Original and amusing title aside, the Bride with White Hair is the first of two films released in the same year, and directed by Ronny Yu. Although Yu’s transition to the Stateside has resulted in the modest of success and interest with films like Bride of Chucky and Freddy vs Jason, his roots, much like every HK director, lies in Hong Kong films, of which this film is one.

Brigette Lin is well known for her career in Hong Kong martial arts flicks and, as quoted by someone, she is the “kung fu mama” of HK martial arts flicks, and Ronny can’t shy away from his well respected past of a HK action director. Ronny’s choice of placing Lin in the title role is not out of limited choice, but her history as one of the most popular female leads in martial arts flicks. It’s a shame she retired, but she leaves behind one of the most popular and acclaimed martial arts flicks.

Tony Leung (one of the most versatile Hong Kong stars) has been brought up by the master of the Wu Tang clan, a clan that is part of the Eight Clans, which protect a section of China against invaders and the “bad guys”. Yi-Hang (Leung) is the Chief Justice’s (the master) favoured child, who is both gifted and trained by the master himself. The Chief Justice is the voice and commander of the eight clans essentially. The CJ treats Yi-Hang as his own son, and trains him in the hope of a successor.

Unfortunately for Yi-Hang, the second in command of Wu Tang wishes his daughter to be favoured and lead the clan as successor, but sadly for them the law of rule states that a woman cannot succeed, nor lead the clan. This leads to bitter jealousy on the part of the second in command, who treats Yi-Hang with much disdain throughout his life. The daughter has her eyes set on Yi-Hang as a romantic prospect, but his continual dismissal and eventual heart breaking brings her the same hatred towards Yi-Hang that her father has.

The Tartan DVD release has issues, however. Using DVD-5 is disappointing enough, but the transfer seems to disappoint as well, since the image bleeds into the borders

While all this happening, an evil cult led by exiled members of the Eight Clans, Chi-Wu, are planning to destroy the Eight. The exiled members are a brother and sister Siamese twin. In most HK fantasy flicks you get one guy who looks like a Buddhist priest but talks with the campness of Graham Norton. In this we get psychotic Siamese twins, which funnily makes for interesting viewing (how do they go to the toilet? does one of them snore?). Their exile leads to the mentioned psychosis, and their intent to kill anyone and everyone in their way. Lin, as the Wolf Girl, works for the bad guys and inflicts their wrath upon members of the clan. During one particular encounter, she meets with Wi-Yang, and they have their swordplay foreplay.

This relationship has it’s own pitfalls, as the Eight decided to crush the cult, and the cult decides to crush the Eight. Wi-Yang leads the group reluctantly, and to his master’s disillusionment at Wi-Yang’s reluctance. Yi-Hang saves the Wolf Girl from the brink of death, and they become intertwined in a doomed love. Negated by the cult for her betrayal, and disowned, but still wanted by his clan, both of them decide to live as recluses and abandon the way of killing. They pledge a promise to always trust each other.

Wolf Girl, now Lien, finds her exit not so easy. After being berated by the freak leaders, she leaves beaten, abused and bleeding. The Wu Tang clan find Yi-Hang and ask that if he chooses to leave the clan, he should at least tell his master in person. The visit results in a room littered with bodies of the clan, the blame squarely resting on the “witch and her men”, the with being Lien.

Lien finds Yi-Hang, who doesn’t believe her innocence, and she is killed by the jealous daughter of the second in command. Lien reminds Yi-Hang of his betrayal of trust, and in her death becomes a bitter and restless witch, her hair turning to white, hence the title.

The plot is not ground breaking, but it does the film justice, as there is a focus, albeit a small one, on the relationship between Lien and Yi-Hang. During the more physical scenes between the two, we are given “shoulder sex”. Shoulder sex is when we’re given a so-called erotic scene, but all we see is a lot of female shoulder and not a lot else. This is perhaps a case of the reserved Chinese attitude to mainstream films, which is fine, although it makes you quiver to think they are so easily able to show decapitations & dismembered torsos, but shy at the prospect of showing something most people tend to do.

Ronny’s choice of placing Lin in the title role is not out of limited choice, but her history as one of the most popular female leads in martial arts flicks

Action is the main focus of the film, and it doesn’t fail to disappoint. Using the usual mix of slow motion and fast motion action, sword play and kung fu we are treated to some brilliant fighting. The action is compactly intense and takes up most of the film. Conversation and the relationship play second fiddle to what Yu, Cheung and Lin do best. The wire was brilliant and fast, and at times a little too speedy.

The Tartan DVD release has issues, however. Using DVD-5 is disappointing enough, but the transfer seems to disappoint as well, since the image bleeds into the borders. This is quite distracting at first as the dark scenes are difficult to decipher due to the use of DVD-5, and the bleeding is quite prominent during the darkness. The fortunate thing is that due to the extensive of the widescreen boarders, this focuses your eyes on the centre of the film rather than edges. The bleeding eventually fades from you and is no longer an issue. Still it would be nice if they took a little more care with the transfer.

Extra features on the DVD come in the form of filmographies of both the director and stars, film notes, and the original trailer for the film. The film can be played with English or Cantonese soundtracks, with optional English subtitles for either. It’s disappointing set of “extras” but then I can’t say DVD has provided ANY extras that are worth shouting about, even with all the promises they offered (multi-angle views, alternate ends etc).

Overall, Tartan’s release of Bride with White Hair is a decent effort, which could do better. This doesn’t take away from the excellence of the film, but it’s a shame they didn’t spend the time to do the film better justice by using DVD-9 and adding more extras to a classic.

Verdict: Cool and classic HK swordplay action. A slice of the best.