Eureka Entertainment is putting out one hell of a dual package this summer with Exact Revenge, as part of their Eureka Classics line.
First up is 1971 wuxia pian, The Eunuch, from director Teddy Yip Wing Cho. The title character himself, Master Eunuch Gui (Pai Ying) is an absolute bastard of a human being. He survives an assassination attempt by the Emperor before having him, his concubine and son killed, and commencing the hunt for the Prince, Jin (Chung Wa), and ensuing an epic tale of survival and revenge with the help of two bamboo masters (Yeung Chi-Hing and Yung Yuk-Yi), and a young woman named Yan-Yan (Lisa Chiao Chiao).
I’m pretty fond of the way this one turned out. It’s well-paced and carries a distinct balance between our key protagonists. There are a few story points that did irk me in the second half leading right down to the finale but the film was largely satisfying. There are a few twists to two of the main characters here so I’m pulling back on spoiling one of them, while the other does remain crucial to note in this review, again, which is that Gui is an absolute bastard.
This is what happens when you blindly watch things, as expectant as was for a Shaw Brothers flick I’d never seen before. I read the title of this film thinking he would be the hero, and before I knew it, this man is pulling some of the most diabolical shit I’ve seen any villain do. It’s crazy and fucked up. His villainy is about as dasdardly as Fung Hak-On’s character in The Magnificent Butcher, maybe more (better comparisons are welcome).
The action was splendid to watch, courtesy of martial arts director Simon Chui Yee-Ngau who also plays an assassin role. The majority of the fights are weapon-based with select shots enhanced with some wire-fu to deliver the scene’s desired effect. It’s fun to watch if you’re an old head with an appreciation for old school Asian film and you’re not as persnickety as some folks about wires, and the action especially picks up during the film’s climatic shots. It’s even more fun if you don’t mind at least one other cameo if you love kung fu cinema – you might know the one if this title is familiar to you.
The second of Eureka’s Exact Revenge pair is Jang Il-ho’s The Deadly Knives, which puts itself squarely in Fists Of Fury territory with a story set during imperial Japan’s matriculation throughout China. Ling Yun and Ching Li star as young lovers Zi Fei and Yue Hua, venturing from Shanghai to Zi Fei’s hometown when their romantic and marital hopes are thrown into tumult.
Japanese plutocrat Ogawa (Ching Miao) has his eye on land belonging to Zi Fei’s father, Yan (Lee Sau-Kei), for whom doing any business with the Japanese is where he draws the line. Ogawa is determined to acquire the deed and the family’s seal to officiate a sale, and so he hatches a plot involving his goons, the mayor, and a few bad seeds within Yan’s family to do so. When tragedy strikes the Yan family, all Zi Fei wants is revenge, come hell or high water!
The Deadly Knives has certainly earned its place in history as a cult favorite worth visiting, particularly for any classic kung fu film collector. The dichotomy between the Chinese and Japanese is on full display here with the latter depicted in each their discernible villainy, as are some of the turncoats in the former which up the stakes a bit in the film’s progression. Greed, lust, and betrayal are par for the course here as well, in addition to spells of violence and gore, gratitutous nudity and moments sexual assault which is definitely one of the more unnerving elements to the story.
The action sequences were crafted by two well-known genre favorites – which should attract anyone with an eye on Shaw throwbacks and Asian film in general – making for an enticing feat in the film’s action directing framework compared to some of the other Shaw stuff I’ve newly watched for myself of late; The first scene of the movie with Zi Fei and a gang of incorrigible ronin on a train, an ambush just feet away from Zi Fei’s home are just a few memorable sequences that I enjoyed, and perhaps the big climax as well between Zi Feng and a ronin with a revolver with nothing but a set of daggers at his disposal. To this, I’d say action here does pop more.
There are other aspects to The Deadly Knives that video essayist Jonathan Clements spools through in “Falling Leaves, Flying Daggers,” a 13-minute segment in which he connects the dots between the film and other moments and figures of history from Bruce Lee to Kurosawa, and even Nixon during his Presidency. It’s also the only other feature available on the disc itself next to audio commentaries by Arne Venema and Mike Leeder for The Eunuch, and Frank Djeng for The Deadly Knives; Both films come with original Mandarin audio tracks with the latter the only one to have an English dub track.
I wonder what a video essay for The Eunuch would have entailed for this release if they proffered one. Sadly that’s not the case here, nor is there any oligatory trailer material. Alas, special features will fall a little short here than other titles from Eureka. It’s a nitpick for sure, but don’t let that hinder you from enjoying these latest Eureka Classics limited edition O-card releases if you’re so inclined.
