Killer Constable

I'm what you'd call a devout Shaw Brothers fanatic. With that bias in mind, Killer Constable (Lightning Kung Fu) is an interesting diversion from your standard Shaw fare being made at the time. As others have stated before me, the "Kung Fu" in the US video re-title is a bit misleading as there is little to no actual kung fu in the film. Instead we're treated to a lot of swordplay. Not the kind of swordplay you'd expect to see in one of Chu Yuan's jiang hu epics, but a more gritty, rough-and-tumble style of fighting that almost seems out of place in a Shaw Brothers film (much of the action courtesy of a Japanese choreographer whose name escapes me). Shaw veteran Chen Kuan Tai (Boxer From Shantung, Crippled Avengers) plays the constable of the title, Ling Tien Ying, who is ordered to hunt down the men responsible for robbing the imperial treasury of 2 million taels of gold. To make matters interesting, he's given only 10 days to do it. Tien Ying is pretty damn ruthless. An anti-hero if there ever was one, but it's a testament to both Chen Kuan Tai as an actor and Kuei Chih Hung's skill a director that we still care what happens to this man and sympathize with him even after he's done some very questionable things. Speaking of director Kuei Chi Hung, he does a great job of instilling a strong sense of atmosphere and maintaining it throughout the picture. Also, anyone familiar with John Woo's The Killer will immediately recognize a couple of scenes that were clearly used/lifted for Woo's film nearly 10 years later. In fact it's so obvious that I'm surprised I've never read anyone commenting on it before. Perhaps it's due to this films lack of availability? Whatever the case, I'd be interested to hear Woo's take on it. Not to give too much away, but the scenes in question involve a blind girl and two antagonists at each other's throat in the same room, ready to kill one another. Both men play along in lying to the blind girl about the one man's identity and what his intentions really are. Sound familiar at all?

The recent Celestial Pictures region 3 DVD of the 1980 Shaw Bros. film THE KILLER CONSTABLE establishes that the picture deserves cult status. KILLER CONSTABLE is distinguished by a story quite different from the norm (though the set up may seem hackneyed now); sets, locations and atmosphere that are unique in the Shaw Bros. canon, and action and violence unusually cruel and explicit. Add to this, an ending that is very cynical.

Chen Kuan Tai is very effective in his portrayal of THE KILLER CONSTABLE, known for his policy of not taking prisoners. Such is his self righteous position as judge, jury and executioner, that some of his men take exception to his ruthlessness, and worse, his enemies use that predictability against him.

The story is set in motion when the Royal Treasury is robbed of 2,000,000 taels of gold. Chen's character LENG TIAN-YING is given the unenviable job of recovering the gold, and bringing the robbers to justice. In just 10 days. To save face for his superior, who stands otherwise to face the wrath of the Empress Dowager! LENG is able to build a small posse of five men, who are more devoted to him, than they are to the mission. Too late LENG discovers that loyalty has its costs, and too late he discovers exactly who his enemies are.

Once LENG and company leave the capital their journey is like a descent into hell. They enter into and travel through one wasteland after another; do battle in darkness, in rain, in swamps, in mud and everything in between. I have read comments that dismiss the film, because it is a sword fighting film. This is certainly true, but there is no end to the weapons on display and the variety of styles and subterfuge. Furthermore, the sheer savagery of the bloodletting and lifetaking is such you would imagine yourself to being viewing a horror film.

During this journey LENG and his men must battle the elements as well as an ever present enemy. LENG never seems to have any difficulty of finding the original culprits, something he does wonder at, nor is he curious why none of them have very much of the gold with them. He certainly lacks imagination but never resolve. LENG is actually very human and CHEN portrays his failings and even his humanity, as effectively as he does his unswerving dedication to the cause.

Even the music is distinctive; I didn't hear any of the recycled Ennio Morricone, Messrs. Jerry Fielding and Goldsmith - indeed the scene that introduces the character of KU FENG and his blind daughter is quite unlike anything I have heard in a SHAW BROS. film.

I came away mightily impressed by everything in this film and all the contributing elements -it's a film that does not seem to have become dated at all.

