"Heroic Grace" catalog - UCLA Film & Television Archive

FROM THE HIGHWAY [LUKE YU DAOKE]
Hong Kong / Taiwan 1970 Director: Zhang Zengze
This epic saga, framed against the windswept expanse of the northern Chinese plains (actually central Taiwan), channels into
furious action the frenetic energies of a genre in flux. Set during China’s post-1911 republican era of rampant warlordism
and social upheaval, the film opens in the midst of chaos as a bandit horde, led by a slick-domed thug, Iron Gourd, ravages a
defenseless village. The same bloody fate awaits the heavily guarded An, a remote but bustling outpost, until a lone stranger
bent on revenge, He Yilang (Yang Qun), emerges to assume the mantle of hero. After Iron Gourd’s gang, disguised as street
performers and including a henchman who swings a deadly pigtail, infiltrates An, He must battle the threat from within and
without in order to save the town and avenge the death of his own master.
Just as An teems with signs of an oncoming modernity—there are cannons on its ramparts and nickelodeons on its
streets—the film’s heroes and villains present a colorful array of fighting styles from bare hand to bare head that marks an
imminent shift in the martial arts genre itself. By eschewing ancient settings and traditional swordplay, FROM THE HIGHWAY
represents a turn towards the unarmed combat of kung fu that would dominate the next decade. In fact, while the Wang Yudirected
THE CHINESE BOXER (1970) is often credited as the first movie to signal that trend, FROM THE HIGHWAY actually owns
the distinction, its release predating that of THE CHINESE BOXER by several months.
—Paul Malcolm
Studio: Cathay. Producer: Zhu Guoliang (Choo Kok-leong). Screenplay: Zhang Zengze. Based on a story by Sima Zhongyuan.
Cinematography: Hong Qingyun. Martial Arts Director: He Xiong. Art Directors: Gu Yi, Wang Yizhao, Liang Xianxing. Editor:
Wang Chaoxi. Cast: Yang Qun, Cui Fusheng, Ingrid Hu Yinyin, Sun Yue, Li Hong.
35mm, in Mandarin with electronic English subtitles, 79 min.
Print Source: Cathay-Keris Films Pte. Ltd., Singapore
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ZHANG ZENGZE (Chang Tseng-chai)
A former theater director and documentarian, Zhang
Zengze worked primarily in Taiwan before his move
to Hong Kong to complete FROM THE HIGHWAY (1970).
He joined Shaw Brothers in 1971. Zhang returned to
Taiwan after 1974, and worked as an independent
filmmaker through the early ’80s.
MONDAY MARCH 3