Der letzte Kampf des Shaolin

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.

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!

Due to its heavy emphasis on sleek Wuxia swordplay, John Woo's 'Last Hurrah For Chivalry (1979)' was apparently considered antiquated at the time of its release. In retrospect, though, it's clear that it's the prototype for the Heroic Bloodshed movies that would later go on to define his career (a genre which he practically created with 'A Better Tomorrow (1986)'). You can really tell that Woo is pushing against the boundaries of an existing genre in an effort to craft something new, and he gets really close to breaking into new territory here. Although it's his later films that left an irreversible mark on action cinema, this more traditional effort is just as vital - if only for the fact that it's clearly a major stepping stone in the filmmaker's journey to be able to do that. Besides, it's just a really solid and entertaining experience overall. It also has a different feel to a lot of its contemporaries; it's one of the earliest Hong Kong action films I can recall that plays with these particular themes and subverts expectation in this sort of way. It's surprisingly bleak, getting more and more world-weary as it progresses, until it eventually lets its ultimate message burst to the forefront in an eponymous last hurrah that ends things on a really bittersweet but satisfying note.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The feature initially seems as though it's going to follow a traditional revenge plot. It focuses on a young lord who is betrayed on his wedding day and is left wounded while his family home is ransacked and stolen by a rival. Desperate for revenge, he seeks the aid of a master swordsman, who in turn finds a friend in a hired killer with a penchant for drinking and disorderly conduct. Although it seems as though the narrative is going to focus on the lord, it soon becomes apparent that it's much more interested in the swordsman and his assassin buddy. Their blossoming bromance receives a lot of attention, slowly eclipsing the story laid out in the opening moments if not in terms of screen time then in terms of importance. This emphasis goes hand in hand with the slow introduction of formula idiosyncrasies that clue you into the fact that things aren't what they initially seem and that the affair isn't as conventional as it sets itself up to be. Then, as it heads into its third act, it does something genuinely unexpected. I won't spoil what that is, but I will say that the film becomes a lot more thematically interesting in its aftermath. You find yourself sitting up in your seat, more engaged than you have been before. And then, just when you think you've adjusted to the new status quo, the film plays its final hand and shocks you once more. It isn't quite as unanticipated the second time around, but the picture is able to do something that ought to be really cliché in a really effective way. Because it's already caught you off guard once, you aren't expecting it to do so again. The element of surprise isn't the only thing that makes this moment great, though. While it initially threatens to undermine the previous beat and essentially be the coward's way out of the direction said beat necessitated, it soon becomes clear it actually hammers home the feature's themes of friendship, honor, loyalty and redemption. It's the sort of thing that simply has to happen in order for the affair to be what it is, a natural extension of the feature's underlying subversion that's ironically more unique because it's so often seen in one form or another. Basically, it's the execution of these well-worn tropes and the context in which they're used that make them so successful. The interesting themes and texture of the final act reverberates across the entire experience in retrospect, making the overall film much more exciting and fulfilling than its first two thirds make it seem to be. That's not to imply the first two thirds aren't good, just that it's the climactic segment that really pushes the film to the next level.

Aside from its unexpected thematic power, the picture has many other merits. It looks and sounds the part, standing confidently alongside its peers in terms of its aesthetic. While it isn't particularly stylish when it comes to lighting or music, it does exactly what it needs to and makes good use of exterior locations to ground the film in a certain sort of reality. There is plenty of exciting action, most of which focuses on free-flowing swordplay and includes the occasional bit of wire work. A lot of blood is spilt during these moments; the affair is surprisingly brutal, which - along with its harsher thematic elements - gives it a harder edge often missing in Wuxia cinema. The choreography is generally fantastic, as breathlessly impressive as effortlessly exciting. It's sometimes a bit stagey, but it works within the context of the film and rarely feels outright silly (there is one bizarre segment which involves a sleeping swordsman that's tonally incongruent but wickedly funny and wildly enjoyable, so it doesn't reduce the generally sincere movie's authenticity). The combat is inventive and manages to avoid feeling repetitive, even if it sometimes almost washes over you due to its constant intensity. The frequency of the fights is also a little misleading, in the sense that the picture feels like it's been on for a lot longer than it has simply because so much of it is filled to the brim with fast-paced set-pieces. In a way, the pacing is a little loose, although there aren't many areas that are in obvious need of a trim. While the plot can be a little muddled in the first half, especially as the piece juggles its various characters and has to orient the audience towards a protagonist who isn't the initially obvious focal point, everything eventually comes together in a satisfying way that makes pretty much every scene seem as though it always had to be exactly the way it is. While a lot of the narrative is a tad melodramatic, it takes itself seriously and that means we do too. It isn't dour, but it's candid in its desire to both entertain and convey a deeper theme. Because it's working within a genre that's inherently heightened, its less realistic elements don't feel out of place or counter to its overall intention.

Ultimately, this martial arts movie is really entertaining. It has several well-choreographed set-pieces that make use of the cast's capacity for impressive athleticism and is surprisingly subversive as it approaches its final third. Its thematic elements are really satisfying, too. It's easy to see how Woo could go from this to the Heroic Bloodshed that represents his most notable contribution to cinema, but it shouldn't be overlooked as a really solid movie in its own right. It does exactly what it needs to and then some, ending with a bittersweet sting that reminds us brotherhood born in bloodshed can only end the same way. It's really good.

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.