The Shaw Brothers studio is best known today for bringing Hong Kong martial arts cinema to an international audience. Their heyday was the 70’s. Their specialties: Wuxia (martial arts swordplay often augmented by supernatural powers) and Kung Fu. Web of Death and Shaolin Hand Lock, two films produced by the Shaw studios which have recently made it to DVD, are clear examples of these different genres. Web of Death, whose mishmash of a plot features several warring clans, their attempts to grab power, and one warrior’s romance with the daughter of the head of an enemy clan, features the kind of fire-throwing spell-casting smoke-covered action for which the wuxia genre is so well known; whereas Shaolin Hand Lock, with its simple tale of one man’s revenge for the murder of his father, is typical of the Kung Fu genres emphasis on grunts groans and hand-to-hand combat. Watching these two side-by-side also makes clear that what the Shaw Borthers studio did best was not the sword-and-sorcery of wuxia, but the kind of pure unadulterated combat of Shaolin Hand Lock. The lushness of the wuxia genre, as seen in Web of Death, mixing martial arts with ancient magic, elaborate booby traps and wizard-like masters, has a level of complexity that wasn’t well suited to the Shaw Brothers method of rapid film production, with directors sometimes churning out as many as five films a year. Moreover, the recent resurgence of wuxia films, and their commercial success with mainstream Western audiences, in films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Hero (2002), in which ultra-thin wires are used to propel combatants through the air, has brought this fantastical genre to life in a way that makes its Shaw Brothers incarnations look outdated. Kung Fu films, however, have changed less and audiences can still enjoy the old Shaw Brothers spectacle of highly-skilled fighters pitted against each other in a film such as Shaolin Hand Lock.

The tonal focus of the two genres is characteristically quite different, a difference which is well illustrated in these two films. The fantasy of wuxia, despite the centrality of action sequences, is much more atmospheric than Kung Fu films. It is evident in scenes such as the one in Web of Death where the young couple meet at night by a placid lake shimmering quietly in the moonlight, (a characteristic piece of Chinese poetic imagery drawn from a traditional repertoire of floating clouds, Autumn’s coming, Spring flowers, deep sighs, drops of dew, flowing water, pine trees, etc., etc., etc.) It is also evident in the sumptuous period costumes, fanciful set designs and the coloured magical smoke which is de rigeur  for fights and enchantments. (This eye for atmospheric detail does nothing, however, to diminish our awareness that these elaborate sets have the look of a cheap make-do-with-whatever-you’ve-got production. This cheapness is, in fact, a signature characteristic of these films and for many it is part and parcel of their charm.) By comparison, the everyday naturalism of Shaolin Hand Lock bypasses atmospheric effects to concentrate on the choreography of the fight sequences.

The martial arts sequences Shaolin Hand Lock are typical of the Shaw Brothers Kung Fu films, and remind me of watching a musical number from a 1950’s Hollywood film. Firstly, the fight sequences are rather graceful and balletic. The fighters spin, twirl and jump like agile gymnasts. It seems as though it would be beneath their dignity to be thrown or to fall without performing a cartwheel or some kind of twist through the air. Hands and legs kick and punch with a steady alternating rhythm which is emphasized by the exaggerated thuds and cracking noises that are used to represent bodily contact. A peculiar feature of all these films is that every arm movement through the air is accompanied by a strangely audible whoosh. This ‘whoosh’ resembles the speed lines used by graphic artists in comic strips -- an audible, rather than a visible signifier of speed that is intended to stress the devastating velocity of the fighter’s technique. (Speed being, of course, one of the coveted accomplishments of martial artists.) These audible whooshes also function to build up the rhythmic cadence of the fight sequences. Chinese audiences, like many Westerns ones, probably enjoyed these effects as adding to the ‘concrete presence’ of the fights. I have avoided saying the ‘reality’ of the fights, as the effects also add a noticeable unreality that itself has often been a source of audience enjoyment, not because it contributes anything in an expressive direction, but because it generates a humour that is idiosyncratic to these movies. Audiences can’t help smiling at some of these antics and the ever-present whooshes that accompany them. Not least amongst the unforgettable quirks of these films is the badly-synched English dialogue tracks. Although these DVD’s do contain the original Mandarin dialogue track with English subtitles, many aficionados will prefer the fun of watching their Chinese heroes speak English with a mouth whose movements constantly transcend the dubbed dialogue, beginning a second or two before and continuing a second or two after a sentence is spoken.

Aside from the way in which unintentional comic dimensions have, over the years, opened up within these films like great yawning chasms, it would be wrong to think that the Shaw Brothers’ films only ever appealed to die-hard fans of Oriental martial arts, or to those who appreciated their boundless unintended absurdities. Upon their original release the Shaw Brothers films were also admired by many in the Black American community who were attracted by the fact that they were action-films which featured non-White protagonists, (and the influence of such films on American directors can be seen in the Blaxploitation sub-genre of the 70’s). Perhaps their best known directorial influence, however, is upon the work of Tarantino. Beyond the actual stylistic and narrative influences, Tarantino has consciously tried to evoke certain aspects of film history, (at least as far back as the 60’s), and on the heels of his Kill Bill (2003-4) saga many of those who had not already watched a Shaw Brothers movie were curious to do so. If you’re one of those who are still curious, or simply have the desire to recapture the charm of an earlier partly-faded half-forgotten cinematic experience, these DVD’s open a door.

To buy Shaolin Hand Lock and The Web of Death from Siren Visual Entertainment click here