From September 22–October 19, the Walker Art Center presents
Heroic Grace: Chinese Martial Arts Films
, a series showcasing an enormously creative period when that influenced a generation of filmmakers from Ang Lee to Quentin Tarantino. Drawn from the productions by the Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong, this series delves into that period from the 1970s and ‘80s when the beauty of kung fu, gravity-defying action, and wuxia pian (swordplay movies) came to the attention of the film world. Heroic Grace opens on Wednesday, September 22, at 7:30 pm, with a newly restored print of Zhang Che’s The Five Venoms, long a fan favorite for its imaginative fight sequences. Other highlights of the series include a newly restored print of Che’s The Boxer from Shangtung (Ma Yongzhen) (September 24, 2 pm), co-directed by Bao Xueli; Chu Yuan’s The Magic Blade (Tianya Mingyue Dao) (September 29, 7:30 pm), a 1970s wuxia spectacular; a newly restored print of Chung Chang-wha’s King Boxer (Tianxia Diyi Quan) (October 13, 7:30 pm), which paved the way for the Bruce Lee phenomenon to come; and Lau Kar-leung’s Legendary Weapons of China (Shiba Ban Wuyi) (October 14, 7:30 pm), hailed as the ultimate Chinese martial arts film. The series concludes with a free screening of Lau Kar-leung’s My Young Auntie (Zhangbei) on Thursday, October 19, at 7:30 pm. This newly restored print screens as part of Target Free Thursday Nights.
Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $8 ($6 Walker members). Purchase tickets to four different Heroic Grace films and receive a fifth ticket free; five-film package: $32 ($24). Screenings are in the Cinema.
HEROIC GRACE
September 22–October 19
Walker Cinema
Friday, September 22, 7:30 pm
The Five Venoms (Wu Du) (newly restored print)
Directed by Zhang Che
Repeat screening: Saturday, September 23, 9:15 pm
Long a fan favorite for its imaginative fight sequences, this film tells about a dying master of the Venoms House who sends his remaining disciple to bring to justice the young man’s five predecessors, now dispersed and fallen into ignominious criminality. The elder Venoms quintet, however, possesses formidable skills, each in a distinctive fighting style: scorpion, snake, centipede, gecko, and toad. 1978, Hong Kong, color, 35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 97 minutes.
Saturday, September 23, 7:30 pm
The New One-Armed Swordsman (Xin Dubi Daowang)
Directed by Zhang Che
Zhang Che revisits the premise of his epochal One-Armed Swordsman (1967), but with a gruesome difference. David Jiang portrays an arrogant warrior humbled by a nefarious opponent and forced to hack off his own arm. Years spent waiting tables have fortified his single-handed dexterity, but the untimely death of his comrade finally launches him back on the path of bloody retribution. The action choreography builds to an astonishing finale that traverses the entire span of a bridge and then some. 1971, Hong Kong, color, 35mm, in Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles, 94 minutes.
Sunday, September 24, 2 pm
The Boxer from Shangtung (Ma Yongzhen) (newly restored print)
Directed by Zhang Che and Bao Xueli
This fight film adapts the proverbial rise-and-fall gangster formula to the mean streets of 1930s Shanghai. Chen Guantai is a poor peasant whose fearsome boxing ability allows him to muscle his way to the top of the Shanghai underworld. The film’s iconic match between Chen, a Russian wrestler, and ruthless hatchet-wielding thugs was recently revived as the “axe gang” in Stephen Chow’s comic tribute to the martial arts cinema, Kung Fu Hustle. 1972, Hong Kong, color, 35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 126 minutes.
Friday, September 29, 7:30 pm
The Magic Blade (Tianya Mingyue Dao)
Directed by Chu Yuan
Action stars Di Long and Luo Lie are chivalric rivals who join forces to track down a legendary weapon—the terrifying peacock dart—and defeat an evil sorcerer bent on domination of the jiang hu. With thrilling acrobatics against a diorama of ancient Chinoiserie, The Magic Blade confirmed Chu Yuan as a master of ’70s wuxia spectacular. 1976, Hong Kong, color, 35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 101 minutes.
Saturday, September 30
The Jade Tiger (Bai Yu Laohu), 7:30 pm
Directed by Chu Yuan
Chu Yuan’s penchant for labyrinthine plotting reaches its zenith in this dizzying adaptation of the Gu Long novel. On his wedding day, a Zhou warrior (Di Long) is catapulted by the threat of his father’s decapitation into the middle of a no-holds-barred war between his clan and the Tangs. The outrageous characters, exotic weapons, and proliferating layers of subterfuge are hyperbolic even by the standards of an excess-saturated subgenre. 1977, Hong Kong, color, 35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 101 minutes.
The Clans of Intrigue (Chu Liuxiang), 9:30 pm
Directed by Chu Yuan
Chu Yuan’s cinematic transmutation of Gu Long’s novels continues with this gripping wuxia whodunit set in the timeless realm of martial chivalry. Framed for the murder of three clan chiefs, famed swordsman Chu Liuxiang (Di Long) embarks on an investigation that leads him from a mystery woman to a group of Buddhist monks and a grottodwelling clan of female fighters. 1977, Hong Kong, color, 35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 99 minutes.
Friday, October 13, 7:30 pm
King Boxer (Tianxia Diyi Quan) (newly restored print)
Directed by Chung Chang-wha
Korean director Chung Chang-wha was among the foreign talent hired by studio mogul Run Run Shaw in the late ’60s to help meet Asian audiences’ growing taste for tough action films. King Boxer’s gritty revenge tale met that challenge, and then some. It became the first kung fu film to be a hit in the West and paved the way for the Bruce Lee phenomenon to come. 1972, Hong Kong, color, 35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles,
97 minutes.
Saturday, October 14
Legendary Weapons of China (Shiba Ban Wuyi), 7:30 pm
Directed by Lau Kar-leung
Hailed as the ultimate Chinese martial arts film, Lau Kar-leung’s exhilarating classic argues for realistic kung fu over fakery and spectacle. With a compendium of 18 classic weaponry and combat styles, it reiterates a favorite theme of the martial arts cinema—the training of a disciple by a master—though it shifts the usual focus on the pupil to the teacher and his ethical responsibilities. 1982, Hong Kong, color, 35mm, in Cantonese with English subtitles, 35mm, 101 minutes.
Dirty Ho (Lan Tou Hou), 9:30 pm
Directed by Lau Kar-leung
Fighting without seeming to fight is the ingenious premise at the heart of this dazzling film. Targeted for assassination by his elder brother, a prodigal prince (and a hypercultivated epicurean) is hunted by killers disguised as a wine merchant and an antiques dealer. The climactic fight back to the palace, pitting prince and apprentice against a battery of swords and arrows, is a set piece for the ages. 1979, Hong Kong, color, 35mm, in Cantonese with English subtitles, 100 minutes.
Thursday, October 19, 7:30 pm FREE
My Young Auntie (Zhangbei) (newly restored print)
Directed by Lau Kar-leung
When a young widow arrives in Guangdong to deliver a fought-over deed of inheritance to the rightful heirs, her crotchety nephew by marriage and his westernized son show how age and gender role reversals allow for a wealth of kung fu funny business. Freely mixing martial arts moves with allusions to popular Hollywood genres, My Young Auntie is an unalloyed triumph of martial arts comedy. 1980, Hong Kong, color, 35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 114 minutes.
