"Heroic Grace" catalog - UCLA Film & Television Archive

EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN [HONG XIGUAN]
Hong Kong 1977 Director: Lau Kar-leung
The mythology of the Shaolin insurgency against imperial Manchu oppression in the 18th century itself gets an insurgent
once-over from a director whose martial arts lineage can be traced to the events enacted in this film. Lau Kar-leung (Liu
Jialiang), arguably the least internationally known of the martial arts cinema greats, here interprets legend through a
reflexive burlesque of slippery gender identities and role reversals. Playfully recasting martial arts in terms of sexuality,
Lau disrupts the basic tropes of the genre: familial and clan allegiances that engender the drive for revenge, and the prolonged
and masochistic preparation for cathartic bloodshed. It’s a consummate act of daring and entertaining to boot.
After the Shaolin Temple is burnt by the Manchus, survivor Hong Xiguan (Chen Guandai) flees to the shelter of the Red
Junks, rebel-friendly opera troupes plying the southern waterways. Hong vows vengeance against Bai Mei (Luo Lie), the
fearsomely omnipotent Shaolin traitor who killed his master. Like the archetypal eunuchs he resembles, Bai Mei has traded
his anatomical nature for power: he can migrate the most vulnerable spot on his body from his crotch to his head at will.
While in hiding, Hong weds a martial equal, Fang Yongchun (Li Lili), who promptly pits her “Crane” technique against him
in a conjugal night of bedroom sparring (erotic foreplay incredibly syncopated as close-range combat). The couple conceives
a child of indeterminate gender (he’s a boy who looks like a girl). While Fang imparts her “Crane” expertise to the
child, Hong devotes himself obsessively to perfecting “Tiger” kung fu, so that he might one day vanquish his sworn nemesis.
Attempting retribution, Hong instead meets death. Now his child inherits his legacy of revenge, but how will an idealized
“transgendering,” a yin-yang reconciliation of maternal “Crane” and paternal “Tiger,” prevail over its corrupted other?
—Cheng-Sim Lim
Studio: Shaw Brothers. Producer: Runme Shaw (Shao Renmei). Screenplay: Ni Kuang. Martial Arts Director: Lau Kar-leung.
Cinematography: Qao Huiqi. Music: Chen Yongyu. Cast: Chen Guandai, Luo Lie, Lau Kar-fai (Gordon Liu Jiahui), Li Lili, Wong Yu.
35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles, unrestored, 99 min.
Print Source: Celestial Pictures Ltd.
© Licensed by Celestial Pictures Ltd. (a company incorporated in Hong Kong SAR). All rights reserved.
46
OPENING NIGHT
LAU KAR-LEUNG (Liu Jialiang)
Lau Kar-leung is a third-generation disciple of the historical
Wong Fei-hung, who expanded on the “Hong fist” style in turn
believed to have been originated by Hong Xiguan, one of the
Shaolin Temple’s legendary adepts. After a stint in the 1950sera
WONG FEI-HUNG serials, Lau established himself, along
with his partner Tong Kai, as an innovative martial arts director
with the landmark “new school” wuxia film, THE JADE BOW
(1966). The Lau-Tong partnership lasted through virtually all
of Zhang Che’s output from THE MAGNIFICENT TRIO (1966)
onwards to DISCIPLES OF SHAOLIN (1975).
In the ’70s and ’80s Lau emerged as a major director in his
own right with critically acclaimed films such as THE SPIRITUAL
BOXER (1975), EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN (1977), THE 36TH
CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN (1978), DIRTY HO (1979), MAD MONKEY KUNG
FU (1979), MY YOUNG AUNTIE (1980), and EIGHT-DIAGRAM POLE-
FIGHTER (1983). His integration of authentic Southern-style
martial arts, dance-like choreography and humor proved to
be revolutionary developments in the genre.
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28