Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Swordsman and Enchantress (1978)

Swordsman and Enchantress (1978)

April 28th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)


Two men, each giants in the martial world seem destined for conflict. One leads a life of isolation while the other fame and fortune. Now mysterious forces are inducing them to finally discover who is the superior warrior.
Director Chor Yuen began in Hong Kong’s Cantonese dialect cinema where he developed a reputation for social realism as well as pulp actions films such as the iconic Black Rose (1965). The second half of his career was surprisingly centered in the Mandarin cinema, more specifically that of the Shaw Brothers Studio. He began by making a range of films, but in 1976 he directed two swordplay films for the studio, The Magic Blade and Killer Clans, both adaptations of the work of Taiwanese swordplay novelist Gu Long. They were so successful that he would ultimately more then sixteen adaptations of the writers work over the next decade.
The typical elements of a Gu Long novel and the film adaptations themselves included a complex, virtually convoluted story that may involve secret passages, vast conspiracies and double or even triple identities. Swordsman and Enchantress remains one of the best of these films, with an accessible plot full of the lavish set pieces that the Shaw Brothers studio routinely accomplished at the height of their power.

Hong Kong, Director Chor Yuen, Cast Ti Lung, Cheng Lee, Lily Li Li-Li, Lau Wing and Norman Chu, 86 minutes, in Mandarin with English subtitles

1 comment:

Nonsuch Ned said...

Some links to the Funimation Shaw Brothers stuff. Looks like a couple of the films are coming out soon.

The original announcement, with list of films:
http://blog.funimation.com/2010/01/2010-roll-out-riot-day-1-of-5-hong-kong-connection/
Official Site still in place-holder stage- no actual content:
http://www.funimation.com/hongkongconnection/

and they sent Toonzone preview copies of their first releases, even though it's TOONzone, they decided to review them anyways and are in the process of doing so now:
http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?t=267649
That's the link to the forum and has has links to each article in them.