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The shift from King Hu chivalry to Chang Cheh belligerence is at once acknowledged by two contrasting fighters, "our styles are different." Golden Swallow (Cheng Pei-pei) is a rather aggressive swordswoman in the eyes of Golden Whip (Lo Lieh), whose pacifist bent does not prevent him from slashing his way through foes in the first scuffle photographed as slits of light in the gloom. Silver Roc (Jimmy Wang Yu) is the third side of the triangle, a wandering vigilante cutting a crimson swath in white robes, leaving the heroine's signature gilded darts behind with each massacre. Glowering and vainglorious, he nevertheless reveals a lyrical side deep in his cups among courtesans. (Scribbled words from his poem loom on the blanched screen as the taciturn avenger surrenders momentarily to emotion, "the land is vast, but where is my home?") Not philosophers but cutthroats for the sequel to Come Drink with Me, the original sense of ethereal wholeness shredded by the grisly immediacy of Chang's handheld bursts. Prisoners of a gang have their torsos carved and their hearts plucked out, Silver Roc enters with his lethal swooping technique and exits surrounded by slain minions decked out in yellow and black, a high-angled view gives the fortress set ablaze. (Subsequent melees take place on the stone steps of a huge stairway and in the woods atop tree stumps.) Kettles and cups balanced on blades comprise his introduction to Golden Whip, the reunion with his former lover manages to charm Golden Swallow out of her masculine attire: "Let me see you as a woman like before." The craggy crevasses of the opening are replaced at the close by verdant expanses with a waterfall, the leitmotif ("With a sword, I travel alone...") remains everybody's story. With Chao Hsin-yen, Wu Ma, Yeung Chi-hing, and Pin Ho.
--- Fernando F. Croce |