The Daredevils / Ode to Gallantry

You don’t need to be an expert in martial arts to spot someone who’s at the top of their game.  And in the case of the Venom Mob that includes six “someones” - Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng, Phillip Kwok, Sun Chien, Lo Man and Wai Pak -  first brought together in director Chang Cheh’s Five Deadly Venoms (1978),  who work together like a lethal version of the Harlem Globetrotters, passing off opponents with carefully choreographed kung-fu skills that are unlike anything else in the Hong Kong action catalog.

Cheh reunites them all for 1979’s The Daredevils (aka Shaolin Daredevils) in which a group of friends plan a long con to get revenge against a corrupt government official who murdered their friend.  Earning money as a tumbling act, the gang works their way into the bad guy’s good graces by posing as arms dealers while secretly setting the stage for his assassination.

With long sequences focused on the group’s sideshow performances, The Daredevils is as much a circus act as it is an action film.  Cheh directs these scenes like a performance demo reel, with static wide shots designed to showcase the talent on display.  While genuinely impressive, most of the fisticuffs are saved for the final showdown set in a massive warehouse which doubles as a gymnasium for our acrobatic heroes.  It’s a team-up for the ages, with feet-fist combos that are the very definition of teamwork.

1982’s Ode to Gallantry, while more traditional in terms of story and structure, is a crowd-pleaser from start to finish, revolving around an orphaned beggar, Mongrel (Phillip Kwok in a dual role), mistaken for a notorious gang leader.  Trained in the ways of self-defense by a mysterious master, Mongrel is pulled in every direction at once while trying to convince the world at large that he’s not who they think he is.

With a playful tone and episodic narrative, Ode of Gallantry works in the rest of the Venom Gang at its leisure, once again saving most of the good stuff for the finale.  But Cheh’s film is never boring even when its following romantic detours or dead-end subplots.  There’s an undeniable Jackie Chan approach to Kwok’s performance – he even has the signature confused head scratch down pat – but it’s an imitation that works to the film’s benefit.  Ode to Gallantry is just a flat-out good time.

Eureka’s Blu-ray double feature is a limited edition of only 2000 copies featuring a pair of great-looking HD transfers, optional English subtitles, original mono audio tracks, dueling commentary tracks from Frank Djeng and action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema plus a new interview with HK cinema scholar Wayne Wong on the history of the Venom Mob.  It’s packaged in a O-Card slipcase that includes a collector’s booklet not provided for review.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there...
Read more

Hand of Death

Image
Even hardcore martial arts fans will admit that not  every  film is worth watching.  With the sheer amount of product pushed out from Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest at the height of the kung-fu craze, quite a few lesser efforts slipped through the cracks, many serving as a training ground for new talent on the way up.  So even if the final product – like 1976’s  Hand of Death  - is aggressively average, there’s bound to be some novelty when it comes to the talent involved.  Names like John Woo, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung are sure to attract interest.  But put them all in the same film and you’ve got yourself some must-see viewing!   Yet another showcase for the mythical shaolin brotherhood, here a monk, Yun Fei, is sent to exact vengeance on a ruthless warlord, Shih Shao-Feng, who’s made a long list of enemies throughout the province.   Yun Fei assembles a team of talented fighters to defeat Shao-Feng and ...
Read more

Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Late Silents 1927

Image
As a niche within a niche, silent films are certainly a hard sell for modern audiences.  Even Turner Classic Movies can only spare a couple hours a week in their schedule on late Sunday nights.  Perhaps because silents are positioned as something to be appreciated rather than enjoyed, dry history lessons held back by their crude technical limitations.  But the newly restored  Charley Chase   at Hal Roach: The Late Silents 1927  proves silent  comedy  was anything but.  A “do-it-all” comedian, Chases’ on camera persona relied less on slapstick than farcical domestic situations.  Unlike Chaplin’s  tramp  character, Charley often played a put-upon everyman just trying to catch a break.  The first two shorts in the set are a prime example:  There Ain’t No Santa Claus  follows his character’s attempt to hide the purchase of a Christmas gift for his wife from his rent-hungry landlord…while...
Read more