Golden Swallow

I first saw this movie when I was 16 years old back in the 1970's during the kung fu craze. Our local cinema in Swindon showed a Kung Fu movie every Sunday and me and my mates used to go down and sneak in the back door and watch the latest flick.

I remember this movies as "Girl with the thunderbolt kick", but that's a terrible title as she doesn't have much of a kick, and most of the film centers around the male lead rather than "Golden Swallow".

Nevertheless the film is truly magnificent, with wonderful panoramic shots, excellent fight sequences and a story that is easy to follow.

After searching high and low for the film years ago, I gave up, but luckily for me Celestrial Pictures purchased the whole of the Shaw Brothers Back catalogue and has now started to release these great Kung Fu movies that were thought gone for ever. A search on Ebay discovered "Golden Swallow" was available, and a week later I am watching a fully restored, digitally enhanced DVD with a crystal clear 1:235 widescreen classic.

The quality looks like it was filmed in the last couple of years, not the mid 1960's.

Grab yourself a copy, get a beer out of the fridge, sit back and have 100 great minutes of entertainment.

This film is a perfect example of why Cheng Pei-pei's characterizations were years ahead of their time. She was a truly independant and strong female role model without sacrificing any femininity. The closest contemporary I can think of would be Michelle Yeoh, yet Cheng did it back in the day and in some ways paved the way for stars like Yeoh.

There is a scene in this film which illustrates this point well. Cheng's character, Golden Swallow, is hurrying to save her friend's from killing each other but she's dragging another female character with her. The other woman does the cliche twist-the-ankle-while-running-and-look-pitiful move we have seen in in every cheesy chase scene. Cheng turns to her and gives her a look that says "What is WRONG WITH YOU? Why are you so helpless?! Get up and RUN!" before she practically drags her to her feet.

This movie quite surprised me. Not only because it's such a great one but because I liked it even better than its predecessor "Da zui xia" as well.

"Da zui xia" was already a surprising good movie, that besides was a genre defining one. It was one of the first 'modern' Kung Fu movies, with plenty of sword fights and action in it. But this is perhaps why I liked this sequel better; it's even more action filled! Not only does the movie feature some amazing and spectacular fight choreography in it but it's made even more spectacular and amazing thanks to the way it got shot. It has some absolutely wonderful cinematography in it, especially during all of its fight scenes. I also quite liked the hand-held camera-work during some of the sword-fights. I'm not too sure about but I believe that this is something I have never seen before in a genre movie like this.

Because the movie is so action packed, it becomes a truly entertaining one to watch, with a pleasant fast pace to it as well. The story still finds some room to throw in a love-story as well but it does this in a quite original way. It's a sort of love triangle love-story that plays out nicely for its story.

The character played by Pei-pei Cheng gets pushed somewhat more to the background this time but it's OK, since the movie brings in a lot of more awesome characters to replace her with. What I like about the character's is that you're constantly changing your opinions about them. Some of them start out as villains, who eventually turn out to be good guys after all.

It's not featuring a that complicated or well written story but it's serving its purpose well for the movie. It takes the movie to lots of beautiful looking places, where we meet all kinds of awesome characters, who often get into a fight with each other. Seriously, I can't see how someone could not like this movie, even when you aren't very familiar with the genre yet.

It's simple entertainment but oh so well made and brought to the screen!

9/10

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Golden Swallow was a sort of sequel to King Hu's classic Come Drink With Me and the name of the film. Golden Swallow is also the name of returning character by actress Cheng Pei Pei, but is more of a vehicle for Jimmy Wang Yu. This is much different from Come Drink With Me, but is also a classic in its own right. This was directed by Chang Cheh and is a very sharp looking, action packed and well put together swordplay film. Performances are excellent and Cheng Pei Pei becomes involved in a love triangle between the righteous Iron Whip( Lo Lieh) and the ruthless Silver Roc(Wang Yu). Together the three of them must fight off an evil kung fu clan that Silver Roc had ticked off, but targeted Golden Swallow. In this film Wang Yu shines as revenge seeking anti hero as he slaughters a slew of bad guys in a gory fashion. He lives in a brothel and is greatly admired and adored by the ladies that live there. He is a great swordsman indeed, if you get my drift. But, what a cool character and Wang Yu does a great job in carrying the film while stealing a little thunder from Cheng Pei Pei and Lo Lieh, who both did an excellent job as well. Lo Lei is best known for playing villains, but he is great here as the heroic and honorable Iron Whip. Golden Swallow is very bloody and action packed and a very good earlier film from the legendary Chang Cheh.

Nominally a sequel to "Come Drink with Me," this film does bring back Cheng Pei-pei as the title swordswoman Golden Swallow...but, aside from that, it bears little apparent resemblance to King Hu's 1966 classic. "Golden Swallow" was one of those learning-as-you-go films for Chang Cheh, who went on to become the elder statesman of Hong Kong martial arts cinema. Chang hadn't quite realized his vision, but was finding his way.

Wang Yu plays a thoroughly unlikable antihero, Silver Roc, who's out for revenge against the murderer of his parents. (Or his teacher. Or something.) Golden Swallow and another woman are in love with Silver Roc; an upstanding warrior called Iron Whip (Lo Lieh) has the hots for Golden Swallow, but can see that he's losing out to Silver Roc. Yang Chih-ching (Wang Yu's nemesis from the previous year's hit "The One-Armed Swordsman") portrays the lead villain, Poison Dragon. With smoother choreography, the limitations of the dreary soap opera-style plot might have been easier to overlook, but the scenes of combat prove unsatisfactory. There are lots of fights, certainly, but they're awkwardly choreographed and filmed. Chang Cheh knew that he wanted to create long, bloody fight scenes with a lone hero facing virtually impossible odds, and from here on out he began to fine-tune his approach. Beginning with "The Return of the One-Armed Swordsman" (1969), the fights got better and better.

"Golden Swallow" was filmed in Japan, and the film's gorgeous outdoor photography may be its strongest feature. It's a necessary step in the development of Chang Cheh's directorial style, but will be of interest primarily to Wang Yu/Shaw Brothers completists.