Influence Magazine #13 (April 1976),
roughly translated by Michael Min-Chi Wong
KEY:
(#) indicates a link to a footnoted comment made by the translator
<#> indicates a page break in the magazine's original
Chinese text
<missing a line here> indicates a line of text that was illegible to the
translator
[green text] indicates a comment made by this web page's editor (Steven
Feldman)
[brown text] indicates a comment made by the translator (Michael Min-Chi Wong)
blue text indicates a difficult-to-translate, questionable passage
red text indicates a comment found to be of great importance by this web
page's editor
From Influence Magazine (Taipei, Taiwan) #13 (April 1976), pp. 28-31:
<28 and 29>
ANALYSIS OF CHANG CHEH'S WORK
by Chun Ming
<30>
Chang Cheh can be considered to be the person who set the new
tradition [new standard] for the modern Chinese martial arts film. This
so-called "new tradition" employed a new technique and editing method to
film martial arts movies. In martial arts films in the 40's and 50's,
the emphasis was on the plot. The fight scenes were not considered
important, and played only a small part. But Chang Cheh's movies placed
the emphasis on the fighting. The plot is only secondary. Chang's
fighting could be considered realistic, yet also pure fantasy, at the
same time. You can say it is realistic because of the carefully
choreographed fighting moves, and the wonderful use of fake blood to
realistically show the details of a death; like knives and swords cutting
through the body, arms and legs being chopped off, and death caused by
bleeding. You can say it is fantasy because when you exaggerate the
superhuman fighting prowess of the main characters, they can casually
fight against 50 or 60 opponents at the same time, or even bear the pain
of being disemboweled, and continue fighting. They can even run up
vertical walls, and even fly in the sky. All these wonderfully fantastic
things are special effects created by means of montage, not the real kung
fu and skills of actual actor. Chang Cheh is one of the best in using
this type of montage.
Chang Cheh places the plot of the movie in the secondary position.
That's not to say he doesn't pay attention ot the plot. It's just that
fight scenes often do not transition with the story too well, or are done
in a forced way. For instance, the machine gun massacre by the Korean
Army in the gymnasium at the end of "Four Riders" doesn't fit the story
development and there was no need for it. (The author thinks this scene
was trying emulate the full scale massacre at the end of Sam Peckinpah's
"The Wild Bunch.") And the historical backdrop behind these stories is
also un-necessary. For instance "the Deadly Duo" used the kidnapping of
Emperor Hong of the Sung Dynasty as background, as a reason for the series
of fights. Even if it's not set in Sung, and set in an unknown time
period, the same type of fights could still take place. "The Heroic Ones"
was like this. "The Anonymous Heroes" was also like this. On the other
hand, those of Chang's films that don't have a definite historical
background are much better, like "The Wandering Swordsman", "The New
One-Armed Swordsman", "The Golden Swallow", etc. His work that is set in
a historical period fictionalizes what really happened, which misinforms
the ignorant and makes the learned upset. This adds to the feeling that
he was only using historical events as an excuse for his fighting.
Things would have been more naturalistic if he had just skipped all the
historical jargon.
Chang Cheh's most creative years were the time he spent at the Shaw
brothers. Martial arts film comprised more than 80% of his work, and his
period films are indeed much better than his films which were set in the
modern era. Films like "Dead End" and "The Delinquent" are much inferior
to "Blood Brothers" and "The New One-Armed Swordsman." Maybe this has
something to do with Chang's hero worship philosophy. In ancient times,
Chinese people worshipped heroes and wandering fighters, performing
heroic deeds and upholding justice, but nowadays, this type of behaviour
is viewed as that of psychotic vigilantes who take justice into their own
hands, so after destroying the gangsters in "The Delinquent", Wong Jung
had to kill himself by jumping off a building. Now, let's discuss Chang
Cheh in his Shaw Brothers period by looking at the themes behind the
stories and the techniques he employed.
