Der letzte Kampf des Shaolin

Last Hurrah for Chivalry is a movie I'd been excited to watch for a while, because I love classic martial arts movies and I love John Woo as an action director. I'd heard this was his best movie made before he started making more modern action movies with gunfights and all, so the prospect of watching a John Woo old-school martial arts movie was always intriguing. Even if the movie hadn't been great, I think I would've just enjoyed the novelty of Woo making an action movie outside what (I imagine) is his comfort zone.

Thankfully, not only is there novelty value here, but the movie is also just a really good martial arts flick. The majority of the action is so well-choreographed and fun to watch, with probably the best fight in the movie occurring around the halfway point - a one-on-one fight in a field, complete with tons of slow-motion and spectacular scenery. It's fantastic, and then the way the climax feels like a video game - two heroes fighting through different rooms and enemies, all the way to a boss fight - is also very entertaining.

Its story is a bit chaotic at the start, introducing viewers to a man who wants revenge, but wants to get other people to do it for him. We're shown a town that's filled with what initially feels like too many characters (and side-antagonists), but I think these scenes generally pay off by the end. The story becomes easy to follow after the first half-an-hour, with at least one fairly clever twist, and characters that you come to care about more than most martial arts movie characters. I think that's what takes Last Hurrah for Chivalry from being good to very good/great.

And not only is the action really well choreographed and shot, but there's also so much of it, with it feeling like 50 to 60% of the movie is just action. It's a blast to watch, is kind of exhausting in the best way possible, and shows that John Woo can do more than just great gunfights and car chases. I'm continually feeling like as far as the action genre goes, maybe no one does it quite as well as John Woo.

The pros of this film are the astonishing fighting scenes - absolutely incredible sword-moves and martial art show off. A true John Woo masterpiece. The story tends to be a bit week though, but it never overshadows the overwhelming display of acrobatic martial art action. If you are into martial art movies, you are going to LOVE this one!

This is one amazing piece of work! I mean really; when you see a movie in the TV guide about a movie made in 1978 and it is an Asian film, you don't really have high expectations! But I decided to watch it after miserably missing "The Killer" on Showcase (I was going to record it)! But I began watching it and the host of The Showcase Revue said that it was "John Woo with swords and knives", so I gave it a shot. It was excellent! It was in subtitles though. Even so, I enjoyed this movie immensely! It is equally as good as Hard Boiled and The Killer (if not, better)! This is full of Woo's trademark styles. Amazing choreography, action - packed battle sequences, blood, action, and violence. It is set in the samurai era. Just give it a chance - you won't be disappointed!

LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY is an early film (1978) by John Woo, who is better known for his Hong Kong crime thrillers (THE KILLER, HARD-BOILED) and Hollywood hits (FACE/OFF, MI2). It's a costume swordplay film from Golden Harvest and it looks very different from similar films then being done at the rival Shaw Bros. studio. Even then, Woo was displaying a directorial talent that set him apart from the Shaw Bros. directors (as good as some of them were). The photography and editing here display a cinematic gloss comparable to the Japanese samurai films of the time. However, the martial arts are not as pure as in the Shaw Bros. films and the 2 lead fighters are generally not as skilled as the top-ranked members of the Shaw repertory company (e.g. Gordon Liu, Fu Sheng, the 5 Venoms).

Even so, the fight scenes are consistently exciting and are sprinkled throughout a well-developed storyline with a set of intriguing characters. It's all about the budding friendship between fighters Cheng San (Wei Pai, a sometime Shaw star) and Green Suit (Damian Lau) and the path to their impending battle with villain Pai Kang (Lee Hoi San), and their ultimate betrayal by the mutual friend who had manipulated them into battle. It looks forward to Woo's A BETTER TOMORROW and BULLET IN THE HEAD each of which featured a trio of male buddies, one of whom betrays the other two for personal gain. Fans of Woo's later work (and fans of swordplay movies) will find this film a rewarding experience.

ADDENDUM (7/23/14): I watched this again, on the Dragon Dynasty DVD edition, for the first time in many years and was newly impressed with the fight choreography. It was much more sophisticated than I gave it credit for above and I'm sorry I was mildly dismissive of the lead actors' capabilities. This film also compares quite favorably with the Shaw Bros. swordplay adventures of the 1970s, of which I've seen many more since doing the original review. I was also remiss in not singling out the great kung fu villains in this piece, particularly those played by Fung Hak On and Lee Hoi San. Their work is breathtaking. And I should also highlight the film's original music score, distinguished by a theme melody taken from its title song and deployed effectively in different variations throughout the film. This is in contrast to the standard practice of so many kung fu films from that era in using library cues and bits taken from other soundtracks. And I stand by my remark about the "cinematic gloss" that sets this film apart. Woo's confidence as a filmmaker is quite noticeable here and brings an aesthetic element to the material that wasn't common in the genre at the time.

When Kong's Lau's marriage is interrupted by Hoi Sang Lee for revenge -- Kong's father had stolen the villa from him -- Kong befriends Pai Wei, a notable fighter with no friends, who offers to go kill Kong's enemy. Damian Lau, a hard-drinking wanderer joins him on his quest.

It's all of John Woo's operatic and balletic techniques, and a story about professional honor among hitmen, applied to Wuxia, except for the bit where the hero rolls over firing two handguns simultaneously. I got the impression that Woo didn't really believe in what he was doing; he had been directing for about five years at this time, and had recently switched from the Shaw Brothers to Raymond Chow as his producer. Although there's lots of humor in the movie, including a "Sleeping Wizard" who fights in his sleep, this one, while worth looking at -- what John Woo movie isn't? -- is one of those movies that tries to move its genre tropes outside of its usual settings, and winds up awkward for that.