I’m not a Shaw Brothers fan. They make naff films, with bad and over the top acting, and their plots are often ludicrous. They play Chinese versions of a Bollywood films, minus the song and dance which last nigh on three hours. I hadn’t realised I had a Shaw Bros film, and when I did, well, I watched it with an open mind and a sense of humour.
The tale is as ridiculous as the dodgy acting. There’s some anally retentive rubbish about one clan creating poisonous weapons and is outcast amongst the alliance – the alliance intend to wipe the Tang (the poison folk) out. It’s the wedding day of the alliance leader, and so we discover that the Tang’s arrive unannounced offering the leaders killer gold in exchange for his head.
Shunned away, the wedding takes place but not without a hiccup. It seems the alliance leader’s head is missing. No, he hasn’t misplaced it, or accidentally swapped it for some magic beans; it seems the leaders closest friend is the one who beheaded the leader, and so the leader’s son intends to find him and kill him as well as kick Tang backside. Get all that?
When you talk about a Shaw Bros film, you need to accept that cinematography and real locations are almost non-existent. Direction is limited to pointing a camera and then cutting away to a face, a couple of swords, some acrobatics and back to pointing the camera at the hero of the film. Fighting is as bad as you would find in any American martial arts flick. It’s dumb, it’s badly edited and totally unconvincing. Trust me, it’s better to laugh than criticise it.
The clumsy and obvious backdrops sometimes shake when too much activity takes place on a set. You find the director cuts from one conversation to another, where characters have moved to somewhere without the audience knowing. Take for example a scene where two of the characters are conversing about not fighting with each other, and immediately they’re having a drink together, within in a second of the conversation just about ending. It’s hilariously bad, but it’s an SB film, so always keep this mind.
Fighting has potential but is never realised – it’s restricted to one person attacking, pausing, then the other person attacking, pausing, parrying, pausing, and being attacked. If you watch Matrix Reloaded where Keanu is tested to see if he is the one, well, SB pre-determined rubbish fights like that, where you there is an immense amount of time before attack and defence. I hope you’re still smiling while watching this film, because if you don’t, you’ll be very annoyed.
Of course, I forgot to mention the Jade Tiger of the film. The son needs to locate this before he kills the killer, as it contains a secret document that his father had hidden. You’ll laugh yourself silly when you find what the document contains, because it simply defies logic – you see the guy go through hell, only to be told something he could have been told at the beginning. The entire motive for his journey is as moronic as the contrived script.
Jade Tiger contains all those comical names of clans, and fighters – things like The Clan of Left Overs or, Warrior that Spits Peanuts wouldn’t seem to far out of place in this film. These are the sorts of films that Kung Pow Way of The Fist essentially parodies – and if the sequel ever comes out, we can see that there’s plenty of material for parodies of ridiculous Chinese cinema.
Dated by today’s standards, they were also dated by the standards of their own time. While Shaw Bros decided to stick to churning out low budget, cheap and cheerful films with essentially the same story and characters, other directors were focusing on Wuxia films. No one in their right mind would want to watch these films, unless of course they were smoking a good few joints. It’s the sort of film where you can make up your own script over and above what is actually taking place. So perhaps it does have some redeeming value.
If you’re after intense martial arts action, the stay away from any film by Shaw Bros. If, however, you’re after a giggle and feel intoxicated enough to watch something repetitive and stupid, then by all means pick up a copy of any Shaw Bros film, as they essentially all provide the same level of humour.
Verdict: Not suitable for sober people. Cheap, trashy, throwaway