HEROISM AND INDIVIDUALISM
Two unifying themes of Chang Cheh's works are hero worship and
individualism. Summarizing both, it's a type of abnormal and extreme
individualistic heroism. The heroes in Chang's early works performed
fine -- justice for all, robbing the rich and give to the poor -- but it
developed into extreme individualism. In the end, it degenerated into a
type of clinical case for lack of self control. Let's first look at
Chang's first major hit, "One-Armed Swordsman." Wong Yu was born into
poverty. After accidentally losing his arm, he disappears into the
countryside, deciding to no longer be involved in the martial arts world,
but in the end he has to return and destroy his enemies, mainly to show
his gratitude for his stepfather. "The New One-Armed Swordsman" was
based on a similar idea and premise, but David Chiang's return to the
martial world after losing his arm was because of avenging his lost arm.
But he used avenging his friend's death as the excuse. The Hero in the
"Wandering Swordsman" became a type of hero who preyed on the public.
The wandering swordsman's kills villains, but it's to fulfill a promise
he had made, not because of delivering justice. The most unforgettable
scene of the movie was when the farmers lost their crops because of the
draught and can't pay rent to the landowners. They all kneel down and
pray to heaven, begging for divine intervention, and the wandering
swordsman suddently flies down from the tree's branches, and gives all
the gold he had acquired by robbery to the farmers. Then he jumps back
on the tree branch and disappears in an instant. This type of coming
from above and flying away made it like an "adult fairytale." It made
people feel that the wandering swordsman was an untouchable god and not
an approachable human. In "The Deadly Duo," the heroes are even more
unrealistic. In one they fly across a broken bridge, even though they
know they can't simply jump across the bridge, to show that they are
heroes that aren't afraid of death, They actually attempt the jump one
by one, and die, crushed under the cliffs. "The Water Margin" made Yin
Ching into a completely different person, where he became one of the
leading heroes, good at both tactical maneuvering and martial arts. "The
Boxer from Shantung" showed Ma Wing Jing as a morally upright youth eager
to right wrongs. When he kills the villains in the gambling halls for
the first time, he makes the singer, played by Chang Li, admire him
almost to the point of worshipping him; but when he takes over the area,
and shows his ugly true face, his heroic image is shattered in Chang Li's
heart. It is then that Ma Wing Jing begins his fall from grace. His
friendship with Tam Say afterwards, his fighting for more territory, and
the final bloodbath in the tea store were all caused by personal greed.
Chang Cheh's later film, "Man of Iron," was just a remake of "The Boxer
from ShanTung". The conflict between the three heroes in "Blood
Brothers" was over a woman. Chang Cheh's heroes continued to descend
into the pits as he continued making movies, and got more abnormal and
more extreme in their individualism. Wong Jung, in "The Delinquent,"
felt that society was unjust and didn't give him a chance to move upwards
in life, so he allows himself to be tempted by material enjoyment, and
becomes a pawn by gangs, which leadd to a tragic ending. "The Generation
Gap" featured main characters who think society and family don't
understand him, so to demonstrate his anger to his family, and as revenge
to society, becomes a robber. This is a film which utilizes the subject
of a "generation gap" as a starting point, yet ends with a horrifically
violent scene.
Because David Chiang was the main actor in over half of Chang Cheh's
movies during Chang's tenure in Shaw's, Chiang's character is a mix of
unapproachable, melancholic, and romantic. The author objectively felt
that certain parts of Chang Cheh's scripts were tailored for David
Chiang. That's why Chiang imbued the heroes in Chang Cheh's movies with
so much life. The clearest example of this was "The Water Margin," which
featured a Yin Ching that bears no resemblance to the one in the original
book. The character was completely remolded to fit David Chiang's own
personality. To summarize, Chang's <31> heroes begin as individualistic
fighters, vent their frustrations, and end up being nearly suicidal,
unapproachable maniacs. We then can only classify Chang Cheh's heroes in
the category of "fake" romanticized heroes.
PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES
Even though the heroes in Chang Cheh's movies are repulsive, Chang's
style and approach to filmmaking is hard not to admire. Chang's indoor
fight scenes are more numerous than any other martial arts directors' by
multiples of several times (with the exception of King Hu). For example,
the brawl in the gambling hall of "The Wandering Swordsman" and the short
fight in "The Delightful Forest" deserve to be complimented for having
such graceful fight scenes. In "The Deadly Duo," they vanquish evildoers
in an antique shop. Even though the fight is fierce, you can still see
delicate touches. The "Four Riders" had a big fight in a gymnasium, with
surprises happening one after another. But the one film that is showed
Chang Cheh's ability at its best was "Boxer from Shantung". Not only
were the fights outstanding, but the character treatments, scene
arrangements, and set design also reflected Chang at his best. When Tam
Say first appears, the camera is focused on his mouth as he smokes from
an ivory smoking pipe. A that period in Shanghai, smoking with a smoking
pipe is a symbol of status. Then, through the reflection of Tam Say's
leather boots, we see Ma Wing Jing from afar. This hinted that what Ma
Wing Jing seeks is a type of material enjoyment from social status. When
Ma Wing Jing defeats the Russian Boxing champion and gets his prize
money, the first thing he does is buy an ivory smoking pipe. The scene
ends with him blowing smoking out of the pipe. Later, when Tam Say is
assassinated, he holds the smoking pipe in his mouth right before he
dies. The audience thinks he will start puffing smoke again, but what
comes out this time is blood, and the camera fades out with a closeup of
the smoking pipe oozing blood. The smoke and blood coming out of the
pipe signifies the rise and fall of a gangster in Shanghai.
The film with the best character treatment is "Blood Brothers".
Prior to "Blood Brothers", the conflict between good and evil, and heroes
and villains, in Chang's films were often due to revenge, returning
favors/gratitude, destroying evil, righting wrongs, etc., but there never
was much attention paid to the inner thoughts of the characters. A case
in point is the hero in "The New One-Armed Swordsman." After killing all
his enemies, he does't know what to do next. "Blood Brothers" has the
most depth of character portrayal, and that is the apex of Chang's
creative life. That movie starts with the assassination of the general
of Guang Dong and Guang Xi Ma Sun Yee, then uses flashbacks to bring out
the whole story. The reason David Chiang assasinated Ti Lung was to
uphold traditional family values, to punish Ti Lung's murdering his own
brother and taking his wife. A secondary reason is to uphold the
principle of loyalty and righteousness, to challenge the corrupt rule of
the Ching government. From the conflict of principles, it became a
matter that has to be settled with knives and spears, which is
understandable. Everyone has their own character ticks in the film. Ti
Lung was unfathomable and sly, David Chiang was smart and just, Chan Kwun
Tai was honest and loyal. Chang Li's greed and vanity leaves her torn
between traditional morals and material/physical lust. It brought to
life the psychology of an old-style traditional Chinese woman. In the
end, when David Chiang is executed, it is viewed from Chang Li's eyes.
After David Chiang dies from having his heart cut out, the camera
retreats into Chang Li's room, back through the bamboo curtains, and
focuses on Chang Li's tearful face. This demonstrates that the deaths of
all three heroes were on account of her.
In general, Chang Cheh's powers of organization and directing skills
are best shown in small-scale battles. He even copied Sam Peckinpah's
example from "The Wild Bunch" by using slow motion to slow down the
climaxes of his fight scenes, making the moment of death linger longer in
audiences' minds, making people feel even sorrier for the fall of a hero.
But in full-scale wars, Chang Cheh's skills are not quite there yet. He's
either too relaxed in his treatment of such scenes, or makes the action
confusing, like in the battle between the five Tsang brothers and the
heroes from Mount Liang in "The Water Margin." They look almost like
martial artists performing in the streets, making Chang seem more like a
leader of a street performing troupe than a movie director.
Although Chang Cheh once said he will add more character defining
scenes and lessen his violent fight scenes, his newer work, such as "The
Hung Boxing Kid," has both emotion and depth in its character treatments,
but this type of emotion is linked to empty words and violent fights, and
can't escape from the trap of mainly fighting in the Shaw's era.
Normality and the superhuman, realism and exaggeration, violence and what
he promised, are all opposites but can't exist without each other. This
makes people unable to predict which direction Chang Cheh plans to go,
from here on.
