1967 ‘神劍震江湖’ Directed by Hsu Tseng-Hung
A righteous clan’s effort to seek out and destroy the powerful Thundering Sword turns into a tragedy as a fierce, yet impulsive beauty falls in love with the leading clansman, mistakenly poisons his brother and only makes matters worse in an attempt to make amends.
Shen jian zhen jiang hu, 신검진강호 (1967) (神劍震江湖), 신검진강호, 神剑震江湖
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
The beautiful Cheng Pei-pei hacks, slashes, and poisons her way through an army of heroes, then sings about it. The sixties Shaw wuxia films are my jam. Before Chang Cheh made it all about sweaty, shirtless men punching each other, it was all about beautiful women darting and stabbing people. And no one did it better than Cheng Pei-pei. Here, she belongs to the poison evil cult, while brothers Chang Yi and Lo Lieh part of the good Wudang school. Pei-pei has the misfortune to fall in love with one of the brothers and cripple the other, and things go downhill for her from there.
This is a stealth adaptation of the first volume of Heaven Sword, Dragon Saber, by…
If I didn't know any better, I could easily confuse The Thundering Sword with a Shaw Brothers Huangmei Opera instead of a Wuxia. It has all of the trademarks with its heavy emphasis on the romance, melodrama, the musical numbers and the ending. For those looking for some action or fighting sequences, there's not many to speak of. I can count three and I'm being generous at that. And to top all off, even the final "confrontation" in the film does not end in a fight.
The horror for a Wuxia!
My guess is that the making of Wuxia films was still at its infancy at Shaws and they were trying out different things. The idea of combining it with…
About halfway through this movie I got the feeling like I’ve seen this story before in a Show Brother film. Then I remembered Chor Yuen’s 1976 The Web of Death. I looked it up and apparently Web is a remake of The Thundering Sword. The two movies even share some of the stars like Lo Lieh and Ku Feng. The plot is very similar but the style quite different. While Web of Death is more of a fantasy Wuxia with a lot of goofy special effects and pulpy elements, this one keeps it more classic, adds some song numbers and has a strong tendency towards melodrama. Both approaches are interesting but I think I prefer the more colorful, wild and…
Star-crossed lovers in the Martial World? This one drags and veers into melodrama more than I liked. more stage-like than action movie.
A beautiful romance of blades and poison, deception and confession, the heart breaks to see such a tale
Begins as the most D&D-ass wuxia I've yet encountered--magical swords, delving into trap-ridden dungeons for treasure, a bit of murder-hoboing, high level NPCs swaggering in to get our bumbling heroes back on track, & characters struggling to roleplay within their alignment. This section culminates in a breathtakingly violent slaughter--Chang Pei-pei gorily dispatching nearly three-dozen men. Then it becomes a weepy melodrama, but like, a 'you seriously better have your tissues ready' sort of melodrama--this shit slaps.
Blood & tears. Kind of a mess, but one I found to be rather exquisite.
This was a real highlight of the Shaw Brothers catalogue for me when they were released in the 00's. Sadly the melodrama missed the mark on this rewatch, which made the plot's absurd contrivances harder to look past.
Cheng Pei-Pei is of course a delight, and the main reason to watch the film. Her range here is something to behold - her expression effortlessly flipping from psycho killer to lovesick puppy to fatalistic regret at the drop of a hat. Chang Yi is hopelessly outmatched (not one of Shaw Brothers' most expressive actors).
Considering when it was made, The Thundering Sword is a decent effort, but I can't rank it amongst the Shaw Brothers essentials anymore.
I guess this is an adaptation of Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre, though a completely different part to the films with that name and Kung Fu Cult Master.
Fantastic Kung Fu/Wuxia style film. Cheng Pei-Pei is absolutely amazing. The story is great and there's a good balance of action. The ending seemed more anchored in drama which is rare for what I've seen in the movies but it fits the romance portion of this narrative. I love the very young Lo Lieh in this although he doesn't get into a ton of action.
I'm not sure if it being late contributed to me simply not understanding anything, but The Thundering Sword has one of the most convoluted plots I've seen in a wuxia film. Getting information about the film is quite hard, but from what I can tell, it is based on a wuxia novel and that might explain why it simply assumes the viewer knows these characters and their motivations.
What is done well here is the one fight scene that happens at roughly 40 minutes in. Cheng Pei-Pei is a badass and doesn't get nearly enough credit, but her takedown of 32 people in violent fashion is maybe one of the best showcases of her physicality I've seen. It's even more…
It's no secret that I'm partial to a bit of Cheng Pei-Pei, or that I'm more fond of the romantic wuxia films that were most common in the 1960's before Chang Cheh's influence turned things all macho. I also seem to like Hsu Cheng-Hung's debut TEMPLE OF THE RED LOTUS more than most... so you might want to bear all that in mind when I mention that I *loved* THE THUNDERING SWORD.
The story of The Thundering Sword relies on some heavy coincidences... or one might say, rather, that the story is such a powerful one because of all the coincidences, and we can easily imagine that there were many other stories without the coincidences that just weren't worth making…
Cheng Pei-Pei proves she was astonishing in the mood for melodrama too. Just don’t expect a martial arts film but simply a pretty good one.
Decent melodrama/Kung fu flick. Also for some reason beating the fuck outta your servants is ok I guess .
