1976 ‘八國聯軍’ Directed by Chang Cheh
Three young martial arts brothers, played by Chi Kuan-chun, Alexander Fu Sheng and Leung Kar-yan, go in search of fellow patriots dissatisfied with Imperialist foreigners and wind up joining a rising sect of the Boxers, led by an opportunistic conman. Named as such for their use of martial arts, these boxers are revolutionaries who believe that spirits protect their bodies from foreign guns. They even dupe the Empress Dowager, who gives them her royal blessing to fight the foreigners.
Alexander Fu Sheng Li Li-Hua Kuan-Chun Chi Leung Kar-yan Jenny Tseng Johnny Wang Lung-Wei Bruce Tong Yim-Chaan Sun Yueh Fu-Sheng Tsui Liu Wei-Bin Richard Harrison Henry Bolanas Chiang Tao Lo Dik Stephan Yip Tin-Hang Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok Gordon Liu Chia-hui Jamie Luk Kim-Ming Lam Fai-Wong Cliff Ching Ching Fung Hak-On Hu Chin
Der Aufstand der Shaolin, The Bloody Avengers, Ba guo lian jun, La Révolte des Boxers, Spiritual Fists, Der Aufstand von Peking, La Révolte des boxers, A Rebelião dos Boxers, A rebelião dos Boxers, 八国联军
Hong Kong
Germany18
Germany
Hong Kong
Well, it’s the longest and one of the most epic Shaw Brothers movie I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, it is far from the best. It’s not a bad movie. There is a great cast and impressive production values to look at. The action is also up to Shaw’s high standard. I also quite like the story. But the problem here is indeed the length. The film takes quite a while to get going and has a tendency to lose focus. Boxer Rebellion could easily have been 30 minutes shorter and it would be better for it. It’s still a movie that I would recommend any Shaw Brother fans to watch at least once. It is definitely good enough to be appreciated by fans of the Studio and the Genre.
Fu Sheng, Chi Kuan Chun, and Liang Chia Jen are sworn brothers/martial experts pondering joining the Yihetuan movement during the foreign occupation of China at the outset of the twentieth century in this historical epic from Chang Cheh. The Empress Dowager (Li Li Hua) is hoodwinked by the Boxers' phony pugilist spells that seemingly render its proponents impervious to bladed weapons, and even guns. Li Jung Ching (Wang Lung Wei) perpetuates the snake oilery in the name of Chinese nationalism, but our heroes soon discover the driving force is greed and power, as always.
Tong Yim Chan plays an Iron Skin master, while Chiang Tao scores a rare sympathetic cameo as brutalized Old Hei. Liu Chia Hui, Kuo Chui, and…
Sprawling anti colonialist epic from Chang Cheh. The first half struggles some to keep track of all the forces around the rebellion, but it pays off in the more focused back half centered around Cheh’s pet themes of brotherhood, heroism, sacrifice and nation. Lau Kar Leung did the choreography. The images have a tactile forceful power. It is one of Cheh’s most ambitious films but for a long time it was only known in a heavy censured version as it turns out making anti colonialist epics is a problem when you are a colony.
The fights were good and at least in the second half plentiful but none of them were truly remarkable. The first half is slow and repetitive and made me wonder if the Chinese attack strategies were really as ad as they made it seem in this movie.
The Boxer Rebellion, reframed as Chang Cheh body cinema.
Not the young, angry nationalists are the heroes, but a bunch of misfits - never in uniform - on the sidelines, at first at best hesitantly taking part in the fight. Only when everything is lost they start to come alive, in the film's much stronger second half.
Chang Cheh has hardly any interest in historical texture (although one might argue that, when it comes to the depiction of colonial power, this almost turns his film into meta-critique), and no interest whatsoever in historical forces that cannot be boiled down to body images and hand to hand combat. All those self-important and clueless discussions of tactics, all those competently made but…
CHANG CHEH FILMOGRAPHY #48/90
It's long. 143 minutes, to be exact. Which for a martial arts film is an eternity. Just ask anyone who sat through THE GRANDMASTER! (I kid. Kinda.)
An historical fiction epic with decent chunks of martial arts thrown in, BOXER REBELLION is at least an attempt at something new for director Chang Cheh. A stab at something meaningful, artful. This is his BRAVEHEART, or TROY. But for all of that, Chang isn't what you'd call a director with range. And what comes out is a film that still feel like a Shaw Bros. martial arts flick, very stagey, very point-and-shoot on lavish sets, but combined with a slow burn pace and heftier political themes.
It's almot…
Reportedly Chang Cheh had a bigger, lengthier historical drama about the titular uprising brewing but at some point, whether it was during production or editing, Boxer Rebellion had its intentions halted at 137 minutes. A tale of two halves, one of which contains the spectacle and the second being more intimate, Chang Cheh producing via his Chang’s Film Co. involves partially when dealing with the unified belief of the Boxers that they’re invulnerable and that gives them the strength to run headfirst into battle with foreign influences in China. Well armed influences that cut down these young men believing in unification as they follow a rather deceitful leader (played by Johnny Wang). Alexander Fu Sheng, Chi Kuan-Chun and Leung Kar-Yan…
Mr. Chang taking on the Gatling gun is one of the hardest things I've ever seen. Not so hot on the KMT/nationalist "boxers are a bunch of ignorant hicks misled by scammers" angle, though I guess not surprising for a major HK production from the era. Its still cool to see the period brought to life and there's some rad stuff here
Overlong, but the action is excellent. I suspect the American theatrical version trimmed quite a bit of the historical intrigue, as those scenes slow it to the pace of molasses. I remember the tv version running 90 minutes and seeming like a completely different film. The Hung Gar forms shown are impressive.
5 Directors x 5 Unseen Films - Round I: Film #11
Prestige historical drama about Alexander Fu Sheng kicking imperialists in the balls. There's plenty of quality bayonet action and Richard Harrison has a fight scene while wearing a piked helmet. He doesn't use it to headbutt anybody, that's one of the greatest missed opportunities in film history.
I knew how important this movie was based on the number of big emotional sighs I let out. It's like two films in one. Both with sweeping scenery and rebellious plots and plenty of high emotions. It problematizss the Boxer Rebellion, the Empress Dowager, and obviously the awful "allied" foreign armies. The heroes of this film are being of sound mind, passionate commitment to a cause but not blind zeal, and Chi Kuan Chun's deltoids.
Chang Cheh's mammoth historical epic was probably the final nail in the coffin of his artistic aspirations. Having it taken from him, edited down without his permission, only to then have it tank at the box office seems to have had a profound effect on him. It wouldn't be too long before he was making cheap, down and dirty kung fu flicks with the Venom Mob: movies that are wonderful pleasures in their own right, but contrast starkly with Boxer's Rebellion, an unbelievably lavish production for a studio like Shaw Brothers.
Restored to it's full, two and a half hour runtime, the movie weirdly still feels like it was hamfistedly stitched together. The two distinct halves feel like different films;…
