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That
Shaw Brother's movies would register emotionally in several
ways, I had no doubt about going into my first ones. Chang
Cheh gave us the epic scope and the pairings of David Chiang
and Ti Lung. Lau Kar Leung the absolute finest in kung fu
action and Chor Yuen definitely possessed the best eye for
visuals out of these more widely known directors. Chu, more
associated with, as evident through the various dvd releases
over the last few years, adaptations of Gu Long's complex
Wuxia novels, there also existed efforts not relying on the
famed author but ones with genuine skill for dramatic storytelling
in combination with that famed eye. For what it's worth coming
out of this relatively newcomer to Shaw Brother's films, The
Bastard remains one of the finest out of any genre he
attempted.
Being
brought up by a mentor at a secluded part of the country,
an orphan (Chung Wa - Killer Clans) begins his journey
to locate his parents. By the first person he stumbles onto,
he is nicknamed Little Bastard (due to his orphan status)
and soon he meets the beggar Hsiao Yi (Lily Li - The Eight
Diagram Pole Fighter & The Young Master), whom
he strikes up a friendship with. She educates him in the ways
of the world and while observing actions at the local brothel,
Little Bastard is spotted and recognized as the second son
of the wealthy Gu Cheng Bo. The first son is however stuck
in prison after the murder of an official but recognizing
the bastards innocence, Gu and his family sees the opportunity
to seduce one son with their wealth in order to free another
one...
No doubt,
this is as depressing as they come. Chor Yuen's magnificent
tale of innocence abused, deceived and exploited struck quite
a chord with me on my first viewing, one where I had decided
beforehand that being a Shaw Brother's movie and all, I couldn't
possible muster up any clear thoughts to put into writing.
It's wonderful to be surprised in regards to that though and
to find gems. Chor Yuen's 1973 effort The Bastard proves
to be one such. However, this is all very much due to MY emotional
response to the themes of the film. There's absolutely NO
guarantee that YOU will be taking the same trip emotionally
during the film.
It actually
proves to be helpful to examine Chor's drama (with doses of
martial arts action) a second time because I didn't realize
that much of the film's success comes in the long run, rather
than thanks to 100 minutes of flawless scenes. It's really
an age old story of innocence, one that shares similarities
with a 90s new wave kung fu effort by Johnnie To, The Bare-Footed
Kid (which in itself was a remake of the Chang Cheh film
Disciples Of Shaolin). Subtlety, especially when it
comes to the bigger emotions on display is certainly not Chor
Yuen's strength, but adding everything up, and receiving a
beautiful and poignant coda to the film, Chor Yuen has really
hammered home his theme in no lesser way than masterfully.
That
negativity in previous paragraph does not suggest that large
parts of the film doesn't work. It actually unexpectedly does,
on a fairly sophisticated level thanks to the production values
as well. As I mentioned, Chor Yuen gave us many pleasing visual
palettes throughout his films and even though the Shaw Brother's
stages really do come off as just that, stages, Chor creates
an immersing world despite that. He loves, and arguably perhaps
too much, to create depth of frame by shooting through the
foreground but nevertheless, the very competent camerawork,
the showcasing of the detailed Shaw's sets, brings The
Bastard home technically.
Going
into the themes and portrayal of this particular world, which
is not one set in any Wuxia universe by the way, with his
main actors Chung Wa and Lily Li, Chor works with two obviously
very sympathetic characters. Chung's Little Bastard rightfully
goes into the world with a positive frame of mind, only to
ultimately receive a very downbeat and cruel lesson. By his
side is one that actually knows all about that world, Hsiao
Yi or Little Beggar, yet the ultimate message in Yau Gong-Kin's
screenplay is not about goodness overpowering evil. It's rather
a sad statement, one that applies to modern day, about the
dark powers that are allowed to roam within wealth.
The actors pull through by the end but it's not without slight
bumps along the way that threatens what is one of the central
and crucial points of the film to do right. Chung Wa (usually
cast as a swordplay hero) does overplay his innocence and
ignorance for a large part of the film but he achieves a good
balance when the writing takes the character to places of
realization, when he actually does become aware of the cruelty
around him. Lily Li's main character trait consists of a distinct
facial mugging but it's really at the same time as Chung Wa's
character that the writing provides her with additional realization.
All that she knows may not be her saving grace after all and
that is a point where Lily hits a memorable stride in her
performance.
Since The Bastard does feature a character that's
been taught the way of martial arts, we do get action as well,
choreographed by none other than Yuen Woo-Ping and his brother
Yuen Cheung-Yan. For the longest of time, action is only provided
in short bursts, quite admirably serving to the story. Style
is actually less of a style and outside the overuse of trampoline
shots, the rough hand to hand combat compliments the film
(and the filmmaking era it's from). It's only towards the
end, which logically would feature a showdown, that the movie
betrays a little of its previous drama and goes a few notches
too big on the fight scale. I don't know, somewhere in even
this production, commercial interest may have existed so perhaps
this was added on way too much so that you could label the
film more of an martial arts drama in marketing. I wouldn't
know...
Regardless of that misstep, in the views of this curious
and evolving admirer of the Shaw Brother's era, The Bastard
stands as a drama classic of unexpected layered proportions.
Combine Chor Yuen's handling of that aspect in combination
with a superbly shot film on the well-crafted Shaw Brother's
sets, and you'll get a film with a poignant, bleak view of
the world, a feeling that can only set in after the final
frame of the film. That's important to note.
The DVD:
Even though released before IVL went anamorphic
for their Shaw Brother's releases, this is a good 2.40:1 framed
remastered print with fine colours, sharpness and detail.
Even scenes with smoke, which there are a fair few of, feature
no noticeable encoding detractions.
Thankfully, the original Mandarin dubtrack
is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono and while it sounds
a bit distorted at times, it is a good presentation.
The English subtitles have a few spelling
errors but remains well-worded and professional throughout
otherwise. Other subtitle options are Bahasa (Malaysia), Bahasa
(Indonesia) and Traditional Chinese.
Extras include newly created, and subtitled,
trailers for The Bastard, Starlets For Sale,
Family Light Affair, The Killer Snakes &
The Twelve Gold Medallions. The Movie Information
sections starts of with a 9 page photo gallery and continues
with a page with the original movie poster. Production
Notes is, as always when it comes
to IVL's releases, totally deceiving as it always only has
the plot synopsis, also readable on the back cover of the
dvd.
The section concludes with biographies and
filmographies for actors Chung Wa, Lili Li, Liu Tan and director
Chor Yuen. They're short on substantial info but newcomers
may get a few basic insights.
reviewed by Kenneth
Brorsson
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