Golden Swallow

Shaw Brothers produced this sequel to King Hu's Come Drink with Me to 'punish' Hu for ending his contract with them (and for cleaning up with his first Taiwanese film, Dragon Gate Inn). Cheng Pei-Pei returns as the righteous swordswoman Golden Swallow, lured out of hiding by news that her trademark pin has been found near the bodies of assorted dead villains. The man responsible is Silver Roc (Wang Yu at his most impassive), who has loved her since childhood and kills bad guys by the score to prove it. Trouble is, her friend Han (Lo Lieh) also secretly loves her - and so emotional complications underpin the plot's martial mayhem. Better written, shot and edited than Shaw movies of the '70s (Bao Xueli's 'Scope cinematography includes some daring hand-held work), this carries rhetorical excesses to sublime heights. High points include Roc, in spotless white, despatching an entire army singlehanded and the climax, in which Roc fights on with four daggers embedded in his chest. Yes, it was a seminal influence on John Woo, soon to be Chang's assistant.