More Than Kung Fu

I love the cultural cross-pollination of film. While the influence of Japanese films on the martial chivalry films of Hong Kong has been well analyzed, lesser known is the impact that Japanese films had on other Hong Kong genres, and the apparent influence Hong Kong had on Japanese films in return.

Summer Heat was originally a Japanese novel, an early example of the Rebellious Teenager genre that cropped up worldwide in the 50s and 60s (i.e., the British Angry Young Men novels, American juvenile rebellion films, etc.). Prosperous but aimless, the teens of the novel Kurutta Kajitsu searched for meaning and morals in glittering Japan.

Shocking, and thus popular, the novel became a Japanese film, directed by Kô Nakahira, in 1956. After being hired by Shaw Brothers in 1967, Nakahira remade his film, transplanting the action to modern day Hong Kong.

Thus a Japanese novel became a Japanese film then a Hong Kong film. And yet the film still feels like it was a Shaw Brothers production from day one. Duplicitous love, family secrets and melodramatic tragedies abound. After the story’s long journey, it still feels at home.

Shaw films, especially those set in or near the modern day, were obsessed with families: the obligations of children, the pigheadedness of parents and the dangers of familial breakdowns. And parents, through their absence, are the center of Summer Heat.

David (Chin Han) and his younger brother Xiao Chun (Yang Fan) live the high life while their parents are off making the money that buys the necessary sporty cars, sailboats and booze. Like modern day pirates, David and his friend Peter (Chin Feng) open the film by sailing into a party and carrying off the women they like.

Xiao Chun, unlike his brother, still harbors a conscience; while he’s tempted by his brother’s party lifestyle, he’s more tempted by the mysterious beauty Judy (Jenny Hu). Not only gorgeous, Judy is prim and moral in all the ways that David is not. Perfect for starting a proper Chinese family.

Underneath that naive exterior, of course, lies the real Judy; not nearly as prim as she appears, Judy is torn between the desire for Xiao Chun’s youthful naiveté and David’s carnal amorality. A disturbing and rough love triangle develops, which, regardless of the film’s country of origin, can only lead to melodramatic tragedy.

The film’s tragic ending, abrupt and over-the-top, feels like a Shaw Brothers special; after all, the studio used these super-tragedies to nearly all of their melodramas. But, surprisingly, the conclusion mirrors that of the Japanese novel. Unsubtle in the extreme (it does, after all, feature an out of control speedboat named Young Love), the ending was obviously designed only to shock, not to conclude the film’s story in any sensible way. As such, it mars a story that was an intriguing look at the conflicting searches for love and pleasure.

Summer Heat
Dir: Yang Shuxi (Chinese pseudonym for Kô Nakahira)
Released: November 1, 1968