My one concern was that the NTSC DVD runs 92 minutes; the only other running time I have see for KILLER CONSTABLE is 99 minutes (however this seems to be true of almost all the region 3 SHAW BROS. DVDs).

PS: A tael is the equivalent of 1 1/3 oz; not much, but imagine moving 2,000,000 bars of gold this size!

At times you get positively surprised, when you look forward to a film and expect to see some quality work, and you get what you seek out but in a very different way than you thought, and possibly even more. This was the case when I popped Killer Constable into my DVD player and got way more than your regular Shaw Kung Fu hour-and-a-half epistle.

Compared to other Shaw Brother's period Wu Xia and Kung Fu works, Killer Constable differs from the lot quite a bit, and in a very positive way. Director Kuei Chih-hung's background in crime films really show, as he takes interesting elements from hard-boiled crime films and Japanese samurai films, among others, and bring them seamlessly into the Wu Xia movie.

It's more than rare in these films to see the protagonists being as a part of the Manchu dynasty's government. This is probably the main reason why we have such a dark character as the main protagonist. Chen Kuan-tai as the Killer Constable himself is a dark type of hero, bordering the anti-hero nearly all of the time. Along in his company of ever-vigilant law-officers, there's no place for your typical sleek-cheeked do-gooders in the posse, as we soon see, when this group of tough law officers go for their mission to capture and punish the bandit who's responsible for stealing a large sum of Emperor's gold. Also, a bit striking are some features you can see in the villains of the movie, some of them who have unusually humane characteristics, giving less stereotypical image of the characters than your usual black-and-white Good vs. Bad composition found in many of the genre pieces.

While always being a solid actor and great martial artist - one of my very favourite Shaw Bros. stars - Chen Kuan-Tai really shines in his role. He has the powerful presence and charisma as the stone faced law officer who discovers that he is only a tool and gets betrayed by the system he has abidingly served, that the role gets nearly immortalized.

Beautiful use of lighting and scenery, tight script, good balance of action and story, and especially interesting main character make this one the winner all the way. I also have to dish out some bonus points for the very bleak ending shot that somehow emphasized the futility of it all and concretely showed what kind of destruction greed, corruption and following orders without any questioning can lead you to. (This last one may very well be only my interpretation more than the message that was intendedly embedded in the film, but that's how I felt when the last images hit the screen.)

The blend of these elements make Killer Constable very atmospheric and exceptionally dark piece of martial arts mayhem, guaranteed to satisfy the genre fans and most probably being an interesting piece also for the people who are not familiar with the genre. Definitely one of my all-time Shaw favourites!

This is my truth. What is yours?

Solid martial arts film that's darker than most kung-fu films (both in story and tone, but also in it's actually lighting). The story follows a tough no nonsense constable who is hired to recover stolen royal property. He first assembles his team and they then set out to recover the stolen goods and seeking justice. It's a better story than most Shaw Brother's martial arts films, though that's not saying much, and there are enough good fight sequences (more swordplay than hand-to-hand) to make this worth watching, even if it's not a classic.

Leng Tian-Ying (Kuan Tai Chen) is known as the Killer Constable because as a police officer, he goes after bad guys with ruthless zeal, generally killing them rather than simply arresting the malefactors. When a fortune is stolen from the Imperial Treasury, he is given the task of finding and executing the culprits within ten days. With his best men at his side, he sets out to fulfill this task, but it seems that there are small armies of bad guys all around, all eager to shed his blood for a change....

This is an interesting combination of genres, including the wuxia martial arts system and a touch of noir cinema, creating a very entertaining and atmospheric visual feast. I must say that I soon lost track of just how many bad guys our hero was fighting, and who was on whose side, but it really doesn't matter with this kind of film, it's the spectacle of it all that counts. The only bit that truly puzzled me was a scene where a bunch of straw is set on fire, despite the fact that there has been an ongoing downpour of rain for the previous several scenes - wouldn't the straw be too soggy to light? But never mind, this show isn't about logic, it's about beautifully staged fighting and lots and lots of (clearly fake) blood; take it in that spirit and you'll be quite entertained.