling in love with her nonetheless. That Pei Pei is stunning
in this film goes a long ways towards explaining this.
A series of tragic errors by the hotheaded lass
creates a tangled web of complications that clouds this romance almost
immediately. She comes across Chiang who has found the Thundering
Sword and not knowing who he is she poisons him with three darts to the
chest and then realizes she doesn’t have the antidote. Later disguised
as Yu (the standard female dressed as a male ploy that no one ever sees
through), she decides that thirty-two men badly need a killing and proceeds
to do so – but this leads to Yu being charged with the crime and finally
she betrays her own clan with her love for Yu. She has a lot of explaining
to do!
Director Hsu Cheng-hung (Temple of the Red Lotus)
heats up this plot into a boiling emotional overflow that suddenly scalds
you with its force and intensity. Cheng Pei Pei who spent nearly her entire
career in martial arts films shows a true flair for the dramatic here and
one can only have wished that her acting career had been a little more
varied and given her more opportunities such as this to show her acting
range. By the end of this you feel run over by her sadness. This film may
not have the requisite amount of action for many martial arts fans (though
the trailer would make you think otherwise), but it’s a terrifically involving
story with excellent production values, solid acting and characters with
a modicum of depth. Another intriguing aspect of the film is that it doesn’t
paint the villains entirely in black, but gives them an aspect of redemption
as this theme along with that of forgiveness run through the film. Along
for the ride are also Wu Ma as the chief of security for the Centipede
Clan, Ku Feng as the man looking for justice for the thirty two dead men
and Chen Hung-lieh (The Jade Faced Tiger in Come Drink with Me) as Jiao’s
brother.
My rating for this film: 7.5
