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Cast:
Cherie
Chung
Anthony
Wong
Ivy
Ling Po
Eric
Tsang
Richard
Ng
Norman
Chu
Action:
Yuen
Bun
Kuo
Chui
Producer:
Eric
Tsang
Director:
O
Sing-Pui
Score:
 
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GOLDEN
SWALLOW
AKA:
N/A
Year:
1987 Reviewer: Rob
Daniel
'Golden
Swallow' was released the same year as 'A
Chinese Ghost Story' and demonstrates how quickly
Hong Kong cinema will start a bandwagon (sometimes before a
film is completed, which is why Jackie Chan’s pirate movie
was given the baffling name 'Project
A'). 'Golden
Swallow', not to be confused with the 1968 Cheng Pei Pei film,
is deeply indebted to 'A Chinese Ghost Story', even borrowing
its art director Hai Chung-Man (thanks to Hong Kong Digital
for the information). More
over, the plot is virtually a carbon copy, lifting all the
major plot points and characters.
A
naïve business student Lao Chih-Chiu (singer Anthony Wong Yiu-Ming,
not 'The Untold Story's Anthony Wong) rescues a swallow from a
gang of malevolent children, unaware the swallow is actually a
beautiful spirit, Hsiao Hsueh (Cherie Chung).
Unfortunately, Hsueh and her sister are forced to
ensnare hapless men for their mistress, the vampiric Madam
(Po) who freezes their bodies and feeds on the blood.
Hsueh
persuades Madam to spare Chih-Chiu's life, on the
understanding he never reveal the secrets of the spiritual
world. Chih-Chiu
is spat back out into the real world, robbed of his ghostly
love. But, he
comes across Lu Hsiao-Ping (also Chung) a recently fatherless
woman who forces herself on him.
Not recognizing Hsiao-Ping as Hsueh, Chih-Chiu settles
into domestic contentment, but a rash act and the reappearance
of Madam threatens his family's happiness.
Surprisingly
'Golden Swallow' is more than a cash-in.
Besides the tales of Pu Songling, writers Hiu Pang-Yau
and Pin Kek-Cho draw inspiration from the legends of White
Snake (filmed by Tsui Hark as 'Green Snake')
and The Woman in the Snow (included in Masaki
Kobayashi's 'Kwaidan') with Chih-Chiu recalling his
supernatural experience and unleashing the fury of the
spiritual world. The
script also makes pointed remarks about the hidden power of
women: Chih-Chiu is a business failure until Lu Hsiao-Ping
rescues him with her acumen, while ghostbusting priests Left
and Right Sword (Tsang and Ng) battle each other until she
gives them a reason to focus their energies.
Comedy replacements for Wu Ma's swordsman from 'A
Chinese Ghost Story', Tsang and Ng are joined by a third
swordsman, 'Duel
to the Death's Norman Chu, who aids Chih-Chiu in the
finale confrontation.
Hai's
art design, coupled with Henry Chan's cinematography, presents
a universe where the spiritual world is only one blue filter
away from everyday life.
For the climax in Madam's icy lair, Chan rejects the
blue colour scheme for a contrast of deep blacks and whites
and rich flesh colours that recall Corman's Poe films or the
work of Mario Bava. Yuen
Bun and Kuo Chui's wirework action and pursuits through
haunted forests are on par with 'A Chinese Ghost Story's, and
effective use is made of Hsiao Hsueh's white sashes (white
being the Chinese colour for death); as the material captures
her prey there is never any doubt these flimsy strips of silk
are formidable weapons, even if Chung's stunt double is
clearly visible in some shots.
Anthony
Wong and Cherie Chung have been criticized for lacking the
same chemistry as Leslie Cheung and Joey Wong.
Wong does not have the charisma of Cheung, but Chung
adeptly conveys both tragedy and menace, proving once more her
talent is too often forgotten.
That Wong's Chih-Chiu would not recognize Lu Hsiao-Ping
as his spectral love requires the same suspension of disbelief
that butt-kicking babes in men's clothes will not be
recognized as women.
The
real problem is director O Sing-Pui's failure to maintain a
consistent tone. Ching
Siu Tung focussed on the fleeting beauty and doomed nature of
the romance, but O Sing-Pui cooks up a stew of heavy-handed
comedy, eroticism, romance and horror to send everyone home
happy; his visual direction is assured, his mastery of tone is
lacking. This is
matched by eclectic music that sounds like a jukebox on
random.
Despite
this 'Golden Swallow' is ripe for reappraisal.
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