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Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (1978)

Directed by Chor Yuen

Overview

Director Chu Yuan’s titanic teaming with respected, inspired author Chin Yung created this unforgettable saga. Set during the Yuan Dynasty, it tells the fascinating story of the “Sacred Fire” sect, the Wu Tang swordsmanship clan, the disciples of the O Mei group, The Book of Chu Yang, and the destruction of Shaolin - complete with a killer cliffhanger. And that’s just the start of the fascinating intrigues and ingratiating characters found here.

Length 101 minutes

Actors

Viewing History (seen 1 time)


Date Viewed	Device	Format	Source	Rating
02/05/2018	Other	Streaming	Video on Demand	8 stars
				(Average) 8 stars

Viewing Notes

Not gonna pretend to know exactly what goes down in this movie but it’s so damn entertaining. While watching it I thought of Shaw Brothers Meets Wizard of Oz as the best way to describe this. There is so much going on and so many characters. It’s like the entire tier 2 and 3 of the Shaw studio actors. It’s a blast so much so it didn’t really matter to not understand everything. But I’m sure I’ll watch it again.

There’s a origin story with flashbacks to kick off the movie that looks like an entire other movie happened before this one. But I cannot find any source to that so I guess they just filmed all of it for this? It’s weird bc Lo Lieh is in that opening sequence but that’s it. It sets up the Dragon Sabre side of story; the remaining film deals w/the Heaven Sword. I’m presume that part 2 movie deals with bringing these two together.

The basic gist of Part 1 is that a kid (raised by Lo Lieh’s Golden Hair Lion) is struck with the “Freezing Palm” which is a terminal affliction without the proper treatment. The Kid Chang Wu-ji grows up (now Derek Yee) unable to be cured by his adopted doctor-father and now has two years left to live. Then things get murky. I think Chang Wu-ji’s parents are associated w/the Ming clan so they have to be offed. I think that’s the reason. Other powerful clans of the Martial Art World are out to destroy entire Ming Clan, which is made of a variety of wild characters like an old monk and The Green Bat, humorously portrayed by Norman Chu.

This is already getting ahead bc there are a few fights prior to this including an old witch and her deranged daughter, both equipped with the strike of 1000 poisons. Derek Yee’s Chang Wu-ji fights them befriends the demon girl then in a truly wonderful miniature sequence causes her house to fall off a mountain to a lower cliff in which he escapes through the floor panels to a mysterious new place.

Here he finds frozen water (not really frozen) and red frogs, which he eats. Then a monkey leads him to a hidden stash in a tree trunk where he finds kung fu manuals that teach him new powers. He also gets healed of his terminal illness.

He returns to the surface world and has more battles where he can display his new powers. Then he decides to rule the Ming Clan. And this is only about the half way point of the movie! So much more happens until it just stops.

This film ends with a “to be continued” in part two which was released to theaters mere weeks after this movie. Wish that happened these days.

Worth mentioning this is not just a remake of an early set of films (of the same name) from 1963; this is a literary adaptation of a famous trilogy, Condor Trilogy, by Jin Yong published in 1961 (these 2 movies are part 3 of the set). I’d love to see those 1963 films.

Comments

sensoria
6 years ago

I may have to watch these! Are they in the right aspect ratio? Amazon Prime can be hit or miss with this stuff.

sleestakk
6 years ago

Yes correct A/R in Mandarin w/english subs. These are wild movies that are definitely worth viewing. I only wrote so much about this movie to help me remember what the hell I watched (more and more I’ve realized that I’m not remembering what occurs in the films I’ve seen so I’m hoping this will help… too many movies + old age and all). If nothing else these are gorgeous films with great sets, colors and miniature work. Good action including a ferocious group of badass women fighters.