Chang Cheh was a prolific Chinese director who helmed nearly 100 films in his storied career, most of them for Shaw Brothers Studios. He is probably best known for Five Deadly Venoms (1978) and The One-Armed Swordsman (1967). This week Eureka Films releases two films from opposite sides of his career, both with “Magnificent” in their titles on The Magnificent Cheng Cheh. He actually made a third film titled Magnificent Ruffians (1979). Eureka didn’t provide any information on why they didn’t include that film in this set.
Buy The Magnificent Chang Cheh Blu-rayMade 11 years apart, The Magnificent Trio (1966) couldn’t be more different than The Magnificent Wanderers (1977) in terms of its tone and style. The Magnificent Trio is more melodrama than the typical martial-arts fare one comes to expect from the Shaw Brothers, while The Magnificent Wanderers is a slapstick comedy with lots of kung fu action thrown in. Neither film is anything close to what I’d call a favorite from the beloved studio, but they are both interesting in their own way. Together, they make a nice package well worth checking out.
The Magnificent Trio finds wandering swordsman Lu Fang (Jimmy Wang Yu) returning home from war only to discover a group of farmers who have kidnapped the local magistrate’s daughter. At first, he’s on the magistrate’s side, but he soon learns that the farmers are desperate. Despite an edict from the Emperor stating that they would not be taxed due to their extreme poverty, the magistrate continues to demand more and more from them. Lu Fang will eventually team up with Huang Liang (Cheng Lui) and Yan Zi-qing (Lo Lieh) to fight the evil magistrate.
I’m not what you would call a Shaw Brothers expert, but I’ve seen more than my fare share (the problem is that they made a whole lot of films – several hundred of them – and so it takes a Herculean effort to be a real expert). But for my money, the reason to watch their films is for the high-flying, action-packed, martial-arts mayhem. When the films rely on actual story and drama, I tend to get bored real quick. That’s not exactly a controversial opinion. I can’t imagine too many people lining up for Shaw Brothers screenings hoping for some historical drama.
But here’s the thing: I quite liked The Magnificent Trio’s foray into melodrama. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is still some swordplay, and it all wraps up in a big fight, but mostly, it is our trio of heroes (and boy, aren’t they magnificent?) dealing with a vast array of villains sent by the evil magistrate with words and diplomacy. Somehow it works. I suspect that in more than a few Shaw Brothers’s films that rely more heavily on kung fu action, the writing was secondary to all the martial arts. But here someone actually took time to sharpen the script and it comes out quite nice.
Less so is the script for The Magnificent Wanderers. By this point in his career, Chang Cheh was well known for the type of martial-arts pictures I’ve been talking about. With this film, he went for something slightly different by adding a great deal of comedy, both verbal and physical. It would be easy to think that he went in this direction after seeing the success of Jackie Chan, but Chan’s breakthrough film, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, wouldn’t come out for another year.
Chu Te-Sa (David Chiang) is so wealthy he often shoots his enemies with pellets made of gold. He’s been trying desperately to form an army to fight against the invading Mongol powers, but all those willing to join him are really after his money and find excuses to slip away when the fighting begins. Enter three conniving street hustlers (Alexander Fu Sheng, Chi Kuan-Chun, and Li Yi-Min). They take a shine to Chu te-Sa after he gives them some food when they are down and out. They don’t seem to care that much about his cause, but they are always willing to get into a tussle or two.
The film is pretty much wall-to-wall action. It isn’t all that exciting, and it certainly isn’t mind-blowing, but it’s fine. The injection of comedy and slapstick into the martial arts seems to mean they couldn’t quite get daring with the actual stunts. The jokes are also fine. Mostly. There is a recurring bit in which the main bad guy stutters that hasn’t aged well. He only stutters when giving orders to his underlings (he’s constantly telling them if they fail one more time he will personally…but the henchman always cut him off before he can get out what he will personally do. The joke at the end is that he’ll personally chop their heads off – ha ha.)
I don’t foresee myself pulling this one out again just to watch it. But I might watch The Magnificent Trio again and when I do, I can see myself throwing this one on after, not remembering what’s in store. That’s feint praise for sure, but once I put it on, I’ll probably watch it until the end.
Eureka Entertainment presets both films with nice-looking 1080p transfers from masters supplied by Celestial Pictures. Extras include:
- Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) [2000 copies]
- Original mono audio tracks
- Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
- Optional English dub – Magnificent Wanderers Only
- New audio commentary on The Magnificent Trio by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and martial artist and filmmaker Michael Worth
- New audio commentary on Magnificent Wanderers by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
- Chang Cheh Style – new video essay by Gary Bettinson, editor-in-chief of Asian Cinema
- A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on Chang Cheh by writer and critic James Oliver [2000 copies]
Neither of these films are the best of what Shaw Brothers has to offer but they are an interesting look at two sides to the prolific career of Cheng Cheh. If you are a fan of the director, this set is well worth checking out.
