Over the past few years Taiwan has been going through the process of restoring some of their martial arts films of the 1960s and 70s. This one looks spectacular and it makes you hope that they will do it for more films. Taiwan martial art films tend to be looked down upon as cheap and poorly made - but a film like this makes you realize that if it is as pristine as this and in the original language, it makes all the difference. This is as good as the wuxia films coming out of Shaw at the time. It is produced by Union Films. That was the company that King Hu formed when he moved to Taiwan after leaving Shaw and directing Come Drink with Me. His first film for Union was the classic Dragon Inn. This was Union's next film and the director reins are handed over to Joseph Kuo, but Hu's influence is clear in the film. Kuo brings over two actors from Dragon Inn to star in this film, Tien Peng and Polly Shang-kuan. Tien Peng only had a small role in his debut Dragon Inn, but Polly in her debut had a starring role. The director and these two actors were to be major players in Taiwanese martial arts films for the next twenty-years. And interestingly, for the most part they stayed in the Taiwanese film industry for their entire careers.


The film is beautifully shot with both long shots and close-ups and action taking place in stunning landscapes. The final duel on the beach with waves crashing in behind them is a thing of beauty. The plot is firmly entrenched in martial arts tradition. Revenge. Twenty years previously five assassins killed the parents of Tsai Ying-chieh (Tien Peng) in order to obtain the Spirit Chasing Sword. The young boy looks on as his father is murdered - but when one of the men suggests killing the boy too - pull it up by the roots - the leader of the group says no, let him live. Of course that is a no no in the culture of revenge. You know they will come looking eventually. And he does. He carries small wooden placards with their names on each one and breaks them when he kills one.  


But revenge is never simple. Tsai is absolutely obsessed with revenge - failing to do so is to dishonor his parents. It is eating up his soul. All five of the men are now big shots with loads of minions to fall before the sword. There is of course a fine scene in an inn - at one moment Tsai catches a blade with his teeth and then spits it out across the room to kill a man. Neat trick. But he is badly wounded with poison and will die in seven days - again one of those long-killing poisons that these films love - and he is saved by Flying Swallow (Polly) who finds the antidote and nurses him back to health.


But she is keeping her reason for doing so a secret and another man, Black Dragon, is just waiting for Tsai to finish his mission in order to kill him. Like I said revenge is never simple. It builds up to a great finish - but not what you might be expecting. This is considered the first in a trilogy with Tsai - The Bravest Revenge (1971) and The Ghost Hill (1971) - both of which were released on dvd years ago. I saw them and though Polly is in all three, they all have different directors and it is hard to tell if they are really connected. All three are quite good. 

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