L'hirondelle d'or

Cheng Pei-Pei was the Michelle Yeoh of the Sixties. A stunning action star who was as cold as ice in a fight. In this film she takes on around 40 or 50 guys and still manages to keep her cool. Seeing her two-fisted sword technique as the Golden Swallow is well worth the price of admission.

Shaw Brothers. Shaw Brothers. Shaw Brothers. We meet again.

Okay, so one day I was sitting around browsing the internet, and I thought to myself, "Hmm, why don't I download a bunch of Asian films to watch later?" Just in case you haven't already guessed, this was one of them. After watching several of the others, I finally decided to sit down to this one. The reason this one caught my eye is because it starred the lovely Pei-pei Cheng, who you may know from "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", where she played the not-so-lovely Jade Fox. Those of you who know me know I love watching women kick some ass in movies, and this was a Shaw Brothers film on top of that, so I just HAD to get up in that.

Yeah, it was pretty damn cool. Those of you who have to have some sort of deep plot and spellbinding visuals in every film you watch probably wouldn't get a whole lot out of this, but I have an open mind and this is my kind of film, so I instantly took a liking to it. Pei-pei Cheng was fascinating to watch and undeniably beautiful. She just has that sort of presence that draws you to her. Whenever she wasn't on screen, the movie definitely felt lacking in my eyes, but thankfully, she's on screen pretty darn often considering she's the main character. The fight choreography was obviously impressive, and there were some brutal scenes that will likely stay with me for a while, such as when a young apprentice is cruelly murdered in cold blood. For being as old as it is, this is also a very fast-paced film. Sure, there are some slow spots - not that they bothered me - but it's constantly moving forward, which made it all the more engaging. The story itself is solid for this type of film, but nothing too surprising. The print I saw had very good visual and audio quality, which was nice. Great, now I'm just stalling to make the review longer.

Well, it's simply a good film. I wasn't blown away, but I enjoyed it about as much as I'm capable of enjoying a martial arts film from the 60's these days. The fights alone are worth the price of admission, so if you haven't already seen this, what the hell have you been watching lately?

Beautifully shot early Kung Fu movie.

The fight choreography is primitive and lacks the excitement and creativity of later martial arts movies, but overall the movie delivers.

Has all the classic characters. Drunken hobo, wandering bounty hunter, evil Abbot, and ghostfaced villain.

Worth watching.

Being the second film I've seen from King Hu (the first being A Touch of Zen), there were definitely some clear differences with the ways both films handled the characters. The initial portrayal of Golden Swallow as formidable in combat and Fan as harmless, yet noble recalled the characters in A Touch of Zen, but as the film went on, the clearer it became that Fan had a lot to hide, both in regards to his superior fighting skills and his history with the bandit's leader. While Golden Swallow can fight well in combat by herself and kill a few bandits here and there (albeit taking some scratches in the process), Fan is shown to understand the craft far better than her and can kill his opponents much quicker. How surprising it will be when, given the strong emphasis on Golden Swallow's rivalry with Jade Faced Tiger, she gets overshadowed and pushed aside during the final fight by Fan's rivalry with Liao (a dynamic which was given comparably less screen time in the film). It's an unexpected change of focus and, while such an idea would normally be a flaw, it's a more than fitting narrative choice for this film, given how well Fan was developed throughout the film (if I could change one aspect though, I'd give Liao some more prominence since he lacked the memorable development which Fan had). Not sure I like this film more than A Touch of Zen, but the former film has sat better with me upon reflection. The idea of slowly revealing the true colors of a formidable fighter who eventually rips through the fabric of the narrative has resonated with me quite well.

Even if this film goes way back in time (back to 1966) this film is very well shot indeed.

And from what I have heard this was the film that kind of set the standard for future kung fu flix in this particular style. Flying ppl, big battles and beautiful action style.

No need to really lay so much upon the story on what happens in it. as it can be read on the main page.. but I do wanna announce that if you wanna get this one on DVD you should look for the re-mastered version released/made by the Asian company Celestial Pictures/ IVL (Intercontinental Video Limited)

They have done a great job in shaping up this film.. so ti more or less looks like it could have been produced today.

Also comes with lots of Xtras like interviews with the cast and other fun stuff.

Well worth having in your collection