Heroic Grace: The Chinese Martial Arts Film (Heroic
Grace Film Festival Tour, 2003)
Executioners From Shaolin (1977, US Distribution New World Pictures, 1982)
Executioners From Shaolin, directed by Lau Kar-Leung, was the opening entry of the Heroic Grace Film Festival, now at UCLA and soon to embark upon a nation-wide tour.
It was introduced by an enthusiastic and charming Quentin Tarantino, who gave a rapid-fire and erudite speech about Chinese martial arts films. He also mentioned that when he was a a young boy in in a small town in Tennessee, he became a martial arts movie fan before he ever saw a single one of them. Though they never played at his town, he used to go to the library and pore over ads for them, enchanted by titles like Five Fingers of Death and Master of the Flying Guillotine.
The film was preceded by a rare film clip of several actor-martial artists doing Shaolin katas (forms) on a stage in which the embusen (the pattern one's feet draw on the floor) was marked out. The katas were long and complex, with about five hand techniques for every foot technique, and every motion the actors made was annoyingly punctuated with a loud percussive sound.
The actor punches the air -- BANG! He crouches with both hands thrust out in bear paw strikes -- BANG! He turns his head so sharply that his braid flies through the air and coils around his throat -- BANG!
The three martial artists in the clip were strong and skilled but very tense, so much so that their muscles were visibly trembling as they held each pose. I think that this was probably because whoever directed the clip and was responsible for explosions occurring with every elbow strike thought it would be more dramatic that way, rather than that being how the katas are traditionally performed. This convention changed later on: the bits of katas seen in movies starring Jet Li are done in a more varied and flowing style, alternating relaxation with tension, and the percussive sounds are far less intrusive.
Executioners From Shaolin, which has nothing to do with executioners though it does involve a Shaolin temple, starts with as much of a bang as those featured in the kata clip. A fight scene plays under the opening credits featuring a Shaolin monk versus an evil Priest Pai Mei, a formidable man with a long white beard and hair. The latter is played by Lo Lieh and turns out to be the main villain. Priest Pai Mei proved to be so popular that Lo Lieh reprised the role in several other movies, undaunted by the fact that he always dies at the end.
We first become aware of Pai Mei's special qualities when the Shaolin monk kicks him hard in the crotch. But (we get more details on this later) Pai Mei has achieved "internal control," also known as the ability to suck up his testicles. So not only does this not double him over, but he grabs his opponent's foot in his crotch and drags him about by it before dispatching him. (Editors note: Impressive!)
This peculiarly sexualized fighting trick turns out not to be a mere laugh-getter, but key to the entire movie, which might more properly be called Ambiguous Sexuality of Shaolin. This ball-sucking ability is part of the martial arts mythos, and is taken to the nth degree in Swordsman II, in which the villain sacrifices his testicles to gain mystic powers, and slowly transforms into Brigitte Lin. It's not even unique to China: I have heard similar stories passed around martial arts schools in India. (Stories about martial arts masters who could withdraw their privates, that is, not stories about people turning into Brigitte Lin.)
The scene cuts, rather abruptly, to a vast melee outside the temple. It seems that the Priest Pai Mei has taken over a Shaolin temple and killed most of the monks. One of the fleeing monks, an expert in the macho Tiger style, vows to avenge his brothers. So he and his monk buddies disguise themselves as traveling martial arts performers so they can keep practicing while they regroup.
No sooner have they done this than they meet up with a group of real traveling martial arts performers. The main monk meets and spars Tiger style with a beautiful woman from that group, who's an expert in the feminine Crane style. They get married. You can probably see where this is going. But in the meantime, there's a memorable wedding night sparring sequence in which the new bride challenges her husband to pry her legs open. This sounds crude and awful, but it's done so playfully and with so much charm on the part of both actors that it comes across as funny and sweet, though not terribly erotic.
The couple has a son, who grows up before his father has gotten around to challenging Priest Pai Mei. The father refuses to learn the girly Crane style from his wife, though she's sure he needs it to defeat the no-ball priest. For obscure reasons, he refuses to teach his own Tiger style to his son. So the boy's mother teaches him Crane style. This transforms him into a highly skilled girly-boy.
I should mention that Crane style and Tiger style don't look distinctively masculine or feminine, though the hand movements are distinctively different. Naturally, it takes a girly-boy who knows both Crane and Tiger to defeat the testicle-less wonder. This turns out to involve hair-ripping (sexually symbolic since the seduction and fall of Samson) and eyeball-penetration. (With fingers, silly.)
The husband and wife are an appealing couple, but the most juicy performance is by the moving-testicle priest, who alternately underplays and goes over-the-top in a way which reminded me of-- no kidding--Laurence Olivier doing Richard III. The ambiguous gender kid is annoying, even given that he's playing a doofus.
The kung fu scenes are good but basic. If you're expecting anything like even average Jackie Chan, Jet Li, or Michelle Yeoh, you will be disappointed. The best action bits are mostly either non-kung-fu (a scene involving a giant pot rolling down a very steep hill is fist-in-mouth suspenseful) or are more about character than kicks, like the wedding night sequence or the priest's final come-uppance.
Ultimately, Executioners From Shaolin, though an enjoyable film in its own right, is most interesting as a precursor to the gender-bending, cross-dressing, dueling couple extravaganzas of Swordsman II or Fong Sai Yuk. But no one does eyebrow-arching, wisely-nodding, kicking, punching, ball-less wonders quite like Lo Lieh.
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