The Valiant Ones, 1975, 2h02
By King Hu, with Yuen Biao, Roy Chiao, Feng
Hsu, Sammo Hung, Corey Yuen, Yuen Wah, Yuen Siu Tien, Pai Ying |
The Valiant Ones assumes true magnificence with the passing of King Hu,
as if the picture could only be completed by one last personal act. Its theme of valiant
sacrifice going unrewarded is an elegy to none other than King Hu himself. The great
action scenes underscore the heroic nature of the piece and of Hu's filmmaking, bolstered
by great ensembles acting and memorable martial arts choreography (by Sammo Hung).
During the Ming dynasty, Chinese
coasts are threatened by Japanese pirates called Wokous. Settled in the isle of Kyushu,
mobile and very well equipped, the pirates wreck havoc in the coastal villages. To solve
the matter, the Emperor sends to the province governor a group of unique and bright
fighters, very much skilled in martial arts…
It's only after the success of Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragon that people realised King Hu had left us. There were and there
still are some traces and influences of his cinema in the works of the most acclaimed
Hong-Kong directors. King Hu has probably lift the HK cinema to another level. His
features were very much influenced by various art forms (dance, opera and painting), which
he transcended by integrating them into his own work.
The loss of King Hu in 1997 in
Los Angeles, USA, almost went completely unnoticed. He has however written some of the
most beautiful pages of the Asian cinema history in general and the Wu Xia Pian (Chinese
chivalry) in particular. His one of the rare directors to have seen his own Wu Xia Pian
winning an Award at Cannes (for A Touch Of Zen), and he was also a director whose
films, apart from his most prestigious ones, are still hardly accessible. Now it's time
for local or world-wide distributors to mend this matter.
Sources:
www.deauvilleasianfilmfestival.com
David Anéas, King Hu's biography, mai 2002
Hong Kong Film Archive Cinema |