More Than Kung Fu

Chang Cheh bookends Vengeance! with battle scenes from Chinese operas in which the dying hero, streaming blood, fights his enemies until the bitter end. And, just in case we missed the similarities between these operatic snippets and the film we’re watching, Chang intercuts plenty of opera into the film’s many battles.

But, as hard as he tries, Chang never quite builds a flawless bridge connecting Chinese Opera and his heroic bloodshed genre flicks. The Japanese influences are too obvious; the almost ritual disemboweling, the white robes, the unquestioned honor of dying as a warrior. The movie could as easily be called Seppuku!.

Vengeance! is Chang’s revenge genre at its most stripped down. No time is wasted on elaborate plot twists or other frivolities. All of the film’s energy is focused on its elaborate and entertaining fights; the story (Yulou (Ti Lung) is killed for defending his wife’s honor so his brother, Xiaolou (David Chiang), comes to avenge the murder by killing everyone involved) is merely a formality.

That terseness carries over to Chiang; his stern and streamlined performance breaks from the raffish, genial wanderer he played in The Wandering Swordsman. In Vengeance! Chiang’s only moments of happiness come from his love, Zhengfeng (Wang Ping). The rest of the time he’s a dour force of nature.

But Zhengfeng never poses much of threat to Xiaolou’s suicidal revenge trip; nothing can get between Xiaolou and his glorious ending. And the film delivers the goods we’ve anticipated since seeing the blood-soaked opening title — bowels are rent, blood is squirt, vengeance is executed. With an title as imperative as Vengeance!, what other options are there?

Vengeance!
Released: May 14, 1970
Dir: Chang Cheh