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Cast:
Yuen
Biao
Athena
Chu
Kam
Kong
Ma
Chung Tak
Ko
Hung
Action:
Lam
Moon Wah
Producer:
Wu
Kam
Director:
Siu
Sang
Score:
 
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THE
HERO OF SWALLOW
AKA:
N/A
Year:
1996 Reviewer: Phil
Mills
The
'Hero Of Swallow' (Yuen Biao) is something of a Robin Hood in
the small towns of China; he robs from the rich and gives the
money to poor. In the daytime Swallow is in fact Li Ban,
a man obsessed with finding his one true love, Chinny, who was
stolen from him years ago and sold into the prostitution
business. When he travels to Peking to continue his
quest he makes friends with a young female thief, an
ex-soldier and a girl who he saves from being raped. He
also stirs up trouble with the local authorities and when he
discovers than Chinny is due to marry a rich relation to the
monarchy he realises that he must uncover his true identity
and do all that is within his power to win her back.
Yuen
Biao is one of those actors that you can't fail to like but he
seems to have so few starring roles that use his talent
satisfactorily. Unfortunately, 'Hero Of Swallow' is not
the film that breaks that trend. Although it plays like
a kung fu classic there really aren't enough exciting fights
to allow it to rise above the mediocre and the fact that
Swallow wears a black ninja-like outfit and moves in the dark
so regularly never allows us to see him battle clearly enough.
I also noticed that the film makes use of impact sounds for
every move meaning you were never sure if they were always
hitting each other or just blocking which certainly took
something away from the combat. For a film that came out
so much later than all of the traditional kung fu period
pieces, and a couple of years after the legendary 'Drunken
Master 2', it should have surely learnt a few things from
previous successful outings. They know what makes a good
fight and how it should be shot on a low budget so why didn't
they employ these techniques here?
For
a change though, the plot gives the movie something of a
reprieve as it plays like a retro Bruce Lee film with a few
surprises thrown that will shock and disappoint the viewer.
The hero is clearly defined and has his motives for what he
does but is not afraid to kill those who get in his way.
He also has his followers who care deeply for him and will
remain loyal even if it means that they must die for the cause
which all adds depth to a normally shallow style of
filmmaking. However the ending brings all this hard work
crashing down as it's very abrupt and leaves a lot of things
left unsaid (much like the recent 'A
Man Called Hero') which is never a good thing as it only
means you exit the film with a negative attitude.
Overall though, 'Hero Of Swallow' does retain some likeable
qualities but sadly it's not quite as good as it could have
been and is certainly not the lost Biao classic that fans have
been searching for.
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