Synopsis: Imperial intrigue and betrayal abound while locals fend off marauding Japanese pirates while contending with hostile combatants and crooked politicians.
Critique: Saddled in the middle of his career, King Hu’s The Valiant Ones is one of the director’s strongest efforts that seems destined to live in the shadows of his peripheral epics, the preceding A Touch of Zen and the following “mountain” duology (Raining in the Mountain(1979) & Legend in the Mountain (1979). Hu’s fearlessly mobile camera pairs wonderfully with Sammo Hung’s balletic and robust fight choreography; the composition of tight, motile, wide close-ups with alien long shots energize the proceedings with an uncanny gait. It’s favorable as Hu flatters Hung and Biao’s strict Beijing Opera backround with kinetic editing, while the masses were edging realism with the passing of Bruce Lee, opting for uninterrupted takes, King Hu’s hyper-stylized period movies lean into a more cinematic arena, one where open vistas, wide masters and tight static frame where arms and legs parry blows finesse their way so seamlessly we hardly notice how many cuts there have been in one scene.
Ambling away from the lone heroism angle common with the chivalrous traditions of wuxia cinema, this is more concerned with action for action’s sake. The characters are a springboard for balletic hand-and-sword combat augmented with gravity-defying violence that is dizzyingly alluring. The theme of collective agency against imperialist aggression can be interpreted for its plain-faced currency; is there anything better for an underdog alliance feuding for their rights?
Throughout its vintage Hu tweaked with the accelerated substance of the transforming market of wuxia cinema; the meditative mores that made A Touch of Zen so enduring were a little past their time. Even Chang Cheh, the foremost purveyor of Hong Kong’s righteous swordplay features, was making more modern fare with the likes of Police Force(1973) and Shaolin Temple (1976). But, The Valiant Ones is still replete with shots of four leering through a foggy, mountainous forest, and the cloistered exterior forest skirmishes (again peppered with ribbons of fog and mist) recall some of the brightest moments from Hu’s previous outings. Arrows fly with deadly precision lest they are caught by their targets and re-weaponized; cleverness and skill are on equal footing in this martial world.
But the showdown is wuxia by way of cutting. Sammo lets himself exercise his range of motion, playing the proverbial Japanese baddie. Despite the rocky beachside exterior, the point-of-view exchange of blows reminds us of Hu’s penchant for taut visual spectacle in the throes of combat, juxtaposed with the daring aerial maneuvers. The semi-graphic violence grounds the whimsical proportions, thus arresting our senses for each beat; it starts strong and ends with a thwack. King Hu commands a motion picture with the feeling of an epic but with the proportions of an economic genre outing, and it works on every front.
Why it Belongs in the Collection: I had been rooting for The Valiant Ones for years but never thought to write about it because until recently, the only available version was a VHS (maybe Laserdisc?) to DVD bootleg, replete with embedded Japanese and English subtitles and more grain than a sandbox. However, Masters of Cinema has once again proven itself ahead of the mark in terms of restoring quality Hong Kong genre cinema to its most significant potential and ushered us with a Region 2 4K Blu-Ray of The Valiant Ones, which stands for an upcoming Criterion release. The same was the case for A Touch of Zen and Dragon Inn, so let’s make it three for three. Maybe we’ll luck out, and we’ll see The Fate of Lee Khan while we’re at it.
