Cast Member: Yueh Hua

‘Clan Of Amazons’ is an elegant swordplay film that shows how entertaining the genre can be when the various components are properly blended.

However challenging – and at times frustrating – this swordplay drama is, there’s nonetheless enough reasons to stay watching and endure to the conclusion.

‘Come Drink With Me’ has convinced me of King Hu’s mastery of film-making and I would certainly consider his work here to be almost equal to the best of Chang Cheh and Liu Chia-Liang.

‘Death Duel’ is a bleak, nihilistic swordplay film that embodies all of the qualities that one expects from a Chor Yuen adaptation of a Gu Long story.

‘Heroes Shed No Tears’ is the kind of complex swordplay film that was attempted after the demise of the Shaw Brothers movie making empire, but often lacked the skilled control that Chor Yuen offered.

Many of the fight sequences are powerful and realistic, and there is a good balance between cinematic choreography and outright simple bloodshed.

There’s weaknesses in some of the plot twists, but there’s also good action, fine performances and the kind of bold visual statements that linger in the mind.

‘Legend Of The Bat’ suffers from the same problems as its predecessor, namely its headache-inducing twists and turns.

This is a film that begins with optimism only to quickly revert to the old formula that had been so over-used.

It is a film that ambles along pleasantly and gives the performers an opportunity to take centre stage without any woeful comic asides shoe-horned in.

Li’s ghostly anthology achieves its ends as a series of cautionary tales of the ills that might befall those who succumb to their own greed and desires.

There’s therefore much to recommend this superior sequel, a film that takes the best elements of the original and invites viewers to contemplate a message beyond the common expectations of the genre.